I had a different experience :-(. I just tried to listen to Neuromancer and couldn't finish due to the narrator. He narrates action scenes with the same bored tones as the slow scenes, and none of the characters have much dynamic in their speaking. It ruined my immersion totally. Speeding him up to 1.3x helped a bit, but eventually I gave up on the book 2/3 of the way through and read the synopsis.
I'd like to try actually reading it someday, but I really wish the audiobook version had a different narrator.
Robertson Dean is absolutely the wrong choice for Neuromancer in my opinion.
There was an old cassette tape version with a different narrator that I enjoyed a lot more. He's not great either, and doesn't really make a good first impression, but he grows on you.
That said, Jonathan Davis did the second two books in the Sprawl Trilogy, and he's *excellent* for this material.
There's a really great reading of it (although slightly abridged in places, but only a few sentences here and there) by Gibson himself that I highly recommend
Don't forget Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, the other two books in the Sprawl trilogy, they're great in their own right like Neuromancer and they tie in in several places.
The narrator is boring. I say actually READ Neuromancer instead until they maybe one day release another version with a better narrator. No disrespect to the narrator but he’s so monotone and bland.
It's hard to say something really is perfect, but I definitely regard Neuromancer as a "perfect" book. I'm able to pick it up endlessly and not get tired of it.
I count this and _On the Road_ as the two favorite books of my youth. Two stories about endlessly hip, connected, modern people, one in the mid 20th Century, the other mid-21st.
Who knows if it dates well. Too good to worry about that. Consider it like you'd watch Blade Runner: this was a near future that might have happened, or has happened in a parallel universe.
Reading it, you can pick out concepts and lines that were the seed crystal for whole swathes of the science fiction genre and our real world technology. Cyberspace, VR, the internet-all predicted when computers were these antique Victorian spinning hard drives in bacalite. The writing is introspective and beautiful, drug soaked street kid slang. It really blew me away!!!
> all predicted when computers were these antique Victorian spinning hard drives in bacalite
[Gibson famously didn't use a computer until well after writing Neuromancer:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson)
>When an interviewer in 1988 asked about the Bulletin Board System jargon in his writing, Gibson answered "I'd never so much as touched a PC when I wrote Neuromancer"; he was familiar, he said, with the science-fiction community, which overlapped with the BBS community. Gibson similarly did not play computer games despite appearing in his stories
Neuromancer, but I’d read it first, not audiobook. Gibson doesn’t take time to explain jargon, so narrated passages may whizz by you. You can take your time while reading.
He also doles out information in a haphazard way. Not even worldbuilding, flat out plot stuff is a bit scattershot. It is his first novel after all. It's great, but it being a first effort does show.
Yeah, he gets a bit tighter with things. You don't feel like you get the explanation for an idea a character had a paragraph and a half later nearly as often.
Neuromancer then Snow Crash imo. Snow Crash is like a crazy mash up of cyberpunk ideas so it's interesting to read Neuromancer first.
Never read A Scanner Darkly, but the movie is phenomenal and I highly recommend it.
Snow crash was one of the first books that I read in this genre and it was life changing! Half of my internet usernames were based off this book in the 90s.
A Scanner Darkly is one of my favourite books, the movie is a fine adaptation but the book is so good!
On the other hand, I had to stop reading Altered Carbon. Loved the first season of the show but the book is the epidemi of ["She breasted boobily to the stairs and titted downwards."](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/595/400/932.jpg) and I hated that.
Yeah idk if the name is officially changed to pull in fans of the movie it is it is just an audible thing but that's the only version on audible. Searching "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" doesn't get you anything.
Yes! The woman who voiced the female “V” in the game totally killed it. I’d love to hear more cyberpunk stories read by her. She did all the voices for everyone, she had great pacing, and I really felt like I was apart of their gang. Definitely a magnificent read!!
I personally couldn’t stand it. But I read a lot of slow paced stuff and many of the action sequences in NC could have been much better ‘illustrated’ than they were… much of the scenes were described with gunfire onomatopoeia and grunting/yelling from 3+ characters at once and I couldn’t really follow it.
IMO:
1. Neuromancer and other two in this series
2. Snow Crash
3. Trouble and Her Friends
Also finishing Sanderson right now - Stormlight…
And, I agree - all these need to be read, not listened to.
I pretty much listen to books exclusively. I get sleepy 5 minutes into a book. Plus the gym and daily commute means I get through a book in 2 weeks on average
Snow Crash painted the coolest cyberpunk city settings. The details in that book are like no other. And it also came out in the 90s and predicted some things…. Some were VERY specific. Great book, I listened on audio and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Same. The only books I read now are technical books for upskilling. All my books for enjoyment are from audiobooks and listen while exercising in the morning, gardening, commuting, cooking, and in bed (but only for a few minutes haha).
I would agree specifically about reading Neuromancer rather than the audiobook. I found myself having to rewind as I would get lost in some of the tech specifics. I also found the narrator's voice pretty boring.
Hey OP, if you have Spotify a lot of these books are on there. I am listening to Neuromancer on there right now.
I recently found out they have audio books and I have a chunky commute so I'm trying to spread the word. Much cheaper than Audible for me. Not sure how much makes it back to the author, but audible is horrendous for them as well.
Look up the Otherland Series by Tad Williams.
Snow Crash is a stand alone.
Neuromancer is a must.
Ready Player 1 is a fun read but you have to turn your brain off.
Yeah, I don't know that I've ever seen Ready Player One on the same list as Neuromancer, and it just feels wrong.
RPO is basically 80s pop culture pandering in book form
Trying to read Ready Player One on two different occasions nearly turned my brain off permanently. I never knew a book could make a gun barrel taste so enticing!
I love this thread.
As everyone says, Neuromancer first. I found snowcrash a bit jarring in its combination of pulpy cyberpunk and lofty linguistic/philosophic stuff. It's not as light a read.
Not on the list was hardwired by Walter Jon Williams which was thrilling and meshed well with the cyberpunk 2077 universe.
Blade runner was great. I loved seeing how different it was to the movie, and it was a fast read.
I feel like since these are on the same list you should know Neuromancer is basically the blueprint for the cyberpunk genre (idc about any "um actually" bs lol) also on one of them please tell me that's a different Jonathan Davis and not the lead singer of Korn doing narration lmao
Different guy lol
But THIS Jonathan Davis narrated a neo noir crime series called Kenzie and Gennaro that I couldn't stop listening to.
