Malcolm

In an effort to try and list all of the cyberpunk, cyberpunk-precursor/influencer and post-cyberpunk books that readers of this forum might be interested in in, I've attempted to draw up a list. Now, at the moment, this isn't exhaustive, although I have attempted to include all the significant and important titles. One thing you might notice is that this topic is locked and you can reply to it. The reason for this is that I'd like to have this list as one, easily accessible post, rather than a whole string of different posts. So, if there's any changes you'd like made to the list, titles added and so forth, then please do PM me with your suggestions. As I said, the list is currently incomplete, so any further additions would be appreciated. As a final note, I've highlighted in bold what I consider to be the 'core' cyberpunk works that new readers might want to consider as a starting point for the genre.

 

Cheers

Malcolm

 

 

Aylett, Steve. The Crime Studio, The Inflatable Volunteer, Slaughtermatic

 

Barnes, Steven. Streetlethal

 

Bear, Greg. Blood Music, Tangents, Queen of Angels, Slant

 

Besher, Alexander. Rim, Mir

 

Bester, Alfred. The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination (vt: Tyger, Tyger!)

 

Bethke, Bruce. 'Cyberpunk' (SS), Headcrash

 

Budrys, Algis. Michaelmas

 

Bull, Emma. Bone Dance

 

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange

 

Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, Nova Express

 

Brunner, John. Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, The Shockwave Rider

 

Cadigan, Pat. Mindplayers, Patterns, Synners, Fools, Dirty Work, Tea From an Empty Cup, Dervish is Digital

 

Carter, Raphael. The Fortunate Fall

 

Delany, Samuel R. Dhalgren, Nova

 

de Lint, Charles. Svaha

 

Dick, Philip K. Dr. Bloodmoney, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said

 

Di Fillipi, Paul. Ribofunk

 

Doctorow, Cory. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe

 

Effinger, George Alec. When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun,The Exile’s Kiss, Budayeen Nights

 

Egan, Greg. Quarantine, Permutation City, Axiomatic, Distress

 

Farren, Mick. The Quest of the DNA Cowboys, Synaptic Manhunt, The Neural Atrocity

 

Gibson, William. Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, The Difference Engine (With Bruce Sterling.), Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Pattern Recognition

 

Grimwood, Jon Courtenay, reMix, redRobe

 

Hamilton, Peter F: A Quantum Murder, The Nanoflower, Mindstar Rising

 

Harrison, M John. Light

 

Kadrey, Richard. Metrophage

 

Jeter, K.W. Dr. Adder, The Glass Hammer, Farewell Horizontal, Madlands, Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night, Noir, Blade Runner 4: Beyond Orion

 

Laumer, Keith. A Plague of Demons

 

Lovegrove, James. Days

 

MacLeod, Ken. The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal, The Cassini Division, The Sky Road

 

Maddox, Tom. Halo

 

Mason, Lisa. Arachne

 

Morgan, Richard. Altered Carbon

 

Nagata, Linda. The Bohr Maker, Tech-Heaven

 

Noon, Jeff. Vurt, Pollen, Nymphomation, Automated Alice, Pixel Juice

 

Orwell, George. 1984

 

Pynchon, Thomas. V. The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity’s Rainbow

 

Quick, W.T. Dreams of Flesh and Sand, Dreams of Gods and Men, Systems, Yesterday’s Pawns, Singularities

 

Robinson, Kim Stanley. The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge

 

Rucker, Rudy. Software, Wetware, Freeware

 

Shiner, Lewis. Deserted Cities of the Heart, Frontera, Slam

 

Shirley, John. City Come A-Walkin’, Heatseeker, Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, Eclipse Corona

 

Smith, Michael Marshall. Only Forward, Spares, One Of Us

 

Spinrad, Norman. Bug Jack Barron

 

Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash, Interface. (writing as Stephen Bury, with J. Frederick George), The Diamond Age

 

Sterling, Bruce. Involution Ocean, The Artificial Kid, Schismatrix, Islands in the Net, Crystal Express, Globalhead, Heavy Weather, Holy Fire, Distraction, A Good Old-Fashioned Future, Zeitgeist

