Warcross is a young adult science fiction novel by Marie Lu , which was published on September 17, 2017 by G.P. Putnam's Sons . Warcross is the first book in the duology of the same name. The second, Wildcard , was released September 18, 2018.
105-520: In a cyberpunk future, New Yorker 18-year-old Emika Chen works as a "hunter" (a kind of bounty hunter ) who earns her living making arrests for minor crimes. She is handpicked by billionaire Hideo Tanaka, creator of the virtual reality combat game Warcross to go to the game's world championship in Tokyo to investigate a security breach. Before releasing her debut novel Legend in 2011, Lu worked briefly as an intern at Disney Interactive Studios . In
210-407: A dagger indicating that a significant number of bulk orders had been received by retail bookstores. The New York Times reported in 2013 that "we [generally do not] track the sales of classic literature," and thus, for example, new translations of Dante's Inferno would not be found on the bestseller list. The exact method for compiling the data obtained from the booksellers is classified as
315-521: A trade secret . Book Review staff editor Gregory Cowles explained the method "is a secret both to protect our product and to make sure people can't try to rig the system. Even in the Book Review itself, we don't know (the news surveys department's) precise methods." In 1992, the survey encompassed over 3,000 bookstores as well as "representative wholesalers with more than 28,000 other retail outlets, including variety stores and supermarkets." By 2004,
420-431: A troubled future is often called the antithesis of the generally utopian visions of the future popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Gibson defined cyberpunk's antipathy towards utopian science fiction in his 1981 short story " The Gernsback Continuum ", which pokes fun at and, to a certain extent, condemns utopian science fiction. In some cyberpunk writing, much of the action takes place online , in cyberspace , blurring
525-592: A virtual-reality world by wearing a pair of glasses—the Neuro Link— and battle on realistic terrains by using power-ups to take their opponent's Artifact (a gem). While on the hunt for a suspect, Emika is reminded of the upcoming Warcross tournament in Tokyo. This could be seen in the news and in Times Square. During the first Warcross tournament match, a rare power-up appears. This particular power-up sells for
630-510: A 50% decrease in price for books on the Best Seller List to beat its competition, Barnes & Noble . After a legal dispute between Amazon and The New York Times , Amazon was permitted to keep using the list on condition that it displayed it in alphabetical rather than numerical order. By 2010, this was no longer the case; Amazon now displays the best-seller list in order of best-selling titles first. In 2013, Forbes published
735-460: A San Diego–based company that tracks data and aggregates sales information for publishers, will ... provide [e-book] data". The two new e-book lists were first published with the February 13, 2011, issue, the first tracks combined print and e-book sales, the second tracks e-book sales only (both lists are further sub-divided into Fiction and Nonfiction). In addition a third new list was published on
840-451: A constant upheaval of new technology and culture, generally with dystopian outcomes. Writers like Roger Zelazny , J. G. Ballard , Philip José Farmer , Samuel R. Delany , and Harlan Ellison often examined the impact of drug culture, technology, and the ongoing sexual revolution, drawing themes and influence from experimental literature of Beat Generation authors such as William S. Burroughs , and art movements like Dadaism . Ballard,
945-498: A crime. These revelations leave Emika distraught and she questions the purpose of Warcross altogether. After the meeting, Emika receives a text from Zero, who extends his previous offer to her. She reviews footage from the final and discovers a vulnerability in Zero's code. She learns that Zero turns out to be Sasuke, Hideo's long lost brother. The novel was commercially successful and received generally positive reviews. After its release,
1050-415: A hefty amount of money, which compels Emika to exploit a vulnerability in the code. Upon using the hack, she glitches into the middle of tournament match, which confuses both teams and leads to the cancellation of the match. After her unexpected intrusion, Emika rises to stardom. She receives a call from Henka Games, informing her that the game's creator, Hideo Tanaka, intends to fly her out to Tokyo to discuss
1155-543: A hybrid genre combining neo-noir and science fiction or cyberpunk. The Japanese cyberpunk subgenre began in 1982 with the debut of Katsuhiro Otomo 's manga series Akira , with its 1988 anime film adaptation , which Otomo directed, later popularizing the subgenre. Akira inspired a wave of Japanese cyberpunk works, including manga and anime series such as Ghost in the Shell , Battle Angel Alita , and Cowboy Bebop . Other early Japanese cyberpunk works include
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#17327868989891260-400: A job opportunity. Hideo informs Emika that Warcross has been suffering from the actions of a mysterious hacker, known as Zero, who has managed to enter Warcross' database and access the information of all the spectators at the tournament. Hideo offers her a position as a bounty hunter so that she could help him capture the elusive hacker. Hideo suspects that the hacker is likely a competitor in