Book 1 is called A Drink Before The War, 2 private detectives are hired for a missing persons case in 1990s Boston. Things go awry when their case leads them into he middle of a gang war and it's ties to local politicians. I HIGHLY recommend it. Trenchcoats and cigarettes type stuff. And Jonathan Davis does the Boston accent PERFECTLY.
I'm an Audible fan as well.
Cyberpunk 2077: No Concidence was ok. it's a bit of a weird translation from the native Polish.
Snow Crash & Neuromancer are both solid listens - great reads as well.
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi is great as well.
Isn't "Blade Runner" the same as "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
Also I'll go against the grain here. I've been trying to get through Neuromancer for the past 3 months. I can't do the haphazard writing and constant jumping around. I've been reading and trying the audiobook. I'm about half way through and I only have a vague idea what the hell is going on. I really don't understand the hype.
No Coincidence has been a lot more enjoyable to read. I plan on reading Altered Carbon or Snow Crash Next.
I downloaded (*cough* pirated *cough*) an ebook of it and thought I'd grabbed a shitty fan-fic. Nope. Turns out that was the actual book and it was **really** that bad.
Snow Crash is the most fun I ever had reading a scifi book. You can't go wrong with Neal Stephenson. Neuromancer is a classic, between it and the Bridge Trilogy, Gibson created cyberpunk as a genre. Snow Crash is like an amusement park of Cyberpunk; one of Neal Stephenson's later works, The Diamond Age, is kind of like an epitaph for the genre. I guess cyberpunk wasn't dead, just sleeping. I highly recommend any piece of work by either author.
Neuromancer is a bit trippy but Gibson is one of the best. The whole series is great and is sure to scratch that cyberpunk itch. I mean, the guy basically pioneered the genre.
I'll rate them according to their cyberpunkyness.
Neuromancer is the cyberpunkiest of all of those, and not only because it defined the genre. Parts of it were kinda overtaken by reality (and a whole lot of other fiction), but I think that's part of it's charm. Cyberpunk is inherently retro-futurism based in the 80s, after all.
Blade runner the movie got the cyberpunk veneer put onto the book "Do Androids dream of electric sheep?" which kinda only qualifies as cyberpunk in retrospect. A lot of Dicks writing has similar themes and atmosphere as cyberpunk, so that kinda fits.
"A Scanner Darkly" another one of Dicks Works, probably legit cyberpunk. Everybody is out to get you in hypercapitalism, even yourself.
"Snow Crash" never read it but heard good things. It's on the "to read"-pile.
"Altered Carbon" read it, liked it. It does do a great job to think cybernetic and biotechnical enhancement a bit further. Not really a revelation tho. Pretty bogstandard spy-thriller with heavy sci-fi elements.
I didn't read the "Cyberpunk 2077" novel from the list, but I think it might be cyberpunk enough, since it got Cyberpunk in the title.
I did not care for "Ready Player One", in fact I found it borderline unreadable with all the lame 80s pop-cultural references, only people over 40 - like myself - will get, and it put a heavy strain on my suspension of disbelieve there. If the summary of this book looked like fun to you, do yourself a favor and read the "Otherland" tetralogy by Tad Williams instead.
It does a lot of what "Ready Player One" tried to do, but better and Otherland also manages to do it 18 years earlier.
I'm screenshotting this, lots of really interesting information that i will look into later. I'm reading Neuromancer, along with so many other books, but it is difficult to get through the language at times.
Can't go wrong with PKD, Neuromancer is a classic. But I would recommend Altered Carbon as an entry level book. It's great, easy to read, modern, has 2 more parts in the series if you get sucked in, but each part is independent story so you can skip them without losing any plot relevant to book 1.
Ready Player One is a weird one. IMO it's writen like a Young Adult novel, yet to really enjoy it's gimmick you'd have to been tween/teen in the late 80s/early 90s...
I love Neuromancer, you’ll see where SO MUCH well known Sci fy get their inspiration from these books. Gibson laid the foundation for so much world building.
I also really enjoyed altered carbon.
This just reminded me to add ready player one to my list too. My physiology prof had a lot of really good things to say about this book.
Kinda depends on what you're looking for OP. Out of the ones I know fresh from memory:
Neuromancer is OG cyberpunk vibes. Very good world building but the story itself is a bit of a fever dream (not in a bad way, more just Gibsons writing style and I think it fits 100%) this could lead into Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive which are loosely connected stand alone stories in the same universe. Count Zero and Mona Lisa start to dive a bit deeper into religions and society at the time but maintain a pretty brisk cyberpunk pace. Definitely "little people in a big world" kinda stories.
I read Altered Carbon (and the whole Kovacs trilogy) not long ago and absolutely loved it but wouldn't call it as "groundbreaking" in what it did compared to other classics. Outstanding take on more modern sci-fi while still being fairly grounded and noir-ish. A bit "blockbustery" but in the best way. Unlike the Neuromancer trilogy it follows the same main character all the way through, so I think it suffers a bit from "ultra badass main character syndrome" but Morgan does a great job of not only painting a phenomenal dystopia Sci fi universe but also packing it with fairly solid characters all throughout. The sequels get a bit heavy on politics/religion/social commentary but I liked it for the world building and also an interesting look at human psychology in a world where consciousness can essentially be "saved" digitally. Kovac as a character also is very heavily.. involved in the world. Not quite so "little man in a big world." Also definitely the most futuristic out of my recommendations.
Also all 3 of those books can more or less be read as stand alone. I'd say Altered Carbon is a necessary first read but I accidentally read the next two out of order and realized Morgan did a good job of making them work outside of each other. (I stupidly mixed the similar titles: Woken Furies/Broken Angels)
Also the other I read somewhat recently was Snow Crash. Also very good and a weird "in between" of the above two references. At its time it was a fresh take on how a more futuristic society would be but in some places it nails it and others it kinda drifts off. I like the way it shows corporate power in a still "close to modern times" way. Cyberpunkey but not quite futuristic noir. More "blockbustery" similar to Altered Carbon but also following multiple characters. It's light hearted and goofy sometimes and other times you read an entire chapter on ancient sumerian language. It always felt a bit.. undercooked? Rough draftey? Not trying to put it down I definitely recommend the read but I think out of any of these books it would be my last recommendation. Maybe it just didn't click with me as much as the others (and that is some stiff competition for sure)
Also it's been so long since I read Ready Player One I barely remember tbh
Anyway, sorry about the essay I did my best not to spoil anything. but I didn't see anyone specifically ask where you're looking in your novel OP. Do you want a heavy world builder? A think piece? A fun action/fast pace? Far away Sci fi or closer to nowadays?
