William Gibson Books In Order

Publication Order of Blue Ant Books

Publication Order of Bridge Books

Publication Order of The Peripheral Books

Publication Order of Sprawl Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Pat Cadigan Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Marvel Graphic Novel Books

Publication Order of Aliens (Bantam) Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

William Gibson is a science fiction best known for his pioneering work in the genre of cyberpunk. He made his debut as a novelist in 1984 with the release of Neuromancer which is considered to be one of his best work. The book is the only novel in history to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award.

Gibson was born in South Carolina and he spent most of his childhood in Wytheville, Virginia. In high school, he became interested in the Beat generation and writers like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs who would have a big effect on him. He was not a great student and left high school before graduating. Then when the Vietnam war draft began, he had no interest in going. A young William would say at his draft hearing that he intended to sample every drug in existence. He then made his way to Canada to avoid the draft, but he was never actually drafted so was not considered a deserter.

He would spend the rest of the 60s in Toronto before meeting a woman from Vancouver. The two would move to Vancouver where Gibson enrolled at the University of British Columbia and earning his bachelor’s degree. At UBC, Gibson attended a course on science fiction which lead to him writing a short story in the genre. After graduation he stopped writing until he met punk musician and author John Shirley who encouraged him to take his writing more seriously. He began writing and selling short stories about the near future that were heavily influenced by cybernetics and cyberspace. These ideas would ultimately lead to Nueromancer, his first novel.

Some of his work has been adapted in movies. “Johnny Mnemonic”, a movie that came out in 1995, is loosely based off a story that is set in Gibson’s “Sprawl” trilogy universe. Not long after, another adaptation came out called “New Rose Hotel”, that is set in the same universe.

The Peripheral is the first book in the Jackpot trilogy. Flynne Fisher lives on a country road in America where jobs are hard to come by outside of illegal drug manufacturing. Her brother Burton lives off of money from the Veterans Administration after neurological damage in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. While Will Neterton makes his home in London, seventy years later, when things are pretty good for the haves and terrible for the have-nots. Wilf considers himself to be a romantic misfit and in a society where reaching into the past is easy, he has options. Burton takes a job moonlighting online for a game prototype that looks like a weirder version of London. Flynne takes over shifts for him from time to time and that’s where she meets Wilf. This will change everything for both of them.

Neuromancer is the book that put Gibson on the map and it is the first book in the Sprawl trilogy. The story follows Case who was once the sharpest data thief in the matrix until he crossed the wrong people and was left crippled. Case was banished from cyberspace until a new employer offers him once last chance at a powerful artificial intelligence. Case will team up with a dead man and Molly, a mirror-eyed street-samurai, in an adventure that changed an entire genre.

The Sprawl trilogy continues with Count Zero. A corporate mercenary is awakened in a reconstructed body by the Hosaka Corporation for a mission more dangerous than the one that took him out in the first place. He is sent to get a defecting chief of R&D—and the biochip he’s perfected out. Of course, he’s not the only one interested in it and some of the others who want it aren’t even remotely human.

Virtual Light is the first book in the Bridge trilogy. The book takes place in 2005 in NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. In Los Angeles, Berry is a former rent-a-cop now working as a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a pickpocket who steal a pair of sunglasses that turn out to be anything but ordinary. The things that you can see through the glasses can either make you rich or get you killed. This puts Berry and Chevette on the run through the digitalized heart of DatAmerica.

The Bridge trilogy continues with Idoru. In 21st century Tokyo, Colin Laney is looking for work. He is an intuitive fisher for patterns of information who knows how to find the dangerous bits which makes him useful to a certain kind of client. Chia McKenzie is in Tokyo on a rescue mission to help her idol, the singer Rez of the band Lo/Rez. The fan club believes he may be in trouble so they send Chia to check it out. The rumor that has brought her there is Rez declaring that he will marry Rei Toei, the idoru adored by all of Japan. There are powerful interests surrounding her which will put many lives at risk.

Pattern Recognition is the first book in the Blue Ant series. Cayce Pollard is a prophet of a new generation thanks to her ability to predict the hottest trends. She makes her way to London to evaluate a corporation’s logo redesign when she is offered another job. This job is to find the creator of some obscure, enigmatic video clips that are generating major buzz. In order to find them, Cayce will travel through parallel universes of marketing, globalization, and terror; and the point in which the three will converge.

The Blue Ant series continues with Spook Country. It follows a journalist named Hollis Henry on assignment for a magazine that doesn’t exist yet. Bobby Chombo does exist as a producer, but his day job is as a troubleshooter for military navigation equipment. Bobby keeps going by never sleeping on the same place twice and never meeting anyone. Finding Bobby is the investigation that Hollis has been sent on.