Here are 100 books that Atomic Fireflies fans have personally recommended if you like
Atomic Fireflies.
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I have enjoyed science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy all my life—especially when the plot includes a ‘David and Goliath’ theme, as these books do. My science teacher introduced me to science fiction in fifth grade, and I have read these genres constantly since then. Not surprisingly, most of my novels and short stories deal with these same themes and genres. They entertain me, they are creative, and they make me think.
This novel is not as well-known as others, but it should be. I’d describe it as a dystopian thriller set slightly in a future where technology has become part of every single aspect of life. Detective Carl Dremmler is tasked with the complexities of investigating a murder by an advanced AI assistant (which should not have been possible).
This fast-paced and thought-provoking story addresses the themes of human autonomy, morality, and the dangers of technological advancement. The writing is excellent, with its premonition of where we might be heading and some of the issues we might encounter. It is thrilling and enjoyable.
The silicon revolution left Dremmler behind but a good detective is never obsolete.London is quiet in 2039—thanks to the machines. People stay indoors, communicating through high-tech glasses and gorging on simulated reality while 3D printers and scuttling robots cater to their every whim. Mammoth corporations wage war for dominance in a world where human augmentation blurs the line between flesh and steel. And at the center of it all lurks The Imagination Machine: the hyper-advanced, omnipresent AI that drives our cars, flies our planes, cooks our food, and plans our lives. Servile, patient, tireless … TIM has everything humanity requires.…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
Between Blade Runner and The Terminator, I was hooked on Cyberpunk. Throw in some Ghost in the Shell and Black Mirror, and the obsession was complete. With the rise of Synthwave as a musical genre and as a retro-futuristic aesthetic, I had both the soundtrack and the visual cues to which I could write Cyberpunk. I also feel strongly about our increasing reliance on technology and the blurring lines between biology and technology. This is something I explore in my writing.
Vaz Anzai collects all five episodes from his Strange Tales from The City Of Dust series in this absolutely breathtaking omnibus that also includes bonus short stories, author notes, and exclusive artwork. With great, and varied, characters, fascinating technology, and gritty Cyberpunk settings, Dust: Omnibus is essential reading for all fans of the genre.
Strange Tales From The City Of Dust is the ultimate Omnibus for the complete Dust storyline. 5 episodic adventures along with 3 short stories and detailed author notes, commissioned artwork, and more!
CLOCKWORK DEUS: Episode 1 Alice, a "Tinkerer" for the Wonderlust brothel has discovered a Prostibot that has become self-aware. Together, they will uncover the secret behind a shadowy organization in Dust's abandoned zone, The Blooming Fields.
THE DARKEST PART: Episode 2 Laila, a mysterious Saudi Arabian woman, has escaped an event known as "The Opaque", a consuming void that destroyed her former city. Now in Dust, she must…
Hello. My name’s Austin Dragon, and I’m the author of over 30 books in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror. My works include the sci-fi noir detective Liquid Cool series, the epic fantasy Fabled Quest Chronicles, the international futuristic epic After Eden series, the classic Sleepy Hollow Horrors, and the upcoming military sci-fi Planet Tamers series. Sci-fi and mystery thrillers drew me into writing and I’m passionate about creating great stories with amazing characters in many my different worlds of fantastic fiction.
Matthew and I were on an author panel in the past. I’m all into supporting fellow authors, especially those in a similar sub-genre.
In this story, the orphaned protagonist, Moss, has finally found his place in the world with his employer. But everything is turned upside down when a mysterious woman breaks into his apartment and hands him a data chip from his dead parents. All is not as he believed, and to find the truth, he must venture out into the dangerous megacity streets filled with outcasts and criminals. Here, he meets a rebel group intent on exposing their corrupt oppressors, including his old boss, who now wants him dead.
When a corporate lacky discovers a terrible secret that exposes his illusions, will his hidden fire dwindle or ignite a rebellion?
Orphaned and alone, Moss is happy to have found a place in the world. But his humdrum working routines take a terrifying turn when a mysterious woman breaks into his apartment and hands him a data chip from his dead parents. Suddenly hearing messages revealing his benevolent employer has a far darker side, he braves the dangerous megacity streets in search of the truth.
