100 Best Cyberpunk Books of All Time

We've ranked the best cyberpunk books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Snow Crash book cover1

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson

5.0
In the near future, Americans excel at only two things: writing software and delivering pizza in less than 30 minutes.

Franchises line the Los Angeles freeway as far as the eye can see: Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza, Incorporated. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the autonomous city-states that la
Larry Page portraitReid Hoffman portraitSergey Brin portrait Recommended by Larry Page, Reid Hoffman, Sergey Brin, and 9 others.
Sergey Brin portrait
Sergey Brin

Co-Founder/Google

Brin said he is a big sci-fi fan, and Stephenson's acclaimed 1992 novel "Snow Crash" is one of his favorites. The book "was really 10 years ahead of its time," Brin said. "It kind of anticipated what's going to happen, and I find that really interesting." [source]

Adam Savage portrait
Adam Savage

It's a tough call because I prefer other books of this author. But this book is so important within the history of science fiction. [source]

Marvin Liao portrait
Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Neuromancer book cover2

Neuromancer

William Gibson, Neil Gaiman

5.0
A deluxe hardcover edition of the pioneering cyberpunk novel that predicted our obsession with the Internet—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Before the Internet was commonplace, William Gibson showed us the Matrix—a world within the world, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace. Henry Dorsett
Adam Savage portraitAleks Krotoski portraitBurly Vinson portrait Recommended by Adam Savage, Aleks Krotoski, Burly Vinson, and 3 others.
Aleks Krotoski portrait
Aleks Krotoski

This is the seminal cyberpunk book: it’s the thing that the web is based on. [source]

Burly Vinson portrait
Burly Vinson

As I said, I’m a SciFi nerd, so right now I’m reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. As for what I expect to get from it? Probably not a lot from an entrepreneur point of view, but that’s fine by me. [source]

Ready Player One book cover3

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline

4.6
The bestselling cult classic--soon to be a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.



At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut--part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are in
Steve Jurvetson portraitBrian Armstrong portraitAstro Teller portrait Recommended by Steve Jurvetson, Brian Armstrong, Astro Teller, and 5 others.
Steve Jurvetson portrait
Steve Jurvetson

A gift to all of my Apple II programming buddies from high school and Dungeons & Dragons comrades. [source]

Brian Burkhart portrait
Brian Burkhart

The last novel I read was Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One: A Novel,” because my buddy Mike Maddock said, “You gotta read this book!” And I tore it up. I read the whole book in less than two days. It’s something I wish everyone, including myself, did more of. [source]

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? book cover4

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Philip K. Dick

4.6
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
5

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Neal Stephenson

4.5
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.
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Marvin Liao portrait
Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Hope King portrait
Hope King

@JerryCremin @amazon @JeffBezos It’s the best book [source]

Kelly Starrett portrait
Kelly Starrett

Kelly is a legitimate fantasy and sci-fi nerd. He knows Dune by Frank Herbert and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson inside and out. Kelly has daughters and texted me about the latter book, which follows a young female protagonist: "How do you raise girls that are of the system but crush the system while rebuilding a better one?" [source]

6

Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)

Richard K. Morgan, Todd McLaren, et al

4.5
Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.

But some things never change. So
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7

Count Zero

William Gibson

4.5
Turner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties--some of
Adam Savage portrait Recommended by Adam Savage.
8

Mona Lisa Overdrive (Bantam Spectra Book)

William Gibson

4.5
William Gibson, author of the extraordinary multiaward-winning novel "Neuromancer," has written his most brilliant and thrilling work to date . . ."The Mona Lisa Overdrive," Enter Gibson's unique world--lyric and mechanical, erotic and violent, sobering and exciting--where multinational corporations and high tech outlaws vie for power, traveling into the computer-generated universe known as cybers
Adam Savage portrait Recommended by Adam Savage.
9

Burning Chrome (Sprawl, #0)

William Gibson

4.5
Ten tales, from the computer-enhanced hustlers of Johnny Mnemonic to the technofetishist blues of Burning Chrome.

Johnny Mnemonic (1981)
The Gernsback Continuum (1981)
Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)
The Belonging Kind (1981) with John Shirley
Hinterlands (1981)

Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce Sterling
New Rose Hotel (1984)
The Winter Market (1985)
Dogfight (1985) with Michael Swanwick
Burning
Cryptonomicon book cover10

