Neuromancer

Just finished reading this masterpiece for the first time. Jesus, half of the terms from Shadowrun come from this book! Razorgirls, street samurai, punchin' deck, muscle implants, it's crazy! But, yeah, I wouldn't suggest it for the general and potentially immature populace. There's, ya know, sex. A good deal. Some stuff that could warp a young mind, and not just philosophically, either. It makes you want to make characters just as flawed as Chase, with backgrounds like Molly, and crazy like, well, more than six people. I know I want to make me a Maelcum. Seriously, if you love Shadowrun, you have to love the Sprawl trilogy, and I don't mean how you have to love the first Star Wars trilogy to love the original trilogy (protip: ya don't). Sure, their isn't magic, or dragons, or trolls. But you can feel the magic, know impossibly epic characters akin to dragons, and there's a fair share of troll-like joeboy graftees. Just....read it. And then, post your first impressions. GOGOGO!

Glad to see an new initiate in the ways of cyberpunk. Gibson is really where it starts for us... while Gibson had his influences (Blade Runner key among them) he launched the genre of cyberpunk for the rest of us. Shadowrun was more or less FASA mixing Cyberpunk and D&D and running with what came out.

Gibson didn't like the fact that he'd been ripped off, but didn't take any legal action. He more or less said, "Yeah, they stole from me. But I've stolen ideas from other places too. They can keep putting out their version of my work, but I never want to see my name in relation to SR."

Dunno bout you, chummer, but for me... yeah, that's the sort of thing that makes me respect a man. Didn't lay down, didn't back off, but didn't stop new ideas from growing. Aren't many artists these days who'd do that.

I was always curious of how Gibson responded, crossing my fingers for acceptance. But, despite his lack of input/cooperation, I, too, can respect his "taking of the high road." And if he hadn't, we wouldn't have Shadowrun.

Neuromancer is phenominal. It's definitely archetypal as cyberpunk literature.... I'm guessing it's likely the most popular of Gibson's earlier books. If haven't yet followed it up and found Count Zero: do. It's equally great. I might have even liked it more.

Beyond Gibson, if you want cyberpunk that isn't just pulp (which is fun and has its place as well), have you checked out Neal Stephenson? His Snow Crash is a fantastically modelled cyberpunk world. It would take place in maybe a just pre-SR3 era.