Surrounded by outcasts and criminals and running on instinct, Moss stumbles onto a rebel group…
Between Blade Runner and The Terminator, I was hooked on Cyberpunk. Throw in some Ghost in the Shell and Black Mirror, and the obsession was complete. With the rise of Synthwave as a musical genre and as a retro-futuristic aesthetic, I had both the soundtrack and the visual cues to which I could write Cyberpunk. I also feel strongly about our increasing reliance on technology and the blurring lines between biology and technology. This is something I explore in my writing.
This book is a thrilling, action-packed ride through a merciless world ruled by nefarious corporations and filled with deadly, genetically enhanced super-humans. As well as Cyberpunk aficionados, Early Adopters will also appeal to fans of comics as well as lovers of action and espionage. No Mary-Sues here, though. Morally grey, gritty, and grueling!
Praise For Early Adopters: Rogue Elements - Amazon Reviews
"A thumping good read."
"This is my favourite Superhero Universe now."
"Everything I wanted from The Watchmen movie and didn't get."
Over a decade ago now, a group of misfits underwent genetic editing under the auspices of scientific research. They thought they could make a difference. They thought they were going to be superheroes, but MiliTech turned them into their own living, breathing weapons.
Outside of their honeymoon period, they are disavowed and relentlessly…
You thought I was going to list travel guides, didn’t you? Heck no! When I’m planning an adventure, I like to read literature from authors who live there. I wish I had read more Japanese fiction before I moved to Japan for a semester of law school. I studied the language and culture in college and spent an entire spring semester of law school in Japan. I plan to visit my old school in 2025, but even if I don’t, I will continue to read books by Japanese authors because I find the cultural and societal demands of being Japanese fascinating. I wrote a book about my time in Japan.
Haruki Murakami is probably the most famous Japanese author in the world and the father of Japanese magical realism. I have read a large portion of his work, and I have enjoyed many of his books (even with his weird ear fetish).
This one, however, is one of my favorites. It’s two stories in one, and although others sometimes criticize it for not being a good blend between the two stories, it is that separation that actually makes this book a gem for me. It captures your imagination as you follow a human computer down into a psychological miasma of perception and thought.
If that seems confusing, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to spoil for you one of my all-time favorite Murakami books. Also, if you want to know what I mean by human-computer, I guess you’ll just have to pick up the book.
A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following.
Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.
I fell in love with cyberpunk when I saw Ghost in the Shell for the first time. It quickly became my favorite genre, to read, watch and write. Meanwhile, I’m one of the most renowned cyberpunk indie authors. My series Behind Blue Eyes has quickly become a favorite among readers and bloggers and I’m planning to publish many more books in the series and the genre. Besides, I’m also one of the editors of the Neo Cyberpunk anthology series, a collection of short stories contributed by contemporary cyberpunk indie authors. I hope you enjoy my list and if you want more, check out the Cyberpunk Books group on Facebook!
Neon Helix is probably the most cyberpunk book of my recommendations, at least in a classical sense. It’s set in a mega-city of the future and features mega corporations, rogue AI, clones, and some really crazy scientists. It’s a fast-paced story told from multiple perspectives and the first book in a series.
"If you want an injection of cyberpunk high tech low life, this book will give it to you in spades."- Amazon Review.
Ex-Cop and Private Detective Xander Draven had resorted to protection work when he is visited by the synthetic replica of a murdered CEO's grieving widow who wants him to track down the killer.
Meanwhile, Julian Travitz, a hacker/reporter and his A.I. companion Quartzig, are searching for the next big story and become drawn into the dark past of technology megacorporation CyberBionics.
Along the way, they encounter clones, rogue A.I.'s, psychopaths, priests, and plans that could change the status…
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to…
Growing up, I commonly read a sci-fi or fantasy novel a day. I craved freshly innovative stories, not megastar copycats. Innovation lacking, I stopped reading. I loved Salvatore’s invention of the Drow and favored groundbreaking stories where authors build on a predecessor’s shoulders rather than writing formulaic remakes for easy sales. Devastatingly, when I began writing, publishers, agents, and literary voices unitedly screamed at authors to “stay in their genre.” Write sci-fi or fantasy, never both. That wasn’t me, so I wrote about what happens when technology clashes with magic. The result? Mosaic Digest recently dubbed me “one of speculative fiction’s most inventive voices.”
This book takes the tired and worn trope surrounding mankind’s search for the fountain of youth, twists it violently, and asks, “What if this were viable, although exorbitantly expensive, tech?” I loved not only this fresh, original angle, but Morgan’s thoughtful treatment of it.