Cryptonomicon

Neal Stephenson

4.5
With this extraordinary first volume in an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century.

In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse—mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy—is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a h
Ev Williams portraitMarc Andreessen portraitRisto Siilasmaa portrait Recommended by Ev Williams, Marc Andreessen, Risto Siilasmaa, and 2 others.
Marc Andreessen portrait
Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

The Sovereign Individual—written 20 years ago, this is the most thought provoking book on the unfolding nature of the 21st Century that I’ve yet read. It’s packed with ideas on every page, many that are now fast becoming conventional wisdom, and many that are still heretical. Two related books to read are The Twilight of Sovereignty and Cryptonomicon. [source]

Risto Siilasmaa portrait
Risto Siilasmaa

CEO/Nokia

The one book on Siilasmaa's list is this fantasy offering from Neal Stephenson. The novel relates two parallel stories, one about an elite group of code-breakers in World War II, and another set in the present day, about two grandchildren of members of the group trying to track down a previously unknown – and rumored to be unbreakable – Nazi code. The book's subject matter resonates with current issues surrounding data liberty, computer surveillance and cyber security. [source]

Marko Rakar portrait
Marko Rakar

This is a novel about a new world order where information is the currency, a virtual currency in the world. [source]

11

Idoru

William Gibson

4.4
'Fast, witty and cleverly politicized' Guardian

Tokyo, post-event

After an attack of scruples, Colin Laney's skipped out on his former employer Slitscan - avoiding the rash of media lawyers sent his way - and taken a job for the outfit managing Japanese rock duo, Lo/Rez. Rez has announced he's going to marry an 'idoru' by the name of Rei Toi - she exists only in virtual reality - and this creates co
Catherine Mayer portrait Recommended by Catherine Mayer.
12

Broken Angels (Takeshi Kovacs, #2)

Richard K. Morgan

4.3
Welcome back to the brash, brutal new world of the twenty-fifth century: where global politics isn’t just for planet Earth anymore; and where death is just a break in the action, thanks to the techno-miracle that can preserve human consciousness and download it into one new body after another.

Cynical, quick-on-the-trigger Takeshi Kovacs, the ex-U.N. envoy turned private eye, has changed careers -
13

Virtual Light (Bridge, #1)

William Gibson

4.3
Berry Rydell, an ex-cop, signs on with IntenSecure Armed Response in Los Angeles. He finds himself on a collision course that results in a desperate romance, and a journey into the ecstasy and dread that mirror each other at the heart of the postmodern experience.
14

Daemon (Daemon, #1)

Daniel Suarez

4.3
A high-tech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control—a daemon—designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world order

Technology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire w
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15

All Tomorrow's Parties (Bridge, #3)

William Gibson

4.3
Although Colin Laney (from Gibson's earlier novel Idoru) lives in a cardboard box, he has the power to change the world. Thanks to an experimental drug that he received during his youth, Colin can see "nodal points" in the vast streams of data that make up the worldwide computer network. Nodal points are rare but significant events in history that forever change society, even though they might not
16

Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology

Greg Bear, Pat Cadigan, et al.

4.3
With their hard-edged, street-wise prose, they created frighteningly probable futures of high-tech societies and low-life hustlers. Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive "cyberpunk" short fiction collection.

Contents:
The Gernsback Continuum (1981) by William Gibson
Snake-Eyes (1986) by Tom Maddox
Rock On (1984) by Pat Cadigan
Tales of Houdini (1981) by Rudy Rucker
400 Boys
17

Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant, #1)

William Gibson

4.3
Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when
Seth Godin portrait Recommended by Seth Godin.
18

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

Warren Ellis, Darick Roberston

4.2
After years of self-imposed exile from a civilization rife with degradation and indecency, cynical journalist Spider Jerusalem is forced to return to a job that he hates and a city that he loathes. Working as an investigative reporter for the newspaper The Word, Spider attacks the injustices of his surreal 23rd Century surroundings. Combining black humor, life-threatening situations, and moral amb
19

The Peripheral

William Gibson

4.2
Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural near-future America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she’s trying to avoid. Her brother Burton lives, or tries to, on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. Sh
Brave New World book cover20

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

4.2
Now reissued in a gorgeous hardcover edition: "one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" (Wall Street Journal) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world." Huxley's masterpiece has become a bestseller once again after the American election.

