Cyberpunk

by Bruce Bethke

"A gang of unruly teenagers cut school and go joy-riding around "the Net" on their hopped-up portable computers, committing casual acts of vandalism and just generally being a$holes. Our hero is a good kid who's fallen in with a bad crowd; his parents eventually realize something is wrong and try to suppress the relationship. This results in the kid finally using his technical skills for deliberate purpose, to rebel against his parents -- and to win, because the paradigm shift is completely in his favor."

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Ebooks

220 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Seraphim Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Short Story: Originally written in 1982, Bethke composed a short story that coined the term “Cyberpunk.” That’s it. The story’s fun and short and worth reading for historical value, but aside from that the writing is a bit immature. The slang is really fun though. 3 stars

The novel: Expanding on the short story and published (put online) in 1998, the novel starts about the same as the book. It begins with thirty pages of Cyberpunk, then the author changes his mind and decides to write his own version of Ender’s Game mixed with Starship Troopers, shattering the story. I found the novel a chore to read and cannot figure out why Bethke took the direction he did. 2 stars

[Glenn Conley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's really weird reading a book that coined the term "cyberpunk" way back in 1980. I mean, there were barely any computers around in 1980. As far as I can tell, the story is actually set in the 80's.

Well, that's not really true. In the beginning of the book, the kid is some kind of hacker, cruising around with his hacker buddies. So, at first it seems like the story is set in the future. But then the kid gets sent off to military school, and it seems that they are sent back in time to the 80's.

But they weren't. It just becomes dated writing once he gets to military school. There's still some computer code jargon thrown around once in a while, but for the most part, its just regular 80's style military school.

And then, it turns into The Shawshank Redemption. Because, our cyberpunk hero has a skill that the general desperately needs. See, the school needs a computer system. And this cyberpunk is the only one who has the skills to build it.

So, here we are, back in the 80's. I mean, if this story was indeed set in the future, where computers are so common that every teenager has one, how the bloody fuck does this military school not have a computer system? It just doesn't make any sense at all.

[Red Alexandria · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an interesting coming of age story set in an anachronistic futurist America that is heavily influenced by Soviet superiority and culture, but still maintains some of the same core concepts that you would find in a Heinlein novel.

Throughout this book, there were a couple of things that were nagging at me - the greatest being was "Based on the title who is this aimed at?" When you start reading a book called "Cyberpunk" you have a few expectations; until you realize that this was written in 1980 and this book was pretty much the inception of that word.

I found that this story was ultimately heavier on the "punk" than the "cyber" aspects, though the first third of the book did a pretty good service to teenage cyber hacking that all of us (atleast me) fantasized about when we were in our early teens.

Ultimately the rest of the book is the common, often (over)used tale of a boy turning into a man; this time the boy crosses that threshold when he creates a computer network for the Academy - which in 1980 would seem something akin to a 16 year old ending African famine by deploying a network of solar powered water wells throughout the continent. It isn't overly original, but still entertaining to read through.

My main complaint of the story is that in seperating the "cyber" from the "punk" aspects of the story it's almost impossible to have the story tie it together by its end


For what it's worth, I could easily see this story optioned by the SyFy channel as one of their "bad movies" that you watch on Saturday, and I would more than likely make an appointment to watch it.

[Jose-Luis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first cyberpunk story I read, and I really love it. If you like technology and are into programming this will be a pretty good read and feel identified.

[Pedro Plasencia Martínez · Rating 3 out of 5]

El título no miente y es bastante exacto, por algo se acuñó como término. Un joven gamberro acostumbrado a mentir a sus padres y a saltarse la escuela se involucra con una pandilla de hackers y comienzan a liarla en la red manipulando datos económicos. El estilo de escritura del autor es flojo, no obstante, hay que admirar su inmensa creatividad y la visión que tenía sobre la informática ya por aquel entonces, a principios de los 80.

ENGLISH
The title doesn't lie and is quite accurate, for a reason it was coined as a term. A young rascal accustomed to lying to his parents and skipping school gets involved with a gang of hackers, and they begin causing trouble online by manipulating financial data. The author's writing style is weak, however, one must admire his immense creativity and the vision he had for computing back then, in the early 1980s.

[Szwendak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrząc już ponad rolę "Cyberpunka" w historii podgatunku, który wdzięczną nazwę przejął, jest to po prostu dobre opowiadanie. Z łapiącą za serce historią i puentą. Bethke umiał się wczuć w tę dziecięcą, nastoletnią perspektywę i ukazać pozornie małe wojenki z rodzicami w skali katastrofy. Zwłaszcza, że wybryki młodziaków dorastają do paraliżu systemu lotniczego, a skala powagi przechyla się za pomocą technologii. Warto o "Cyberpunku" pamiętać, by wiedzieć, skąd się ten punk wziął, i że może oznaczać rozwydrzonego dzieciaka z kradzioną konsolą — a i że zakończenie często bywa dlań niezadowalające, jak w powieści jakiegoś smutnego rosyjskiego dysydenta, który pod koniec zawsze ma system za nieubłagany i niezniszczalny.

[Sara]

What was lost cant back
rebal steal the forgeten
the code of love
the code of net
thd kid of school stand at the edg
to win over the years
over cyperpunk
over the talking
but how r we
and from whom we fear
over the net
we find a code
symbol of love
i take yr oath over love
miss
sky
sourd of love

[Anton Potapenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Просто и лаконично. Есть и кибер, есть и панк!

[Kim VanDrunen-Fletcher]

i read the short story, not the online mini-novel

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked it. As it started out as another Ready Player One, Bethke instead, took us on a wild ride into a very well written Bildungsroman.

[Beniamin Iordache · Rating 1 out of 5]

so boring

[Rui Castro · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only liked the first part of the story based on the short story. The rest was very boring and nothing to do with cyber.

[Julio Araujo]

I would like to read this book but I can't find it for sale on any of the most popular websites.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really really wish I could have given one more star to this book, because I really enjoyed it.

However, the book makes a promise it doesn't keep in its opening scene: to be a book about cyberpunk. Oh sure, the main character is a cyberpunk, down to his toeing the line to unlikeable at the start, but halfway through act one, all that is tossed out and suddenly we have a story of a boy growing up in military academy.

Again, I enjoyed it, but I kept hoping for the cyberpunk to return and it never did. The characters were fun and well-developed (and this was mostly a character book) but there was no real closure, no real solution of the main conflict (which shifted and changed like crazy), nothing but a very rushed victory over an antagonist that only shows up midway though the third act.

Still very fun, still with a very interesting setting, albeit not properly explored.

[Neon Snake · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good little book, and beyond the title, the opening scenes set up a lot of the tropes that are today associated with pop-culture cyberpunk - mohawked punk kids with portable computers sticking it to the man by hacking their way through the net, passing off costs and charges to faceless law firms and corporations. In some ways, it's like a successor to The Stainless Steel Rat (one of the great unsung cyberpunk/sci-fi works), and a precursor to characters like John Conner in T2.

Yes, it's dated, and it offers a heavily romanticised view of hacking, but this is one of the the stories that held open the door, before Neuromancer came along and blew it off its hinges.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coming of age novel--the Bildungsroman--writ for the cyber era. Reminiscent otherwise to the Hunger Games in its military fetishism of pitting young people against one another as a socially-normative event. Except that it isn`t nearly so violent, though equally filled with clichés both thematic and figurative. Why did I read this? Because the author came up the new word `cyberpunk`...

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming-of-age-story in 'Cyberpunk' style...where it all started in fact :) I really enjoyed it.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive, once you realize it came out the same year as Neuromancer.