 

Swanwick, Michael. In the Drift, Vacuum Flowers, Griffon’s Egg, Stations of the Tide

 

Varley, John. The Ophiuchi Hotline, The Persistence of Vision, Blue Champagne, Steel Beach, The Golden Globe

 

Vinge, Joan D. Catspaw, Dreamfall, Psion

 

Vinge, Vernor. The Peace War, Marooned in Realtime, True Names and Other Dangers

 

Weaver, Michael D. Mercedes Nights

 

Williams, Walter Jon. Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind

 

Womack, Jack. Ambient

QUOTE (Joss66 @ Feb 10 2005, 02:31 PM)

And they're both great actors. The decisive fact would be that Buscemi is a comic actor while Postlewaithe isn't.

Thinking of characters other than Case, there's only one possible choice for The Finn.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Steve Buscemi

 

Cheers

Malcolm

Personally, I think the Audioslave album is bloody marvellous! However, if you're expecting anything other than just full-on rock, then you'll be disappointed. For me, the opening track 'Cochise' is the best on the album.

 

Cheers

Malc

Well, what I'm currently listening to is generally reflected in the CD case in my car. So here's the 24 CDs that are currently there:

 

Audioslave - 'Audioslave'

Good Charlotte - 'The Young And The Hopeless'

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - 'Product Placement'

Susanne Vega - 'Songs In Red And Grey'

REM - 'Green'

The Chemical Brothers - 'Surrender'

Fugazi - '13 Songs'

Pop Will Eat Itself -'Cure For Sanity'

Operation Ivy - 'Operation Ivy'

Randy - 'The Human Atom Bombs'

Nomeansno - 'Wrong'

Fountains Of Wayne - 'Fountains Of Wayne'

Collapsed Lung - 'Cooler'

Lush - 'Ciao'

CKY - 'Volume 1'

Guided By Voices - 'Isolation Drills'

James Brown -'The Best Of'

Fingathing - 'Superhero Music'

Leftfield - 'Rhythm & Stealth'

Mad Capsule Markets - 'OSC:DIS'

Corduroy - 'Dad Man Cat'

Mudhoney - 'March To Fuzz'

The Foo Fighters - 'The Colour & The Shape'

Quannum Project - 'Quannum Spectrum'

 

Cheers

Malc

Couple of suggestions:

 

'Dhalgren' and 'Nova' by Samuel Delany. I've never been sure whether or not Dhalgren is a work of literary genius or a load of old tosh. Re-reading it, I felt torn between the two extremes. It concerns the city of Bellona, the "dead center" of the United States, and the central character of the Kid, who has a variety of escapades and encounter in this bizarre landscape. 'Nova' is a bit easier to handle, although still typically Delany. Cyborgs, mysterious energy sources and a race across the galaxy all make it an very exciting and interesting book.

 

Cheers

Malc

Hi,

 

Not posted for a while, mainly due to being snowed under with work on a/state as well as holding down a proper job!

 

Anyway...

 

I'd certainly agree with previous posters in that a film dosen't have to be obviously 'cyberpunk' in look. For example, I'd recommend that anyone running a cyberpunk style game should watch 'Kiss Me Deadly', a 1950's film noir. In fact, it's my personal favourite amongst film noir movies. The entire thing has a certain edginess and barely controlled (sometimes not controlled) violence with fits in with many of the common tropes of cyberpunk.

 

For those of you who might not be familiar with the film, here's a link to its entry on the Internet Movie Database.

 

Cheers

Malc

Quote

I've played 40-50's jazz, soul and acid jazz in my games.

 

Acid jazz? Great! Have you heard 'Dad Man Cat' and/or 'Out Of Here' by Corduroy? Brilliant albums and some of the best car chase music ever recorded (especially the stuff from 'Dad Man Cat')!

 

Cheers

Malc

Glad you're happy! Andthanks for posting in the Literature forums again, not heard from you in a while.

 

I have to admit to having never read any of RPRs stuff. I take it from your enthusiastic reception of his new work, that you'd recommend his other stuff as well?