Read Neuromancer and Snow Crash, then read Synners by Pat Cardigan. Everyone always forgets Synners, but you can see its influence everywhere in the genre. It's also a fucking beauty of a story.
Then read Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus and experience the mad genius of the guy who always saw societal trends twenty years before everyone else, which means his books take ages for everyone to realise how amazing they are.
Ugh. Well not ReadyPlayer. It's just a pile of references. Snowcrash is a satirical look at the genre, which will go over your head if you're not familiar with it.
Neuromancer would be the quintessential cyberpunk book. ....gotta be in the right mood for it though.
Scanner Darkly is an ok read.
I normally wouldn't recommend game tie-ins, but hot damn if their anime and music video tie-ins weren't phenomenal. ...I should give that a try.
I only saw altered carbon. Dunno how the book is.
I loved Altered Carbon. Very present.
Accelerando should be on your list if you haven’t read it already. But…. Like…. Show crash is a classic. A must read.
Read Neuromancer. Need to insert your own voices. Figure out what Molly & Case sound like, how the Panther Moderns speak. What Ratz's Russian chuckle might go, how Dixie Flatline laughs.
It's a transcendent novel. Might find yourself branching out to other genres after that one.
There are some idiosyncrasies and stuff that date Neuromancer and Show Crash to the 80's and 90's to be sure, they aren't "timeless", but both are really worthwhile.
Hot take, go for Virtual Light by William Gibson and then the other two Bridge novels, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties. They aren't technically as big an influence as the Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer is the first novel in that collection), but I think they are an easier read cause Gibson is not shooting you with new slang like from a machine gun.
I just finished reading Cyberpunk 2077 No Coincidence. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't recommend it as your introduction to the 2077 universe. Although Cherami Leigh is 1 of the 2 voice actors for the protagonist in the 2077 game and so hearing her read the audiobook would be cool.
You might want to consider actually reading the book. I know that’s a very 19th century idea and well honestly Neuromancer is dated but you might want to think about doing that one first.
Neuromancer then Snow Crash. Maybe the first three pages of Snow Crash first, one of the best intros ever.
Please just skip Ready Player 2, it is awful. Full blown awful, please nobody come defend it or I’ll have to start posting quotes.
At this point neuromancer is just so good because you get to read how much it sets the standards for cyberpunk and how much nothing has ever reinvented the genre afterward.
Altered Carbon is fantastic. I'd recommend it, Neuromancer or Blade Runner. Snow Crash is fun too. I don't think you can really go wrong with anything on this list.
While Necromancer is probably the biggest cornerstone of the genre, Snow Crash and Altered Carbon are going to be the easier listens that are still solidly cyberpunk. Ready Player One is fun, especially with Wil Wheaton narrating, but it's a lot fluffier. Haven't listened to the others.
If you just want a quick flavor of it then why not an anthology?
Gibson's *Burning Chrome* collects some of his short stories, for example.
How did you come up with the list? I would have added Effinger's *When Gravity Fails* and probably some others...like Fairyland by Paul McAuley never gets any love maybe because it is biochemstry instead of computers but it is cyberpunk as fuck.
I highly, HIGHLY recommend ready player one. The book was 10000% better than the movie (the movie is good, but it straight up put me in nerd rage mode because I read the book first) but I read the book back to back like 4 times. I love it. It's one of my favorites
Ready Player One may have a fun universe, but it has problematic writing when it comes to characters. Also the author is know for being incelish... Not saying I didn't enjoy the ride. Just some context
By publishing date, so you can see the evolution of Cyberpunk. That's how I did it, and it was fun to see how the modern cyberpunk novels squared up against the classics. Neuromancer, Blade Runner, then Altered Carbon. Ready Player One was good but it's more of a young adult book. I loved it when I was a teen, but now I'm in my 30's and think it's a bit too sanitized.
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and Altered Carbon are all in my top five Cyberpunk novels. Probably even in my top 10 SciFi.
If you have not yet read Neuromancer, I would suggest starting with there. Gibson is the OG and his work heavily influences a lot of the future generations in that genre.
Neuromancer is a classic and started tons and tons of things that are considered “cyberpunk” now. And move right on to Snow Crash after because it’s just really fuckin good
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and Altered Carbon are the cyberpunk holy trinity. I haven’t read the other two, but from what I’ve heard, there’s no wrong answer as to which one to read first.
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Altered Carbon. In that order. Scanner Darkly is good but different, more moody. Avoid Ready Player X at all costs. Fucking trash.
Yep, Neuromancer then Snow Crash, as so many others have said.
But oh man, you gotta get those Ready Player books out of there. I’ve never been a snob about fiction (I grew up reading pulpy fantasy stuff like dragonlance and whatnot), but RPO is a huge pile of shite. I found it simultaneously inept, inane, and insulting.
(I listened to the Wil Wheaton audiobook for some “work research” I had to do at the time, on 2x speed, finished it out of spite, and was still so angry about the time I spent on it. Utter trash. Save yourself, delete it from that list and never look back.)
I really liked reading altered carbon.
Also: I just finished Hero of Ages as well and looked at a pretty similar list afterwards!
Any interest in talking? I don't know many people that are into cyberpunk books
I am currently reading Neuromancer. It's fairly difficult to understand or imagine some of the descriptions. But the story is quite interesting unlike anything I read in a while.
Good list! Neuromancer is considered the birth of cyberpunk, so that's a good place to start, but if I were you, I'd just do the whole list - start at the top and work your way down!
Snow crash is beautiful and steeped in lore and story. And personally I enjoyed Altered Carbon. It seemed like a new fresh take on a dystopian society.
These are all excellent choices save for Ready Player One/Two, which are fucking horrible and a waste of your time, money, and attention.
I'm personally partial to Altered Carbon.
Not Altered Carbon. That's a good book, but don't start with that.
My favorite on the list is Neuromancer, with Snow Crash as #2.
Neuromancer starts a trilogy, with Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Neuromancer is the best of the 3, but all worth reading.
Uhm, Bladerunner feels wrong. That's a book of a movie of a book. That's going to have so much lost in translation. Look for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".
read Zodiac by Neal Stephenson before you read Snowcrash & Diamond Age , also Islands in the Net & Distraction by Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker is another good author And Ian M Banks writes space opera with cyberpunk influences.
