I want to get into a habit of at least writing out one post for Sunday, like the one I did before doing the Axiom Verge review. So I started writing out the previous post on Sunday with the idea that I would do a little link list like last time—with this one being slightly more audio oriented than the other one with both new pods and music.
I think between laundry day, assembling a new hamper in between loads, and not brewing a tumbler of caffeinated tea after work (either Yerba Mate, or Twinnings English/Irish Breakfast), I didn't realize that I ran out of energy. I got to the point of trying to explain RoadQuest before drawing a complete blank and calling it a night.
The next day, when I did get around to writing Monday's post, I thought that the new direction it headed was better than what I initially outlined mentally.
I think for now I'll stay on the literary train and keep it brief for now. Here's a video I watched a few months back from Rebecca Watson's second YouTube channel (Rebecca Vs. Life), in which she reviews William Gibson's Neuromancer...
Admittedly some of the best cyberpunk work I've experienced outside of reading Cory Doctorow is via different mediums. The original Ghost in the Shell film from 1995 was technically my first introduction to the science fiction sub-genre around my junior year of high school. Then, when I discovered Doctorow via a former co-worker, that was also when I watched a playthrough of a game called Snatcher that was part-thriller and part-mystery. Post-college, it was the film Akira along with playthroughs of Read-Only-Memories and VA-11 Hall-A, then the film Blade Runner, and eventually reading Neuromancer.
I'm with Watson on this, and I find that dense, technical prose is what makes cyberpunk a bit of a hard digest. The issue isn't just restricted to Neuromancer since I got the same vibe from Read-Only-Memories at times and I enjoyed that game for the setting and characters alone, and some of Doctorow's own books read similarly.
A lot of the titles mentioned that are easier to comprehend usually lean towards thrillers, which isn't a bad thing, but some of them lean into old action movie tropes—or the closest facsimile to them anyway. It's far from a deal breaker for me, but it makes them harder to suggest to anyone who is curious about this little niche of sci-fi.
Me? I might be biased in my recommendations, but Cory Doctorow is definitely a good cyberpunk author to start out with—Makers was the book that got me hooked on his work and Little Brother is excellent for those into Young Adult Literature.
I would also consider the game, Hypnospace Outlaw, to be cyberpunk in part due to its setting and presentation. At the same time, it's partly a parody of the late 1990s Internet and Microsoft along with being an alternate history game, making everything click together gracefully without having to piece together strings of technical and philosophical code.
Of course, Read-Only-Memories also has my seal of approval and, without spoiling anything, references Neuromancer.
I also believe, that Jaz Jazalyn's poetry novel, vVilrRuUsS, would fit into the definition of cyberpunk. That's currently the vibe I get as I'm reading it.
Watson did a follow-up video with a review of another Gibson novel, Virtual Light, which sounds promising. I feel like its another book to add to my to-read list, and possibly put Gibson into my list of favorite cyberpunk (and sci-fi) authors.
That's it for now! Hope you all are having a good week!
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