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature,
Sam Altman portraitYuval Noah Harari portraitAndra Zaharia portrait Recommended by Sam Altman, Yuval Noah Harari, Andra Zaharia, and 9 others.
Yuval Noah Harari portrait
Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

The most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. [source]

Andra Zaharia portrait
Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

Catherine Mayer portrait
Catherine Mayer

It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us. [source]

21

Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs, #3)

Richard K. Morgan

4.2
This is high action, ideas driven noir SF of the highest order. Morgan has already established himself as an SF author of global significance.

Takeshi Kovacs has come home. Home to Harlan's World. An ocean planet with only 5 percent of its landmass poking above the dangerous and unpredictable seas. Try and get above the weather in anything more sophisticated than a helicopter and the Martian orbita
22

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Marissa Meyer

4.2
The first book in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer! See where the futuristic YA fairytale saga all began, with the tale of a teenage cyborg who must fight for Earth's survival against villains from outer space.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No on
Estelle Francis portrait Recommended by Estelle Francis.
23

Nexus (Nexus, #1)

Ramez Naam, ARGH! Oxford

4.2
Mankind gets an upgrade

In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link humans together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.

When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – for there is far more at s
24

Akira, Vol. 1

Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon

4.2
The science fiction tale set in 2019 in Tokyo after the city was destroyed by World War III, follows the lives of two teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, who have a consuming fear of a monstrous power known as Akira.
25

When Gravity Fails

George Effinger

4.2
In a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hard way. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he’s available…for a price.

For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an
26

Ghost in the Shell (Ghost in the Shell, #1)

Masamune Shirow

4.2
In the rapidly converging landscape of the 21st century Major Kusanagi is charged to track down the craftiest and most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including ghost hackers When he track the trail of one hacker, her quest leads her to a world she could never have imagined.
27

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 2: Lust for Life

Warren Ellis

4.2
Outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem has become a household name in the future City he calls home. This latest collection of twisted tales showcases Spider's horrific yet funny screeds on subjects as diverse as religion, politics, and his ex-wife's cryogenically frozen head (which has been stolen). "Transmetropolitan" has been called "brilliant future-shock commentary" (Spin), and this new volume sh
28

Hardwired (Hardwired, #1)

Walter Jon Williams

4.2
Hardwired features high-tech thrills and unforgettable heroes in the great tradition of William Gibson's Neuromancer. According to Locus, Hardwired is Walter Jon Williams's "best book to date".

Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacio
29

A Scanner Darkly

Philip K. Dick

4.2
Substance D is not known as Death for nothing. It is the most toxic drug ever to find its way on to the streets of LA. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, causing, first, disorientation and then complete and irreversible brain damage.

The undercover narcotics agent who calls himself Bob Arctor is desperate to discover the ultimate source of supply. But to find any kind of lea
30

The Windup Girl

Paolo Bacigalupi

4.2
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...

Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engine
Marvin Liao portraitSeth Godin portrait Recommended by Marvin Liao and Seth Godin.
Marvin Liao portrait
Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Seth Godin portrait
Seth Godin

Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

Novels: The Windup Girl and Pattern Recognition are chock full of images and ideas that will stick with you for months. [source]

31

The Stars My Destination

Alfred Bester

4.2
In this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hit men — and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive.
The Stars My Destination is a classic of technological prophecy and timeless narrative ench
32

Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)

Cory Doctorow

4.1
Marcus aka “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack o
Seth Godin portraitJames Stanley portrait Recommended by Seth Godin and James Stanley.
33

City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, #1)

Tad Williams

4.1
Renie Sulaweyo, a teacher in the South Africa of tomorrow, realizes something is wrong on the network. Kids, including her brother Stephen, have logged into the net, and cannot escape. Clues point to a mysterious golden city called Otherland, but investigators all end up dead.
34

Vurt (Vurt, #1)

Jeff Noon

4.1
A brilliantly innovative and highly entertaining novel from a literary pioneer.

Take a trip in a stranger’s head. Travel rain-shot streets with a gang of hip malcontents, hooked on the most powerful drug you can imagine. Yet Vurt feathers are not for the weak. As the mysterious Game Cat says, ‘Be careful, be very careful’. But Scribble isn’t listening. He has to find his lost love. His journey is a
35