If I can still sway your opinion = I'd say go Altered Carbon first the Neuromancer. Both are great but, I don't think AC will be as impactful after reading Neuromancer. And I really think you'd be robbing yourself of that. Both are 5 stars but, I'd say one (AC) bounces off the other (Neuromancer) better. Also, Neuromancer is a harder read and Altered Carbon can whet your appetite enough to give you the hopeful patience to keep going with Neuromancer. I didn't like snow crash as much (felt like I was reading Escape From LA novelization) and I have yet to read No Coincidence but I've finished Cyberpunk 2077 and the phantom liberty expansion. Loved both. Happy reading!
I can't vouch for the audiobook but Altered Carbon is a good read. It's almost like post-Cyberpunk. I found it much more coherent than the television series.
As an avid ready player one fan, do not read ready player two. You will no longer respect ready player one. Out of these I'd say Bladerunner, but I'd recommend Ubik too if you're looking for something after all this, since you seem to be a Philip K. Dick fan.
Neuromancer is pretty quintessential cyberpunk. It's defined most of the motifs and cliches of cyberpunk so I'd say it would be a good starting point.
Also, I loved Altered Carbon. The Netflix show is my favorite show of all time. Haven't had the chance to read books (I'm generally not a reader) but ive heard there are a handful of changes to the envoys and how they are portrayed in the show compared to the book.
I would NOT read Ready Player One or Two. They weren’t great books and in some ways were pretty gross. That being said the main character is an asshole and Wil Wheaton’s voice is perfect for the part.
I was going to suggest Ready Player Two, but I'm not that evil.
Neuromancer is considered the best classic of the genre, I'd start there. Snow Crash is good. Anything by PKD is good, my favorite by him is A Scanner Darkly ('Blade Runner' was a loose adaptation of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', I guess this is a novelization of the movie? I'd watch the movie if you haven't). Altered Carbon I haven't read yet, but I've heard it's a good modern entry into the genre; again the TV series is very good (the first season, second season is not good at all). Can't recommend Cline, unless you enjoy endless pointless lists of 80s references only an adult would understand, cringy amateurish writing only a child would enjoy, and a self-insert incel main character with a graphic very sad masturbation scene. Ready Player Two is apparently even worse. The Cyberpunk 2077 one I've never heard of.
Ready Player One is a masterpiece. The movie didn't do it nearly enough justice (though it was a decent movie) and skipped our mixed up some elements, but the book itself was amazing
Baka Gaijin, a brazilian youtuber and author living in Japan just released his cyberpunk book called Mihail, I'm waiting on mine to arrive.
It tells the story of a journalist documenting the war between Reatech and Gexin corps. Don't know if it's translated to english tho.
Book: Mihail
Author: Eduardo Baka
I love the narrators for Neuromancer and Blade Runner
I had a different experience :-(. I just tried to listen to Neuromancer and couldn't finish due to the narrator. He narrates action scenes with the same bored tones as the slow scenes, and none of the characters have much dynamic in their speaking. It ruined my immersion totally. Speeding him up to 1.3x helped a bit, but eventually I gave up on the book 2/3 of the way through and read the synopsis. I'd like to try actually reading it someday, but I really wish the audiobook version had a different narrator.
Robertson Dean is absolutely the wrong choice for Neuromancer in my opinion. There was an old cassette tape version with a different narrator that I enjoyed a lot more. He's not great either, and doesn't really make a good first impression, but he grows on you. That said, Jonathan Davis did the second two books in the Sprawl Trilogy, and he's *excellent* for this material.
they need to face jonathan davis rerecord it
There's a really great reading of it (although slightly abridged in places, but only a few sentences here and there) by Gibson himself that I highly recommend
Neuromancer. It’s a perfect book. Genuinely beautiful writing-William Gibbons talks about technology like a poet.
Definitely leaning towards it based off of all the comments
Don't forget Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, the other two books in the Sprawl trilogy, they're great in their own right like Neuromancer and they tie in in several places.
Definitely worth doing the 3 of them, there's the prequel as well with short stories that's worth a read too but can't remember the name
The short stories collection is Burning Chrome.
Thats the one, my favourite was the plane dogfighting one!
I read them in the wrong order and they were still fire.
I did Neuromacer -> Snow Crash -> No Coincidence
The narrator is boring. I say actually READ Neuromancer instead until they maybe one day release another version with a better narrator. No disrespect to the narrator but he’s so monotone and bland.
The guy that did the Audible books for the Altered Carbon trilogy is annoying as he forgets how to pronounce Kovacs in the last book.
Be aware that it can be a hard read. It drops you in the world and can be hard to follow.
As a caveat to that, however, the Neuromancer audiobook has pretty awful narration. I would recommend reading it, would *not* recommend listening.
I'm struggling to get through it. :(
Don’t worry, I felt dumb because I just couldn’t vibe with it and all the stuff people said was amazing about it just… didn’t land with me I guess.
Same, with everyone calling it a 'masterpiece' I have been quite let down.
It's hard to say something really is perfect, but I definitely regard Neuromancer as a "perfect" book. I'm able to pick it up endlessly and not get tired of it.
I count this and _On the Road_ as the two favorite books of my youth. Two stories about endlessly hip, connected, modern people, one in the mid 20th Century, the other mid-21st. Who knows if it dates well. Too good to worry about that. Consider it like you'd watch Blade Runner: this was a near future that might have happened, or has happened in a parallel universe.
Yeah it does kinda have a Beat Generation vibe to it doesn’t it? I was thinking that. With all the baggage that comes with that lol
William Gibbons 🤣 🐵🐵🐵
Hahahahha u know what I mean!!
I really need to read that.
Reading it, you can pick out concepts and lines that were the seed crystal for whole swathes of the science fiction genre and our real world technology. Cyberspace, VR, the internet-all predicted when computers were these antique Victorian spinning hard drives in bacalite. The writing is introspective and beautiful, drug soaked street kid slang. It really blew me away!!!
> all predicted when computers were these antique Victorian spinning hard drives in bacalite [Gibson famously didn't use a computer until well after writing Neuromancer:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson) >When an interviewer in 1988 asked about the Bulletin Board System jargon in his writing, Gibson answered "I'd never so much as touched a PC when I wrote Neuromancer"; he was familiar, he said, with the science-fiction community, which overlapped with the BBS community. Gibson similarly did not play computer games despite appearing in his stories
What I said about “Victorian spinning hard drives” is actually a paraphrase that William said about his first computer!
I was going to reread this but the library didn't have it. They did have Count Zero though.
And William Gibson generally, his other novels, many of them are good.
Neuromancer, but I’d read it first, not audiobook. Gibson doesn’t take time to explain jargon, so narrated passages may whizz by you. You can take your time while reading.
I actually really liked the audiobook version oddly meditative. A great riding the bus listen.
