Cyberpunk novels.

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Yeah, thats one of the beauties about it.
It just gets better and better from that point on too. In every possible way. Sometimes so much so its kinda hard to believe it.

Another true SF classic which was a lot better than I expected -- just like The stars my destination -- was Pohl's Gateway. A nice main idea, well thought-out structure. Haven't read the sequels and, frankly, don't want to; I prefer stand-alone books.

Prayers on the Wind by Walter Jon Williams. Are any works of WJW worth checking out? Haven't heard of him before.

He's a pretty weird writer - i didn't like dread empire (too derp iirc), but liked voices of the whirlwind - it was unusually reflective for a mercenary/alien book iirc. Drake Maijstral is also derp with the foppish alien-human culture - a raffles clone in a subjugated trans-earth alien empire.

Knight moves is a clone of Roger Zelazny "This Immortal" aka "Call me Conrad". Just compare:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Immortal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Moves_(novel)

The bob dylan solution is a short story about a biological "produced" superstar (bob dylan obviously).

It's not someone i read often (i haven't most of these), but tends to be ok if you're willing to overlook his "cute" worldbuilding. Considering reading the Dagmar series - but i suspect they're thrillers about a kind of virtual big brother game so i'm leery.

Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Argonautica.rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Aristoi.rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Consequences.rar
Unsorted/Walter Jon Williams - [Dagmar 03] - The Fourth Wall (html).rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - [Drake Maijstral 01] - The Crown Jewels.rar
Unsorted/Walter Jon Williams - [Drake Maijstral 02] - House of Shards (html).rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Implied Spaces.rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Knight Moves.rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - [Metropolitan 02] - City on Fire.rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - The Bob Dylan Solution.rar
Unsorted/Walter Jon Williams - [Dagmar 01] - This Is Not a Game (html).rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Voice of the Whirlwind.rar
Walter Jon Williams/Walter Jon Williams - Witness.rar

Aristoi is self-contained and, I'd say, worth reading for a SF fan.

I've just read through Gibsons works and seriously guys... how could he write something fresh and thrilling and cool as Neuromancer and then follow it up with mildly interesting mediocrity as Count Zero and Mona Lisa Popamole? I've found myself rereading Neuromancer, which says a lot. But i cannot get excited on anything else he wrote... I read the Idoru stuff too and liked the description/details of how technological "magic" is a boring part of science fiction society, but the stories? Totally bland average. I am a bit dissapoint.

Agreed, I'm not sure what happened with him, but check out Burning Chrome a selection of early short stories with some nice ideas in them but of course, not very fleshed out or as good as Neuromancer being that it was his earlier work.

I've read the three Gibson books you mentioned but didn't find any of them especially thrilling. The Difference Engine co-authored with Bruce Sterling is more interesting, I think Gibson is a little weak as a writer.

I am a sucker for noir, so Neuromancer was a blast. Gibsons language is very precise and i like him toying with ideas about technology without going into details of how it works. In Neuromancer every character is memorable and every chapter was fresh and interesting instead of being a build up to something (like his later works). It shows that he put a lot of thought into it.

You forgot to mention Hardwired, which is almost as good cyberpunk as voice in the whirlwind, although it also has a heavy Zelazny influence (damnation alley) , but that's a good thing imo.

What really convinced me that Williams is a good writer (or at least CAN be a good writer at times) was Aristoi and Metropolitan/City on fire. He managed to get over his influences (somewhat, Aristoi still has zelazny in it) with those books and the fact that he actually manages to pull off a convincing and interesting female lead character in the Metropolitan series gives him more points in my book.

Yeah he had a great start with burning chrome, peaked with Neuromancer and then went downhill. Count zero was okay-ish and Mona lisa and Idoru weren't that good. I haven't read any of his latter works, apart from the difference engine is anything else worth a look ?