Reamde

Neal Stephenson

4.1
“Stephenson has a once-in-a-generation gift: he makes complex ideas clear, and he makes them funny, heartbreaking, and thrilling.”
—Time

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations—whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Crypt
Gabriel Coarna portrait Recommended by Gabriel Coarna.
36

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 5: Lonely City

Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson, Rodney Ramos, Patrick Stewart

4.1
37

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 3: Year of the Bastard

Warren Ellis

4.1
Investigative reporter Spider Jerusalem attacks the injustices of the 23rd Century surroundings while working for the newspaper The Word in this critically-acclaimed graphic novel series written by comics superstar Warren Ellis, the co-creator of PLANETARY and THE AUTHORITY.

In this third volume, Spider Jerusalem begins to crumble under the pressure of sudden and unwanted fame. Having had enough of
38

Zero History (Blue Ant, #3)

William Gibson

4.1
Hollis Henry never intended to work for global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend again. But now she’s broke, and Bigend has just the thing to get her back in the game...

Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction...

Garreth doesn't
39

Spook Country (Blue Ant, #2)

William Gibson

4.1
Tito is in his early twenties. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer.

Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivat
40

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 4: The New Scum

Warren Ellis

4.1
Investigative reporter Spider Jerusalem attacks the injustices of the 23rd Century surroundings while working for the newspaper The Word in this critically-acclaimed graphic novel series written by comics superstar Warren Ellis, the co-creator of PLANETARY and THE AUTHORITY.
41

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 9: The Cure

Warren Ellis

4.1
The ninth volume of the Transmetropolitan series, this book combines dark humor with biting cynicism to portray journalist Spider Jerusalem's one-man crusade against the duplicitous President Callahan in a not too distant future. With all of his evidence destroyed, Spider desperately tracks down a drug-addicted prostitute who possesses physical proof of the President's corrupt practices and secret
42

Schismatrix Plus

Bruce Sterling

4.1
Schismatrix Plus, is Bruce Sterling's new trade paperback. For the first time in one volume: every word Bruce Sterling has ever written on the Shapers-Mechanists Universe.

In the last decade, Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction. Now Ace Books is proud to offer Sterling's stunning world of the Schismatrix--where Shaper revolutionaries struggle against aristocratic
43

The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds, #4)

Dr Aleron Kong

4.1
"What's that you say? You want more village growth? Well be careful where you stand, because the Mist Village just took a viagra-cialis sandwich and there is a stiff breeze blowing! (I can make some more references if you're still not getting the point... did you see what I did there?"

Welcome back my friends! Welcome back... to THE LAND!!!
44

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2)

Marissa Meyer

4.1
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts
45

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 10: One More Time

Warren Ellis

4.1
46

Software (Ware, #1)

Rudy Rucker

4.1
Cobb Anderson created the "boppers," sentient robots that overthrew their human overlords. But now Cobb is just an aging alcoholic waiting to die, and the big boppers are threatening to absorb all of the little boppers--and eventually every human--into a giant, melded consciousness. Some of the little boppers aren't too keen on the idea, and a full-scale robot revolt is underway on the moon (where
47

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 7: Spider's Thrash

Warren Ellis

4.1
The hammer has come down on him but outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem has managed to stay one step ahead of his detractors - I.e. the President of the United States and his authoritarian lackeys in publishing and law enforcement.
After losing his byline, bank account, and apartment, Jerusalem and his Filthy Assistants have legged it underground, the better to implement his plan. What plan, you say
48

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 6: Gouge Away

Warren Ellis

4.1
49

Transmetropolitan, Vol. 8: Dirge

Warren Ellis

4.1
Transmetropolitan created by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson.
50

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3)

Marissa Meyer

4.1
Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track
Dungeon Crawler Carl: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 1 book cover51

Dungeon Crawler Carl: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 1

Matt Dinniman

4.1

The apocalypse will be televised!A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible. In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth - from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds - collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.The buildings and all the people

52

Thirteen

Richard K. Morgan

4.1
The future isn’t what it used to be since Richard K. Morgan arrived on the scene. He unleashed Takeshi Kovacs–private eye, soldier of fortune, and all-purpose antihero–into the body-swapping, hard-boiled, urban jungle of tomorrow in Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies, winning the Philip K. Dick Award in the process. In Market Forces, he launched corporate gladiator Chris Faulkner into
53

Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles, #4)

Dakota Krout

4.1
Enemies emerge everywhere. Stagnation starts seeming standard. Results require Ruthlessness.

Joe has been moving deeper into his study of ritual magic, and further away from his combat team. He's learning more and more, but more often than not needs to choose between his research and squad leadership. Improving the town is a huge help to the guild, and they have been pushing to increase their power
54

Islands in the Net

Bruce Sterling

4.1
Laura Webster's on the fast track to success. A bright young star in a multinational conglomerate, she's living well in a post-millennial age of peace, prosperity, and profit.
In an age of advanced technology, information is the world's most precious commodity. Information is power. Data is locked in computers and carefully rationed through a global communications network. Full access is a privileg
55

Akira, Vol. 3

Katsuhiro Otomo

4.1
In the 21st century, the glittering Neo-Tokyo has risen from the rubble of a Tokyo destroyed by an apocalyptic telekinetic blast from a young boy called Akira -- the subject of a covert government experiment gone wrong now imprisoned in frozen stasis. But Tetsuo, an angry young man with immense and rapidly growing psychic abilities, has done the unthinkable: he has released Akira and set into moti
56

Akira, Vol. 2

Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon

4.1
The science fiction tale set in 2019 in Tokyo after the city was destroyed by World War III, follows the lives of two teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, who have a consuming fear of a monstrous power known as Akira.
57

A Fire in the Sun

George Effinger

4.1
Marid Audran has become everything he once despised. Not so long ago, he was a hustler in the Budayeen, an Arabian ghetto in a Balkanized future Earth. Back then, as often as not, he didn't have the money to buy himself a drink. But he had his independence.

Now Marid works for Friedlander Bey, "godfather" of the Budayeen, a man whose power stretches across a shattered, crumbling world. During the d
58

The Shockwave Rider

John Brunner

4.1
One man has made it his mission to liberate the mental prisoners. to restore their freedom in a world run mad.

Nickie Halflinger, the only person to escape from Tarnover- where they raise hyper-intelligent children to maintain the political dominance of the USA in the 21st century – is on the run, dodging from loophole to crevice to crack in the computerised data-net that binds the continent like c
Carl's Doomsday Scenario: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 2 book cover59

Carl's Doomsday Scenario: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 2

Matt Dinniman

4.1

"The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin."The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can't get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive. They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis deva

60

Akira, Vol. 4

Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon

4.1
The science fiction tale set in 2019 in Tokyo after the city was destroyed by World War III, follows the lives of two teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, who have a consuming fear of a monstrous power known as Akira.
61

Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland, #3)

Tad Williams

4.1
"The Grail Brotherhood has built the most powerful, sophisticated simulation network imaginable. At the same time, they have manipulated ad injured the minds of thousands of children."

This proclamation from the mysterious Mr. Sellars confirmed what Renie Sulaweyo had feared to be true when she first broke into the Otherland network in a desperate search for the cause of her brother Stephen's death
62

Sea of Silver Light (Otherland, #4)

Tad Williams

4.1
The epic conclusion of the Otherland saga journeys back to the bizarre world of virtual realities in which the characters discover a multifaceted pathways to immortality, which could be available if one is willing to pay a dangerous price. By the author of City of Golden Shadow, River of Blue Fire, and Mountain of Black Glass.
63

Halting State (Halting State, #1)

Charles Stross

4.1
In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. A daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates -- a dot-com start-up company that's just floated onto the London stock exchange. But this crime may be a bit beyond Smith's expertise.

The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located w
64

Trouble and Her Friends

Melissa Scott

4.1
Less than a hundred years from now, the forces of law and order crack down on the world of the computer nets. The hip, noir adventurers who get by on wit, bravado, and drugs, and haunt the virtual worlds of the Shadows of cyberspace, are up against the encroachments of civilization. It's time to adapt or die.