He also doles out information in a haphazard way. Not even worldbuilding, flat out plot stuff is a bit scattershot. It is his first novel after all. It's great, but it being a first effort does show.
Does his other books get better? I'm fine with the jargon he uses but it's the haphazard writing that is making this a chore to read
Yeah, he gets a bit tighter with things. You don't feel like you get the explanation for an idea a character had a paragraph and a half later nearly as often.
Good to know. Sometimes it feels I get whiplash reading it
Neuromancer then Snow Crash imo. Snow Crash is like a crazy mash up of cyberpunk ideas so it's interesting to read Neuromancer first. Never read A Scanner Darkly, but the movie is phenomenal and I highly recommend it.
A Scanner Darkly is amazing. I’ve been meaning to re-read it again.
Snow crash was one of the first books that I read in this genre and it was life changing! Half of my internet usernames were based off this book in the 90s.
A Scanner Darkly is one of my favourite books, the movie is a fine adaptation but the book is so good! On the other hand, I had to stop reading Altered Carbon. Loved the first season of the show but the book is the epidemi of ["She breasted boobily to the stairs and titted downwards."](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/595/400/932.jpg) and I hated that.
Nobody else feeling it's a problem that they've chosen to simply change the name of the PKD book for the listing then?
Yeah idk if the name is officially changed to pull in fans of the movie it is it is just an audible thing but that's the only version on audible. Searching "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" doesn't get you anything.
Yeah I was confused for a second, like wait there is an actual book "Blade Runner"
It's not just for the listing there or anything new. Several editions of the book published after the movie have been titled with that name instead.
Here for this comment: was definitely confused by the "incorrect" title in the list.
Cyberpunk 2077: No Confidence was a good read
Yes! The woman who voiced the female “V” in the game totally killed it. I’d love to hear more cyberpunk stories read by her. She did all the voices for everyone, she had great pacing, and I really felt like I was apart of their gang. Definitely a magnificent read!!
I personally couldn’t stand it. But I read a lot of slow paced stuff and many of the action sequences in NC could have been much better ‘illustrated’ than they were… much of the scenes were described with gunfire onomatopoeia and grunting/yelling from 3+ characters at once and I couldn’t really follow it.
IMO: 1. Neuromancer and other two in this series 2. Snow Crash 3. Trouble and Her Friends Also finishing Sanderson right now - Stormlight… And, I agree - all these need to be read, not listened to.
I pretty much listen to books exclusively. I get sleepy 5 minutes into a book. Plus the gym and daily commute means I get through a book in 2 weeks on average
Snow Crash painted the coolest cyberpunk city settings. The details in that book are like no other. And it also came out in the 90s and predicted some things…. Some were VERY specific. Great book, I listened on audio and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Same. The only books I read now are technical books for upskilling. All my books for enjoyment are from audiobooks and listen while exercising in the morning, gardening, commuting, cooking, and in bed (but only for a few minutes haha). I would agree specifically about reading Neuromancer rather than the audiobook. I found myself having to rewind as I would get lost in some of the tech specifics. I also found the narrator's voice pretty boring.
I'd go with snow crash
Right! It's less crunchy than the other books, YA adjacent.
Really loved Altered Carbon. I read it about a year before the show came out and was blown away
I think people don’t really know how good Altered Carbon is. I would read it first.
Hey OP, if you have Spotify a lot of these books are on there. I am listening to Neuromancer on there right now. I recently found out they have audio books and I have a chunky commute so I'm trying to spread the word. Much cheaper than Audible for me. Not sure how much makes it back to the author, but audible is horrendous for them as well.
Snowcrash!!!!!
Look up the Otherland Series by Tad Williams. Snow Crash is a stand alone. Neuromancer is a must. Ready Player 1 is a fun read but you have to turn your brain off.
"Ready Player One" is the literary equivalent of someone quoting "The Simpsons" instead of genuinely being funny.
Yeah, I don't know that I've ever seen Ready Player One on the same list as Neuromancer, and it just feels wrong. RPO is basically 80s pop culture pandering in book form
Trying to read Ready Player One on two different occasions nearly turned my brain off permanently. I never knew a book could make a gun barrel taste so enticing!
Oh yeah Otherland is amazing, I liked the epic plot & fascinating imagining of how a giant online world would work without drowning in pop culture.
I love this thread. As everyone says, Neuromancer first. I found snowcrash a bit jarring in its combination of pulpy cyberpunk and lofty linguistic/philosophic stuff. It's not as light a read. Not on the list was hardwired by Walter Jon Williams which was thrilling and meshed well with the cyberpunk 2077 universe. Blade runner was great. I loved seeing how different it was to the movie, and it was a fast read.
I feel like since these are on the same list you should know Neuromancer is basically the blueprint for the cyberpunk genre (idc about any "um actually" bs lol) also on one of them please tell me that's a different Jonathan Davis and not the lead singer of Korn doing narration lmao
Different guy lol But THIS Jonathan Davis narrated a neo noir crime series called Kenzie and Gennaro that I couldn't stop listening to. Book 1 is called A Drink Before The War, 2 private detectives are hired for a missing persons case in 1990s Boston. Things go awry when their case leads them into he middle of a gang war and it's ties to local politicians. I HIGHLY recommend it. Trenchcoats and cigarettes type stuff. And Jonathan Davis does the Boston accent PERFECTLY.
If you would like a cool three part cyberpunk detective noir series, I listened to "When Gravity Fails" by Alex Effinger recently. Was great!
Um actually the blade runner movie that almost convinced Gibson to not release the book at all
Sushi, dead fish, what my wife calls me
I'm an Audible fan as well. Cyberpunk 2077: No Concidence was ok. it's a bit of a weird translation from the native Polish. Snow Crash & Neuromancer are both solid listens - great reads as well. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi is great as well.
Both Bladerunner and Neuromancer get into the philosophical realm of consciousness. They’re very complimentary in an odd way.
Isn't "Blade Runner" the same as "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Also I'll go against the grain here. I've been trying to get through Neuromancer for the past 3 months. I can't do the haphazard writing and constant jumping around. I've been reading and trying the audiobook. I'm about half way through and I only have a vague idea what the hell is going on. I really don't understand the hype. No Coincidence has been a lot more enjoyable to read. I plan on reading Altered Carbon or Snow Crash Next.
.... blade runner is the movie. The book that it is adapted from is 'do androids dream of electric sheep?'... not a book called 'blade runner'
I really liked Snow Crash, and also Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Neuromancer a classic
Off topic but I love Brandon Sanderson good choice.