Id like to add three more good books to cyberpun list. An these would be Hamilton, Peter F - Mindstar Rising , A Quantum Murder and The Nano Flower . The whole trilogy is good to read, I hesitate to add Fallen Dragon since, its more like space opera, but it does have some cyberpunk elements.

I tried to get into Pattern Recognition (or one of the other recent books) but I just had to close it and forget after a few chapters as it was spewed with "Googled", the protagonist thinking about fashionable clothes and furniture and other jarring whilst tedious nonsense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_Recognition_(novel)

Pattern Recognition wasnt bad, but not on the same level as Neuromance and some other books here.

Mhmnmm

From what you guys posted, cyberpunk is soooooo not my cup of tea. Not only do I never hear of those tittles, but also only one or two very iconic names do I recognize.

It's not your cup of tea because it's unfamiliar?

Snow Crash. Change your world.
Speculative, strong narrative, interesting characters and outlandish scenarios. The setting is a futuristic parody of our world and cultures today, all commercialised and Stepfordised and maybe even legalised. It's the Life of Pi of science fiction.

The early chapters may seem a little over the top, comical even, but it all comes together as soon as you've accepted that as the way their world works. The writing style is very fluid, even the technical parts are written like some slick action sequence. The bizarre aspect could possibly make it a bit of a seminal title in the bizarro movement (see: carlton mellick iii).

I'll not spoil the plot, but it involves Mafia-run pizza houses, hacking, katanas, hacker samurai, ancient deities, metalanguage, and a virtual-reality world with hints of class and property ownership. And macrame.

That's because Neuromancer on top of being Gibson's best piece is also one of the best novels of the previous century, the comparison isn't that fair.
Take the Istanbul mass ringing telephone scene for example, it's simple yet manages to conjure a powerful image.
Armitage it's as streamlined as a character can get, an empty husk, you shouldn't really care about him, yet you can't help but feel sorry for his demise.
Neuromancer is an extremely visual book, the Dali' analogy was correct.

Snow Crash.

I'm going to re-give this a go after I finish Hell House; I remember trying it some years back when I first found out about Cyberpunk and the katana wielding dreadlocked pizza delivery boy angle totally threw me off when I was after a more serious vibe; serves me right for picking up a Post-Cyberpunk book and expecting straight Cyberpunk.

Not going to lie bros, I feel like Snow Crash is way overrated. I remember liking it, but it's just a too cheesy for me to take it as seriously as the "STEPHENSON IS THE SEER OF THE COMING TECHNOSINGULARITY" crowd seems to regard it. I felt like it basically takes a bunch of ideas from the short fiction of James Patrick Kelley and other gifted writers and just hashes it up as a too-long thriller novel. Also the big revelation about the history of sentience etc. towards the end was weak, man, weak (as best I can recall it). Still a fun read though...

What's unfamiliar? NO, the problem seems to lie straight deep in its basic philosophical basis. I dislike the sub-genre, it look like.

Anyway, I dont like DnD either, Salvator or no Salvator.

Well then you have to figure it out yourself what genre you like. Maybe its classic novels, thrillers, space opera etc. If you don't read then you wont know what you like. For starters have you read Hyperion Cantos or say Zelaznys Amber series or heck even Asimov s foundation series?

/snicker

BRO YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON A WHOLE WORLD OF GOOD SHIT

HEINLEIN IS SORTA CONTEMPORARY TO DICK BUT HE HAS A LOAD OF GOOD SHIT IN THE 50S AND 60S

ISSAAC ASSIMAOV HAS SOME GOOD SHIT IF YOU CAN IGNORE HOW DATED SOME OF IT IS BUT OTHER STUFF IS GREAT

I HAVE A COLLECTION OF SCIFI STORIES MADE AROUND THE 60S AND EARLIER AND SOME WERE AWESOME FOR EXAMPLE THE SHORT STORY OF THE THING

ALSO THE DEMOLISHED MAN BY BESTER IS JUST FUCKING SUPERB