 

Cheers

Malc

I'm not making any judgement on their personalities. However, having looked at the evidence available (and I admit, you are probably in a better position to weigh up the TV coverage etc that they have had) I am convinced of the argument that they were not guilty of the crime that they have been convicted of. As what kind of epople they are, I couldn't make a judgement on that.

 

Thanks

Malc

I apologise if someone has brought this up before, but I feel it's a subject that this community might be interested in.

 

The West Memphis 3 are a group of young men who have been convicted of the murder of three young boys. However, the evidence against them in no way stands up to investigation and is, in the main, purely circumstancial or hearsay. There are strenuous efforts going on to view these three individuals who, after reading the evidence, I belive are completely innocent of the crimes that they have been convicted of.

 

Please take a moment to visit the West Memphis 3 website and make up your own mind.

 

Thanks

Malcolm

Quote

I thought we had a thread devoted just to movies (well, and the requisite tangents we leap on)...

 

Well, yes we do. However, if people are going to do reviews (and I should have thought of this before posting any reviews myself) is put REVIEW in the title of the thread, along with the title of the film/gig or whatever you are reviewing. Also, if review movies and stuff, please try not to include spoilers, just in case others haven't seen it yet.

 

Cheers

Malc

'Euro Trash Girl' is a great song, although I have to admit to having only heard the original version by Cracker (which is years old and in a totally different style). It's cool that someone is doing cover versions of songs by obscure American college rock bands. I'll need to get my hands on the CoS version to hear what it's like.

 

Cheers

Malc

A strange thing, is HOL. Never really been able to work it out to any great extent. Very amusing in a strange sort of way, though.

 

Cheers

Malc

I decided not to even bother reviewing the Fugazi gig as it was very, very dull indeed.

 

Cheers

Malc

How curious! The CPUK Dating Forums! Ah, the quest for love, the desire for companionship. However, is it possible to recite a VNV Nation song? Must ask my mate Industrial Dave, he knows about these things. The specification of being clean is good, kind of like Pauls granddad in 'A Hard Days Night': "He's a very clean old man." "Yes, he is, isn't he?" (all done in Paul McCartney and John Lennon voices).

 

All the best in your quest. Hope something turns up for you. If not, theres always the choice of joining a convent.

 

Cheers

Malc

Quote

Quote   'SoleSides Greatest Bumps'   Is this the one with "I changed my mind" on it?

 

That one's on 'Quannum Spectrum', same people, different album. Equally good though.

 

Cheers

Malc

And you can't beat good old stuff like XTC, Bomb The Bass, Public Enemy, Talking Heads and all the rest.

 

Quote

The Police Madness The Clash The 80's didn't get any better then these groups.

 

Have to agree with that as well.

 

Cheers

Malc

DJ Shadow, Glasgow Barrowlands, 28 Oct 2002

 

Arrived a touch too late to see the support acts, which is a shame, as Fingathing are reputed to be pretty good live. Anyway, shortly after 9.00 the man himself appears on stage to what can only be described as rapturous applause, massed cheering and general goodwill from the capacity crowd. Rather than immediately jump in to his set, he spends about five minutes talking with the crowd, explaining what he's going to do, what his set up is and so forth.

 

The set itself varies widely from brand new stuff to tracks from 'Pre-emptive Strike', 'Endtroducing' and the latest offering, 'The Private Press'. Beginning slowly, he builds the tempo up gradually, slipping in a familiar beat here and there to further cheers from the crowd. In between tracks he keeps up communication with the crowd and he certainly does seem like an artist who is genuinely pleased and surprised by the reception he gets from his fans.

 

If the new tracks that were played are anything to go by, then the next DJ Shadow release should be absolutley storming. Lets hope we don't have to wait five years for it next time. Genuinely innovative use of the sampler was appreciated. It's the first time I've seen anyone actually 'play' a sixteen track sampler live. Let's get this in context: most people would hit the button, play the sample and that's it. Oh no, not DJ Shadow. Tracks composed entirely of him playing the sampler like a piano were amazing demonstrations of skill, timing and artistry. Even more impressive was the linking of the sampler to video as well as audio tracks. Highlight of this was when an entire track was played using audio and video samples from a drumming instruction video. Amazingly impressive.