With immersive world-building and a gritty protagonist, Altered Carbon dragged me through a truly surprising and original murder mystery that kept me guessing through the final reveal – though it wasn’t the murder plot that kept me hanging on.
Morgan’s not-particularly-likeable protagonist not only darkened the story, he pressured me to revisit difficult moral questions and to reconsider them from his perspective. He pulled me into the story, shook my moral compass, and then made me believe that perspective was standard in his world.
This must-read story is a confident, action-and-violence packed thriller, and future classic noir SF novel from a multi-award-winning author.
Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.
But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a…
Growing up in the ‘80s, I discovered cyberpunk just when the subgenre acquired its name and was instantly hooked. While its style and action were certainly engaging, it was cyberpunk’s message about the surveillance state, corporate power, fascism, and corruption, which contrasted so violently from mainstream science fiction, that kept me turning pages. 40 years later, after writing novels for 25 years, completing 12 books, I’m still fascinated by what cyberpunk can do. In an age where Humanity is mortally threatened by climate change and inequality, we need cyberpunk now more than ever, with its action and adventure and a little something for us to think about, too.
So often overlooked by cyberpunk aficionados, Streetlethal is the first of the Aubrey Knight novels by Steven Barnes.
Published in 1983, Streetlethal is a story of betrayal, corruption, criminal syndicate politics, and the dichotomy between the obscenely wealthy and the outcast poor. The gritty look at power from below—as Aubrey is set up, almost shanked in prison, and then on the run in the city’s literal underworld—is the novel’s major draw, but the most interesting part, looking back, is that both it and City include psychic elements.
Hard as it is to believe now, in the ‘80s, psychic powers were considered science. Really. Even mainstream TV shows like Magnum PI and Miami Vice regularly employed psychic powers as plot movers. Bizarre, but true.
Los Angeles is a teeming metropolis with a rotten core: Deep Maze, where the Thai-VI ghouls—the disease-spreading Spiders—roam. Here the all-powerful Ortegas rule over their empire of drugs, prostitution and black-market human organs “donated” by their helpless victims.All Aubry Knight, the former weightless boxing champion, wants is to be left alone. But you’re either with the Ortegas or against them, so they made his life a hell. First they tried to control his mind, then they tried to reduce him to “spare parts.”
From the first time I snagged a romance book off my mother's shelf as a teenager, I've always been a hopeless romantic. I'm fascinated by love stories that feel like real life, entwined with the good, bad, and sometimes ugly. This is why I enjoy exploring the duality of life and love in my own novels as a romantic suspense author.
I fell for this book from startup. I had never read an android-themed romance novel until I discovered Roxie McClaine. Seeing a futuristic world that's not too different from ours but with lots of interesting nuance and action was fun.
I enjoyed the many ways the android Codi becomes human through a different lens.
A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.
The polyandrous Yan family in China's rural Shaanxi Province takes in two carpenter brothers. When one brother is convicted of murder after killing their neighbor in a dispute, a constable threatens to expose the family's rumored polyandry and extorts…
The theme of this list is so important to me as an independently published author. Ever since I was about 14 years old I knew I wanted to tell stories, and my way, so even then I was looking into indie publishing. The idea of offering my books up to the traditional publishing chopping block, to be edited and mulled into what’s most marketable, scared me so much! I didn’t want to tell my stories another person’s way. So here we are, and I’m giving you guys a list of indie recommendations whose authors feel very much the same way. We just want to tell our stories. And have control over how that’s done. ;)
I really love deep, living worlds. CE Clayton does such an amazing job of building you into her cyberpunk fantasy that you can easily believe you’re there. Add in the characters you can’t help but root for, and this book is a staple in my library. Ellinor, the protagonist, struggles with the very real emotions behind grief, loss, and the bitterness that comes with a life that feels entirely out of one’s control. Resistor has action, laughs, and again, a slow-burn romance that I simply inhaled.
Ellinor Rask has wanted one thing for the past eight years: vengeance. But when Ellinor is captured, she finds herself dragged back into the world she walked away from, entangled once more with friends she would rather forget.
As if that weren’t humiliating enough, Ellinor learns first hand that her magic can be stripped away by a piece of bio-tech—and her ex-boss is happy to leash her with the technology in order to get what he wants. If Ellinor behaves, the device will be removed. All she has to do is deliver a package. One containing a creature created from…