1365-464: A list of five on January 1, 1984. It was created because advice best-sellers were sometimes crowding the general nonfiction list. Its inaugural number one bestseller, The Body Principal by Victoria Principal , had been number 10 and number 12 on the nonfiction lists for the two preceding weeks. In July 2000, the "Children's Best Sellers" was created after the Harry Potter series had stayed in
1470-427: A major influence on Hollywood films such as The Matrix , Chronicle , Looper , Midnight Special , and Inception , as well as cyberpunk-influenced video games such as Hideo Kojima 's Snatcher and Metal Gear Solid , Valve 's Half-Life series and Dontnod Entertainment 's Remember Me . Akira has also influenced the work of musicians such as Kanye West , who paid homage to Akira in
1575-480: A more generalized cultural formation. The origins of cyberpunk are rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, where New Worlds , under the editorship of Michael Moorcock , began inviting and encouraging stories that examined new writing styles, techniques, and archetypes . Reacting to conventional storytelling, New Wave authors attempted to present a world where society coped with
1680-428: A notable critic of literary archetypes in science fiction, instead employs metaphysical and psychological concepts, seeking greater relevance to readers of the day. Ballard's work is considered have had a profound influence on cyberpunk's development, As evidenced by the term "Ballardian" becoming used to ascribe literary excellence amongst science fiction social circles. Ballard, along with Zelazny and others continued
1785-564: A novel in 1995 called Headcrash , like Snow Crash a satirical attack on the genre's excesses. Fittingly, it won an honor named after cyberpunk's spiritual founder, the Philip K. Dick Award . It satirized the genre in this way: ...full of young guys with no social lives, no sex lives and no hope of ever moving out of their mothers' basements ... They're total wankers and losers who indulge in Messianic fantasies about someday getting even with
1890-626: A result, discloses that the disappearance of his younger brother, Sasuke, brought about the creation of Warcross and the Neurolink (Virtual Reality glasses), uncovering a hidden layer of Hideo's past. Hideo and Sasuke used to play a game where they hid "eggs," and that's what inspired Hideo to create the game Warcross. At the start of the next Warcross game, Emika decides to trail Ren; however, Zero suddenly appears in front of her. He offers her an opportunity to work with him to thwart Hideo's plans. She rejects his offer, which makes Zero threaten her about
1995-436: A rival team, Tremaine, sends Emika a video wherein Zero and Ren discuss wreaking havoc on the finals by placing bugged power-ups around the map. Undeterred by Hideo's demands, Emika decides to intervene to stymie a disaster. With the funds from the bounty, Emika buys some power-ups that will help her team win the championship without touching the bugged power-ups. Emika manages to glitch into another tournament match. She deploys
2100-488: A senior book marketing executive who said the rankings were "smoke and mirrors"; while a report in Book History found that many professionals in the book industry "scoffed at the notion that the lists are accurate". Specific criticisms include: In 1983, author William Peter Blatty sued The New York Times for $ 6 million, claiming that his book, Legion (filmed as The Exorcist III ), had not been included in
2205-434: A sense of rebellion, suggesting that one could describe it as a type of cultural revolution in science fiction. In the words of author and critic David Brin : ...a closer look [at cyberpunk authors] reveals that they nearly always portray future societies in which governments have become wimpy and pathetic ...Popular science fiction tales by Gibson, Williams, Cadigan and others do depict Orwellian accumulations of power in
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#17327868989892310-416: A stagnant formula. In 1986, he edited a volume of cyberpunk stories called Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology , an attempt to establish what cyberpunk was, from Sterling's perspective. In the subsequent decade, the motifs of Gibson's Neuromancer became formulaic, climaxing in the satirical extremes of Neal Stephenson 's Snow Crash in 1992. Bookending the cyberpunk era, Bethke himself published
2415-476: A story titled "Can bestseller lists be bought?" It describes how author and pastor Mark Driscoll contracted the company ResultSource to place his book Real Marriage (2012) on The New York Times Best Seller list for a $ 200,000 fee. The contract was for ResultSource "to conduct a bestseller campaign for your book, Real Marriage on the week of January 2, 2012. The bestseller campaign is intended to place Real Marriage on The New York Times bestseller list for
2520-415: A story titled "Here's How You Buy Your Way Onto The New York Times Bestsellers List." The article discusses how ResultSource , a San Diego–based marketing consultancy, specializes in ensuring books make a bestseller list, even guaranteeing a No. 1 spot for those willing to pay enough. The New York Times was informed of this practice and responded: " The New York Times comprehensively tracks and tabulates
