Cyberpunk? Best books, movies, more exploring a dystopian future with “high tech and low life”
How fans of Blade Runner, Cyberpunk 2077, or Akira can know more great cyberpunk science fiction.
The sci-fi known as cyberpunk shows high tech and low life—including cyborg stuff, nano tech, and jumping into cyberspace. A look at novels (and more) that explore where that world leaves you and me.
Can any sci-fi genre be more right than cyberpunk about where things are going? Whether talking loners wrapped in tech, landscapes embossed with ads, tech going in directions the makers never meant, or being bossed around by corporations, few of us would consider that “science fiction.” Heck, that’s just any morning.
“I believe science fiction is more about today than the future,” says C.T. Phipps, author of Agent G: Infilitrator. “You extrapolate existing trends and see where they may go.”
“For my sci-fi works,” author Brian Parker (The Immorality Clause) tells us, “I think it really goes to my belief that humanity will continue to bumble along, making massive breakthroughs in some areas and just letting things sort of continue as they’ve always been with others.”
“New tech often causes massive upheaval,” says author Tim Hawken (Thrill Switch). “So, it’s how we manage to adapt—or don’t!—that really excites my imagination. Tech is just the trigger. It's ultimately the human story I’m interested in.”
Outpost author Scott Mackay is inspired to write science fiction because of the broad imaginative canvas it offers. “It’s a fiction of big places, big themes, big characters, and the grand story,” he told us. “Within that epic scheme, science offers the fiction side of the science fiction novelist a sturdy dramatic structure.”
“My daydreams about possibility often rise above my skepticism about humanity,” says Dr. Joseph Hurtgen, author of Tower Defender. “It would be something if we could rise above our darkest inclinations, stop bullying each other, and maximize human potential.”
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Cyberpunk Table of Contents
Cyberpunk? Best books, movies, more exploring a dystopian future with “high tech and low life”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
In this article:
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What is cyberpunk?
What is cyberpunk?
The science fiction sub-category labeled “cyberpunk” is a subgenre with a dystopian future setting—and often zeroes in on high tech and low life. That is, futuristic tech and scientific breakthroughs like cyberware and artificial intelligence—but happening during (sometimes even causing) problems with society.
While earlier science fiction would seem to often focus on utopian progress—you know, that science was making life great—what we now call cyberpunk focused more on how society can go bad when dominated by modern technology.
Cyberpunk fiction often features characters who are loners in a dystopian world. Regular life is impacted by changes in technology, the loss of privacy in a world where computer records know all about you, and even awkward modifications to one’s body. And the stories often revolve around friction with artificial intelligences, hackers, and megacorporations. And—oh, right—these story often take place in a world that’s just a little in the future. (You can totally see it happening where you are right now.)
Prime cyberpunk fiction examples—including some that predate the actual name of the sub-genre—include works from authors like William Gibson, John Brunner, J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Stanisław Lem, and Samuel R. Delany.
And, of course, as cyberpunk has grown as a category, there have been a growing number of novels that explore that kind of world. There have also been a growing number of movies and comic books and more.
Want a list of some cyberpunk books? Some movies? Comic books? We have examples below!
Origins of cyberpunk
The Origins of Cyberpunk Fiction
The origins of cyberpunk are said to be fixed in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s. New Worlds, edited by Michael Moorcock, started looking for stories with fresh writing styles, techniques, and ideas. Instead of hoping for tech and science bringing us a utopian society—as seen in earlier science fiction—this direction asked for authors to consider the downside of tech and science advancement. In this era, authors were also considering the problems caused by drug culture, technology, and the sexual revolution. As such, these stories—which would eventually be labeled as “cyberpunk”—explored what happens to people when society is damaged by new culture and technology.
The term itself was invented by author Bruce Bethke, who published the short story titled “Cyberpunk” in a 1983 issue of Amazing Stories. Bethke apparently got the new term by combining together a pair of words meaning technology and troublemakers. The new term was grabbed onto by Gardner Dozois who, as the editor of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, popularized “cyberpunk” by using the term in a number of editorials.
25 Remarkable Cyberpunk Novels
25 Remarkable Cyberpunk and Dystopian Novels
World Running Down
by Al Hess
(Angry Robot)
A transgender salvager on the outskirts of Utah gets the chance to earn the ultimate score and maybe even a dash of romance. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch…
Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City—a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition is free, the food is plentiful, and folk are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream, until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric.
