I'm sure this has been covered before.

Movies, IMHO, don't seem to touch on cyberpunk topics all that much. The two shining examples of cyberpunk movies, Bladerunner (a Phil K. Dick adaptation) and Johnny Mneumonic (The worst William Gibson thing to work from), are both relatively aging.

Writting on the other hand is a different story. Shadowrun does have novels, the few which I read I enjoyed, but has anyone else found other books good sources of inspiration for Shadowrun?

Here's my list:
-Snow Crash (I'd put this as the absolute best Cyberpunk book EVER. It has megacorporations, wage-slaves, mafia-controlled pizza delivery, The crips being a business, hyper-inflation, cybernetic dogs, taxi drivers that speak another language, skateboarders, mind control conspiracies, Samurai swords, Virtual Worlds, and a giant shadowrun at the end. Not mention the angry Aleutian guy with knives made of glass. It's great because it's a joke and serious at the same time, it has the feel that I got from alot of old shadowrun books.)

-Neuromancer (An illusionist (Diego), A Decker (Case), and a Street Samurai (I think Gibson originated the term). Drugs, sex and violence. Did I mention Gibson also perdicted the internet and called it the Matrix? AI's, Fixers (the Finn) and Shadowruns as well. Shadowrun obviously pulled a butt load of stuff from this.)

-Count Zero (Picks up where Neuromancer left off.)

-Burning Chrome (have yet to read it.)

-Illuminatis Trilogy (The ultimate conspiracy theory book. If you can't pull something from it, you probubly are keeping your sanity.)

-Manchild in the Promised Land (althogh the book reflects growing up in Harlem in the 50's, it gives a pretty rough view of how one kid approaches street life. I do mean rough. )

Can't think of other stuff without checking my bookshelf. So what does everyone else think?

While not a full novel, The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi* rates high on my list of Shadowrun inspiring fiction.

I highly recommend the works of China Mieville, particularly King Rat (ever wonder what its like to become a rat shaman, plus one of the coolest and unexpected villains ever). And while they're definitely not traditional cyberpunk (or steampunk for that matter) IMHO the magnificient Perdido Street Station, the Scar and the amazing Iron Council are a fount of endless ideas for Shadowrun.

Other interesting but unusual references of mine include:
Pat Cardigan (first lady of cyberpunk) - Synners (guess where I got my handle?) and Mindplayers.
Gibson & Sterling - The Difference Engine (and now for something completely different...)
Jon Courteney - the amazing Arabesk trilogy for a distinctly different SR feel.
Greg Bear - Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children (great for the feel of SURGE and Goblinization)
Brian Stableford - Architects of Emortality series (corporate intrigue, tailchasers, biotech and nanotech)
George Foy - The Shift(ultra-cool cyberpunk thriller mystery)
Katherine Kurtz & Deborah Turner Harris - the Adept series (really nice Hermetic setting and inspiration).
Jan Lars Jensen - Shiva 3000 (wait for Shadows of Asia and see)
Mel Odom - Lethal Interface (Odom did some really nice stuff back then).

plus
Transmetropolitan (long live Spider. okay, it's a comic, but it doesn't read like one)
The Resistance (defunct DC comic series. fabulous SR-type characters and setting)
Planetary (there's nothing quite like this comic to blow your mind)

Definitely all of the early Gibson works are what I find ideal for cyberpunk writing. Neuromancer has it absolutely all and is easily my favorite piece of science fiction ever. Drugs, violence, sex, combat and recreational drugs, megacorps, rusted away static skies, decking, the Matrix, cosmetic and cybernetic mods, street samurai, the list goes on and on heh. Burning Chrome is definitely right up there with it but since its a collection of short stories it covers quite a broad range of the "cyberpunk" genre. The original Johnny Mneumonic short story from B.C. is absolutely great, FAR better then the movie as usual. I also believe it was hinted at in one of the Gibson books that Johnny was one of Molly's ex boyfriends, but I have yet to read Count Zero fully.

The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick.

Dogfight by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick.

Not Snow Crash. It was entertaining, but honestly, I was amazed to learn after reading it that Stephenson knows the first thing about computers. He didn't even do so much as provide a reason why the computers should be remotely as immersive as they're presented. That and the main character's name really irks me.

Stranger in a Strange Land?

~J

Not cyberpunk, but couldn't you see that sort of movement arising again? The Sixth World Second Coming?

~J

The internet existed when neuromancer was written.

Don't forget Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which was the basis for Blade Runner, or pretty much anything else by Philip K Dick.

Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott, nice decking book
Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams, really good rigger book with minor decking as well.