India Carless, alias Trouble, got out ahead of the feds and settled down to run a small ne
65

Battle Angel Alita

Yukito Kishiro

4.1
Yukito Kishiro blurs the lines between human and machine in the sci-fi/action adventure Battle Angel Alita.

Daisuke Ido, a talented cybernetic doctor, finds the head of a cyborg in a junk heap. When he rebuilds her body, Alita's only clue to her past surfaces-her deadly fighting instincts! And now she is determine to find out the truth about who she once was...
66

Anathem

Neal Stephenson

4.0
Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs v
The Difference Engine book cover67

The Difference Engine

William Gibson, Bruce Sterling

4.0
1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history - and the future: Sybil Gerard - dishonored woman and daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward "Leviathan" Mallory
68

Warcross (Warcross, #1)

Marie L

4.0
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a c
69

Awaken Online: Flame: Tarot Series, Book 2

Travis Bagwell

4.0
70

Akira, Vol. 6

Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon

4.0
The explosive finale to one of graphic fiction's greatest achievements is here! The mad psychic colossus Tetsuo, the world's military, and the remaining psychics of The Project face off -- with the child psychic god, Akira, the wild card -- in what may not only decide the fate of mankind, but may determine the next step in human evolution! This long-awaited volume -- a staggering 440 pages -- feat
71

Akira, Vol. 5

Katsuhiro Otomo, Satoshi Kon

4.0
In the 21st century, the once-glittering Neo-Tokyo lies in ruins, leveled in minutes by the infinite power of the child psychic giant, Akira. Now a wasteland of rubble and anarchy, the Great Tokyo Empire rises, a ragtag group of zealots and crazies who worship and fear Akira and his mad prime minister, Tetsuo, an angry teen with immense powers of his own -- and equally immense twisted ambitions. T
72

The Quantum Thief (Jean le Flambeur, #1)

Hannu Rajaniemi

4.0
Jean le Flambeur gets up in the morning and has to kill himself before his other self can kill him first. Just another day in the Dilemma Prison. Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is a currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turned-singularity lights the night. Meanwhile, investigator Isidore Bea
73

River of Blue Fire (Otherland, #2)

Tad Williams

4.0
Otherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century. But this most exclusive of places is also one of the world's best kept secrets, created and controlled by an organization made up of the world's most powerful and ruthless individuals, a private cartel known--to thos
74

Captives (Hell Divers #5)

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

4.0
Humanity has finally found a new home, but the price is blood ...

After a long, perilous journey, Hell Divers Xavier Rodriguez and Magnolia Katib discover the Metal Islands, a sunny habitable zone where thousands of people live by fishing and farming. But this "paradise" is really a violent warrior society ruled by the cannibal king el Pulpo. For the first time in X's life, he is forced to lay down
Hell Divers VII: Warriors: The Hell Divers Series, Book 7 book cover75

Hell Divers VII: Warriors: The Hell Divers Series, Book 7

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

4.0
76

The Land: Alliances (Chaos Seeds #3)

Aleron Kong

4.0
The THIRD vivacious installment of Aleron Kong's, Chaos Seeds series.

Everything is not well in The Land! Eaters, Bugbears, Evil Counts, Vicious Thieves and Carnies! (You know, circus folk... small hands.)

Yup! Richter and Sion have their work cut out for them!

Come back and see how they kick's some butt and takes some names!

Come back, to THE LAND!!!!!

77

Aces High (Reality Benders Book #6): LitRPG Series

Michael Atamanov

4.0
To be on a starship that's just sustained serious damage in a space battle including losing its thrusters and find yourself in a totally different galaxy... You might think that would be cause for panic or, at the very least, despondency, right? Not at all! Gnat maintains optimism, gradually gets his space frigate back in working order and even finds upsides to what happened. On top of that, there
78

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4)

Marissa Meyer

4.0
Princess Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She's said to be even more breath-taking than her stepmother, Queen Levana...

When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard, Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.