Once a powerful AI in Salt Lake City, Osric has been forced into an android body against his will and sent into the wasteland to offer Valentine a job on behalf of his new employer—an escort service seeking to retrieve their stolen androids. The reward is a visa into the city, and a chance at the life Valentine’s always dreamed of.
But as they attempt to recover the “merchandise,” they encounter a problem: the android ladies are becoming self-aware, and have no interest in returning to their old lives. The prize is tempting, but carrying out the job would go against everything Valentine stands for, and would threaten the fragile found family that’s kept him alive so far. He’ll need to decide whether to risk his own dream in order to give the AI a chance to live theirs.
**One of Library Journal’s Best SFF of 2023**
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Heart of Veridon
by Tim Akers
(Jabberwocky)
The first novel in Tim Akers’ captivating steampunk-noir series The Burn Cycle.
Captain-turned-criminal Jacob Burn is the unlikely survivor of two zepliner crashes. The first destroyed his career as a pilot, disgracing his nobleman father and ending his life of privilege. But the second threatens to destroy Burn’s whole world—Veridon, an ancient terraced city reborn through The Church of the Algorithm’s recent advances in mechanics, technology, and cog-work.
Moments before the Glory of Day wrecked, a former underworld associate of Burn’s handed him an unusual and complicated cog for safekeeping. But the artifact-cog quickly draws Burn unwanted attention—too much of it, from too many of Veridon’s most powerful factions, casting doubt on even his closest allies.
A far more dangerous and unpredictable enemy has also joined the manhunt, carving a bloody trail across the city, while Burn’s frantic search for answers only leads to more questions. At the heart of it all, the mysterious cog, which hides a secret potent enough to shake Veridon to its very core, and recast Burn’s entire existence.
“This impressive first novel mixes steampunk, fantasy, and noir in the colorful city of Veridon.” (Locus)
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The Phlebotomist
by Chris Panatier
(Angry Robot)
In a near future where all citizens are subject to the mandatory blood draw, government phlebotomist Willa Wallace uncovers the truth about where the blood really goes.
War brought the Harvest. Willa Wallace is a reaper. To support herself and her grandson Edwin, Willa works for the blood contractor Patriot. Instituted to support the war effort, the mandatory draw—The Harvest—has led to a society segregated by blood type. Hoping to put an end to it all, Willa draws on her decades-old phlebotomy training to resurrect an obsolete collection technique, but instead uncovers an awful truth.
Patriot will do anything to protect its secret. On the run and with nowhere else to turn, Willa seeks an alliance with Lock, a notorious blood-hacker who cheats the Harvest to support the children orphaned by Patriot. But they soon find themselves in the grasp of a new type of evil.
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Moths
by Jane Hennigan
(Angry Robot)
Where were you at the beginning? Or at the end? And where are we all now?
Forty years ago, the world changed. Toxic threads left behind by mutated moths infected men and boys around the globe. Some were killed quietly in their sleep, others became crazed killers, wildly dangerous and beyond help. All seemed hopeless.
But humanity adapted, healed and moved on. Now matriarchs rule, and men are kept in specially treated dust-free facilities for their safety and the good of society, never able to return to the outside.
Mary has settled into this new world and takes care of the male residents at her facility. But she still remembers how things used to be and is constantly haunted by her memories. Of her family, of her joy, of… him.
Now the world is quiet again, but only because secrets are kept safe in whispers. And the biggest secret of all? No one wants to live inside a cage…
Exploring male violence against women, homo-normativity, and gynocracy, Moths is a powerful assessment of life through the lens of a main character in her 70s. A remastered and revitalised version of the previously self-published, smash-hit dystopian thriller by the same name, Moths shows us a new, post-pandemic world.
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Composite Creatures
by Caroline Hardaker
(Angry Robot)
How close would you hold those you love, when the end comes? And what would you do for your own survival?
In a society where self-preservation is as much an art as a science, Norah and Arthur are learning how to co-exist in domestic bliss. Though they hardly know each other, everything seems to be going perfectly – from the home they’re building together to the ring on Norah’s finger.
But survival in this world is a tricky thing, the air is thicker every day and illness creeps fast through the body. The earth is becoming increasingly hostile to live in. Fortunately, Easton Grove have the answer, a perfect little bundle of fur that Norah and Arthur can take home. All they have to do to live long, happy lives is keep it, or her, safe and close.
**Shortlisted for The Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award 2022**
“Hardaker creates her dystopian world of poisoned soil and privatized health with prose that feels as precise and clinical as her subjects’ lives. Highly recommended.” (Booklist, starred review)
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The Uploaded
by Ferrett Steinmetz
(Angry Robot)
Life sucks and then you die…
In the near future, the elderly have moved online and now live within the computer network. But that doesn’t stop them interfering in the lives of the living, whose sole real purpose now is to maintain the vast servers which support digital Heaven.
