Books

I've read all three but in terms of quality Ready Player One shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Neuromancer or Snow Crash. Those two was genre defining unique originals that were a departure from sci-fi of that time. Ready Player One was a list of movies the author enjoyed. It can be a funny, silly, relaxing read if you just want junk food, but it's not really comparable to the others.

I read Neuromancer when it came out, in the 80's. It was mindblowing. My parents had just bought our first microwave around then, the cordless phone in the house was like a huge walky talky, I was a huge nerd because I had a Commodore 64...

I tried Ready Player One, but I struggled to get into it, and it's actually what got me on to Snow Crash in the first place

Cryptonomicon is his best work imo. It is such a vibe all the way through, and absolutely hilarious at times. The masturbation analysis and graphs, and the cereal tangent get me every time.

Cryptonomicon is such a good book. Even the audiobook is done really well.

"No, fuckhead!" Shaftoe yells. "You kill 'em because they've got fucking swords! You ever had anyone running at you waving a fucking sword?

Book was written like it was a wannabe movie script. Predictable and kinda shallow, IMO. Not bad, but not really great either.

Just looked this up and it has gone straight on to my backlog, thanks for the recommendation!

I much prefered diamond age to snow crash. I liked them both but found that snow crash started strong and didn't quite maintain.

ReamDe (lots of Washington locations)

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell was also great.

The idea of simulating people's minds and what they would look like from their perspective along with a pile biblical/classic mythology metaphors.

Or Little Brother, which is also by Cory Doctorow.

Just added Accelerando to my backlog. Thanks for the recommendation 😀

I tried reading that book three times already and had to give up about a third of the way in. I want to like it so much too.

That, then Daemon

I’ll give that one a so-so rating IMO. It took forever to reach the inevitable catastrophe, it really felt dragged out. However, I found the post-event culture, technology, and societal groups fascinating…and as soon as things got interesting he ended the story. I’d gladly read a series about those cultures, there was tons of room for worldbuilding.

(Sorry about the indirect wording, I don’t want to give up any spoilers)

I enjoyed the first half, but the second half was just strange. Like everyone in each gene line has the exact same personality and features? Meh.

Loved this one. The series fizzles out a bit, but this one is great.

Gibson’s books are really good, but they can also be a chore sometimes. He swaps in and out so many different characters I never really feel like I’m getting any continuity.

The Peripheral is one of the better ones with some good characters, but IMO some of his other books don’t flow so well.

I'd throw The Windup Girl out there too, though it goes more towards biopunk then cyberpunk.