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GURPS Cyberpunk – Cover

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Bibliography for GURPS Cyberpunk

The cyberpunk genre has spawned a great many books, movies and other works in just a few years . . . and the precursors of cyberpunk were many and varied. Space doesn't allow us to give a detailed bibliography here. Instead, we'll discuss a few of the most important works in each category, and list the rest by name. A title in boldface indicates a particularly significant work. An asterisk indicates a nonfiction title.

Books and Short Stories

Beyond a doubt, the seminal work of cyberpunk is William Gibson's Neuromancer. Along with its first sequel, Count Zero, it set the tone for the genre. Gibson also originated most of the cyberpunk vocabulary; terms like "cowboy," "black ice," "street samurai" and many others first appeared in his works.

The novels and short stories of Bruce Sterling – especially Schismatrix and the other works set in the same background – have also been very influential in the development of the genre.

Many of the titles listed below could not be termed cyberpunk in themselves . . . yet they contain significant c-punk elements, and would likely be of interest to a player or GM interested in the genre. For example, consider Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen. While their world pictures are in no sense cyberpunk, both contains detailed speculations about the mechanisms, technological and social, of "building" human beings for specific tasks.

1984 – George Orwell

The Adolescence of P-1 – Thomas J. Ryan

Aiki – John Gilbert

Alien Speedway – Roger Zelazny

Alien and Aliens – Alan Dean Foster

Alongside Night – J. Neil Schulman

Angel Station – Walter John Williams

The Annals of the Heechee – Fredric Pohl

The Artificial Kid – Bruce Sterling

Borderlands and Bordertown – Terri Windling, editor

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Burning Chrome – William Gibson

Catspaw – Joan Vinge

City Come A-Walkin' – John Shirley

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

Cobra, Cobra Bargain and Cobra Strike – Timothy Zahn (collected as The Cobra Trilogy)

Colonies in Space – T.A. Heppenheimer*

Colony – Ben Bova

Company Man – Joe Clifford Faust

Computer Lib/Dream Machines – Ted Nelson

Count Zero – William Gibson

The Cybernetic Samurai – Victor Milán

Cyteen – C.J. Cherryh

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) – Philip K. Dick

Dr. Adder – K.W. Jeter

Dreams of Flesh and Sand and Dreams of Gods and Men – W.T. Quick

Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra and Eclipse Corona – John Shirley

Electric Forest – Tanith Lee

Emerald Eyes – Daniel Keys Moran

Ender's Game – Orson Scott Card

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

A Fire in the Sun – George Alec Effinger

Friday – Robert Heinlein

Frontera – Lewis Shiner

Future Shock – Alvin Toffler*

Giant's Star – James Hogan

The Glass Hammer – K.W. Jeter

The God Game – Andrew Greeley

Gravity's Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon

Hardwired – Walter Jon Williams

When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One – David Gerrold

The High Frontier – Gerard K. O'Neill*

The High Road – Ben Bova

The Human Use of Human Beings – Norbert Weiner*

Hunter/Victim – Robert Sheckley

In the Drift – Michael Swanwick

The Iron Dream – Norman Spinrad

Islands in the Net – Bruce Sterling

Johnny Zed – John Gregory Betancourt

Lacey and His Friends – David Drake

Lifeburst – Jack Willamson

Little Heroes – Norman Spinrad

Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny

Marooned in Realtime – Vernor Vinge

Masterplay – William F. Wu

The Matrix – John Quarterman*

Max Headroom – Steve Roberts

Megatrends – John Naisbitt*

Memory Wire – Robert Charles Wilson

Mercedes Nights – Michael D. Weaver

Millennium – Ben Bova

Mindhopper – James B. Johnson

Mindkiller – Spider Robinson

Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology – Bruce Sterling, editor

Mona Lisa Overdrive – William Gibson

The Mutants are Coming – Isodore Haiblum

Neuromancer – William Gibson

Oath of Fealty – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The Ophiuchi Hotline – John Varley