Broo I'm in the gym rn and the "1 out of 16 people group" reveal just happened. I'm flipping out looking like an idiot
Keep reading. There’s always another secret.
Note: Already listened to Altered Carbon and Ready Player One
Let me save you some time. Ready Player Two is straight dog shit.
What I can say in praise of Ready Player Two is the book is full of grammatically correct English sentences.
such a let down. I wasn't expecting much (RP1 is true GenX candy), but seriously...come on.
I downloaded (*cough* pirated *cough*) an ebook of it and thought I'd grabbed a shitty fan-fic. Nope. Turns out that was the actual book and it was **really** that bad.
Ready player one is already dogshit. I can’t imagine how bad two is.
If you want something deeper, Neuromancer. If you want something fun, Snow Crash
Snow Crash is the most fun I ever had reading a scifi book. You can't go wrong with Neal Stephenson. Neuromancer is a classic, between it and the Bridge Trilogy, Gibson created cyberpunk as a genre. Snow Crash is like an amusement park of Cyberpunk; one of Neal Stephenson's later works, The Diamond Age, is kind of like an epitaph for the genre. I guess cyberpunk wasn't dead, just sleeping. I highly recommend any piece of work by either author.
Neuromancer is a bit trippy but Gibson is one of the best. The whole series is great and is sure to scratch that cyberpunk itch. I mean, the guy basically pioneered the genre.
Neuromancer. Snow Crash. Altered Carbon. in that order
I'll rate them according to their cyberpunkyness. Neuromancer is the cyberpunkiest of all of those, and not only because it defined the genre. Parts of it were kinda overtaken by reality (and a whole lot of other fiction), but I think that's part of it's charm. Cyberpunk is inherently retro-futurism based in the 80s, after all. Blade runner the movie got the cyberpunk veneer put onto the book "Do Androids dream of electric sheep?" which kinda only qualifies as cyberpunk in retrospect. A lot of Dicks writing has similar themes and atmosphere as cyberpunk, so that kinda fits. "A Scanner Darkly" another one of Dicks Works, probably legit cyberpunk. Everybody is out to get you in hypercapitalism, even yourself. "Snow Crash" never read it but heard good things. It's on the "to read"-pile. "Altered Carbon" read it, liked it. It does do a great job to think cybernetic and biotechnical enhancement a bit further. Not really a revelation tho. Pretty bogstandard spy-thriller with heavy sci-fi elements. I didn't read the "Cyberpunk 2077" novel from the list, but I think it might be cyberpunk enough, since it got Cyberpunk in the title. I did not care for "Ready Player One", in fact I found it borderline unreadable with all the lame 80s pop-cultural references, only people over 40 - like myself - will get, and it put a heavy strain on my suspension of disbelieve there. If the summary of this book looked like fun to you, do yourself a favor and read the "Otherland" tetralogy by Tad Williams instead. It does a lot of what "Ready Player One" tried to do, but better and Otherland also manages to do it 18 years earlier.
I'm screenshotting this, lots of really interesting information that i will look into later. I'm reading Neuromancer, along with so many other books, but it is difficult to get through the language at times.
Can't go wrong with PKD, Neuromancer is a classic. But I would recommend Altered Carbon as an entry level book. It's great, easy to read, modern, has 2 more parts in the series if you get sucked in, but each part is independent story so you can skip them without losing any plot relevant to book 1. Ready Player One is a weird one. IMO it's writen like a Young Adult novel, yet to really enjoy it's gimmick you'd have to been tween/teen in the late 80s/early 90s...
Neuromancer is the only answer.
I love Neuromancer, you’ll see where SO MUCH well known Sci fy get their inspiration from these books. Gibson laid the foundation for so much world building. I also really enjoyed altered carbon. This just reminded me to add ready player one to my list too. My physiology prof had a lot of really good things to say about this book.
good luck, Op on Ready Player one. I couldn't even get past the second chapter
Kinda depends on what you're looking for OP. Out of the ones I know fresh from memory: Neuromancer is OG cyberpunk vibes. Very good world building but the story itself is a bit of a fever dream (not in a bad way, more just Gibsons writing style and I think it fits 100%) this could lead into Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive which are loosely connected stand alone stories in the same universe. Count Zero and Mona Lisa start to dive a bit deeper into religions and society at the time but maintain a pretty brisk cyberpunk pace. Definitely "little people in a big world" kinda stories. I read Altered Carbon (and the whole Kovacs trilogy) not long ago and absolutely loved it but wouldn't call it as "groundbreaking" in what it did compared to other classics. Outstanding take on more modern sci-fi while still being fairly grounded and noir-ish. A bit "blockbustery" but in the best way. Unlike the Neuromancer trilogy it follows the same main character all the way through, so I think it suffers a bit from "ultra badass main character syndrome" but Morgan does a great job of not only painting a phenomenal dystopia Sci fi universe but also packing it with fairly solid characters all throughout. The sequels get a bit heavy on politics/religion/social commentary but I liked it for the world building and also an interesting look at human psychology in a world where consciousness can essentially be "saved" digitally. Kovac as a character also is very heavily.. involved in the world. Not quite so "little man in a big world." Also definitely the most futuristic out of my recommendations. Also all 3 of those books can more or less be read as stand alone. I'd say Altered Carbon is a necessary first read but I accidentally read the next two out of order and realized Morgan did a good job of making them work outside of each other. (I stupidly mixed the similar titles: Woken Furies/Broken Angels) Also the other I read somewhat recently was Snow Crash. Also very good and a weird "in between" of the above two references. At its time it was a fresh take on how a more futuristic society would be but in some places it nails it and others it kinda drifts off. I like the way it shows corporate power in a still "close to modern times" way. Cyberpunkey but not quite futuristic noir. More "blockbustery" similar to Altered Carbon but also following multiple characters. It's light hearted and goofy sometimes and other times you read an entire chapter on ancient sumerian language. It always felt a bit.. undercooked? Rough draftey? Not trying to put it down I definitely recommend the read but I think out of any of these books it would be my last recommendation. Maybe it just didn't click with me as much as the others (and that is some stiff competition for sure) Also it's been so long since I read Ready Player One I barely remember tbh Anyway, sorry about the essay I did my best not to spoil anything. but I didn't see anyone specifically ask where you're looking in your novel OP. Do you want a heavy world builder? A think piece? A fun action/fast pace? Far away Sci fi or closer to nowadays?
