trope: megacorp

Through Stranger Eyes: a science fiction cyberpunk mystery thriller (Matriarchs – Silicon Gods Book 1)

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Islands in the Net

In a near-future new age of corporate control, hacker mercenaries, and electronic terrorism, a public relations executive on the rise finds herself caught in the violent epicenter of a data war Two decades into the twenty-first century, the world’s nations Read more

Hardwired

There is also a little known novelette published 3 years after in the same universe available here Hardwired, the acknowledged inspiration for the games Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk 2077, is now available in a deluxe edition for its thirtieth anniversary, Read more

Through Stranger Eyes: a science fiction cyberpunk mystery thriller (Matriarchs - Silicon Gods Book 1)
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Flesh comes cheap in a machine world.

Doctor Rick Stenslandt has always advocated against the fusion of man and machine. But after a near-fatal accident, he is forced to accept ocular implants or go blind, end up unemployed, and without social status.

But something goes wrong. Now he remembers people he has never met before—influential members of the corporate elite that governs the world. And they have all been murdered.

Worse, it seems he’s the next target.

On the run from the police and a pair of augmented assassins, Rick seeks refuge in the infamous alleys of the megacity. But to protect the ones he loves, he cannot hide forever. Now he must figure out his borrowed memories and his connection to the victims, before it’s too late.

If you love cyberpunk technothrillers with settings similar to Blade Runner, rich with corporations, conspiracies, murder, and mystery, with strong elements of biopunk and nanopunk, with hackers and AIs, then you will love the entire Matriarchs – Silicon Gods trilogy.

The Corporation Wars trilogy

The Corporation Wars trilogy
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From Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated author Ken MacLeod, an action-packed space opera told against a backdrop of interstellar drone warfare, virtual reality, and an A.I. revolution.

Carlos is dead. A soldier who died for his ideals a thousand years ago, he’s been reincarnated and conscripted to fight an A.I. revolution in deep space. And he’s not sure he’s fighting for the right side.

Seba is alive.

By a fluke of nature, a contractual overlap, and a loop in its subroutines, this lunar mining robot has gained sentience. Gathering with other “freeboots,” Seba is taking a stand against the corporations that want it and its kind gone.

Against a backdrop of warring companies and interstellar drone combat, Carlos and Seba must either find a way to rise above the games their masters are playing, or die. And even dying will not be the end of it.

They’ve died for the companies more times than they can remember. Now they must fight to live for themselves.

36 Streets

36 Streets
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Altered Carbon and The Wind-Up Girl meet Apocalypse Now in this fast-paced, intelligent, action-driven cyberpunk, probing questions of memory, identity and the power of narratives.

Lin ‘The Silent One’ Vu is a gangster and sometime private investigator living in Chinese-occupied Hanoi, in the steaming, paranoid alleyways of the 36 Streets. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, everywhere she is an outsider.

Through grit and courage Lin has carved a place for herself in the Vietnamese underworld where Hanoi’s crime boss, Bao Nguyen, is training her to fight and lead. Bao drives her hard; on the streets there are no second chances. Meanwhile the people of Hanoi are succumbing to Fat Victory – a dangerously addictive immersive simulation of the US-Vietnam war.

When an Englishman comes to Hanoi on the trail of his friend’s murderer, Lin’s life is turned upside down. She is drawn into the grand conspiracies of the neon gods – of regimes and mega-corporations – as they unleash dangerous new technologies.

Lin must confront the immutable moral calculus of unjust wars. She must choose: family, country, or gang. Blood, truth, or redemption. No choice is easy on the 36 Streets.

Islands in the Net

Islands in the Net
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In a near-future new age of corporate control, hacker mercenaries, and electronic terrorism, a public relations executive on the rise finds herself caught in the violent epicenter of a data war

Two decades into the twenty-first century, the world’s nations are becoming irrelevant. Corporations are the true global powers, with information the most valuable currency, while the smaller island nations have become sanctuaries for data pirates and terrorists. A globe-trotting PR executive for the large corporate economic democracy Rizome Industries Group, Laura Webster is present when a foreign representative is assassinated on Rizome soil during a conference for offshore data havens. Dispatched immediately on an international mission of diplomacy, Laura hopes she can make a difference in a volatile, unsteady world, but instead finds herself trapped on the front lines of rapidly escalating third-world hostilities and caught up in an inescapable net of conspiracy, terrorism, post-millennial voodoo, and electronic warfare.