And personally the name of the main character in Snow Crash is one of the entertaining aspects of the book.

Seeing that I've never read Snow Crash, what's the main character's name?

Hiro Protagonist.

~J, in physical pain.

The book (Snowcrash) was supposed to be taken seriously on one level, and was a complete joke on the other level.

It's a welcome break from Neuromancer, which took me forever to read, simply because if I stopped paying attention for one page, the entire book stopped making sense. I'm glad I found a study guide for it online, if only one existed for count zero...

Mel Odom's early works such as Lethal Interface have already been mentioned, but he also wrote some books under TSR called the FREELancers series...

Robert Charrette also came back and wrote some stuff, one called King Under The Mountain, IIRC, that was pretty good...

i might be strung up for this one, but Shatner's TekWar series...

i'll scan my collection tonight for the others...

Stephensen's Cryptonomicron is a good look at a race for a prize and global conspiracy.

Any of the detective/mystery pulp fiction from the 1920's on forward.

The Destroyer series (Remo Williams, Chiun, Emperor Smith, what a hoot)

There's also

Johhny Zed John Gregory Betancourt

George Alec Effinger
When Gravity Fails
A Fire in the Sun
The Exile Kiss

Cold Cash War Robert Asprin

There's also The Diamond Age by Stephensen

"Oath of Fealty" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle for its close look at an arcology

I would have mentioned Cold Cash War and Hardwired, if I weren't beaten to it Hardwired is the unsung "other parent" of the cyberpunk genre; a lot of what Gibson didn't create comes from Hardwired.

Tentatively I mention Noir, by... um... damn, can't lay my hands on it... was it Kevin J Anderson? Deeply, deeply disturbing novel but well worth a read.

Noir is by K.W. Jeter. I don't know how I overlooked it, it's dark, gritty and absolutely twisted.

Other worth mentioning for a merc feel are Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion novels.

John Shirley is often neglected as one of the first innovaters of cyberpunk, William Gibson speaks very warmly of him an inspiration. I highly suggest his novel City Comes A Walkin', which literally set the tone for Neuromancer in many respects and may have started the infamous mirrorshades trend. Plus, a better concept of a city spirit you will never find.

I hghly reccomend the original Mirrorshades collection, but the more recent and available Ultimate Cyberpunk contains most of the same stories.

For a more modern author, I reccomend Jaspar Fforde's Thursday Next series, particularly the first two.

If you ever, ever have to give an account of an Astral Quest, look up Michael Moorcock's Fortress of the Pearl and possibly the Skraylign Tree as well.

Zodiac from Stephenson for an ecorun...

OK, i dug through my collection and here's some more...i've given just the authors and a main book as some of them are parts of collections, trilogies, etc...these books and authors will point you to their other works...

Steve Perry - Spindoc, The Forever Drug (NOT the SR novel)
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Gold Coast
Alan Dean Foster - Cyber Way (one of my personal favorites - navajo sand paintings are actually magical computer programs for conjuring spirits!)
Cole Perriman - Terminal Games
Wilhelmina Baird - CrashCourse
Robert Weinberg - Logical Magician
Melissa Scott - Trouble and Her Friends
Terry Brooks - A Knight of the Word (takes place in Seattle - lots of good descriptions)

Charles De Lint's Spirits in the wire.


trouble and her friends, Midnight sky mine.

For me, it goes back to the classic pulp fiction of the 20's, 30's and 40's. Raymond Chandler, natch, but my personal favorite is always going to be Dashielle Hammet. Red Harvest sticks out in my mind, as well as the more famous (if only for the movie) Maltese Falcon. (Interesting side note: Red Harvest was made--uncredited-- into Yojimbo by Kurosawa, which was then made into A Fistful of Dollars and later, Last Man Standing. Neither here nor there, but as a Hammet fan, I think its cool.)

Also, in a similar vein, its hard to read about the Horrors and not think about H.P. Lovecraft. I would say that if nothing else, Lovecraft's works have influenced more gaming systems than anyone else. Almost everybody I have played with for any length of time has used elements from CoC in their own games, from SR to D&D to WW, et al.

Other Gm's from my group tend to be heavily influenced by Stephenson and Gibson, but since I've never read any of their books (except a few Gibson short stories and Cryptonomicon by Stephenson), their references are usually lost on me.

Graham Greene also has probably had an affect on every character I've ever made since I started reading him. He was one of those authors that you stumble upon and then have to compulsively track down everything they have ever written. (Thats my main argument for people to always have a favorite author who is already dead. I feel sorry for people who's favorite author is Steven King. That must be exhausting.)

