postcyberpunk adj.

of or pertaining a subgenre of science fiction that employs some of cyberpunk's themes, especially the exploration of the effects of a high rate of technological change on society, but rejects the alienation and dystopianism of cyberpunk

SF Criticism

Genre

  • [1989 Interzone (#29) May–June 62/3 page image

    Post cyberpunk, let’s consider a clutch of novels which takes this attitude into the third world, into the realm of the underclasses, the rabble, the owned.]

  • 1989 Interzone (#31) Sept.–Oct. 64/1 page image

    With less ambition Reed could have pulled off a perfectly decent post-cyberpunk caper novel instead of stalling in the parking lot.

  • 1990 Whole Earth Review Fall 61/1

    A high quality post-cyberpunk science-fiction magazine. Good writing, great artwork.

  • 1991 N. Spinrad On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction mid-Dec. 167/1 Norman Spinrad

    It certainly should be, for while the translation may be a bit spotty in places, Midas is right out there on the post-cyberpunk cutting edge and then some, with its unique and gritty extrapolation of the down and dirty Third World realities interfaced with an exploration of the moral and spiritual implications of virtual replicated personalities confronting an all-too-real world.

  • 1995 Village Voice (N.Y.) 31 Jan. 73/3

    Neal Stephenson is the Quentin Tarantino of postcyberpunk science fiction.

  • 1998 G. van Gelder Editor's Recommendations in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Apr. 46/1

    The plot never quite reached boiling temperature for me, but the ideas of this post-cyberpunk story are good and the future downtown club scene has some very nice touches.

  • 1998 Nova Express Fall—Winter 28/2

    Nor is it clear what, if anything, the ‘postcyberpunk’ novels of the 1990s have in common. Why is Greg Bear a ‘postcyberpunk’ writer when Greg Benford or David Brin is not? Why is Kim Stanley Robinson’s work not ‘postcyberpunk?’

  • 1999 W. Gibson All Tomorrow's Parties Thanks 278 William Gibson

    The post-cyberpunk contingent in Mexico City…who encouraged me, with their warm enthusiasm.

  • 2015 SFX (#264) Sept. 82/2 page image

    These are tales that take place in the same eerie, post-cyberpunk, magic realism-tinged fictional universe as Desolation Road.

Research requirements

antedating 1989
Earliest cite

in a book review in Interzone
Research History
Jeff Prucher submitted a 2000 cite from Gardner Dozois' introduction to Michael Swanwick's "Moon Dogs".
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1990 cite from fanzine review in the "Whole Earth Review".
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1995 cite from Richard Gehr in The Village Voice.
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1991 cite from a book review by Norman Spinrad in Asimov's Science Fiction.
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1998 cite from Gordon Van Gelder in F&SF.
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1998 cite from a letter by Martin Wooster in Nova Express.
Jesse Sheidlower submitted two 1989 cites from Interzone.

Last modified 2021-01-05 19:37:12
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.