# Help me pick a good cyberpunk novel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273 "2011-11-27T20:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trevillian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Trevillian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trevillian)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/21 "2011-11-29T14:55:09Z")
When I was researching/writing for my novels [The A-Men](http://www.trevillian.com), The A-Men Return and Forever A-Men, I read a lot of dystopian stories to get just the right balance of future world and collapsing society. I wanted to use the trope of the main character entering a riot-torn corporate-run city while mixing this with strong fantasy elements/stories. Gibson was an early influence for me… but the final list included: Cloud Atlas\* Nineteen Eighty-Four Battle Royale Brave New World A Clockwork Orange Count Zero\* Mona Lisa Overdrive Neuromancer The Children of Men Altered Carbon\* The ones with asterisks are my personal favourites. _But_ very early on I also added noir classics especially from the 1940s to my reading list, and in this way created plotlines that were very much in the dystopian/crime/punk vein. Though few scifi authors cite noir fiction as an inspiration, when you read them they have many dystopian tropes and really shows me that they do/were influenced. Somewhere in the Night, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Nightmare Alley — almost everything by Cornell Woolrich… the list goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/22 "2011-11-29T16:14:48Z")
Is there any consensus on what the “second best William Gibson novel” is? I liked Neuromancer, and want to read something else by him, but I’m probably not going to read his whole collected works, so if I just read one more Gibson novel, what should it be? (the only other thing I’ve read by him was a short story collection with ‘Johnny Neumonic’ in it). ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/23 "2011-11-29T18:55:30Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Is there any consensus on what the “second best William Gibson novel” is? Dunno about consensus, but I nominate _Pattern Recognition_. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/24 "2011-11-29T22:22:04Z")
> [@haardvark](#): > > Do the Altered Carbon novels count as cyberpunk? Probably not, hrm. I’d think so; that’s what I came in to recommend. Also +1 for When Gravity Fails and -1000 for The Windup Girl. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/25 "2011-11-29T22:27:26Z")
> [@haardvark](#): > > Dunno about consensus, but I nominate _Pattern Recognition_. The interesting thing about Gibson is that his latest books are not, strictly speaking, science fiction, and yet they’re exactly the same as his older books. The world has simply caught up with him. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/26 "2011-11-29T23:28:25Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I recommend Bruce Sterling, but he’s not to everyone’s taste. Try _Heavy Weather_. I recommend his short-story collections, especially _Crystal Express_ and _Globalhead._ I think he works better in short-story form. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/27 "2011-11-29T23:58:07Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > This is not Cyberpunk, but… Peter F. Hamilton. I think you could make a good argument for his “Greg Mandel” trilogy – which begins with [Mindstar Rising](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindstar_Rising)– to be cyberpunk (or at least cyberpunk’s next door neighbour). 🙂 > [@haardvark](#): > > Do the Altered Carbon novels count as cyberpunk? Probably not, hrm. Harboiled SF detective noir… I reckon they pretty much fit the cyberpunk definition of “high tech and low life” (wiki) to a T. Two of Morgan’s other novels – both set much more near-future – are worth checking out too: _Market Forces_ and _Black Man_ (published as \*Thirteen \*in the US). I suppose an argument could be made that _Market Forces_ isn’t cyberpunk – just of the grounds that it’s missing the high-tech… but IMO it’s got more than a double dose of dystopian future to make up for it. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/28 "2011-11-30T00:02:25Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I prefer things that aren’t too bleak, nihilistic… Oops… missed this from the OP… ummm… you might want to skip _Market Forces_ then. 😛 (I very much enjoyed the book, despite it being pretty bleak, but YMMV, so…) ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273/29 "2011-11-30T14:20:34Z")
I don’t know if I’d consider it cyberpunk, but I recently read [Sleepless](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6504894-sleepless) by Charlie Huston & got a Bladerunner/Gibson/Doctorow vibe off it. It’s a bit grim, but if you’re into thrillers & post-apocalyptic novels (tho it’s set more in the slo-mo apocalypse itself than the aftermath) I think it’s worth a look. Another SF detective-type novel with cyberpunk leanings is [Kiln People](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96478.Kiln_People) by David Brin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-a-good-cyberpunk-novel/604273.md?page=1)