In case you’re a fan of the slick, neon-drenched aesthetic of Cyberpunk 2077, there are a couple of books you must add to your studying record. From gritty, techno futuristic tales to superbly drawn graphic novels, there’s something on the market for any fan.

Whether or not you want the sport or not, the extremely stylized world of Cyberpunk 2077 could be very specific. Nonetheless, it’s something however unique and has been round in some type or one other for a very long time. This implies there’s a nice record of books for avid readers. Strive a few of these books for Cyberpunk 2077 followers to delve again into the technocentric world of the longer term.

Neuromancer – William Gibson

This record can solely begin with one creator, and that’s the exceptional William Gibson. His wonderful writing type and sophisticated creativeness launched us to among the most game-changing theories in science fiction. Delving into this e-book from 1984 reveals simply how a lot of the world he predicted approach earlier than it had transpired.

Neuromancer takes us into the thoughts of what could possibly be in comparison with a Netrunner. Having been beforehand faraway from accessing our on-line world on account of nervous system harm, they’re allowed again in with surgical procedure. Nonetheless, they must do a job for one of many Corps, and in the event that they begin to mess around, poison sacks will harm our character’s nervous system once more, irreparably eradicating them from our on-line world.

The e-book is full of evil companies, punk rock underground networks, edgy tech, and unlawful actions. The winding, advanced story takes us on a breakneck trip via the longer term world of the web, our on-line world, and again alley punk dealings. It’s an unbelievably slick narrative—a must-read e-book for any fan of Cyberpunk 2077. In case you’re a fan, you’ll be happy to know that it’s a part of the Sprawl Trilogy, so get studying.

Ghost in The Shell – Masamune Shirow

Once I heard Hollywood had picked up this basic manga to adapt to live-action, my coronary heart dropped. I used to be not stunned by how badly they massacred it, however that doesn’t imply I wasn’t nonetheless upset. I knew it could be lots of people’s first look into the manga and the anime, and it’d flip them away from among the finest cyberpunk collections accessible.

Ghost within the Shell works across the idea that if you happen to can exchange nearly each a part of your physique with cybernetics, when do you cease being human? The place is the ghost of your self within the cybernetics shell? That is additionally broached closely in Cyberpunk 2077 with the CyberPhychos. Typically, you possibly can develop into an excessive amount of tech and lose your thoughts and humanity.

Ghost within the Shell follows a bunch of crime fighters via the neon streets of a cyberpunk future. They crack down on cybercriminals who like to take advantage of the world’s obsession with cybernetics. Brains are hacked, robotic our bodies are commandeered, and the books dig into the philosophies of what makes us human. They’re superbly illustrated and have deeply shifting moments of reflection seamlessly blended with page-ripping motion.

Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is a splendidly fashionable and wild trip via the corporate-owned world of tomorrow. Earth has been cut up up and divided between companies. Non-public militaries vie for worldwide contracts, and human beings have develop into little greater than cogs in big company machines. Nonetheless, our aptly named lead, Hiro Protagonist, by some means turns into deeply concerned within the mafia and worldwide relations. Snow Crash is correct on the sting of comedy, typically satirizing the entire Cyberpunk style, typically merely wallowing in it.

Via a sequence of giant, action-packed scenes, we’re taken via many great worlds on this Cyberpunk novel. Stephenson produces lots of the weaponry and environments in his books, which we see clearly copied in Cyberpunk 2077. Pencil-sized weapons of mass destruction, boots-on-the-ground cybernetic mind hackers, and body-mounted miniguns that fireside depleted uranium shards via 5-inch-thick metal all make their devastating look within the e-book, clearly mirrored in Cyberpunk 2077.

Studying via Snow Crash reveals many stylistic similarities between Cyberpunk 2077 and the world of Stephenson. As a author, he isn’t afraid to color some fairly dramatic scenes spanning complete continents, and this equipped lots of the inspiration for the sport. The deep and concerned politics and economic system of the e-book are an inspiration not only for 2077 however for the cyberpunk style as an entire.

Akira – Katsuhiro Otomo

In case you’re seeking to fill an entire shelf with a masterpiece in artwork and literature, look no additional than the six-book set of Akira. This immaculately informed work of fiction spans many, many pages and tells the devastating story of post-nuclear Neo-Tokyo and the invention of simply what horrors have been left in its wake.

We comply with a biker gang on their journey as they try and rescue one among their pals from the company that has stolen him. The superbly illustrated graphic novels are seminal works within the Cyberpunk style and have closely impacted all future literary worlds, not to mention Cyberpunk 2077.

If the time period, each body a portray, applies to something, it’s the assortment of Akira books. Every cell could possibly be blown as much as poster-sized and displayed on a wall, and for this reason it’s taken as such inspiration for cyberpunk on the entire. The bikes, tangled, cable-strew cities, gnarly punk biker outfits, and robot-centric societies are eternally mirrored within the style.

Noor – Nnedi Okorafor

To make a change from cyberpunk, which is all the time set in both Tokyo or the US, we have now Noor written by Nnedi Okorafor. Regardless of being set in a futuristic Nigeria, the e-book nonetheless carries all the trimmings of the basic science fiction novel. Mega companies management the populace, protecting individuals below their thumb by promoting unimaginatively costly cybernetic prosthetics to individuals and protecting them in indentured servitude to pay them off.

Noor takes a novel view of the historical past and politics not solely in Nigeria but additionally in the remainder of the world. A variety of potent factors are made in regards to the availability of life-changing medical remedies for disabled people. Okorafor additionally appears to be like backward via the lens of the longer term on the historical past of capitalism all through Nigeria and the impression of the battle between farmers and land possession within the space.