For one orphan that just isn’t enough—he wants more for himself and his sister than a life slaving away for the dead. It turns out that he’s not the only one who wants to reset the world…
“Steinmetz has crafted a brilliant, original world in this all-too-possible story of life, death, and legacy. The Uploaded is a wild ride from start to finish, and asks the reader to examine what exactly it is that they are leaving behind—and what they’re headed toward.” (Sarah Gailey)
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Windswept
by Adam Rakunas
(Jabberwocky)
The gonzo noir you didn’t know you needed until now.
Two-fisted labor organizer Padma Mehta is on the edge of space and the edge of burnout. All she wants is to retire, buy a rum distillery, and spend the rest of her life on the beach. To do that, she has to recruit five hundred people to the Union, and she’s thirty-three short. When a small-time scam artist tells her about forty people ready to tumble down the space elevator to break free from her old bosses, Padma checks it out.
Now Padma’s up to her eyeballs in trouble as everyone around her starts turning up dead. Can she fight her way through the city’s warehouses, sewage plants, and up the elevator itself to save her job, her planet, and her sanity?
And can she do it all before Happy Hour?
A finalist for the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award
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HellSans
by Ever Dundas
(Angry Robot)
Hellsans is the thought-provoking new novel from award-winning author Ever Dundas
HellSans is a ubiquitous typeface, enforced by the government. It appears in all communications and in all public spaces. The ultimate control device. The majority of the population experience bliss when they see it, but there are some who are allergic. Rather than being helped, the HellSans Allergic (HSAs) are persecuted, and forced to live on the streets on the outskirts of the city.
Jane Ward is the CEO of the company that manufactures the Inex. This is a cyborg doll-like creature that has replaced the smart phone as the essential aid and accessory. She has everything, until she falls ill with the allergy and becomes embroiled in the government’s internal power struggles. She loses her job and her wealth and ends up on the streets. That is, until she is rescued by Dr Icho Smith.
Icho is a scientist who has developed a cure for the allergy, but she is on the run from the government and the Seraphs (the ‘terrorist’ group), who all have their own agenda for the cure. Jane and Icho work together, aiming to expose government corruption and bring the cure to the HSAs.
HellSans is written in three parts. Parts one and two can be read in either order which provides a unique approach to the perspectives of the haves and have-nots…
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Glow
by Tim Jordan
(Angry Robot)
A man battles his addiction to a devastating nanotech drug that steals identities and threatens the survival and succession of mankind as a galactic species.
After the Nova-Insanity shattered Earth’s civilization, the Genes and Fullerenes Corporation promised to bring humanity back from the brink. Many years later, various factions have formed, challenging their savior and vying for a share of power and control.
Glow follows the lives of three very different beings, all wrestling mental instability in various forms:
Rex—a confused junkie battling multiple voices in his head;
Ellayna—the founder of the GFC living on the Cloud9 geostationary orbital and struggling with paranoia;
and Jett—a virtually unstoppable voidian assassin, questioning his purpose of creation.
All of them are inextricably linked through the capricious and volatile Glow; an all controlling nano-tech drug that has the ability to live on through multiple hosts, cutting and pasting memories and personas in each new victim.
In this tech-crazed world where nothing seems impossible, many questions are posed: what makes us who we are? What is our ultimate purpose and place in this world? And, most frightening of all, what are we capable of doing to survive?
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Myriad
by Joshua David Bellin
(Angry Robot)
Myriad has been in so many time streams she’s lost count – hiding from her feelings about her brother’s death she works to prevent crimes from happening but finds herself committing one instead…
Agent Miriam Randle works for LifeTime, a private law enforcement agency that undertakes short-term time travel to erase crimes before they occur. Haunted by the memory of her twin brother’s unsolved murder at the age of six, Miriam thinks of herself as Myriad—an incarnation of the many lives she’s lived in her journeys to rearrange the past.
When a routine assignment goes wrong and Miriam commits a murder she was meant to avert, she is thrown into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of LifeTime. Along with her partner Vax, Miriam flees into the past in an attempt to unravel the truth before LifeTime agents catch up with her.
But then her brother’s killer reappears, twenty years to the day since he first struck. And he’s not through with the twin who survived, not by a long shot.
Myriad is a mind-bending time travelling sci-fi thriller that will keep readers guessing to the very end.
