Sci-Fi: Cyberpunk Books I Want To Read

Cyberpunk. Before I started to enjoy sci-fi, this was one of the few subgenres that I liked. Then Cyberpunk 2077 came out and I was HYPED. Sure, in the end, it was released as a bit of a mess but I only watched the playthroughs and therefore I didn’t see much of the glitches, bugs, and mess, myself.

When my obsession with both the game and subgenre finally started to die down, I then discovered the joys of Astral Chain and I’m trying to play it thoroughly, not because I want to have 100% completion, but because I want to savor every second of it. There’s a lot of content, but even then, I’m already in the last few files (chapters). I’m trying to REALLY stretch this new subgenre love of mine.

As a last resort I figured, “Well I haven’t checked out any Cyberpunk books yet…”

A quick Amazon search and lots of “add to list” later, I now have a bunch of new books sitting in my TBR. I don’t normally make “new discovery” TBR posts, but this list has been more extensive than any of my previous “book moods” and obsessions that I thought I might as well make it into a list post.

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The ones I already own

I’m starting the list off with the two I already have on my shelves, both recent purchases. Bloodlines by Peter Hartog was free on the day I got it off of Amazon while Snow Crash was a…”I refuse to leave this bookstore without a book” moment.

Bloodlines (The Guardian of Empire City #1) by Peter Hartog

When former hotshot homicide detective Tom “Doc” Holliday is recruited to join Special Crimes, he trades in his boring desk job for a second chance to do what he does best, hunt down killers. And his first case doesn’t disappoint: a murdered woman with a bogus past, her body drained of blood, and two eyewitnesses wasted on the designer drug goldjoy claiming a vampire did it.

For Holliday is no stranger to the unusual. He wields the Insight, a fickle clairvoyance that allows him to see the dark and terrible things that hide upon his world. After all, when you live in Empire City, where magic and technology co-exist, and humanity endures behind walls of stone and spell-forged steel, anything is possible.

Saddled with a team whose past is as checkered as his own, Holliday embarks upon an investigation that pits them against bio-engineered vampires, interdimensional parasites and the magical masterminds behind it all.

From nightclubs and skyscrapers, to underground drug labs and coffee shops, Holliday’s search for the truth will uncover a shadowy conspiracy that spans the ages, and forces him to confront a destiny he never wanted.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you’ll recognize it immediately.

And then I fell into the Amazon rabbit-hole

Into Neon (A Cyberpunk Saga #1) by Matthew A. Goodwin

“Star Wars Meets Blade Runner In An Awesome Adventure!” -Amazon Review (5 Stars)

Moss’ life is going nowhere until a mysterious woman knocks on his door and leaves him with the key to take down one of the world’s largest corporations. When he discovers a familial connection to the stranger, Moss leaves the comfort of his home with his best friend for the sprawling megacity.

There, he joins a group of ruffians dedicated to freeing people from the yoke of the evil companies. Police-for-hire, motorcycle gangs and betrayal threaten them at every turn.

Can Moss help this small group of rebels fight the power before it’s too late? Find out in Into Neon: A Cyberpunk Saga.

Glitch: The Trilogy: The Complete Cyberpunk Horror Collection by Andrew Mackay

Evan Cole was murdered trying to save his tech company. Now, he’s really mad.

Moments before dying, he uploaded himself into the corporation’s mainframe. He’s using 6G to travel through laptops, tablets, and cell phones to hunt down his killers—as violently as possible.

Kara Milton is keeping a dirty secret from her family, and she’ll do anything to keep it quiet. But her life is turned upside down when Evan appears as THE SKULL on her cell phone… and blackmails her into helping him get revenge.

Now, with the odds stacked against them, Evan and Kara will make friends and deadly foes, discover astonishing AIs, and merciless modded mechs. It’s an action-packed journey with unexpected twists and turns that screams to a conclusion that leaves you shaken and questioning your own reality—both virtual and real.

Sol Arbiter (Sol Arbiter #1) by J.N. Chaney and Jia Shen

“They call us Arbiters. We arbitrate conflict to keep the peace.”

In 2853, humanity has established a presence across the solar system. Linked by a network of FTL gateways called Boson Apertures, travel between the 7 colonized worlds and thousands of space colonies takes only hours.

