[savaze]

I was just wondering what people are reading/have read that relates to the SR universe (excluding SR novels, Gibson, and Tolkien since they're kind of a given and other game specific novels).  I'm trying to make a list of some reading material, I read a lot and I'm always looking for more books (plus others could probably benefit from this info).  This list could probably get obnoxiously long and it's probably been done before, but...


Tad Williams wrote the Otherlands series (sci-fi, Matrix coolness)

John Scalzi wrote Old Man's War and subsequent books (sci-fi in the spirit of Heinlein, you can almost go down the list in the cyber/bio section of the SR books)

Larry Correia wrote the Monster Hunters series (modern-day, Lovecraftian monsters and heavy gun play and tactics)

E. E. Knight wrote the Vampire Earth series (post-apocalyptic, on how aliens are really are the cause of the mythical and current [2060's] monster problem) and the Age of Fire series (fantasy, 1st person perspective from intelligent dragons)

Steven R. Boyett wrote Ariel and it's sequel (post-apocalyptic, magic returns and technology/physics can't function at the same time as maigic) [just got the book and haven't read it yet]

Simon R. Green wrote the Nightside series (modern-day England, detective hired to go into a magical realm) [haven't read yet]

Jim Butcher wrote the Dresden series (modern-day America, detective that's a mage)

Patrick Rothfuss wrote The King Killer Chronicles (fantasy, following warrior/poet/mage named Kvothe) [second book releases in March]

Tom Clancy wrote Rainbow Six and a slew of other military fiction (modern-esq, international anti-terrorist unit and their exploits)

Robert Ludlum wrote the Jason Bourne novels (set in the 1970's, spy novels)

Ian Fleming and others wrote the James Bond Novels (need I say more)

Mark Chadbourn wrote the Age of Misrule series (modern-day England, Celtic magic is returning along with mythical creatures) [just started reading]

Weis and Hickman wrote the Deathgate Cycle series (fantasy, aftermath of the war of opposing magical theories/practices)

Andrzej Sapkowski wrote the Witcher novels (fantasy, monster slayer with morals, shades of gray world - not black and white) [only a few are translated into English]


I tried to list a broad spectrum.  I'll see if I can think of anything else that I've read or been eyeballing, after I get some sleep.

[Malroth]

Warren Ellis:  He usually does a wonderful job with dystopian and/or future settings.  Hit and miss for sure, but for a SR type setting, I've always had a soft spot for Transmetropolitan.  Corps are powerful, politicians are corrupt, technology run a muck, and Spider is a wonderful, bad, bad man.

[Acme]

George Alec Effinger because he was considered a cutting edge cyberpunk when he wrote When Gravity Fails, and an interesting read due to his decision to depart from the usually used West and set WGF in a prosperous Middle East.  It reads a lot like a noir novel, and the main character has an interesting take on that world's cybertech.  If you can FIND IT, Cyberpunk even put out a supplement based on the WGF world so you can get some ideas in that in how to adapt towards SR.

[Kot]

Sapkowski is a self-obsessed bore, who likes the sound of his own voice and tries to bolster his ego by using 'difficult words' and obscure references. But it's a mediocre fantasy series, if you count out his first two books - they're full of short stories based on fairy tales in a fantasy setting, with the Witcher as a main character, and they're great.

I'd say Walter John Williams with his Hardwired would be a good choice if you want to give Machine a bit more focus.
For the Magic in Our World angle it would be good to dust off Mike Resnick and his Stalking the Unicorn series. There's also a good amount of noir involved.

[savaze]

I'll agree about Sapkowski.  I finished reading the English Translated The Last Wish, but I couldn't force myself to finish Blood of Elves.  I included it for the sammie persona, more so than relation to SR.  Though, I do enjoy the non-tolkien mythology.

I have no problem with noir books, I read everything.  I probably single handedly keep Barnes and Nobles and Borders in business, unfortunately I don't have any used bookstores worth their salt nearby and I'm on multi-year wait lists at the public library.  I need a Redbox style bookstore (that wouldn't fly so well with publishing companies)...

[Crimsondude]

Walter Jon Williams and Orson Scott Card have a writing group here that I would kill to get into. And Hardwired is not even my favorite novel like another freelancer whose own copy is sitting on my desk so I can get Williams to autograph it.