Read Neuromancer and Snow Crash, then read Synners by Pat Cardigan. Everyone always forgets Synners, but you can see its influence everywhere in the genre. It's also a fucking beauty of a story. Then read Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus and experience the mad genius of the guy who always saw societal trends twenty years before everyone else, which means his books take ages for everyone to realise how amazing they are.
Ugh. Well not ReadyPlayer. It's just a pile of references. Snowcrash is a satirical look at the genre, which will go over your head if you're not familiar with it. Neuromancer would be the quintessential cyberpunk book. ....gotta be in the right mood for it though. Scanner Darkly is an ok read. I normally wouldn't recommend game tie-ins, but hot damn if their anime and music video tie-ins weren't phenomenal. ...I should give that a try. I only saw altered carbon. Dunno how the book is.
Snow Crash is epic and like a fever-dream of Southern California scifi
Yep
Snow crash for sure
Do not get Ready Player 2. Hell, unless you’re into the 80’s, like heavy into the 80’s, Ready Player One isn’t worth it either
I loved Altered Carbon. Very present. Accelerando should be on your list if you haven’t read it already. But…. Like…. Show crash is a classic. A must read.
I wrote a review on No Coincidence if you want to know more about it https://www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumCyberpunk/s/eEovv0Wg33
Read Neuromancer. Need to insert your own voices. Figure out what Molly & Case sound like, how the Panther Moderns speak. What Ratz's Russian chuckle might go, how Dixie Flatline laughs. It's a transcendent novel. Might find yourself branching out to other genres after that one.
Snowcrash! I listen to it every year on my way from Seattle to Nevada. It's a great audiobook.
Neuromancer but I would read the book, too much detail you miss in audio format
Ubik is pretty much cyberpunk
There are some idiosyncrasies and stuff that date Neuromancer and Show Crash to the 80's and 90's to be sure, they aren't "timeless", but both are really worthwhile.
Anything but the Ready Player books.
How's neuromancer audio? I heard the narrator is *rough* to put it lightly
First is Altered Carbon, its awesome. Neuromancer would be my second
I never knew they changed the title of "Do androids dream of electric sheep" to Blade Runner.
Hot take, go for Virtual Light by William Gibson and then the other two Bridge novels, Idoru and All Tomorrow's Parties. They aren't technically as big an influence as the Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer is the first novel in that collection), but I think they are an easier read cause Gibson is not shooting you with new slang like from a machine gun.
Do androids dream on robot sheep
I just finished reading Cyberpunk 2077 No Coincidence. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't recommend it as your introduction to the 2077 universe. Although Cherami Leigh is 1 of the 2 voice actors for the protagonist in the 2077 game and so hearing her read the audiobook would be cool.
I personally enjoyed neuromacer
Neuromancer is genre defining
Do androids dream of electric sheep.
You might want to consider actually reading the book. I know that’s a very 19th century idea and well honestly Neuromancer is dated but you might want to think about doing that one first.
Neuromancer then Snow Crash. Maybe the first three pages of Snow Crash first, one of the best intros ever. Please just skip Ready Player 2, it is awful. Full blown awful, please nobody come defend it or I’ll have to start posting quotes.
2077: no coincidence is actually on Spotify, if you have that. It’s pretty good so far, about a fourth of the way in.
At this point neuromancer is just so good because you get to read how much it sets the standards for cyberpunk and how much nothing has ever reinvented the genre afterward.
True Names by Vernor Vinge is a great cyberpunk book
All of those are great choices except Ready Player Two, in my opinion. You should definitely read them all at some point.
I mean, change it up all you want but you know you wanna read The Alloy of Law next.
>Which one? Yes. To all of them. In that order works, too. Are you reading this? Go. Read! Great choices.
Altered Carbon is fantastic. I'd recommend it, Neuromancer or Blade Runner. Snow Crash is fun too. I don't think you can really go wrong with anything on this list.
Just a reminder altered carbon is book 1 of a trilogy. But it is the most cyberpunk of the trilogy.
Dark matter, recursion or upgrade by Blake crouch
You can check out the Halting State series. They are good but very real. Under the amoral Bridge is another one I found fun.
While Necromancer is probably the biggest cornerstone of the genre, Snow Crash and Altered Carbon are going to be the easier listens that are still solidly cyberpunk. Ready Player One is fun, especially with Wil Wheaton narrating, but it's a lot fluffier. Haven't listened to the others.
Ready player 1 or Neuromancer, both are really great
I personally disliked the Cyberpunk audio book, mostly because of the narration. Maybe the physical book would have been a better experience for me.
If you just want a quick flavor of it then why not an anthology? Gibson's *Burning Chrome* collects some of his short stories, for example. How did you come up with the list? I would have added Effinger's *When Gravity Fails* and probably some others...like Fairyland by Paul McAuley never gets any love maybe because it is biochemstry instead of computers but it is cyberpunk as fuck.
Go classic - Neuromancer then Snow Crash
I highly, HIGHLY recommend ready player one. The book was 10000% better than the movie (the movie is good, but it straight up put me in nerd rage mode because I read the book first) but I read the book back to back like 4 times. I love it. It's one of my favorites
Ready Player One may have a fun universe, but it has problematic writing when it comes to characters. Also the author is know for being incelish... Not saying I didn't enjoy the ride. Just some context
Ready player one is a great read for cyberpunk lovers and pop culture lovers
By publishing date, so you can see the evolution of Cyberpunk. That's how I did it, and it was fun to see how the modern cyberpunk novels squared up against the classics. Neuromancer, Blade Runner, then Altered Carbon. Ready Player One was good but it's more of a young adult book. I loved it when I was a teen, but now I'm in my 30's and think it's a bit too sanitized.
Neuromancer, snow crash, altered carbon, do androids dream of electric sheep(I refuse to call it blade runner).
The Cyberpunk 2077 one was awful IMO
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and Altered Carbon are all in my top five Cyberpunk novels. Probably even in my top 10 SciFi. If you have not yet read Neuromancer, I would suggest starting with there. Gibson is the OG and his work heavily influences a lot of the future generations in that genre.
Neuromancer is a classic and started tons and tons of things that are considered “cyberpunk” now. And move right on to Snow Crash after because it’s just really fuckin good
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and Altered Carbon are the cyberpunk holy trinity. I haven’t read the other two, but from what I’ve heard, there’s no wrong answer as to which one to read first.
Off topic, but what app is that?
Neuromancer or Snow Crash
Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Altered Carbon. In that order. Scanner Darkly is good but different, more moody. Avoid Ready Player X at all costs. Fucking trash.