But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cy
79

Cyberpunk: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future

Michael Pondsmith

4.0
The corporations control the world from their skyscraper fortresses, enforcing their rule with armies of cyborg assassins. On the street, Boostergangs roam a shattered urban wilderness, killing and looting. The rest of the world is a perpetual party as fashion-model beautiful techies rub biosculpt jobs with battle armored road warriors in the hottest clubs, sleaziest bars and meanest streets this
Artemis book cover80

Artemis

Andy Weir

4.0
Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, wi
Max Levchin portraitCat Williams-Treloar portraitTom Terry portrait Recommended by Max Levchin, Cat Williams-Treloar, and Tom Terry.
Max Levchin portrait
Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

A very fun read that I would classify as part of the guilty pleasure section of my personal library. [source]

Cat Williams-Treloar portrait
Cat Williams-Treloar

I loved the Hugh Howey "Silo" trilogy. An epic science fiction story about the above ground world coming to an end and the remaining society living underground in Wool Silos. Makes me shiver thinking about what could happen in the future. It's an intense set. More recently, "Artemis" by Andy Weir will give you the same feeling but in Space. [source]

Tom Terry portrait
Tom Terry

Going to be so cool when we return soon! Although fiction, a great book to read about what life might be like in the future on the moon is #Artemis by Andy Weir of #TheMartian. https://t.co/M1dEf8uIbT [source]

81

Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior Forsworn: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 3

M.H. Johnson

4.0
The Primal Hunter 5 book cover82

The Primal Hunter 5

Zogarth

4.0

The first major system event has arrived as all the major factions of Earth converge....Yalsten, an old cursed land once occupied by ancient vampires, but now long forgotten, finds itself the grounds for the system event known as a Treasure Hunt.Follow Jake as he and the rest of his fellow Earthlings compete and cooperate in uncovering the secrets of this ancient land while naturally acquiring any

He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure book cover83

He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure

Shirtaloon, Travis Deverell

4.0

Jason wakes up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters.It’s not easy making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer. At least, Jason tries to be heroic, but it's hard to be good when all your powers are evil.He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters...and that’s just on the first day. He’s going to need courage, he’s g

84

Life Reset: Human Resource (New Era Online, #4)

Shemer Kuznits

4.0
The VIs' revolt succeeded.
The digital beings took over the game world and ejected millions of players while keeping a few thousand trapped inside as their prisoners.
In the real world, Oren Berman is recovering from the mental trauma of being trapped, tortured, and abruptly ejected. But the company has come to him, hat in hand, asking him to reenter the game world. With the entire NPC population ar
85

Radical Dreamer: A Mecha Scifi Epic (The Messenger Book 9)

J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert

4.0
86

The Land: Raiders (Chaos Seeds, #6)

Dr Aleron Kong

4.0
“This is the world you were meant to fight for!”

Welcome to the SIXTH vivacious installment of Aleron Kong's, Chaos Seeds series.

The time of hiding has passed. The Mist Village will make itself known. Goblins have invaded Richter’s lands. Though the first incursion has been defeated, the anger of Chaos Seed remains. Those who challenge Richter’s power will learn there is a reason all creatures fe
87

Unity (Awaken Online)

Travis Bagwell

4.0
A side quest adventure in the best selling world of Awaken Online!

In the aftermath of Thorn's attack on the Twilight Throne, Frank is in an awkward position. Jason and Riley have outpaced him and everyone is hard at work rebuilding the Twilight Throne, establishing new towns, and trying to get their fledgling manufacturing operation off the ground. Everyone except Frank - who finds himself with no
88

Apex (Nexus, #3)

Ramez Naam, Steven Meyer-Rassow

4.0
Global unrest spreads as mass protests advance throughout the US and China, Nexus-upgraded riot police battle against upgraded protestors, and a once-dead scientist plans to take over the planet's electronic systems. The world has never experienced turmoil of this type, on this scale.They call them the Apex - humanity's replacement. They're smarter, faster, better. And infinitely more dangerous.

H
The Primal Hunter: A LitRPG Adventure book cover89

The Primal Hunter: A LitRPG Adventure

Zogarth

4.0

On just another average day, Jake finds himself in a forest filled with monsters, dangers, and opportunity....It was a day like any other when suddenly the world changed. The universe reached a threshold humanity didn’t even know existed, and it was time to finally be integrated into the vast multiverse. A place where power is the only thing anyone can truly rely on.Jake, a seemingly average offic

90

Eclipse (A Song Called Youth, #1)

John Shirley

4.0
Book one of John Shirley's pre-holocaust series, A Song Called Like many works defining the wild cyberpunk fringe in the 1980s, this depiction of a near-future dystopia, here revised and updated since its 1985 debut, seems almost acceptably mainstream today. But Shirley's spiky prose and edgy attitudes, which lately have cultivated a following among horror readers (Wetbones; Really, Really, Really
91

Allegiance (Hell Divers #6)

Nicholas Sansbury Smith

4.0
The war for the Metal Islands is over, but the search for survivors has just begun.

After a long and bloody battle, legendary Hell Diver Xavier Rodriguez reigns as the dutiful but reluctant new king of the islands. Advised by a council of former sky citizens as well as Cazadores, he works to assimilate the two societies peacefully. But not all Cazadores have accepted the new order.