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Twenty-Five to Life
by RWW Greene
(Angry Robot)
Life goes on for the billions left behind after the humanity-saving colony mission to Proxima Centauri leaves Earth orbit… but what’s the point?
Julie Riley is two years too young to get out from under her mother’s thumb, and what does it matter? She’s over-educated, under-employed, and kept mostly numb by her pharma emplant. Her best friend, who she’s mostly been interacting with via virtual reality for the past decade, is part of the colony mission to Proxima Centauri. Plus, the world is coming to an end. So, there’s that.
When Julie’s mother decides it’s time to let go of the family home in a failing suburb and move to the city to be closer to work and her new beau, Julie decides to take matters into her own hands. She runs, illegally, hoping to find and hide with the Volksgeist, a loose-knit culture of tramps, hoboes, senior citizens, artists, and never-do-wells who have elected to ride out the end of the world in their campers and converted vans, constantly on the move over the back roads of America.
Twenty Five to Life by R W W Greene is a coming-of-age story about found families, road trips, and finding meaning in life at the end of the world, from the author of The Light Years.
“Greene creates an all too realistic world filled with very real people. A tale of growing up and what it means to be an adult, this is one not to be missed.” (Gerald Brandt, international bestselling author of Threader Origins)
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The Subjugate
by Amanda Bridgeman
(Angry Robot)
Two troubled homicide detectives race to find a serial killer in a town filled with surgically reformed murderers, in this captivating near-future SF thriller.
In a small religious community rocked by a spree of shocking murders, Detectives Salvi Brentt and Mitch Grenville find themselves surrounded by suspects. The Children of Christ have a tight grip on their people, and the Solme Complex neurally edit violent criminals—Subjugates—into placid servants called Serenes.
In a town where purity and sin, temptation and repression live side by side, everyone has a motive. But as the bodies mount up, the frustrated detectives begin to crack under the pressure: their demons are coming to light, and who knows where that blurred line between man and monster truly lies.
“The Subjugate is a compelling seat-of-the-pants murder mystery and a fascinating inquiry into good and evil and the possibility of redemption.” (The Guardian)
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Implanted
by Lauren Teffeau
(Angry Robot)
The data stored in her blood can save a city on the brink… or destroy it, in this gripping cyberpunk thriller
When college student Emery Driscoll is blackmailed into being a courier for a clandestine organisation, she’s cut off from the neural implant community which binds the domed city of New Worth together. Her new masters exploit her rare condition which allows her to carry encoded data in her blood, and train her to transport secrets throughout the troubled city.
New Worth is on the brink of Emergence—freedom from the dome—but not everyone wants to leave. Then a data drop goes bad, and Emery is caught between factions: those who want her blood, and those who just want her dead.
SHORTLISTED for the Compton Crook Award for first Science Fiction Novel 2019
FINALIST for The Prism Award 2019
WINNER for SFR Galaxy Award Winner 2018
“Lauren C Teffeau brings us a fully-realized world filled with conflict, drama, and insight.” (Walter Jon Williams, multiple-award-winning author of Hardwired and the Praxis series)
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Agent G: Infilitrator
by C.T. Phipps
(Crossroad Press)
“Black Technology has made murder a billion dollar industry.”
The International Refugee Society has twenty-six cybernetically enhanced “Letters,” and for the right price, they’ll eliminate anyone. They’ve given up their families and their memories for ten years of service with the promise of a life of luxury awaiting them.
Agent G is one of these “Letters,” but clues to his past are starting to emerge while he’s on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the Society’s most dangerous competitor. In the midst of all the violence, subterfuge, and deceit, he’ll need to keep his wits about him and trust sparingly.
After all if an organization will kill for money, what would they do to keep the truth hidden?
“A mix of Bond and Hitman.” (The Blog Goblin)
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“I believe science fiction is more about today than the future—you extrapolate existing trends and see where they may go,” author Phipps told Monster Complex. “I’ve written both optimistic science fiction (Space Academy Dropouts) and cynical dystopian sci-fi (Agent G, Lucifer’s Star). In the end, I believe the future will probably be a collection of ups and downs. Technology can be a benefit or a boon depending on how its used but it won’t solve our problems. That’s on our society.”
More about C.T. Phipps online:
The Immorality Clause
by Brian Parker
(Muddy Boots Press)
Easytown’s robotic pleasure clubs are a serial killer’s playground.
The futuristic slum in eastern New Orleans is a violent place where any vice can be satisfied—for a price. As long as the taxes are paid and tourists continue to flock to the city, businesses are allowed to operate as they see fit.