 

All the above having been said, it was the old classics that really got the crowd going. A blistering version of 'Organ Donor' was a sure-fire crowd pleaser and a cracking version of 'Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain' received thunderous applause. Tracks from 'The Private Press' included a very extended (and incredibly impressive) version of 'Fixed Income' and a scratch-laden 'Walkie Talkie'. Shadow made sure there was a mix of new and familiar stuff, guaranteed to keep everyone happy.

 

Mention must be made of the visuals which accompanied the show. I didn't catch the name of the guy who was running them, but he was effectively DJing video in time to the music. Massively impressive and worthy of the credit that DJ Shadow gave him.

 

Leaving the stage for the first time, Shadow was bombarded with a barrage of cheers, applause and yells from the crowd. He was gracious and friendly, thanking everyone effusively. However, the cheers from the crowd were even louder when trying to get him back on stage for an encore. Which he dutifully did, leaving us with an absolutely crushing version of 'High Noon', an old classic from 'Pre-emptive Strike'. All in all, an amazing gig from an amazing performer.

 

DJ Shadow's just a guy who plays records? Yeah, right.

 

For more information, go to the DJ Shadow website.

There's always a pleasing difference of opinion on music on these boards, with tastes ranging from Norwegian industro-goth techno death grindcore hate metal to freeform hiphop/salsa underground hardcore country & western crossovers.

 

However, I thought I'd just make a quick post relating to one of my favourite musical styles, hip hop. Just a few recommendations of albums that I think are worth getting your hands on if you like this kind of thing or feel like sampling it for the first time.

 

'SoleSides Greatest Bumps' - Quannum Project (a collective made up of the likes of Lateef, Asia Born, DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and so on)

'The Unknown' - Mark B & Blade (one of th best British hip hop albums in recent years)

'Endtroducing' - DJ Shadow (no reason, just buy it)

'Blazing Arrow' - Blackalicious (a relatively recent release with some great guests on it)

'Tommy Boy's Greatest Beats' - Tommy Boy Records (a fantastic compilation of the first fifteen years of one of hip hops most influential and innovative labels)

'Superhero Music' - Fingathing (who would have thought that a DJ and a guy playing double bass would sound so good)

'The Platform' - Dilated Peoples (brilliant piece of production, great turntabling and vocals)

'Cooler' - Collapsed Lung (perhaps best known for the irritating 'Eat My Goal', this album is far better than that)

'Third Eye Vision' - Hieroglyphics (first heard them on the 'Technical Difficulties' snowboard video and never looked back)

 

If anyone else has anything to say on this, fire away.

 

Cheers

Malc

I've decided to start putting up capsule reviews of any interesting gigs that I go to, just like Boneshaker did with Sheep On Drugs. If anyone else feels like doing this, go for your life.

 

Tonight it's DJ Shadow and tomorrow night it's those stalwarts of the punk scene, Fugazi.

 

Handy things to include in a review would be:

 

Where and when it was

A link to the band/artists website

Any highlights/lowlights of the gig

Any listening recommendations for those who might not have heard of the band/artist before

 

Cheers

Malc

 

Well, I'm off to see DJ Shadow perfrom in Glasgowthis evening, so in the spirit of recent gig reviews by Boneshaker et al, I'll post a review of the gig this evening when I get in. His latest album 'The Private Press' is excellent, so here's hoping the gig will live up to the standard set by this and the seminal 'Endtroducing'.

 

More news this evening.

I've only got one Sheep On Drugs single 'Let The Good Times Roll' from many years ago. It is good though.

 

Cheers

Malc

I was confused for a moment there, I thought you were talking about SOD of 'Speak English Or Die!' fame. I had no idea Sheep On Drugs were now calling themselves SOD. I wonder if the other SOD know about this?

 

Hmmmm....

 

Cheers

Malc

Quote

Use of your God like moderator power perhaps?

 

No use of powers here. I would only remove posts under certain circumstances, and this wasn't one of them. I can only assume that Boneshaker might have decided to remove them. Which is odd, as there didn't seem to be any problem with the posts.

 

Cheers

Malc