It's weird that he mentions Snow Crash without even mentioning that it is a parody of cyberpunk that is making fun of the self-serious nature of the genre. I mean Stephenson's hero protagonist is literally named "Hiro Protagonist", the crime lord Uncle Enzo controls pizza delivery rather than something like hard drugs, and features countries that exist as franchises like fast food restaurants. I like the book, don't get me wrong, but the way the OP (and others) talk about the book you wouldn't expect it to be a comedy as it is.
I liked it when I read it. But you are the first person that also sees the book as satire. I started hating the book because so many people think it's so amazing when it's supposed to be like space balls.
Ready Player One is not a good book. It starts with an interesting premise then devolves in to a competition for how many 80s references it can fit in each sentence.
I liked it, but if you think it had too many references from the 80s, you should check the other book he wrote out of the library. I tried to read it and thought it was a joke at first, as it is 100x more than RP1.
For anyone into cyberpunk, I recommend checking out Alfred Bested, who seriously influenced the genre.
His two masterpieces, The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man, could both be called "proto-cyberpunk", but the one that I think comes closest is Extro (1975, also published as The Computer Connection). It's a crazy, fun, ballsy, flawed novel that was panned when it came out, but way ahead of its time.
This list is so generic, so uninspired, that I'd of thought an AI generated it had it not been for the advertisement for the author's own book at the top and bottom of the page... Actually, I'm still not convinced it wasn't generated by an AI.
It is not AI, and the author shared the books he felt revolutionized the genre. You might disagree with him, but let's not be rude and call him AI. Every author we do these with signs an honor statement that they will not use AI for anything on the website (and will be blacklisted if they do). We also screen for this.
If you are looking for some outside-the-box Cyberpunk recommendations...
