The 22 Best Cyberpunk Novels of All Time

In this book, synners are humans who synthesize experiences. They take images of performers and turn them into packages, essentially NFTs, to be bought and sold. Human and machine blend, reality is incidental — so what is left that’s real in the world?

Trouble was a name to be feared in cyberspace. When international laws shifted, Trouble and her friends went their separate ways, logging off and finding other lives. But when a mysterious hacker emerges using Trouble’s moniker, the real Trouble dives back into cyberspace to put a stop to it.

This novel is a rare one that embodies less the technological side of cyberpunk than the low-life, powerful corporations side of things. It also brings some literary flair. Evolution has reversed. Women are giving birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of human, and so humanity is crawling towards its end. When 26-year-old Cedar turns up pregnant, she goes searching for her biological mother, all the while traversing an ever-more-dangerous world.

Twenty years ago, one search-engine company created an ironclad monopoly. Since then, a global micro-democracy has taken over all of the preexisting governments. While a new election looms, the Heritage party, a corporate coalition, worries if its longtime hold on power might end. This post-cyberpunk thriller tracks the moves of political players, suffuse with corruption, all trying to grab hold of absolute power.

This is another story that is technically post-cyberpunk, particularly since it focuses on a post-apocalyptic world after the fall of a cyberpunk society. Snowman might be the last human on Earth, but he’s on the hunt for answers and other survivors. Perhaps his best friend, Crake, or the woman Oryx, whom they both loved. Did anyone else survive the genetic-engineering apocalypse?

Anwuli Okwudili, AO, was born with multiple physical disabilities. A childhood car accident only compounded these challenges, and so she opted for multiple body augmentations. When a terrible tragedy strikes while she’s at the market, AO goes on the run. But she’s not alone. Her escape is livestreamed with a Fulani herdsman at her side, pitting AO against everyone in a futuristic Nigeria.

Jean le Flambeur is in a cage until Mieli, a woman with amazing modifications, breaks him out. Thing is, she has a job to do, and Jean is going to help. In a walking city on Mars, faces, thoughts, and memories are veiled behind implants and technology. Jean used such technology to hid his own past from himself. Mieli needs Jean to find himself, the truth of who he was and what he did, before he went to prison. But that’s not all she needs.

Jamie Vega is a skeptical journalist. When his boss dies right before a big corporate takeover, Jamie doesn’t believe that it was a suicide, and starts his own investigation. But now Jamie is the prime suspect in that death, and he has no memories of that evening. You see, Jamie is Sleepless, not needing sleep, though how he gained that ability is a story in itself. Powerful corporations and radical extremists groups are playing people like pawns, and Jamie might not survive the game.

Lu’s entry is both one of the best cyberpunk novels ever, but also a YA title. Warcross is a game unlike any other, a global sensation for millions across the planet. Emika is a teen working as a bounty hunter in Warcross, hunting down players who illegally bet on the game. When a hacking attempt on the Warcross Championships goes awry, Emika is suddenly as famous as the game. Instead of being arrested, however, the game’s creator reaches out with an offer Emika cannot resist.

Silicon Isle is an island that China has designated as the dumping ground for all electronics. Mimi works there as a waste worker. She was promised a better life, but only servitude and toxic waste are there for her. Local gangs, ecoterrorists, American investors, and the Chinese government are heading toward conflict. Mimi might be the only one who can protect herself and the rest of Silicon Isle.

Alita is a cyborg with few memories. Her head was discovered in a junkyard, after all. A doctor finds her, builds her a body, and cares for her. She has skills, though: deadly ones. And she’s going to use those skills not only as a bounty hunter, but to unearth the secrets of her own past.

Ghost in the Shell is another cyberpunk classic, certainly one of the best cyberpunk novels ever, and one that takes the technological themes to their extreme and inevitable end. People upgrade themselves with technology, and robots use human skin as upgrades. Motoko is a powerful robot charged with hunting the criminal underworld bent on using these blends of tech and humanity to control regular people like puppet.

Cassandra Price works in tech support, but not just for any plain computer. She works on Azoth, the godlike AI that rules over humanity. Then one day, she’s pulled into the digital underworld of Azoth, finding a group of magical women with incredible power to help the world, but they cannot decide how. Now Cassandra might be the savior of humanity, if only she can untangle the web of deceit around her.

YourLife is the biggest social media company in the world, and its founders, Ed and Nate, are rich and famous as a result. There’s also an infamous group of white hat hackers known as sve_Urs3lf, much loved and heralded. When it’s discovered that Ed and Nate are also sve_Urs3lf, the world is thrown into turmoil. How can Ed and Nate help, let alone survive?

Set in a time after the “cloud has burst,” everyone keeps their identities secret. Why? Because all private information was made public, and so the internet is no more. This story focuses on an unlicensed private investigator who takes on a case that will change his life, and possibly the world.