William Gibson

William Gibson wrote three cyberpunk novels in the 80s: Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. He also wrote a collection of short stories called Burning Chrome, which contains Johnny Mnemonic, which was made into a film starring Keanu Reeves.

Gibson was the first to concieve of The Matrix - he actually coined the term - and also the internet. In his Matrix you don't plug in and appear inside as you do in the films, you sit at your console with a headset and navigate that way. But it's eeriy good how accurate his predictions were, considering he made them back in the early 80s.

Bruce Sterling, who co-wrote one of the short stories and later the novel Difference Engine with Gibson, wrote the preface.

He says: "if poets are the unacknowledged legislaters of the world, sf writers are it's court jesters. We are Wise Fools who can leap, caper, utter prophecies, and scratch ourselves in public. We can play with Big Ideas because the garish motley of our pulp origins makes us seem harmless."

If you haven't read these books we recommend you read them. If you have, we recommend you re-read them.