Ambient by Jack Womack. The language is difficult for the same reason some people find A Clockwork Orange difficult, but once you get into the flow of it, this book is pure awesome. About the bodyguard to the president of the world's only corporation, which owns... everything. Sounds shiny, but this is a very down and dirty book. The others in the DryCo world are less cyberpunk, and more just plain wierd. Like stealing Elvis from alternate dimensions to become the One True Prophet.

"Piecework", by David Brin, from his book of short stories Otherness. Brin is one of the best sci-fi writers of the current age, and is easily one of the best cyberpunk writers - or would be, if he'd write more than a few minimal pieces. Beautiful story about a pair of women who have genetically altered their wombs to produce industrial goods. Also check out The Stones of Significance, which defies description.

Friday, by Heinlein. I don't generally like Heinlein, but Friday is, as far as I'm concerned, the first cyberpunk novel ever written. Vatgrown courier/street sam in a world where corporations control governments, the media, everyday life, and she's pretty much marked for death by several factions of the corporation. Imagine the corporation as Fuchi in its' final days, really.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami Haruki. While most of Murakami's books are about disappearing women, this one isn't. The best way I can describe this is: "Elite Otaku cryptographer has brain problems and delusions. Hides data from Shadowlands-types. Also hides from Kappa (little goblin-type creatures, basically) that live under Tokyo." Wierd, wierd book.

yeah, Friday - forgot that one...yep, it's good...

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. It's Steampunk rather than cyberpunk, but it's my favourite book ever. Your mileage may vary, of course, but it's dark and VERY gritty. Not the greatest plotline in the world, but I loved it for the descriptions and atmosphere.

Carlucci trilogy by Richard Paul Russo. The first story if by far the best IMO, and it's very good. It's true cyberpunk.

The Ex Machina Bibliography likely has some titles of interest to everyone here.

And in the Mieville grain, the rest of his are just as good and at least as applicable, The Iron Council, The Scar, and probably most pertinently, King Rat.

For some reason whenever I think of bug spirits, I automatically think of the bugs from Heinlein's Starship Troopers...

The Risen Empire - I'm only at the start. So far there is a bunch of rigger controlled nano drones trying to infiltrate a building where hostages are being held.

Risen Empire and the sequel The Killing of Worlds are both excellent. Can't wait for the third book.

<---Reads too much...

No such thing.

~J

The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison is also good, though it's more futuristic that SR, the hero is is a great example of a face/covert ops spec.

Armor by John Steakley. The exoskeleton vs ants part has all the classic management screw ups. The John Crow part is good cyberpunk.

This isn't cyberpunk, but one of my favorite authors for group taking on long odds is Alistair MacLean. He wrote several books which turned into movies, such as Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. There are a couple others in that vein, including infiltrating a terrorist compound that has nukes (Goodbye California) and a neat one called Golden Gate about taking the President hostage on the Golden Gate Bridge. Also, dealing with the arctic - Ice Station Zebra (which was turned into a movie which frankly murdered the original ending)

For messing around with EcoTerrorists and a very, very cool ending location have a look at Michael Crichton's new book State of Fear. Also, the Crichton books are superb and full of SR ideas, although obviously not at all Cyberpunk. For the best heist book ever, read The Great Train Robbery. I don't know a single SR GM who hasn't had a think about how putting his group into a Jurassic Park setting would work (read the books, don't use the significantly dumbed-down movies). Also, Rising Sun (again, the book not the dodgy movie) is easily the best book to read for how to think about a Japanese corporation and how its citizens would act. It's still good despite being a bit dated. As a side note, Eaters of the Dead is superb and was made into the only Antonio Banderas movie which you can watch more than once.

Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat is quite a cool character, although the books suffer from both being a little over the top and also having a supercharacter (who can do no wrong). They are funny, but don't read them if you're female (his attitude towards women in general and women characters in particular makes even me cringe).

I have to say that whilst I've read and enjoyed William Gibson's books they were not inspirational from a Shadowrun standpoint. This may be because I was already into Shadowrun when I read them, or it may be that they are written in a style I do not like. I think it's safe to say that they are not for everyone.

For stealing incredibly cool fight scenes and concepts, read Matthew Reilly's books (especially Ice Station and Area 7) but don't be expecting an intellectual masterpiece. They are exciting and perfectly written for being basically stolen shot-for-shot as a fight scene or long-term game. Haven't read the new book about rocket racing because it quite frankly sounds stupid, but I agree it was time for Scarecrow to retire.