The Sol Federation is the final authority, and the Arbiters travel the system to maintain order.

Arbiters Gabriel Anderson and Tycho Barrett have just been sent to intervene in a growing crisis on Venus. Information is limited, but they know two things:

Tower 7 has gone completely dark, and security androids are killing civilians.

No one knows what has become of the tower’s 520,000 residents or who is responsible for the mysterious assault, but the priority of the mission is clear.

Tycho and Gabriel must breach the tower, investigate the missing civilians, and locate the one responsible… all while trying to stay alive.

Witness the beginning of an expansive scifi epic in this first entry to the Sol Arbiter series. If you’re a fan of Altered Carbon, Dredd, or Blade Runner, you’ll love this cyberpunk thrill ride.

Neo Cyberpunk: The Anthology by [multiple authors]

A clone searching for her identity, an android out of control, a young man fleeing from killer-cyborgs, a synthwave DJ whose music slays, a deadly videogame – and a very hungry cyber-croc.

Welcome to the world of Neo Cyberpunk!

Fifteen of the hottest contemporary cyberpunk authors have joined forces to create a unique anthology. In this book readers will find the full spectrum of modern-day cyberpunk, full of action, mystery, technology and humanity.

Cyberpunk is Now!

Arc City Stories (a cyberpunk anthology) by [multiple authors]

Welcome to Arc City.

A city that exists in a world beyond governments, where war and climate change have destroyed the old order. Corporations are now the authorities of the surviving city states. The elite live in luxury above the clouds in their towers, everyone else lives further down, based on their corporate and economic worth.

Arc City Stories is an exciting, action-packed collection of nine cyberpunk tales, written by eight authors, of various citizens each trying to survive, in their own way, this brave new world.

Drake (The Centre of Magical Affairs #1) by D.M. Gilmore

Asher’s really only good at one thing, and that’s programming spells.

Imagine his frustration when he starts the worst week of his life! He got fired from his tech support job. Then, he’s undercut on an under-the-table deal that would have kept him out of a financial emergency. Now, he’s being roped into a job he’d really doesn’t want do, just to pay the rent!

Steal one mana orb, get ten thousand dollars. That was the deal. Nothing is ever that simple.

He’s far from his comfort zone, and running out of time, But he’s a programmer. Finding creative solutions is all he knows how to do.

Cyberpunk City (The Machine Killer #1) by D.L. Young

For fans of Altered Carbon, Neuromancer, and Snow Crash.

Former data thief Maddox thinks his life of cybercrime is behind him. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Forced by a powerful executive to steal a priceless dataset, Maddox uncovers the shocking truth of a secret war between AIs, raging inside the digital universe known as virtual space. Plunged headlong into the deadly conflict, he’ll have to use every trick he’s ever learned—and a few he’s never tried before—if he wants to survive.

Sprawling megacities, rogue AIs, black market tech, modded mercenaries, and a pulse-pounding story filled with unexpected twists. If you love gritty, hardcore cyberpunk, you won’t want to miss this series!

Neuromancer (Sprawl #1) by William Gibson

Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer is a cyberpunk, science fiction masterpiece—a classic that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus-hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace…

Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.

Liquid Cool: The Cyberpunk Detective Series (Liquid Cool #1) by Austin Dragon

The Sci Fi Detective Thriller Gets Cool…Liquid Cool!
Liquid Cool Book #1 is the action-packed (and funny) FIRST-IN-SERIES.

Meet Cruz — a private detective with a cool hat, laser gun, and attitude. But don’t touch his red hovercar — or you could get shot!

Science fiction and crime fiction blend in the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool as he faces off neon gangsters, sinister cyborgs, corporate samurai soldiers, and laser-gun shootouts solving cases in the rainy supercity of Metropolis.

It isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t a good one either. Uber-governments and megacorporations fight for control of the supercity, but so does crime.

It’s here we meet our unlikely hero in this supercity of a million victims and perpetrators.

In the novel that started it all, author Austin Dragon shows why you never want to meet a cyborg in a dark alley.

Grab Liquid Cool today and begin your action-filled and funny sci fi detective adventure with Cruz and company!