I would say Planetary is also a good influence since the drummer is a lot like I see TMs and the JackPointer Elijah is based on Elijah Snow.

[Digital_Viking]

I would say Planetary is also a good influence since the drummer is a lot like I see TMs and the JackPointer Elijah is based on Elijah Snow.

Plus Midnighter for The Authority is very much a Street Sam IMO.

[Kot]

Savaze, try hunting for The Sword of Destiny, it's still worth it. As for the whole saga, you wouldn't like the 'metaplot'. Elves did it.

[Archivist]

Agreed that the Drummer from Planetary is a great example of a technomancer.  And the series itself is fantastic.   

Neal Stephenson  Snow Crash.  Hackers, cyber combat, floating refugee city, corporate self-governance...  Fantastic
Peter Hamiltion  Fallen Dragon.  sci-fi but set on a single planet, bio and cyber augmentation, nano tech, corporate military, hacking security systems.  Also a single contained novel instead of his usual lenghty series.
Charlie Huston  Sleepless.  2012 USA under martial law following a plague.  Online gamers, drug dealers, squatters in abandoned malls, nightclubbing hyper-rich, National Guard APCs on the street corners, private security forces, a pharmaceutical mega-corp, and one tired, beatdown undercover cop.
Steven Barnes  Street Lethal.  a bodyguard/pit fighter for a cartel.  Black market body parts.  Post-quake California weirdness.

[Frostriese]

!!!

First and foremost of course Neuromancer by William Gibson has to be named. Or the Sprawl Trilogy in general, but the other two parts are subpar. I mean, Shadowrun's (original) formula was Cyberpunk+Magic, and the cyberpunk part was often taken right out of the Sprawl Trilogy. So, thats about closes connected to SR.

And I guess just about any of the modern "Urban Fantasy" comes close to SRs concept of combining modernity and magic. Of course, a large part of it (like the entire craptactular but seemingly never ending Vampire literature) is simply not worth it.

[savaze]

Walter Jon Williams and Orson Scott Card have a writing group here that I would kill to get into.

Brandon Sanderson seems to have an in with Orson Scott Card and he's big on community input, where he seems to gather a lot of his test readers...

I suppose the Cyberpunk and Urban Fantasy genres hits the nail on the head.  The reason I excluded Gibson and Tolkien is because that's often times how I've heard SR described (they're both great writers, but they're the standard).  You can thank Hollywood and Anne Rice for the romanticized version of the vampire and the never ending dross that's come out over the last two decades...

Maurice Broaddus wrote King Maker: The Knights of Breton Court (urban fantasy, King Arthur in a gang) [waiting around on my shelf for me to read it]

Michale Crichton wrote Prey (Modern, nano swarm gone rogue) maybe some of his other books would apply as well

Phillip K Dick has to be included because of his paranoid vision of the future and some of his ideas seem appropriate if not inspirational

Terri Windling (Bordertown series) and Jane Lindskold (Changer) have both been recommended to me, but I've never gotten around to looking them up

[Crimsondude]

Michael Crichton's idiotic anti-science pablum and shit writing should forever keep him off a list of this sort.

[Acme]

I dunno, CD- I disagree.  While I'd snip the last few books he wrote before cacking due to its edging towards political bias, I'd say that the stuff he wrote from about Jurassic Park previous have a lot of entertainment value.  Hell, the computer sequences in JP were a lot better done than the movie showed (No UNIX with a GUI for instance).  I've always viewed him as more of a "anti- runaway science" writer than just necessarily an anti-science.

[Frostriese]

The reason I excluded Gibson

Ah, oops...hehe...
(Hm, the forum needs a proper embarrassed smilie, the one it suggests for that looks rather depressed than embarassed)

[savaze]

Michael Crichton's idiotic anti-science pablum and shit writing should forever keep him off a list of this sort.

Though I see your point, I'll still take inspiration from any source...

I dunno, CD- I disagree.  While I'd snip the last few books he wrote before cacking due to its edging towards political bias, I'd say that the stuff he wrote from about Jurassic Park previous have a lot of entertainment value.  Hell, the computer sequences in JP were a lot better done than the movie showed (No UNIX with a GUI for instance).  I've always viewed him as more of a "anti- runaway science" writer than just necessarily an anti-science.

IMO there's very few books that have translated well to the big screen.  It seems there's always some major hiccups and/or actor issues to make the movie so radically different as to morph it into a different beast.