Hammerjack

Alright, I'm intrigued. Visuals look amazing, we'll see about the story. I'm always happy to get more NIN though...

https://xcancel.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/1903929693885317480#m

Featuring a sequel to the USS Callister episode from series 4.

In my last post a couple people mentioned that the Neuromancer novel is a pretty dense read and tough to follow. If you agree, I recommend listening to the BBC radio drama from 2002. It's only 2 hours long but it follows the plot of the story really well and has great production.

Definitely check it out if you've got 2 hours and struggled with the novel, or if it's just been awhile since you read it. This is a great adaptation.

There isn't much in this article, other than a reminder that Neuromancer is currently filming in Tokyo. Also, I don't think it's been announced what role Emma Laird has so I don't know if it really hurts things for her to not have read the book. We'll see how well this quote ages though:

It’s a very confusing book, but I think somehow bringing that onto the screen helps tell that story maybe a bit more clearly.

I've read quite a bit of (what I consider to be) the main classic cyberpunk novels. Stuff like The Sprawl trilogy, Hardwired, Snow Crash. I've also read some proto-cyberpunk novels like The Stars My Destination, The Machine Stops, and various Philip K Dick stories.

So I decided to delve a bit deeper into some lesser-known "classic" cyberpunk novels. And I'm struggling. I tried reading Synners, The Shockwave Rider, and Headcrash and I haven't really enjoyed any of them. But I don't want to turn this into a negative post where I just whine and complain about these books, so instead I'd like to ask: for those of you who have read and enjoyed these books, what did you like about them? Were they just products of their time and "you had to be there" to appreciate it? Or is there something more I'm missing?

Again, I'll try not to get too negative here, but I think my main complaint with Headcrash can be summed up by this statement on its wikipedia page:

mixed reviews (often centering around whether the reviewer saw it as satire or a failed attempt at sincere comedy)

As I read it, it felt like a failed attempt at sincere comedy. The jokes are so constant and not funny that I found the writing style irritating. This isn't like Douglas Adams going off on wild silly tangents; Headcrash has the main character reading through a pile of junk mail where each item is some ridiculous hyper-exaggerated take on modern life. It's exhausting. Compare that to Snow Crash, which was also a cyberpunk satire, yet the world-building felt cohesive and consistent. Sure, burbclaves might be ridiculous, along with the idea of a mob-boss pizza owner having too much power, but in-universe these things were treated seriously. Headcrash comes across as the author telling the reader how ridiculous his ideas are.

Shockwave Rider was probably just too much a product of its time for me. Being written in 1975, it has some interesting ideas about computers and the internet, yet so much of the story feels too "near future" with the author extrapolating from life in the 1970s and missing the mark. There are too many items which the author didn't think would change or didn't take a pessimistic/nihilistic enough view of how people would actually use the technology.

Synners I think has the most interesting story, yet the writing style is so strange to me that I'm having trouble following exactly what's happening. I feel like I should like this one, yet I just can't stay focused on it while reading. It's a shame because I think there are some good ideas here. Unfortunately, I tend to read one chapter, get disinterested, put it down for six months, then attempt to read one more chapter with no memory of what happened in the previous chapter. So it's probably more of a problem with me than the book, but each time I finish a chapter I don't exactly feel compelled to keep going.

So those of you who have read any of these books, what did you like about them? What made them special/unique? I'm fully willing to accept that these books were revolutionary at the time but maybe their predictions were so far off that with hindsight, they don't feel very prescient.

Veiled Edge is in early access right now, but there's a demo available and I really enjoyed it so I'm hoping they'll be able to finish the game. The gameplay reminds me a lot of Sanabi but instead of a grappling hook for movement, Veiled Edge uses a teleportation mechanic.

The game currently has a Kickstarter active but it looks like they're pretty terrible at marketing their own game so I don't think many people will find it. I'm not too optimistic about the kickstarter succeeding but I hope they'll still be able to finish the game even if it fails.

Anyway, if you like 2D platformers like Sanabi, I highly recommend at least trying the demo.

I had posted a first look at this anime a couple months ago. The video didn't explain anything but what it did show looked vaguely cyberpunk.

Now with this new trailer explaining the plot... I'm not sure it's cyberpunk at all. Maybe it's near-future, but that's about it. Still, it's from Shinichirō Watanabe (creator of Cowboy Bebop) so maybe people here will still be interested in it.

The trailer says the show will air on Toonami starting April 5 and next day on Max.

Reignbreaker plays just like Hades except rather than being in a world of Greek mythology it's in a (sigh) "medievalpunk" world.

Now, I typically hate when people make up new -punk genres just to sound edgy, but this world does actually have a lot of neon graffiti everywhere. So it's more "punk" than most -punk genres in my opinion. I guess it's about as cyberpunk as Nimona on Netflix, which also had a cyberpunk world with a medieval aesthetic for some reason.

I don't think I'd consider this game to be truly cyberpunk, but I'd call it cyberpunk-adjacent. It definitely has a punk edge, and I'm pretty sure it takes place in the future despite its overall medieval aesthetic. So I figured people here might be interested. There's a demo available during Steam's Next Fest and I think it's at least worth trying the demo if you enjoy roguelikes like Hades.

Looks like this game could be crazy. Not a mellow cyberpunk taxi game like Cloudpunk, this one looks more like Crazy Taxi except you're driving around in the world from Escape From New York.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2927000/CyberTaxi_Lunatic_Nights/

This isn't exactly a recommendation for BloodNet, it's more of me just complaining that it's the only cyberpunk vampire property I'm aware of. And the gameplay looks really boring, with barely any vampires involved.

You'd think a filthy neon-lit undercity full of high-tech low-lifes would be perfect hunting grounds for vampires, yet I don't know of any real cyberpunk vampire stories.

I don't consider Ultraviolet to be an especially cyberpunk movie, or for hemophages to be vampires. Also the movie is bad. Are there any Shadowrun novels with vampires, maybe? Seems like that would fit pretty well.

I tried googling for other cyberpunk vampire stories just in case I was forgetting something and I guess there's a Cyberpunk 2020 expansion called Night's Edge which has vampires in it. That's cool, although I'd prefer a narrative story.

In my search I also found a new series called The Cybernetic Vampire which I'm hoping is exactly what I'm looking for. But the kindle book is only one dollar and it's 650+ pages long. I'm pretty wary if the author thinks his 650+ pages of effort are only worth one dollar, but I'll probably give it a try given my lack of any other choices.

Do you know of any other cyberpunk stories that feature vampires?

Murderbot premieres May 16 with its first two episodes on Apple TV+. It will run 10 episodes total, with a weekly drop after the premiere through July 11.