In case you’re in search of the capitalist, gritty prison, cyber futuristic themes of Cyberpunk 2077 in your books however need a completely different setting and a few hard-hitting views, Noor is a improbable piece of fiction to choose up.

Do Androids Dream of Electrical Sheep – Philip Ok. Dick

Can I write even one article about science fiction literature with out mentioning Dick? Not but. However there’s all the time due trigger to say his magnificent items of writing, be it a novella or a full work of science fiction. On this case, it’s the foundation for the much-loved cyberpunk-themed movie Blade Runner.

Though the e-book will not be as neon-drenched as most of the others on this record, most of the style’s core themes are undoubtedly there. Our principal character is a detective tasked with looking down escaped androids and executing them. By performing assessments, he is ready to decide simply who’s and isn’t human. This results in a lot of ethical conundrums for him to cope with as he begins to indicate empathy for the almost-human robots.

The themes of capitalist overlords, human reliance on machines, and gritty neo-noir crime fiction are clearly mirrored in Cyberpunk 2077. With the most recent replace of Phantom Liberty, the storyline takes us to the cliche, shuttered, smokey rooms of the detective’s workplace. The story pulls the uncertainty and paranoia of Dicks e-book and combines it with the emblems of the Marlowe tales. For a glance into the place lots of the themes of robotics and the human component started, flip the pages of this cyberpunk deep dive.

Choose Dredd – John Wagner

Maybe not one to instantly leap to everybody’s thoughts when considering of books that relate to Cyberpunk 2007, however actually one I really feel is related. The megacities of Choose Dredd are full of the filth and desperation so generally painted within the cyberpunk style. Megacorporations rule the world, and the disparity between the individuals and the super-rich is an ever-widening hole.

The medication and cybernetic enhancements of Cyberpunk 2077 are clearly drawn from the ugly worlds of Wagner. Individuals have develop into obsessive about enhancements and the benefit of cosmetic surgery and know-how. The promoting of enhancements, black-market organs, and stolen weaponry is rife on the planet of Dredd.

Big monoliths rise all through the cities of thousands and thousands amid arid deserts. The wastelands of Cyberpunk 2077 exist in tandem with the dry, nuclear deserts on the planet of Choose Dredd. Bombed out and uninhabitable, the one issues to exist outdoors the partitions of the cities are mutants and rebels preventing to outlive. The parallels between Cyberpunk 2077 and Choose Dredd’s books are clear to see.

Altered Carbon – Richard Morgan

Though the Netflix present has performed comparatively effectively, I extremely advocate anybody who’s a fan of Cyberpunk 2077 to choose the books up. They’re splendidly filled with loopy future know-how, gritty crime fiction tropes, and a few wickedly participating motion scenes that may maintain you turning the pages.

Like a lot of the books within the record, this cyberpunk novel takes the concept of a detective because the central protagonist. It’s as much as Kovaks to determine who murdered the physique, or sleeve, of the person who employed him. In the way forward for Altered Carbon, consciousness is separate from the physique, permitting individuals to primarily stay eternally.

Kovaks is taken from a compelled storage after committing conflict crimes. He’s employed by a person who has lived for lots of of years to search out out who killed his final physique. He has no reminiscence of the occasion and is satisfied somebody is out to get him.

Altered Carbon is stuffed with all of the intercourse, tech, and hazard that comes together with the world of cyberpunk. Kovaks, being a person outdoors of the legislation, carries the punk component all through the books, lacing it with the precise ranges of criminality. The e-book appears to be like right into a way forward for immortality if you happen to’re wealthy sufficient and the battle to outlive if you happen to’re not.

Vurt – Jeff Midday

Right here we have now a e-book that I really feel Cyberpunk 2077 took inspiration from, however it’s actually not a learn for the uninitiated. It’s advanced, minimalistic, deep, and, at occasions, complicated, however an unbelievable e-book nonetheless. It performs with the concepts of actuality and shared hallucinations, increasing on mind-altering medication and a world that has misplaced contact.

The journeys and medicines utilized in Cyberpunk 2077 push the concept of an alternate actuality, shared however outdoors of the bodily world. In Vurt, the medication taken by the inhabitants are fully outdoors of the bodily world however so frequent they’ve develop into nearly actual. This e-book expands on what could possibly be in a world with manufactured medication.

Vert takes us on a trippy trip because the protagonist searches for a uncommon model of the drug the world loves. His sister has been misplaced inside the hallucinatory world, and he must faucet again into the journey she was by some means misplaced to. This isn’t a e-book for the informal reader, however there isn’t a denying Midday’s talent for world-building and delightful writing.

Phillip Marlowe Assortment – Raymond Chandler

These books usually are not straight cyberpunk in the way in which William Gibson’s are, however I really feel they’re a must-read for any Cyberpunk 2077 fan. The gritty world of neo-noir crime fiction is a transparent affect on the sport and the style usually. These outdated detective novels have the hard-nosed personal investigator punching his approach via his circumstances. Violence, rain-slicked streets, and improbable femme fatales are all run-of-the-mill in Chandler’s extremely fashionable detective novels.

Though the streets that Marlowe stomps are of the Twenties, they nonetheless echo with the identical sounds because the Cyberpunk future. Crime is rife, gangs are in full management, and it’s as much as our disillusioned, alcoholic protagonist to navigate them. The crime is all the time a lot greater than the preliminary plot lets on, and the criminals will all the time attempt to kill Marlowe.

The darkish corners and nasty characters from so way back are acquainted faces in Cyberpunk 2077. In case you actually wish to get into the place the style pulls its characters from, take a learn of those classics.