Neuromancer. William Gibson
130 pages in, and it looks good. The net is less exciting than when it was released in the 80s though. It is the part of the book that visually does not appeal to me., The rest of the book and its society is fantastic. I can see why it has been described to me as the cornerstone of the cyberpunk genre.
When you think that this book was written on a mechanical typewriter, before almost any of what we consider the interwebs existed, yes, it does deserve its reputation.
And like the original Star Wars trilogy, the first book of the Sprawl Trilogy deserves its kudos for blazing brightly, even if I personally think the second book (Count Zero) is better written. The third book (Mona Lisa Overdrive) is also very good, just not quite as stellar as the first two.
If you haven't read it already, Elmoth, Neal Stephenson's "Snowcrash" does for the concept of metaverse what Neuromancer did for hackers, and again was written before the thing existed. And has one of the coolest villains around - Raven. Get it & read it!
Me, I just finished the 61st book in the Horus Heresy series. Now it must be said that, up to about book 50, it's been
- one-third competent genre fiction
- one-third rubbish genre fiction
- one-third gloriously written enthralling adventure in a genre universe.
When they get up to the Siege of Terra, the last 10 books or so, though - they only let the writers in the last third play. And they're damned good books. Not quite finished yet either ... the 62nd book comes out in November according to plan, and there's a feeling there'll be another one after that mebbe.
I do recommend starting from the beginning, if you can access the books. A LOT of thread-building & connection laying down happens in the beginning, and they are tying a lot of it together. THey're managing a great balance of dealing with real-world old lore, sometimes subverting it in interesting ways, sometimes playing to the base, occasionally even ripping up the old lore (after all, the 'lore' was written from the point of view some 10,000 years later.)
If I wasn't a BattleTech tragic since 1984, I'd be all over the new Epic incarnation. As it is, I'll keep my eye out for cheap plastic Rhinos for BattleTech APCs ...