I'm a book nut, and oddly enough cyberpunk novels are easily one of my favorites. I've read a fair number of them as well. Though not all by no means. At present I haven't even attempted to cover these books in depth. That may change in the future.
The book that started it all and coined a new revolution in technology. Cyberspace, the Net, Virtual Reality. Case is an ex-hacker down on his luck...making due in a world where his one talent has been taken from him. He made the mistake once upon a time of trying to stiff the wrong client...they used a neural toxin to burn out his gift. Till one day he's offered a second chance...work for Armitage and the mysterious Wintermute...run an AI.
A sequel of sorts to Neuromancer, in that they are set in the same world. Mostly it tells the tale of a juvie netrunner, a solo and a girl with some very peculiar biotech in her brain. It builds on the AI subplots of Neuromancer, though personally I wasn't a big fan of the Voodoo gods approach.
The last book in the AI trilogy. It follows the Angela Mitchell from Count Zero and the now well known Count Zero himself. Odd book and I'm still not entirely sure what it's about.
This book provided much of the setting for the movie Johnny Mneumonic, but seems to show an end to the dystopian aspects of the cyberpunk age. I rather enjoyed this one, also by Gibson.
Currently the last of Gibson's cyberpunk novels that I ahve read (All the World's Parties is still hardcover). Idoru is a tale about a virtual idol who wants to be real. And for the techies out there, there are some really neat uses for computers that cyberpunk 2020 could really use.
Written by Walter Jon Williams, this is the other core novel used to create the setting and ideas in cyberpunk 2020. Solos, nomads, panzer boys, cutters. Even the Body Lotto. A lot of cyber, a lot of dystopia, one of the more limited takes on the Net. Its not really hard to see how this and nueromancer became cyberpunk the roleplaying game.
Seemingly set in the same world as Hardwired but some decades into the future. I much prefer this book, a lot better written, a much more interesting setting. It tells the tale of a soldier who wakes up to find out that he has died and doesn't know why. I'm still waiting for a decent add on for the hardwired source book, one of the other web sites has advertised it for over a year.
By Joan D. Vinge. This is a science fiction book through and through but it has alot of the same dystopian elements as traditional cyberpunk does. It tells the tale of Cat, a young human-hydran hybrid. Cat should be a telepath of profound ability but the trauma of feeling his hydran mother's death has all but burnt him out. This book introduces us to Cat's world and follows his return to ability and the mission he's called upon to perform.
The second of the Cat tales. Recovering from the end of the last book Cat is called upon by his one true friend to help protect her family. This book is also the most heavily cyberpunk in the current trilogy. Set a long way in the future it covers a lot nifty cyberpunk concepts as Cat works to protect his charge from assassination.
The last of the Cat tales currently out. It is also the most heavily alien book in the series. Cat is called upon to help understand a unique psychic phenomenon on a world still populated by pure hydrans.
Not a traditional cyberpunk novel it never the less has a cyberpunk theme running through it. It tells the tale of people unable to adapt to a futuristic civilization who have fled through time to find a more rugged life. Written by Julian May the book in this series are, The Many Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Non Born King, The Adversary. Some very interesting ideas for psychic powers in this book as well.
These two books start the story that leads to the Pliocene Exile series. Starting in about 1940 they move all the way to nearly cyberpunk time. Essentially all these books follow the story of Marc Remillard, the adversay of the Pliocene Exile. Though you need to read them all to really see why.
The last books Julian May's series about telepathic humans. It moves from Intervention to the attempted overthrow of the galaxy by Marc Remillard and his subsequent escape into the past. Starting a massive chain of neccessary events, orchestrated by a supremely evolved alien being.
By David Wingrove. This series tells of a future in which the chinese have taken over the world and in an attempt to perfect the Kingdom of 10,000 years have changed history to hide the truth. The setting is very cyberpunkish in its technology and the unseen distopia that lies beneath the view of this world's the leaders, the council of T'angs.
Written by Neil Stephenson. This is a book I think every Cyberpunk player should read. While it uses a lowever level of technology than Cyberpunk 2020 and has some radically weird ideas at times the Street marks a very neat version of cyberspace, and has some absolutely interesting ideas. It tells the tale of Hiro Protagonist, a hacker in search of work, who gets caught up in a very weird situation.
Also by Neil Stephenson I'd recommend this book merely for the insights into how computers handle and organize data as well as the radical ideas for advanced nanotechnology. Its the story about the perfect way to educate a young lady in the modern era.
By Paul Di Fillipo, this book is to biotechnology what cyberpunk is to cybernetics. A series of odd short stories all based in a wordl where biotech is a reality and commonly available. It covers human augmentation to artifical life and even the grey goo scenario. Definately a must read.
By Paul McAuley this book is oddly written from a third person perspective and deals almost entirely wth a new type of nanobot based on doped buckyballs. It follows the creation of a new species and the chaos that ensues as the main character strives to track down the little girl who radically altered his life.
Over time I'll occassionally add things I feel fit on this page. Reformatted December 16th, 2000