Easytown has given rise to the robotic sex trade—where the robots are nearly human and always better than the real thing.
Homicide detective, Zach Forrest, has never trusted the machines. When a string of grisly murders rocks the city, he must hunt down the killer responsible.
With no witnesses, and no evidence, Forrest embarks on an investigation that will challenge the very scope of reality. Will Forrest find the killer before he becomes the next victim?
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Parker talked to Monster Complex about the inspiration for his sci-fi works:
“I think it really goes to my belief that humanity will continue to bumble along, making massive breakthroughs in some areas and just letting things sort of continue as they’ve always been with others.
For example, he says, the everyday tech in his novel The Immorality Clause is really just a natural progression of what we have now—for the most part.
“Stuff breaks, machines go on the fritz, things that should last ten years stop working in a month. You know, the joys of our modern world, just a little more advanced. The biggest addition to everyday life is obviously the robots.
“From servant and delivery bots to sex droids, it’s a natural progression of technology that we already have. One of Easytown’s draws is the red light district which features realistic sex robots controlled by AI. I don’t know if they’ve been combined just yet, but we have both of those things individually and they’ll be mated together (pun intended) sooner rather than later.
“Self-driving cars? Already here. Land reclamation projects, like how Easytown was built, occur all over the globe. Lasers and pulse weapons? I served in the US Army for 25 years and have been retired for three. We’re absolutely working on those things and have fielded systems with laser weaponry. The military gets all the cool-guy gear first.
“Cybernetic enhancements, or cyborgs, may seem like science fiction, but look at what we’re already doing with prosthetics and organs grown in labs, pacemakers, etc. It’s coming. Oppressive police presence in the form of drones? You know those silly pyramid-shaped security drones in malls? Those are the early prototypes. Finally, colder, rainier weather due to a nuclear war in Asia that altered global weather patterns may be speculation as to what a large-scale nuclear exchange could do, but it’s based on how volcanic ash clouds effect the weather, so…
“All of that is to say that The Easytown Novels world incorporates these various technologies, the environmental disasters caused by war, and the absolute worst of the future’s denizens and serves it all up in a gritty, noir style that embodies the concept of, to quote Bruce Sterling, ‘High tech and low life.’”
More about Brian Parker online:
Three (Legends of the Duskwalker #1)
by Jay Posey
(Angry Robot)
The world has collapsed, and there are no heroes any more. But with lone gunman Three, a hero may yet arise.
Three is a traveling gun for hire in a dying world. He has no allegiances, no family, no ties.
Against his better judgment, he accepts the mantle of protector to a sick woman, and her young son. Together they set out across the plains in search of a mythic oasis, attempting to survive the forces that pursue them, and the creatures of the dark.
In these dark times, a hero may yet arise…
“Reinventing the post-apocalyptic western as a journey across interior badlands as dangerous as the cyborg-haunted terrain his hero must cross, Posey has crafted a story that is impossible to put down.” (Richard E. Dansky, author of Vaporware and Snowbird Gothic)
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Thrill Switch
by Tim Hawken
(Seahawk Press)
Perfect for fans of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson.
Detective Ada Byron is pumped to finally be assigned her first murder case... until she sees the crime scene. Someone has been killed exactly the same way as her father was seven years earlier.
To see if this is a copycat, or something more sinister, Ada must work with her personal nightmare Jazlin Switch—the programmer who murdered her dad. What follows is a mind-bending, heart-stopping ride through the dark side of reality and the virtual world.
“Welcome to a sci fi version of Silence of the Lambs” (Gordon A Long)
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“When it comes to sci fi, I’m obsessed with how humans react to technology,” Hawken tells Monster Complex. “How it shapes our lives, our desires, the way we treat and interact with each other. New tech often causes massive upheaval, so it’s how we manage to adapt (or don't!) that really excites my imagination. Tech is just the trigger. It’s ultimately the human story I’m interested in.”
More about Tim Hawken online:
Tower Defender
Dr. Joseph Hurtgen
A page-turning riot reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Bruce Sterling, Tower Defender is a lethal dose of Cyberpunk ready for injection.
Sally Riggs, ex-spacer military attaché, and Robert Holdforth, a renowned inventor, meet while in deparole therapy, the removal of language to reduce connection to traumatic memory.