Outland – Alan Dean Foster

Proteus Unbound – Charles Sheffield

Psychodrome and Psychodrome II – Simon Hawke

RoboCop – Ed Naha

Schismatrix – Bruce Sterling

Shockwave Rider – John Brunner

Sight of Proteus – Charles Sheffield

Sleepwalker's World – Gordon Dickson

Silico Sapiens – Joseph Deken

Software – Rudy Rucker

Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner

Svaha – Charles de Lint

The Taking of Satcon Station – Jim Baen and Barney Cohen

The Tenth Victim – Robert Sheckley

The Third Wave – Alvin Toffler*

This Cybernetic World – V.L. Parsegian*

This Perfect Day – Ira Levin

Time Pressure – Spider Robinson

Tom Paine Maru – L. Neil Smith

Tower to the Sky – Philip C. Jennings

True Names . . . and Other Dangers – Vernor Vinge

Vacuum Flowers – Michael Swanwick

Valentina: Soul in Sapphire – Joseph H. Delany and Marc Stiegler

Victim Prime – Robert Sheckley

Voice of the Whirlwind – Walter Jon Williams

Warbots – Harry G. Stine

Web of Angels – John M. Ford

Wetware – Rudy Rucker

Wild Card Run – Sara Stamey

Comic Books and Graphic Novels

The comics show, more than any other medium, the international nature of cyberpunk. The world of the British Judge Dredd is quintessentially cyberpunk, though it is a comic book – little effort is made to be consistent from issue to issue, and many of its elements are deliberately silly. The same could be said of American Flagg in the United States, with, perhaps, less silliness and more satire. The Dirty Pair is a Japanese import set farther in the future than most cyberpunk stories, but the technology and attitude are definitely both cyber and punk!

Akira

American Flagg

Appleseed

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Bubblegum Crisis

Cyberpunk

The Dirty Pair

Eagle

Electric Warrior

Grendel

Grey

Haywire

Johnny Nemo Magazine

Judge Dredd

Marshal Law

Outlanders

Shatter

Sonic Disruptors

Those Annoying Post Brothers

Time 2

V for Vendetta

Watchmen

Zenon

Magazines and Electronic Newsletters

Some of these are science fiction and science fiction criticism; others are sources for real-world data for reality checking and further ideas. Some, like the Usenet newsgroups and our own Illuminati Online, are available to anyone with a modem; others (*) have very limited circulation, and just being on their mailing list is a good way to attract official suspicion . . .

Not listed here are the mainstream magazines of the computer hobby/industry – but any of them can have appropriate information from time to time.

2600*

Aboriginal SF

Amazing

Analog

Computer Underground Digest (available through Usenet)

Cybertech*

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Illuminati Online

Isaac Asimov's Magazine of Science Fiction

Legion of Doom Technical Journal*

Mondo 2000

Phrack, Inc.*

Reality Hackers*

TAP*

Usenet: alt.hackers and alt.cyberpunk

Movies and Television

Certainly, Blade Runner was the first real cyberpunk movie. It firmly established the "look" of the genre, with its juxtaposition of grime and neon. Max Headroom built on the same images and developed the social background further. It is interesting that "Max" adopted, and helped to popularize, Gibsonesque terms like "black ice." A Clockwork Orange isn't high-tech, but its hellish London, infested with drugs and "droogs," is a perfect c-punk city.

The Abyss

Akira

Alien

Aliens

Android

Blade Runner

Brainstorm

Brazil

Cafe Flesh

Cherry 2000

A Clockwork Orange

Deathwatch

Dead-End Drive-In

Eliminators

Escape from New York

Futureworld

Hands of Steel

Liquid Sky

Logan's Run

Looker

Metropolis

Max Headroom

1984

Outland

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

Parts: The Clonus Horror

The Questor Tapes

Radioactive Dreams

Repo Man

RoboCop

Rollerball

Runaway

Saturn 3

Scanners

The Six Million Dollar Man

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Terminal Man

THX 1138

Trancers

Tron

Videodrome

Wired to Kill

Westworld


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