Ten Recommended Indie Cyberpunk Novels

    Cyberpunk is a genre that is frequently considered to be dead by certain segments of the fandom or at least considered to be past its heyday. This despite the fact that the world is becoming more cyberpunk than ever with the integration of computers, disparity of wealth, and rising power of corporations. Indeed, one may argue the same forces that were driving society (and thus the genre) in the Eighties are the same forces driving society today.

    However, I don't think cyberpunk is dead. I am of the mind that it is every bit as relevant today and there's just as many good books coming out. I'm inclined to think that they're more likely to come from independent circles versus large-scale publishing, though. Indie books are one of the things that I cherish and appreciate the option of dealing more directly with the authors for. Not just because I'm an indie cyberpunk author myself.

    So here are ten recommended cyberpunk books that are slightly off the beaten track.

10. Mindfracked by M.R. Forbes

 
    Mindfracked by M.R. Forbes is about a body-swapping agent for a dystopian secret police. It has more than a few homages to Altered Carbon but goes in a very different direction as Cassidy is fanatically loyal to his employers, at least at first. Much of what he knows about them is something he can't question because blind obedience is the only way to get back his original body--or is it?

9. To Beat the Devil by M.K. Gibson

    Cyberpunk and fantasy have been two things combined since Shadow Run. It's something that can work very well if done right and very poorly if done wrong. MK Gibson does it the right way with his oddball premise of the Biblical Armageddon happening and God not showing up. Demons now rule the Earth with humans having only one advantage: technology. Salem is a nanotech cyborg courier who gets caught up in the setting's bizarre politics.

8. The Finder at the Lucky Devil by Megan Mackie

     Another fantasy and cyberpunk combo, The Finder at the Lucky Devil is a work that also draws heavily from the urban fantasy genre as a whole. Rune is a woman who inherited a magical bar from her witch aunt in a dystopian future. Now surrounded by fairies and witch politics, she also has to deal with an evil corporation that wants her dead. Plus, she has a cyborg love interest. Its cute and fun, which is rare in the cyberpunk genre.

7. Mercury's Son by Luke Hindmarsh

     The future has suffered total environmental collapse and a religious Earth-worshiping Luddite theocracy has assumed power. This is about the worst place possible for a cyborg super-soldier to find himself but the theocracy has use for people they hate and he finds himself serving as their enforcer against his will. In the ruins of the old Earth, there's a lot of secrets to find, though.

6. The Immorality Clause by Brian Parker

 
     In the future, New Orleans has returned to its roots as a den of inequity and sin. At least in Easytown, the city's Red Light district. The most technologically sublime pleasures are available but the police are forbidden from indulging as per the titular Immorality Clause. Detective Zach Forrest unwittingly has broken their number one rule: never sleep with a robot.

7. Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat

     One of my favorites of these books for pure entertainment value and something that very much invokes The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell. Nephilim is a cybernetic death squad member who works for the Olympias Corporation. She is brainwashed and ruthless in her pursuit of dissidents. At least until her mind is damaged and she regains her free will. Then her problems really begin.

4. Drones by Rob J. Hayes

     I am a huge Rob J. Hayes fan and think this is one of his lesser known works. Drone is the story of a future where emotions are absorbed and sold like drugs. Those poor bastards who give up the majority of theirs end up as soulless shells called drones. The program was previously illegal and the victims minimal but now will reach billions. The only man who can stop it is someone who can no longer care.

3. Tropical Punch (Bubbles in Space) by S.C. Jensen

 
     I absolutely love Bubbles Marlowe and she has rocketed up to being one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. Which is high praise for an indie cyberpunk book. However, the weird 1920s slang using alcoholic beauty is a film noir detective trapped in a dystopian future. Her first adventure, escaping murderous cults and corrupt cops, takes her to one of the most unlikely places to find a cyberpunk hero: a cruise liner in space.

2. Neon Leviathan by T.S. Napper

    Neon Leviathan is a story that deliberately homages Eighties cyberpunk by taking place after the Australian-Vietnam War where the locals have been spit up and chewed up. It is an anthology format and done by Grimdark Magazine. It's some solid writing and address numerous sci-fi concepts like a Black Mirror season.

1. Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R. Fletcher

   The best of the best, Ghosts of Tomorrow is my favorite of Michael R. Fletchers' books and I am a big fan of a lot of them. Brainscans are the biggest trade in the world, providing AI with one easy push of a button. The problem is that they kill whoever is scanned so the biggest source of AI is trafficked children. Our heroes and some antiheroes really don't like this. I flat out love this book and think it is fantastic.

Honorable Mentions: You can be a Cyborg When You're Older by Richard Roberts, Psychodrome by Simon Hawke, and Prime Suspects: A Clone Detective Mystery by Jim Bernheimer