For therapy, they play Tower Defender, a video game relying on a quick trigger finger and a taste for death. In the game, they fight desert raiders and weirdo weapon cultists. They’ve got to learn to work as a team to win the game, and they’ll need those skills to deal with what awaits them in Comm Tower…
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Dr. Hurtgen says he’s inspired most by possibility—even though he is more than a little suspect of utopian futures. “I’m convinced the future will look like massively extended human lifespans, climate stability through advanced terraforming and carbon capture, and the increased miniaturization of computers coupled with nano-scale fusion reactors to make things possible that will look like magic to anyone from the 21 st century.”
Yet, he says, the history of technological and scientific development is married to warfare. “The point of developing technology is to get an edge on the enemy. And there’s always an enemy. Hundreds of thousands of years of being hunted ensured that. Even in a future where there’s no lack of resources to fight over, humans will still want to fight each other to feed that evolved sense of conflict.”
Of course, he points out, the inner war will churn on and on. “But my daydreams about possibility often rise above my skepticism about humanity. It would be something if we could rise above our darkest inclinations, stop bullying each other, and maximize human potential.”
Outpost
by Scott Mackay
(Jabberwocky)
Young Felicitas has woken in a prison cell—unable to remember how she got there.
She doesn’t know where the prison is—except that it is most definitely not on Earth. And she has no idea why all the other prisoners walk around in a daze. In dreams, she is forced to relive crimes she cannot remember committing.
Felicitas soon notices that the mechanized sentries surveilling the inmates are breaking down. The automated system is collapsing, putting everybody at risk. Along with some others who have awakened out of their daze, Felicitas sees a chance to escape.
Yet the harsh penal world she and her fellow fugitives escape to is as fraught with danger as the now perilously malfunctioning prison. And it turns out there is much more at stake than just a prison break. As those stakes become clear, Felicitas must choose between freedom, imprisonment, the human race, and history itself.
“By grounding this struggle in the agonizing details of the prisoners’ search for food and freedom, Mackay avoids the grandiosity that is an occupational hazard of science fiction writers who dabble in cosmic themes.” (New York Times Books Review)
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“I’m inspired to write science fiction because of the broad imaginative canvas it offers,” author Mackay tells Monster Complex. “It’s a fiction of big places, big themes, big characters, and the grand story. Within that epic scheme, science offers the fiction side of the science fiction novelist a sturdy dramatic structure.
“The question is asked: How do we survive modern science or how do we stretch for something better? In that duality we find the two dramatic fundamentals present in my own science fiction: hostile science versus friendly science.
“My protagonists often confront a scientific puzzle of a hostile nature, and to beat it they devise their own ‘friendly’ scientific solution. This reflects the ongoing tug-of-war between friendly and hostile science in the real world.
“For instance, Jonas Salk developed one of the first successful polio vaccines but then big pharma went ahead and came up with thalidomide. In the context of big places, big themes, big characters, and the grand story, all my science fiction novels dramatically illustrate the hostile-versus-friendly dichotomy of real-world science.”
More about Scott Mackay online:
Eclipse (A Song Called Youth #1)
by John Shirley
(Ravenstar Studios)
The Russians didn’t use the big nukes.
The ongoing Third World War leaves parts of Europe in ruins. Into the chaos steps the Second Alliance, a multinational eager to impose its own kind of New World Order.
In the United States... in FirStep, the vast space colony... and on the artificial island Freezone—the SA shoulders its way to power, spinning a dark web of media manipulation, propaganda, and infiltration.
Only the New Resistance recognizes the SA for what it really is: a racist theocracy hiding a cult of eugenics.
Enter Rick Rickenharp, a former rock’n’roll cult hero: a rock classicist—out of place in Europe's underground club scene, populated by “wiredancers” and “minimonos”... but destined to play a Song Called Youth that will shake the world.
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Hamlet, Prince of Robots
by M. Darusha Wehm
(Ravenstar Studios)
Something is rotten in the state of cybernetics.
Elsinore Robotics is on the cusp of a breakthrough—the company is poised to create the first humanoid androids powered by true artificial intelligence. Their only rival, Norwegian Technologies, lost a publicly streamed contest between their flagship model, Fortinbras, and Elsinore’s HAM(let) v.1.
But when the first Hamlet model is found irreparably deactivated, the apparent victim of wild malware, the field of consumer cybernetics is thrown wide open. However, Hamlet v.1’s memories were not entirely lost in the accident.
Hamlet v.2 swears to avenge his progenitor, but is plagued by the aftereffects of integrating Old Hamlet’s backup into his own neural matrix. Beset by doubts about whether his feelings are truly his own, he worries his love for his boyfriend, Horatio, is an illusion, all the while driven by a consuming need for revenge. While he has a method, there is a madness in it, and Hamlet’s actions will leave no corner of Elsinore unscathed.
