Not sure I’d recommend either to Megan though, neither is an easy entry point. On cyberpunk looking dated, what about River of Gods by Ian McDonald or for that matter Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan? I blog both over at my own blog, the River of Gods entry is a touch long (I was back from holiday with time on my hands, what can I say?) but I thought that stretched the genre by taking it into a contemporary future rather than a 1980s future and I thought Morgan took the opposit tack, taking the genre right back to its roots in Chandler and hardboiled fiction. Geoff Ryman I’ve not read in years, I probably should though.Īnd then many names I’ve never heard of and sites I’m barely aware of, hurrah! I shall look them all up. I can dig it out if you’re interested.Ĭory Doctorow I’ve not read, though I have a copy of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom which looks good. I’m familiar with Charlie Stross, I’ve read some of his short fiction plus his Cthulhoid stuff, as well as the rather marvellous Accellerando (great, even though the central character is basically a walking plot device).ĭid you see the discussion between him and Jonathan McCalmont over at JMC’s old blog? Very interesting, Stross talks about how pressure from his publishers has negatively impacted his output. Its been a while, I think its time to go and read it again. I can see my old battered copy of Mirrorshades on the shelf from where I am writing this. Meeting Jim at Clarion was totally awe inspiring as a consequence. I remember that story pretty much scene for scene, despite not having read it for at least a decade.

Contributions from Greg Bear and Pat Cadigan also rocked my adolescent world, but it was James Patrick Kelly’s Solstice that really blew my mind. But Tom Maddox Snake-Eyes sticks in my memory as the epitomy of cyberpunk, and a major influence over my story They Leave Him No Voice (workshopped at Clarion and awaiting re-write). Red Star, Winter Orbit still rates for me as one of Gibson’s strongest stories (alongside Hinterlands). As unique and startling as that novel was, without seeing the diversity of writing in the Bruce sterling edited anthology I might not have grasped what SF short fiction was really capable of.

I would guess that like many readers I found it in the wake of reading Neuromancer. Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology was the book that woke me up to what science fiction could be. But I was surprised to see my most influential anthology went entirely unmentioned… It’s a list that makes me want to read more, as do the the comments. John Klima sticks his neck out and nominates his top 10 most influential SF / F anthologies over at Tor.com.

Mirrorshades cyberpunk