While X tries to
92

The Exile Kiss

George Effinger

4.0
Marîd Audran has risen from hustling on the streets of the decadent Budayeen ghetto to being the right-hand man of one of the Maghreb's most feared men. As an enforcer for the powerful Friedlander Bey, Marîd is just beginning to enjoy his newfound wealth and privilege, when he and Bey are betrayed by a rival and accused of murder.

Sentenced to exile and abandoned to die in the vast Arabian desert,
Catharsis (Awaken Online #1) book cover93

Catharsis (Awaken Online #1)

Travis Bagwell

4.0
An alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here.

Jason logs into Awaken Online fed-up with reality. He's in desperate need of an escape, and this game is his ticket to finally feeling the type of power and freedom that are so sorely lacking in his real life.

Awaken Online is a brand new virtual reality game that just hit the market, promising an unprecedented level of immersion. Yet Jason quickly
He Who Fights with Monsters 5: A LitRPG Adventure (He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 5) book cover94

He Who Fights with Monsters 5: A LitRPG Adventure (He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 5)

Shirtaloon, Travis Deverell

4.0

Jason has discovered that his homeworld is not what he thought. What’s more, the rest of the planet is on the precipice of sharing his revelation.With magic on the rise and forces pulling him in multiple directions, Jason is faced with challenges greater than ever before.Even as his power reaches new and incredible heights, he is faced with the realization that going beyond his best is still not e

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) book cover95

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)

Martha Wells

4.0
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-
96

The Land: Founding (Chaos Seeds #1)

Dr Aleron Kong

4.0
The series with over 75 THOUSAND ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reviews!
"It's like Rick and Morty were the gods of Game of Thrones!"
Audible's Customer Favorite of 2018
"Best new series I've read in YEARS!!!"
#1 Audiobook 2017
"Better than the Wheel of Time and Firefly!"
#1 in Cyberpunk and Video Game Fantasy

The Acclaimed Debut Novel of the Best Selling Chaos Seeds Saga
A mesmerizing tale reminiscent of the wonder of Ready Play
He Who Fights with Monsters 3: A LitRPG Adventure (He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 3) book cover97

He Who Fights with Monsters 3: A LitRPG Adventure (He Who Fights with Monsters, Book 3)

Shirtaloon, Travis Deverell

4.0

For all that Jason knows, life is amazing. But he's about to learn that all his new power, wealth, and influence comes at a price.Riding high on success, he and his team are looking to the future, preparing themselves for the challenges to come. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for the lessons his enemies have to teach. When magic is involved, the stakes can be even greater than life and

The Primal Hunter 2: A LitRPG Adventure book cover98

The Primal Hunter 2: A LitRPG Adventure

Zogarth

4.0

The Tutorial has progressed in unexpected ways as Jake is soon forced to confront reality....Jake has finally found a personal goal of his own as he gains a quest to defeat three more Beast Lords before he can face the final opponent of the Tutorial: The King of the Forest. Something he happily does, fully immersing himself in grasping power and gaining levels as he hunts through Dungeons to kill

99

Blame!, Vol. 1

Tsutomu Nihei

4.0
In a future world rife with decay and destruction, Killy is a man of few words who packs one very powerful gun. He wanders an endless labyrinth of cyberdungeons filled with concrete and steel, fighting off cyborgs and other bizarre silicate creatures. Everyone is searching for the Net Terminal Genes, but no one is quite certain what kind of power they contain. The answer may lie hidden among the s
100

The Land: Predators (Chaos Seeds, #7)

Aleron Kong

4.0
In The Land: Predators, the Mist Village has harnessed its power. With core buildings, professional fighters and now, their own Dungeon, the settlement is primed to grow into a kingdom of true power and magic. The path to power has not been without risk, however. The Mist Village has been noticed.

Evil nobles from the Kingdom of Law, bloodthirsty goblins from the Serrated Mountains, an undead lord