A beat-by-beat retelling of the Shakespeare classic, Hamlet, Prince of Robots grapples with conscience, ambition, and pain, and what it means to be, or not to be, human.
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Inertia
by Mark Everglade
(Ravenstar Studios)
Gliese 581g is the last remaining colony of the human race, located twenty light years from Earth. The planet was once tidal locked to its sun, with one side draped in darkness and the other half always bright. This changed after a radical group called O.A.K. increased the planet’s rotation to bring daylight cycles to all in the name of equality.
All was not well, however, as decades passed, and new generations dealt with continual floods as the newfound sunlight melted the icecaps. Entire neighborhoods went aquatic from rising sea levels.
Soon, the planet was spinning out of control, with sunrises occurring every few hours.
Ash Rivenshear works as a geophysicist at Geosturm, a company contracted by the New Order to monitor the geological crisis. As she investigates the planet’s increasing rotation, she uncovers classified data indicating that someone is intentionally manipulating it to their own ends. An attack on her life is made to cover up the intel.
After surviving, she contacts her estranged father for help, Severum Rivenshear. Having no idea he had a daughter, Severum agrees to help, but the tension of his absence throughout her life builds as he works to build a relationship with her.
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The Paradise Factory: A New York 2055 Cyberpunk Story
by Jim Keen
(Ravenstar Studios)
She’s a policewoman with a past. In a future ruled by AI, one bad decision could get her killed... or worse.
Former UN Marine Alice Yu is a beat-down cop running from guilt in a ruined city. Brutally ambushed and left for dead, she’s powerless to prevent a ruthless crime boss from abducting her NYPD partner. Though it will cost her job in a world with 99-percent unemployment, she vows to bring him back from the lawless and forbidden Fourth Ward Territory.
Fighting through injuries and resurfacing trauma, Yu tracks her mentor’s trail. But when her war born PTSD flares in the face of a cartel death squad, her bloody background could spell her demise. And if she doesn't succeed, the entire city is doomed.
Can Yu save the man she failed, or will her quest for redemption become a suicide mission?
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Black Glass—The Lost Cyberpunk Novel
by John Shirley
(Ravenstar Studios)
From Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Shirley, whose Black Glass depicts a dystopia “that is not entirely unrecognizable.” (Booklist)
Taking the fall for his younger brother, Richard Candle went from being a cyber cop to a condemned criminal. After four years of “UnMinding”—with his mind suppressed and his body enslaved—he’s released to discover his brother has slipped back into the underworld of the V-Rat: the virtual reality addict. Meanwhile, Candle’s harried by the murderous Grist, the head of the world’s biggest multinational.
But his real enemy is something else: a conscious program, the Multisemblant, a meld of copied personalities, the dark side of five powerful people, with its own brutal agenda. Human society is sinking ever deeper into a mire of escapism, but Richard Candle, looking for his missing brother, fights his way through the real world of underground stock markets, flying guns, the trash-walled labyrinth of Rooftown, and the fringe of the fringe…
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Coil
by Dr. Ren Warom
(Ravenstar Studios)
A futuristic crime-noir that will shock you.
Bone Adams is a legend, the best mortician in the spires. When a new killer begins leaving bodies twisted and bent into grotesque pieces of art, City Officer Stark tasks Bone to unravel the clues. As more victims are discovered, Bone and Stark are drawn deeper into a world where pain and personal statement blend and blur, and finally end up hunting for a semi-mythical man-machine named Burneo deep within the sewers. But things aren't what they seem.
While searching for Burneo, Bone and Stark discover a hidden lab full of evidence of horrific abuses of science and experimentation. Meanwhile, the killer is still on the loose, and, as Stark becomes more and more obsessed with the case, Bone is forced to a shattering realization. Everything is connected: the killings, the gang activity, the labs, and his own past. Unless he can figure out how, he won’t survive.
Ren Warom weaves a tale laced with gang crime, underground body mod shops, and shocking murders.
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Cyberpunk comic books
Cyberpunk in comic books
JUDGE DREDD
Finding cyberpunk themes in comic books go as far back as 1997 when the British comic book anthology series 2000 AD introduced Judge Dredd. Created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, the gun-toting character is a brutally fascistic antihero who enforces law and order in the streets of Mega-City One. The magazine’s longest-running character, in 1990 Dredd was also given his own ongoing title, Judge Dredd Megazine. The character has since appeared in several adaptations in other media.
Find Judge Dredd comics on Amazon.
