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Vurt book 2
1. Pollen
by Jeff Noon
- Same series
- Same author
Pollen is Jeff Noon's second novel, set in Manchester, a drug-filled fantasy that follows a Vurt-world detective.
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Vurt book 3
2. Automated Alice
by Jeff Noon
- Same series
- Same author
This is an eclectic retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland. When Alice steps into the grandfather clock she is transported in time from 1860 to 1998, to an automated...
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Vurt book 4
3. Nymphomation
by Jeff Noon
- Same series
- Same author
Nymphomation is Jeff Noon's fourth novel in the Vurt series, a surreal Manchester thriller about the new dream drug.
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4. Mindplayers
by Pat Cadigan
- On the same lists
Allie Haas likes to get high. Her dealer likes to get her high. One day he convinces her to try a new, stolen madcap' - very illegal. The experience nearly...
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The Clockwork Century book 1 Start here
5. Boneshaker
by Priest, Cherie
- On the same lists
Steampunk in an alternate American Civil War, also a gold rush, and some zombies. A literary novel that blends the fantasy, science fiction, horror, and alternate history genres.
This one is for the discerning steampunk reader who loves a well-thought-out tale, great writing, and an interesting premise. Set in an alternative American Civil War, a son’s quest to...
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6. Count Zero
by Gibson, William
- On the same lists
Bobby Newmark, the self-styled 'Count Zero' is just getting started as a hacker, and is still an amateur. There comes a day when he is asked to test some new...
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7. Islands In The Net
by Bruce Sterling
- On the same lists
Imagine the world as an alternate 1985, where Whitney Houston's ubiquitous voice, those eyeball-raping neon colors, leg warmers, Kirk Cameron's ubiquitous face didn't exist. Actually, anything would have been better...
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8. Hardwired
by Walter Jon Williams
- On the same lists
Cowboy used to be a Delta pilot, up till the Soviet Orbital took out his business. Now he is a smuggler ridin' around in a tricked out hovertank that he...
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Crashcourse book 1 Start here
9. Crashcourse
by Wilhelmina Baird
- On the same lists
Nobody wants to live on Earth. The place is a hole, and a lethal one at that. Cass, Moll, and Dosh are working on getting off-world and never coming back....
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10. The Fortunate Fall
by Raphael Carter
- On the same lists
The narrator of this novel is a whale in a technological future society. There is no privacy, not even your own thoughts, and homosexuality is a crime.
Maya Andreyeva is a camera in a world that has become ever more wired, and everywhere is a third world country - except for Africa, where you need to have...
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Otherland book 1 Start here
11. Otherland
by Williams, Tad
- On the same lists
This one has been around for a long while now and pre-dates the whole LitRPG movement. However, as the premise of the story takes place partly in a massive, realistic...
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Artificial Reality Division book 1 Start here
12. Tea From An Empty Cup
by Pat Cadigan
- On the same lists
You'd think that Artificial Reality couldn't kill you, since legally speaking, everything is a lie in AR anyway. But that seems to be just exactly what happened - in a...
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Revelation Space book 2
13. Chasm City
by Alastair Reynolds
- On the same lists
Chasm City is the story of what happens when utopia is hit by an epidemic. The story is told through the eyes of Tanner Mirabel, who decides to travel to...
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New Crobuzon book 1 Start here
14. Perdido Street Station
by Miéville, China
- On the same lists
The cycle blends multiple genres, including Steampunk, Sci Fi, and Horror. Magic is commonplace and practiced by skilled professionals.
The famous (or infamous, depending how you view the New Weird movement) novel is generally considered one of the founding pillars of the New Weird genre. This novel meets many...
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15. Anathem
by Stephenson, Neal
- On the same lists
Wow, what a ride from beginning to end. True to a Neal Stephenson tradition, it ties a number of completely different ideas and themes together into a (somehow) working thread....
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16. Schismatrix Plus
by Bruce Sterling
- On the same lists
This series is a pioneering example of this sub-genre.
Almost as important as Greg Egan’s work in describing posthumanity is Bruce Sterling’s sequence of Mechanist and Shaper stories in which posthumanity is divided between those who use mechanical means...
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17. The Anubis Gates
by Powers, Tim
- On the same lists
An award winning novel that has time travel, historical figures, Egyptian mythology, and 19th century England.
In creating this world, Powers borrowed ideas from all over the place. Mythology, Ancient Egyptian theology, quantum theory, and classical literature“ they're all used in The Anubis Gates. It's a...
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18. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
by Dick, Philip K.
- On the same lists
A novel that contains images that are Retro Futuristic, but is also a story about a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Set in a post-Nuclear War society, the future is pretty bleak. People are being encouraged to leave the planet for parts unknown and are being given an incentive, their own...
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19. The Stars My Destination
by Alfred Bester
- On the same lists
A mechanic is the sole survivor on a ship that is just a wreck.
He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead. Gully Foyle is a shipwrecked sailor abandoned out in space, and when ships pass him by without stopping...
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20. Snow Crash
by Stephenson, Neal
- On the same lists
Considered by some as a parody of Cyberpunk. This novel popularized and cemented its use of the term avatar to describe online virtual bodies
Meet Hiro Protagonist: hacker, samurai swinging swordsman and pizza delivery boy. When his best friend dies of a brain fry and his ex girlfriend asks for his help, Hiro switches...
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21. Accelerando
- On the same lists
Ever since the computer became a fixture in the ordinary life of every one of us, it has been one of the most potent images in the idea of posthumanity....
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22. The Diamond Age
by Stephenson, Neal
- On the same lists
A coming of age story for a young girl in a world where nanotech has become part of all aspects of life.
Unlike the typical steampunk,, Neal Stephenson’s masterpiece does not feature steam and clockwork technology, but futuristic nano-technology that’s pervaded society on every level. This novel is so much more than...
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Takeshi Kovacs book 1 Start here
23. Altered Carbon
by Morgan, Richard K.
- On the same lists
Humans can transfer their conciousness into new bodies. This sets up a detective style story about a murder.
After dying in a particularly gruesome death, ex UN-envoy Takeshi Kovacs wakes up to find himself "re-sleeved" into a fresh body with a job offer: find who killed Laurens Bancroft...
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24. Blood Music
by Bear, Greg
- On the same lists
A biotechnologist hides his biological computer creation in his body, but then they multiply and evolve. One of the first Sci Fi stories to treat DNA as a computational system that can be modified.
If Xenogenesis explores the emergence of posthumanity through exogamy, Blood Music explores it through infection. A renegade biotechnologist faces having his research shut down, so he injects himself with the...
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The Sprawl book 1 Start here
25. Neuromancer (1985)
by Gibson, William
- On the same lists
Gibson is the father of Cyberpunk and this novel in particular is significant. In this novel the term cyberspace is coined.
Case was the best hacker in the Sprawl until his employers damaged his nervous system, and now he can no longer reach cyberspace. He drifts through the criminal underworld of...
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26. The Windup Girl (2010)
by Bacigalupi, Paolo
- On the same lists
In a future Bangkok, walled in against rising seas and kept alive by a ruthless seed bank, the world's calories are controlled by a few giant corporations. Anderson Lake poses...
Matches come from series and authors, from the lists the books share, and from the books readers open together. They are rebuilt every night. Back to Vurt.
The shortlist
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