Speaking of Ice books, read the Dan Brown book about the Ice Station, then read Matthew Reilly's Ice Station and then have a look at Target: Wastelands. I defy you not to have some cool GM'ing ideas.

While we're on Dan Brown, Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code are cool for a game that ends up being like that movie National Treasure but be careful because I don't think there's a single person alive in the world who hasn't read these books. Unfortunately the movie that's being made is starring Tom Hanks, who will undoubtedly destroy the movie as much as he can.

Chris Ryan books are quite good for people being screwed by Intelligence Agencies rather than Corporations, which makes a change (but easily adapted). Have a laugh about the similarities between each book and the names of the hero characters. Andy McNab writes books which should be compulsory for any player to read before they play an "ex special forces" character (and really shows how a dependant can be used as a plot tool).

James H. Jackson has written the most atmospheric books I have ever read, and they are well worth reading in terms of well thought out plots, atmosphere and everyone screwing eveyrone else. Cold Cut is probably the best idea anyone will ever give you of what the Russian Mafia looks like (and acts like). If you run a game that uses them, you must read this book.

Stephen Coonts is a decent writer of the thriller. Tommy Carmelini is one of the two best-written thieves there is and Coonts' new book about him is superb, in that it has both the "running for his life" thing which has been well done, and also a cool main character who is basically a shadowrunner.

The other of the two best-written thieves is LuEllen from John Sandford's books. Read the ones about Kidd, not the crime ones (although the crime ones are quite good) - you can tell the difference because most if not all of the crime ones have "prey" in the title. These can be hard to find but are well worth it for a cool character who is also a decker, superb non-standard shadowruns ("your mission is to take down this town's government"), excellent practical tips on Shadowrunning and LuEllen, who is just plain cool. Kidd also gets screwed by corporations quite often and it has a distinctly modern-era shadowrun feel.

Superb books about large scale shadowruns, how intelligence is really run, superb plots, characters and inspiration for games left right and centre are anything and everything by Frederick Forsyth. He is easily the best writer I have ever read.

Finally, anyone who wants to play a face, especially a con-man, must read "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett. Apart from being a superb writer (and for those who have been going off his books for being children's writing, Going Postal is a real return to form in the vein of the Guards books) he also establishes an excellent story and creates superb characters. In addition, the Patrician should be what the elite Johnsons are like.

[EDIT: typing faster than thinking again]

*is female and still enjoyed the stainless steel rat series* Actually my first SR PbP char was based on the hero of that series. (Was a freeform board, and back before I got a copy of any of the SR books)

I liked the SSR books a lot more when I was younger, but since I've gone back to them I've found them a little simplistic and a little outdated. It's probably unfair to call them outdated given that he's been writing SF longer than I've been alive by a significant margin, but I still find his female characters annoyingly simple and one-dimensional ("as beautiful as she is deadly" is no longer an acceptable description of anyone) as well as being shallow although I have to say the book where he meets Angelina and 'converts' her to the side of light is probably the best of them all. I find that Harrison's books are very much a love-them or hate-them proposition. The stainless steel rat is not as disgustingly superpowered as, for example, Alex Cross in those pathetic James Patterson books, but he certainly doesn't spend a lot of time failing at anything. However, Harrison can write humour into his books as well as anyone else and his are amongst those books that have made me laugh out loud. I certainly do still enjoy his books.

"As beautiful as she is deadly" is also remarkably vague. It can apply equally to assassins and the greeter at Wal*Mart.

~J

The Moreau Series by S. Andrew Swann. Near-future setting with genetically engineered human-animal hybrids, but a very cyberpunk feel to the tech and story.

The first three novels are in a paperback collection called The Moreau Omnibus, and the fourth book is called Fearful Symmetries: The Return of Nohar Rajasthan.

Somebody mentioned James Patterson in tones of great disgust. I don't know diddley squat about the Alex Cross books, never read them, but for Shadowrun there are three I would definitely recommend:

When the Wind Blow/The Lake House: children genetically engineered with avian DNA to be able to fly escape from the research station and wind up hiding with a local veterinarian.

Cradle and All: Having dropped out of her novitiate years ago, eventually becoming a private investigator, the main character is recruited by the Catholic Church to ascertain whether a young woman is about to give birth to the New Christ...

Tense writing, bizarre ideas elegantly expressed. It's a shame the Alex Cross books are, according to the above poster, so naff.

Oh, and also look out for Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, a little testosteronal but quite good.



Oh, oh, how could we ever have forgotten Andrew Vachss? Dripping with seedy atmosphere and borderline morality!

EDIT: for accuracy on a title