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HELP!

Please suggest classic cyberpunk and feminist cyberpunk works featuring cyborgs - I am in dire need of good titles with the deadline looming closer!

e.g. Neuromancer (Classic Cyberpunk)
He, She and It by Marge Piercy (Feminist Cyberpunk)

The robot novels by Asimov? The Naked Sun and Caves of Steel

Unfortunately they don't exactly qualify as cyberpunk, though they have cyborgs - I'm looking at 1980s and post 1980s works specifically...

But thanks all the same!

Lit Bug wrote: "HELP!

Please suggest classic cyberpunk and feminist cyberpunk works featuring cyborgs - I am in dire need of good titles with the deadline looming closer!

e.g. Neuromancer (Classic Cyberpunk)
He, She and It by Marge Piercy (Feminist Cyberpunk) "

I don't think I have a good handle on the genre cyberpunk - Haven't read much of it other than Neuromancer, but here are some suggestions from what I have read:

Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick

The Windup Girl by Bacigalupi, Paolo - (Not so much cyberpunk, but I felt it was sort of similar in style to Neuromancer)

On Basilisk Station by David Weber - (Feminist, but space opera rather than cyberpunk)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson - (This isn't science fiction at all, but it is similar to Gibson's writing with a good dose of craziness added)

What deadline is looming?

I'm about to begin my Ph.D. on the comparison between classic cyberpunk and feminist cyberpunk and am currently writing the synopsis/research proposal for it, and the submission date for the synopsis is just round the corner...

I'm including The Windup Girl since it deals with feminism, cyborgs and bio-tech terrorism, and I have On Basilisk Station with me...

I'll check out the others too, though Dick doesn't come under cyberpunk specifically.

Thanks a lot!

Lit Bug wrote: "I'll check out the others too, though Dick doesn't come under cyberpunk specifically.
"

Before this thread, I had pretty much overlooked the term cyberpunk, so I looked it up. It's not my place to dispute - your knowledge is obviously greater than mine, but here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, and John Shirley.... Blade Runner can be seen as a quintessential example of the cyberpunk style and theme."

Blade Runner is based on Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Sterling, Cadigan, Rucker, and Shirley are unknown to me. I abandoned Stephenson's Snow Crash soon after starting it. I found it distasteful.

Id never have classed the following books as cyberpunk but seeing A Scanner Darkly listed as it then i might as well mention Philip K Dick's best book Ubik and most of his other books but from the list below i could also add The Stars My Destination


http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/48...

What's the parameters that classes something Cyberpunk?

I'd say cyberpunk is pretty much this:

Cyberpunk is a postmodern science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life."[1][2] It features advanced science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.[3]

Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and megacorporations, and tend to be set in a near-future Earth, rather than the far-future settings or galactic vistas found in novels such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation or Frank Herbert's Dune.[4] The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators ("the street finds its own uses for things").[5] Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes film noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from detective fiction.[6]


"Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body." � Lawrence Person[7]

Lit Bug - you might want to try Idoru by Gibson. It's part of the Bridge trilogy but it really can be read as a stand alone book (a host of new characters are introduced, with only casual mention of the characters from the proceeding book).

There's a female AI, although it's mostly how a small group of people reacts to her, as opposed to any kind of journey she goes through. Might fit?

Oh, yes, because I'm going to read the entire Gibson collection anyway - and I didn't know Idoru has a female AI, so it will be especially relevant.

Thank you!

I know you've had a lot of input on Sword and Laser (including some from me). But reading this, I wanted to mention...

I'm sure you know of them, and I don't know that I'd call them cyberpunk. But two stories kind of bowled people over.

First one is the original story True Names (in True Names. . . and Other Dangers). I hung out with an SF group at the time that was mostly programmers. We all read it and we were all gobsmacked. We ran a local con, Unicon (DC area), and picked Vernor Vinge as our GOH on the strength of that story alone.

(digs into bookcase...) I have a book called True Names: and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier. It has a lot of articles about the story's influence, then has the story at the end.

The other is John Varley's Press Enter. Cyber-paranoia. Both are early, and both are influential. Which you probably know but I figure it doesn't hurt to repeat.

Thank you Serendi! Even if they're not exactly what I need, reading more SF has helped me a lot in understanding the genre. I didn't know about these - so you're doing me a big favor. I shall certainly look into them.

Thanks again! :)

The City Who Fought
This may be more space opera than cyberpunk but cyborgs play a major role. In the sequel The Ship Avenged cyberwars appear.

Leif wrote: "The City Who Fought
This may be more space opera than cyberpunk but cyborgs play a major role. In the sequel The Ship Avenged cyberwars appear."

Thanks! I'll see if they fit in my criteria - over and above having cyborgs and computers, they'll have to have the cyberpunk feel and the near-future setting.

But thanks still! :)

I'm not sure if you still need suggestions, but a lot of cyberpunk fans tend to overlook George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran trilogy including When Gravity Fails, A Fire In The Sun and The Exile Kiss. They're cyberpunk, hard-boiled detective genre benders about the Middle East in the 22nd century based on New Orleans French Quarter.

I saw a lot suggested here I wouldn't consider cyberpunk, mostly the Alfred Bester and Philip K. Dick who preceded the genre, though I think cyberpunk authors borrowed a lot from them and they could be considered precursors to the genre.

David wrote: "I'm not sure if you still need suggestions, but a lot of cyberpunk fans tend to overlook George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran trilogy including When Gravity Fails, A Fire In The Sun and The Exile Ki..."

Thank you for the great suggestions, I was not aware of them and I am still looking for recommendations. I just read my first Bester (The Demolished Man and realized it was a precursor, just as you said, and same about PKD.

Thanks! :)

I'll second the recommendations above of Idoru by William Gibson (his best book except for Neuromancer) and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (which is often mentioned as a forerunner of the genre).

I also really enjoyed Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

I haven't heard anyone mention a couple short story collections that would really give you a good overview of the late 1980s-era cyberpunk: Burning Chrome by William Gibson and Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology edited by Bruce Sterling.

Rudy Rucker has a series of 4 books, Software, Wetware, Freeware, Realware. They dont exactly feature cyborgs exactly if memory serves but feature Moldies. I figured I'd mention them though because he is one of the founders so to speak, of the genre of cyberpunk and yet even in my science fiction classes in University they never once mention him. We read Neuromancer of course, but Rudy Rucker was a lead figure also.

Good luck.

Try Hard Wired series by Walter Jon Williams:

Hard Wired
Voice of the Whirlwind
Solip System
Video Star
Wolf Time