<html> <p><img src=„https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet.jpg“ alt=„“ class=„img-responsive“ srcset=„https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet.jpg 791w, https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet-300x227.jpg 300w, https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet-600x454.jpg 600w, https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet-150x113.jpg 150w, https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet-768x581.jpg 768w, https://cdn-blog.adafruit.com/uploads/2020/02/transmet-578x437.jpg 578w“ sizes=„(max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px“/></p> <p>In 1984, I was the Computer Sciences Editor for <em>The Futurist</em> magazine. At the end of an editorial meeting, one of the other editors said to me: “Have you read <em>Neuromancer</em>?” [“No”] “OMG, you have to! It will change your life.”</p> <p>I didn’t pay much attention to his life-changing offer. In fact, I thought he’d said <em>Necro</em>mancer, and assumed it was a sword and sorcery book (which didn’t interest me all that much at the time). But I kept on hearing references to this <em>Neuromancer</em>, and a year later, I finally broke down and read it. He was right. It did, in fact, change my life, and the direction of my career.</p> <p>After <em>Neuromancer</em>, I read the other Gibson “Sprawl” series (<em>Count Zero</em>, <em>Mona Lisa Overdrive</em>) as they came out, then Rudy Rucker’s Ware tetralogy (<em>Software</em>, <em>Wetware</em>, <em>Freeware</em>, <em>Realware</em>), Bruce Sterling’s novels (<em>Involution Ocean</em>, <em>The Artificial Kid</em>, <em>Schismatrix</em>), John Shirley’s <em>City Come A-Walkin’</em>, Pat Cadigan’s <em>Synners</em>, Greg Bear’s <em>Blood Music</em>, Marc Laidlaw’s <em>Dad’s Nuke</em>, and countless others. I also worked backwards and read the authors who’d influenced the c-punks: P.K. Dick, William Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Raymond Chandler, and Alfred Bester.</p> <p>There are dozens of “essential” cyberpunk reading lists online. The <a href=„https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-essential-cyberpunk-reading-list-1714180001“>io9 list</a> is a good one. Like any such list, there is lots of room to quibble about who’s on or off the list, but it’s a great place to start and it includes the second wave cyberpunk of the Aughts, including <em>Snow Crash</em>, <em>Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom</em>, <em>Accelerando</em>, and <em>Altered Carbon</em>, and essential cyberpunk graphic novels, like <em>Akira</em> and <em>Transmetropolitan</em>.</p> <p>What would be on your essential cyberpunk reading list?</p> <p><em>[Image from Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s must-read Transmetropolitan.]</em></p> <div class=„ctx-subscribe-container ctx-personalization-container ctx_default_placement ctx-clearfix“/> <div class=„ctx-social-container ctx_default_placement ctx-clearfix“/> <div class=„ctx-module-container ctx_default_placement ctx-clearfix“/> </html>