AKIRA
In 1982, the manga series Akira made its debut, written and illustrated by Katsuhiro Otomo. One of the first Japanese comic books to be translated entirely into English, Akira also led the way to the epic 1988 cyberpunk anime movie. Set in a post-apocalyptic “Neo-Tokyo”—decades after an explosion destroyed the city—the story leans on cyberpunk traits to explore a world of political turmoil, social isolation, corruption, and power.
RONIN
A blend of East and West, past and future, magic and science, Ronin is another cyberpunk comic book project. Published 1983-1984 by DC Comics, Ronin was written and drawn by Frank Miller with artwork painted by Lynn Varley. In the distant past, a great lord of feudal Japan is struck down by an entity of pure evil. A young warrior, sworn to vengeance, becomes a masterless samurai—a ronin—trapped in an eternal struggle with the demon who killed his master. He find himself revived years later in a dystopic near-future New York City…
CYBERPUNK 2077
Dark Horse Comics has published a few different comic book projects inspired by the action game Cyberpunk 2077. These include the comic book series Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team with writer Cullen Bunn and illustrator Miguel Valderrama. There has also been Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams (winner of a 2023 Hugo Award!) and Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout.
Find Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team on Amazon
Cyberpunk movies
13 Cyberpunk movies
There have been science fiction movies that have offered us an optimistic vision. But there are also those SF movies that show us the dark possibilities from advanced technology, artificial intelligence, and metropolitan advances. Below are some of the greatest examples of cyberpunk that have hit the big screen…
The Matrix (1999)
Blade Runner (1982)
Robocop (1987)
Total Recall (2012)
Metropolis (1927)
Ghost In The Shell (1995)
Dredd (2012)
Akira (1988)
Equilibrium (2002)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Strange Days (1995)
Minority Report (2002)
More cyberpunk books
More cyberpunk novels
The world of Cyberpunk 2077
The world of Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is an action-packed role-playing video game based on the Cyberpunk tabletop game series. Within the dystopian Cyberpunk universe, the game is set in the Night City, California. Players assume the role of V—a mercenary who has been empowered with a cybernetic “bio-chip” from rockstar and terrorist Johnny Silverhand (voiced by Keanu Reeves). As Johnny’s awareness begins to overwrite V’s own mental processes, they must work together to save V’s life.
There have been a few adaptations of Cyberpunk 2077 into other media. Dark Horse published the art book The World of Cyberpunk 2077. Dark Horse Comics has also produced comic book projects including Cyberpunk 2077: Trauma Team (with writer Cullen Bunn and illustrator Miguel Valderrama), plus Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams and Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout.
There has also been the anime spin-off Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which showed up on Netflix.
One of the characters in the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty is played by actor Idris Elba. His great acting career hasn’t just included a lot of dramatic stuff, but also performances in fun genre stuff like 2012’s Prometheus, 2013’s Pacific Rim, 2021’s The Suicide Squad, and several appearances in the MCU.
For Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Elba provided the voice and his likeness for the character of Solomon Reed. Not long ago, Elba was just a Cyberpunk 2077 player—now, he’s an actor in the game who also supervised and created some of the new music.
And, apparently, it all started with a simple chat. “It was really just an exploratory conversation,” he told Xbox Wire. “You know, ‘Do like gaming? Are you into games? Would you be interested in being a part of something?’ And then, before we knew it, we were having a conversation about Cyberpunk. And I was aware of Cyberpunk as a game, I played it, but then to be a part of the expansion was quite exciting to me.” (SOURCE)
More from Monster Complex
More about Cyberpunk Online
More about cyberpunk online
Cyberpunk Books: Your Beginner’s Guide To The Genre (Book Riot)
23 Best Cyberpunk Books (The Best Sci Fi Books)
The 22 Best Cyberpunk Movies Ranked (SlashFilm)
The Best Cyberpunk Comics, Part 1 (Publishers Weekly)
8 Best Builds For Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC (Screen Rant)
99 Best Cyberpunk Books (Read This Twice)
The Best Cyberpunk Movies (That Aren’t Blade Runner) (Den of Geek)
Guide to Cyberpunk 2077 Comics & Graphic Novels (Penguin Random House)
9 Best Cyberpunk Novels You Should Read (Fantasy Review)
10 Cyberpunk Movies That Probably Flew Under Your Radar (MovieWeb)
So You Want to Read Cyberpunk: Here’s Where to Start (Penguin Random House)
The Rondo Awards honor the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation. This year's winners include the reissue of ROBOT MONSTER, the movie GODZILLA: MINUS ONE, the TV series WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and more! Find out the details here.