Best of
Cyberpunk

1997

Diaspora


Greg Egan - 1997
    Of the discovery of an alien race and of a kink in time that means humanity — whatever form it takes — will never again be threatened by acts of God.

Nymphomation


Jeff Noon - 1997
    As a group of mathematics students look at the mind-numbing probabilities involved, they soon find more sinister realities. The Company has developed the nymphomation, and has the power to devour the city's dreams

Wyrm


Mark Fabi - 1997
    But for Michael Arcangelo none of their catastrophe theories are more frightening than the Goodknight virus. Michael suspects it is the work of a mysterious programming genius, who designed it to create a computer role-playing game so real it can kill. Now Michael and his team of techno-wizards must descend into a harrowing and convoluted world of reality and fantasy. But what they discover is even worse than they could have ever imagined. For the so-called game is already out of hand, the virus has taken over the Internet, harnessing the power of the millennial frenzy already sweeping the world. And if they don't find and defeat the twisted mastermind responsible, humanity will wake from its worst nightmare to find the end of the world is truly here.

The Postmodern Archipelago


Michael Swanwick - 1997
    Not since the controversy surrounding the advent of the so-called New Wave writers of the 1960s and early 1970s had anyone dared to categorize writers. A work that was originally intended as an homage, to illuminate the works of many of the younger writers in the field, was vilified in numerous fanzine articles and convention panels. But Swanwick's essay was not intended to generate controversy and it remains, beyond the initial conflagration, a thoughtful and insightful look into the science fiction field of the early to mid-1980s. Herein lies the genesis of writers like William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling and James Patrick Kelly. "A User's Guide to the Post Moderns," is published here for the first time since its initial magazine appearance along with "In the Tradition...", Swanwick's elegant assay on the fantasy genre, and a brand new introduction written specially for this collection.

Exit to Reality


Edith Forbes - 1997
    Lydian is wary of this impossibility. After all, it is the 29th century and such oddities have been eliminated. But curiosity and a desire to jettison her culturally induced techno-stupor lead Lydian to rendezvous with Merle, igniting an unlikely meeting of the minds - and bodies. Lydian and Merle's careening love affair takes them from Paris to Jamaica, from the wrong side of the law to the far side of late-millennium family values, and ultimately, to a face-off between technology and civilization that spurs Lydian to question - and then dismantle - the very essence of human existence.