During the 1980s, science fiction luminary Bruce Sterling envisioned the future . . . and hit it almost dead-on. The author who, along with William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Rudy Rucker, helped create and define the cyberpunk subgenre imagines a world of tomorrow in Islands in the Net that bears a striking—and disturbing—resemblance to our present-day information-age reality. Nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards and winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Sterling’s extraordinary novel is a gripping, eye-opening, and remarkably prescient science fiction classic.

Stand on Zanzibar: The Hugo Award-Winning Novel

Stand on Zanzibar: The Hugo Award-Winning Novel
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The brilliant 1969 Hugo Award-winning novel from John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar, now included with a foreword by Bruce Sterling

Norman Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically—it’s about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm. But Hogan is a spy, and he’s about to discover a breakthrough in genetic engineering that will change the world…and kill him.

These two men’s lives weave through one of science fiction’s most praised novels. Written in a way that echoes John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. Trilogy, Stand on Zanzibar is a cross-section of a world overpopulated by the billions. Where society is squeezed into hive-living madness by god-like mega computers, mass-marketed psychedelic drugs, and mundane uses of genetic engineering. Though written in 1968, it speaks of now, and is frighteningly prescient and intensely powerful.

The Stars My Destination

The Stars My Destination
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#5 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series,
a library of the finest science fiction ever written.

“Science fiction has only produced a few works of actual genius,
and this is one of them”—Joe Haldeman

“Bester at the peak of his powers is, quite simply, unbeatable”
—James Lovegrove

Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die.

Alfred Bester won the first, inaugural Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1953 for The Demolished Man

Hewas among the first important authors of contemporary science fiction. His passionate novels of worldly adventure, high intellect, and tremendous verve, The Stars My Destination and the Hugo Award winning The Demolished Man, established Bester as a s.f. grandmaster, a reputation that was ratified by the Science Fiction Writers of America shortly before his death. Bester also was an acclaimed journalist for Holiday magazine, a reviewer for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and even a writer for Superman.

Empire by Clifford D. Simak

Empire by Clifford D. Simak
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Mankind is united under the rule of a single corporation and has begun to explore and settle the stars.

The corporation maintains its control over mankind by having a monopoly on energy. But that’s about to change and the corporation will do anything to hold onto its power, even plunge all of mankind into war. Powerful and poignant.

Mann’s Marauders : A Planet Too Far

Mann's Marauders : A Planet Too Far
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In the last days of Earth, Mega-Corporations controlled the bulk of the planet, becoming governments unto themselves. After they depleted Earth’s resources and destroyed the environment, the survivors had to abandon Earth. Then it was time to search out new planets to exploit. With little to no regard for the inhabitants, no one could stop the corporations from taking what they wanted.
Formed by survivors, cast-offs, and refugees of these planets to push back against corporate exploitation, Mann’s Marauders was united under one banner by Dietrich Mann. This mercenary team began by fighting on land with troops and Grav-tanks, then grew to include starships and heavy fighters.
When corporations threaten your planet, you need Mann’s Marauders.

Hardwired

Hardwired
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There is also a little known novelette published 3 years after in the same universe available here

Hardwired, the acknowledged inspiration for the games Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk 2077, is now available in a deluxe edition for its thirtieth anniversary, with new content by the author.

Earth lies prostrate beneath the lash of the Orbital powers, and Earth’s Balkanized nations have no choice but to let the Orbitals plunder their remaining wealth. Below the zone of Orbital control, buttonheads, panzerjocks, dirtgirls, and hustlers scramble for their ticket out of the gravity well.

But now, if the criminal underworld and the guerrilla underground can join forces, there is a chance to shift the balance of power— in a war fought on the ground by hardwired commandos, in the air by high-flying deltajocks, and by genius hackers in the neural interface.

Luna: New Moon

Luna
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Luna is a gripping thriller about five corporate families caught in a bitter battle for supremacy in the harsh environment of the moon. It’s very easy to die on the moon, but with its vast mineral wealth it’s also easy to make your fortune.

Following the fortunes of a handful of disparate characters, from one of the lowliest workers on the moon to the heads of one of the most powerful families, Luna provides a vast mosaic of life on this airless and terrifying new home for humanity.