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What are the best cyberpunk books?

5

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23

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Apr 6, 2020

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5 Options Considered

Best cyberpunk books	Price	Best Place To Learn More?	Cyberpunk Rating?
-- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	-	-	-
-- Neuromancer	-	www.CyberPunks.com	0/5 Spoons — "There Is No Spoon"
-- Snow Crash	-	www.CyberPunks.com	0/5 Spoons — "There Is No Spoon"
-- Ready Player One	$5.80	www.CyberPunks.com	0/5 Spoons — "There Is No Spoon"
-- The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer	-	-	-

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

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Well-researched, vivid descriptions of people

Philip K. Dick manages to excellently explain what a character feels or is thinking through small tells such as body language or involuntary body responses. He often uses these things to illustrate the warmth of humans and coolness of androids. See More

Top Con

Starts out slow

Although it starts out slow with seemingly not much going on, it often manages to pull the reader in without him even noticing it. See More

Top Pro

In-depth exploration of empathy

Empathy and what it means to be empathetic is the main theme of the book and is something that each character has to deal with in one way or another. The protagonist's belief that the ability to empathise makes one alive and that androids are incapable of true human emotion allows him to due his work as a bounty hunter that retires androids. Once he learns that some androids may be capable of empathy and some people are capable of eliminating empathy, he has to re-evaluate his stance. See More

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Conversational, casual writing style allows easily immersing in the story

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Neuromancer

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A seminal work in the cyberpunk genre

Neuromancer lays much of the foundation of Cyberpunk as a genre in terms of language, themes and setting. The term "cyberspace" gained enough significance through this book that it is still being used to describe Internet. Cyberpunk staples such as megacorporations, anti-heroes as protagonists, artificial intelligence and high-tech, low-life neon-filled cities that never sleep take their iconic shape here. Its significance was acknowledged by it becoming the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award science fiction awards. See More

Top Con

The way technology is described is somewhat dated

To describe technology Gibson uses language that might have been considered futuristic back in the day, but seems out of place in today's technological world and vision of the future. See More

CyberPunks.com's Experience

With Neuromancer, Gibson created an edgy, angst-filled world that grabs the reader with narrative tension and delivers it at max speed. Once you’ve read this (and likely re-read it), you’ll be pleased to find it’s the standalone start of a trilogy, so when you’re ready, be sure to check out Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a better place to start than Neuromancer. This techno-punk thriller is a must-read. See More

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Best Place To Learn More?:www.CyberPunks.com

Cyberpunk Rating?:0/5 Spoons — "There Is No Spoon"

Snow Crash

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More fun than traditional cyberpunk novels

The greatest success of Snow Crash, however, is that it's fun... for a certain type of reader, at least. In defiance of all the rules and protocols of science fiction writing, Snow Crash is like crack for geeks precisely because it doesn't do things the way they're supposed to be done. The break-neck opening chapters, those massive infodumps on Sumerian religion, information theory and everything else were -- from my perspective at least -- a vertiginous rush the first time through, and I still get a kick out of them now after maybe six re-reads. See More

Top Con

Sumerian history infodumps might not be for everyone

The book includes a lot of information about Sumerian history that simply might feel like a history lesson to some. See More

CyberPunks.com's Experience

Published in 1992, Snow Crash deconstructed the cyberpunk genre and its tropes so well that a sub-genre was born. While cyberpunk fiction continued to be released, this second movement struggled against the established conventions of cyberpunk with an updated awareness of the world wide web, predicting a more nuanced failure of the dot-com era’s unbridled optimism. Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash declares itself as a post-cyberpunk novel, and you’re gonna love it. See More

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Best Place To Learn More?:www.CyberPunks.com

Cyberpunk Rating?:0/5 Spoons — "There Is No Spoon"

Ready Player One

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80s Pop-Culture Nostalgia

This movie is full of fan service, and it's got great high-tech low-life sensibilities. See More

Top Con

Plot Holes Galore

I didn't come here for intrigue. I came here for virtual reality and Pac-Man. See More

CyberPunks.com's Experience

Enter Ernest Cline who, in 2011, infused his collected pop-culture knowledge into a science-fiction debut that is full of easter eggs for anyone who remembers what a dial-up tone on a modem sounds like. Ready Player One is based in the Cleveland Stacks, a metropolis of skyscrapers made of mobile homes and recreational vehicles in the year 2044. This Sprawl-inspired setting is the home of Wade Watts, an unlikely hero who uses his own knowledge of 1980s pop-culture and video games to find clues left by billionaire James Halliday, the founder of the OASIS, the world’s biggest virtual reality platform. Wade and most everyone else in the OASIS have dedicated their lives to Halliday’s clues hoping they’ll lead to the keys that unlock the golden easter egg, a cleverly hidden artifact that grants its possessor the full ownership of the OASIS. While the story arc is pretty trite, the fan-service is turned all the way up. This book, like Spielberg’s movie-treatment, is meant to be enjoyed as spectacle and not critically chewed upon. The references are glorious, the nostalgia is there, and the whole thing sits inside the cyberpunk timeline perfectly — from the early 1980’s to Cyberpunk 2077. See More

Specs

Best Place To Learn More?:www.CyberPunks.com

Cyberpunk Rating?:0/5 Spoons — "There Is No Spoon"

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

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