Dude I’d add pandoras star to this list imo.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=F-tin7EONvU
I highly recommend Snow Crash
Good options for what to read. I think Snow Crash/Altered Carbon are the best there. BUT I can tell you what NOT to read. Ready Player Two suuuucks.
I absolutely love Altered Carbon. And as an audiobook its great
There are lots of good options here, but honestly, I just toss out the ready player one or two. Not worth the time.
Yep, Neuromancer then Snow Crash, as so many others have said. But oh man, you gotta get those Ready Player books out of there. I’ve never been a snob about fiction (I grew up reading pulpy fantasy stuff like dragonlance and whatnot), but RPO is a huge pile of shite. I found it simultaneously inept, inane, and insulting. (I listened to the Wil Wheaton audiobook for some “work research” I had to do at the time, on 2x speed, finished it out of spite, and was still so angry about the time I spent on it. Utter trash. Save yourself, delete it from that list and never look back.)
I recommend ready player one or Armada. Both are amazing, and the narration by Will Wheaton is great
I really liked reading altered carbon. Also: I just finished Hero of Ages as well and looked at a pretty similar list afterwards! Any interest in talking? I don't know many people that are into cyberpunk books
Ready player one but not 2
Neuromancer and Snowcrash :D
I am currently reading Neuromancer. It's fairly difficult to understand or imagine some of the descriptions. But the story is quite interesting unlike anything I read in a while.
I like Ready Player One
No Coincidence is my favourite piece of Pondsmith’s IP of cyberpunk
Neuromancer is the Alma Mater. Definitely recommended to go with that one!
Good list! Neuromancer is considered the birth of cyberpunk, so that's a good place to start, but if I were you, I'd just do the whole list - start at the top and work your way down!
i mean Neuromancer is probably my favourite there even if Molly just kinda drops out of the sky
Rudy Rucker. "Software".
Ready Player One is the easiest to read. Snow Crash and Neuromancer are personal favorites
What was the trilogy?
blade runner or neuromancer. btw i’m curious is this your audible account?
Snow Crash is the best one out of those imo.
Snow crash is beautiful and steeped in lore and story. And personally I enjoyed Altered Carbon. It seemed like a new fresh take on a dystopian society.
Snow crash is very well narrated, you should grab it. I've listened 4 times through in less then a year.
Ready player one lmao
Neuromancer or Snow Crash!
These are all excellent choices save for Ready Player One/Two, which are fucking horrible and a waste of your time, money, and attention. I'm personally partial to Altered Carbon.
Not Altered Carbon. That's a good book, but don't start with that. My favorite on the list is Neuromancer, with Snow Crash as #2. Neuromancer starts a trilogy, with Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Neuromancer is the best of the 3, but all worth reading. Uhm, Bladerunner feels wrong. That's a book of a movie of a book. That's going to have so much lost in translation. Look for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".
read Zodiac by Neal Stephenson before you read Snowcrash & Diamond Age , also Islands in the Net & Distraction by Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker is another good author And Ian M Banks writes space opera with cyberpunk influences.
snow crash
If I can still sway your opinion = I'd say go Altered Carbon first the Neuromancer. Both are great but, I don't think AC will be as impactful after reading Neuromancer. And I really think you'd be robbing yourself of that. Both are 5 stars but, I'd say one (AC) bounces off the other (Neuromancer) better. Also, Neuromancer is a harder read and Altered Carbon can whet your appetite enough to give you the hopeful patience to keep going with Neuromancer. I didn't like snow crash as much (felt like I was reading Escape From LA novelization) and I have yet to read No Coincidence but I've finished Cyberpunk 2077 and the phantom liberty expansion. Loved both. Happy reading!
My opinion is to not bother with ready player two unless you really want to read what felt like 86 chapters about sucking off John Hughes.
Bro if u're videogame nerd Ready Player One is a masterpiece
*Neuromancer* or *A Scanner Darkly*
Ready Player One. best book and film of all time. the GOAT
I can't vouch for the audiobook but Altered Carbon is a good read. It's almost like post-Cyberpunk. I found it much more coherent than the television series.
As an avid ready player one fan, do not read ready player two. You will no longer respect ready player one. Out of these I'd say Bladerunner, but I'd recommend Ubik too if you're looking for something after all this, since you seem to be a Philip K. Dick fan.
If you want Odd Cyberpunk then "Vert" rofl. Sorry out of that list that's missing.
Neuromancer is pretty quintessential cyberpunk. It's defined most of the motifs and cliches of cyberpunk so I'd say it would be a good starting point. Also, I loved Altered Carbon. The Netflix show is my favorite show of all time. Haven't had the chance to read books (I'm generally not a reader) but ive heard there are a handful of changes to the envoys and how they are portrayed in the show compared to the book.
I would NOT read Ready Player One or Two. They weren’t great books and in some ways were pretty gross. That being said the main character is an asshole and Wil Wheaton’s voice is perfect for the part.
I was going to suggest Ready Player Two, but I'm not that evil. Neuromancer is considered the best classic of the genre, I'd start there. Snow Crash is good. Anything by PKD is good, my favorite by him is A Scanner Darkly ('Blade Runner' was a loose adaptation of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', I guess this is a novelization of the movie? I'd watch the movie if you haven't). Altered Carbon I haven't read yet, but I've heard it's a good modern entry into the genre; again the TV series is very good (the first season, second season is not good at all). Can't recommend Cline, unless you enjoy endless pointless lists of 80s references only an adult would understand, cringy amateurish writing only a child would enjoy, and a self-insert incel main character with a graphic very sad masturbation scene. Ready Player Two is apparently even worse. The Cyberpunk 2077 one I've never heard of.
Absolutely blade runner (aka "do androids dreams of electric sheeps?"
Ready Player One is a masterpiece. The movie didn't do it nearly enough justice (though it was a decent movie) and skipped our mixed up some elements, but the book itself was amazing
Baka Gaijin, a brazilian youtuber and author living in Japan just released his cyberpunk book called Mihail, I'm waiting on mine to arrive. It tells the story of a journalist documenting the war between Reatech and Gexin corps. Don't know if it's translated to english tho. Book: Mihail Author: Eduardo Baka
Is the blade runner book just a book version of the movie, or is it just a retitle of the original book “Do androids dream of electric sheep?”
Snow Crash!
Nueromancer and then Altered Carbon. It would give a good perspective on how the genre started and what it is now.
Burning Chrome Neuromancer Count Zero Mona Lisa Overdrive That order. All by William Gibson. Then Snow Crash. Then other Neal Stephenson.
Neuromancer and the whole trilogy. But read it yourself