The ‘80s saw the birth of cyberpunk, one of the best (or maybe the best) subgenre of science fiction. Cyberpunk surged in popularity during the mid to late '80s, with its practitioners winning major science fiction awards and the genre rewriting the rules for writing science fiction.
William Gibson's Neuromancer instantly created a market for more of the gritty storytelling that merged the worlds of cyberspace with the burnt out urban spaces of the late 20th century. But cyberpunk can be found before and after the '80s, as we will see.