2625-402: A term that encompassed both punk attitudes and high technology. He described the idea thus: The kids who trashed my computer; their kids were going to be Holy Terrors, combining the ethical vacuity of teenagers with a technical fluency we adults could only guess at. Further, the parents and other adult authority figures of the early 21st Century were going to be terribly ill-equipped to deal with
2730-556: A term used for a New Wave pop music movement that had just occurred in Britain, but this term did not catch on. Bethke later paraphrased Michael Swanwick 's argument for the term: "the movement writers should properly be termed neuromantics, since so much of what they were doing was clearly imitating Neuromancer ". Sterling was another writer who played a central role, often consciously, in the cyberpunk genre, variously seen as either keeping it on track, or distorting its natural path into
2835-563: Is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of " low-life and high tech ". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberware , juxtaposed with societal collapse , dystopia or decay. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick , Michael Moorcock , Roger Zelazny , John Brunner , J. G. Ballard , Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined
2940-415: Is also featured prominently in anime and manga ( Japanese cyberpunk ), with Akira , Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop being among the most notable. Cyberpunk writers tend to use elements from crime fiction —particularly hardboiled detective fiction and film noir —and postmodernist prose to describe an often nihilistic underground side of an electronic society. The genre's vision of
3045-585: Is an example of a cyberpunk graphic novel. Other influential cyberpunk writers included Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker . The Japanese cyberpunk subgenre began in 1982 with the debut of Katsuhiro Otomo 's manga series Akira , with its 1988 anime film adaptation (also directed by Otomo) later popularizing the subgenre. Early films in the genre include Ridley Scott 's 1982 film Blade Runner , one of several of Philip K. Dick's works that have been adapted into films (in this case, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ). The "first cyberpunk television series"
3150-471: Is based on a proprietary method that uses sales figures, other data and internal guidelines that are unpublished—how the Times compiles the list is a trade secret . In 1983, during a legal case in which the Times was being sued, the Times argued that the list is not mathematically objective but rather an editorial product, an argument that prevailed in the courts. In 2017, a Times representative said that
3255-793: Is based on his book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? . Humans linked to machines are found in Pohl and Kornbluth's Wolfbane (1959) and Roger Zelazny 's Creatures of Light and Darkness (1968). In 1994, scholar Brian Stonehill suggested that Thomas Pynchon 's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow "not only curses but precurses what we now glibly dub cyberspace." Other important predecessors include Alfred Bester 's two most celebrated novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination , as well as Vernor Vinge 's novella True Names . Science-fiction writer David Brin describes cyberpunk as "the finest free promotion campaign ever waged on behalf of science fiction". It may not have attracted
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3360-417: Is claimed that, for instance, cyberpunk depicts fantasies that ultimately empower masculinity using fragmentary and decentered aesthetic that culminate in a masculine genre populated by male outlaws. Critics also note the absence of any reference to Africa or black characters in the quintessential cyberpunk film Blade Runner , while other films reinforce stereotypes. Minnesota writer Bruce Bethke coined
3465-499: Is considered by many to be the first cyberpunk novel with many of the tropes commonly associated with the genre, some five years before the term was popularized by Dozois. William Gibson with his novel Neuromancer (1984) is arguably the most famous writer connected with the term cyberpunk. He emphasized style, a fascination with surfaces, and atmosphere over traditional science-fiction tropes. Regarded as ground-breaking and sometimes as "the archetypal cyberpunk work", Neuromancer
3570-473: Is editorial content, not objective factual content, so the Times had the legal right to exclude the book from the list. In 1995, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, the authors of a book called The Discipline of Market Leaders , colluded to manipulate their book onto the best seller charts. The authors allegedly purchased over 10,000 copies of their own book in small and strategically placed orders at bookstores whose sales are reported to BookScan . Because of
3675-474: Is more of forging ahead, looking at the new global culture. It is a culture that does not exist right now, so the Japanese concept of a cyberpunk future, seems just as valid as a Western one, especially as Western cyberpunk often incorporates many Japanese elements." William Gibson is now a frequent visitor to Japan, and he came to see that many of his visions of Japan have become a reality: Modern Japan simply
3780-767: Is praised for its "realist" exploration of cybernetic and artificial intelligence ideas and ethics. Dick's protege and friend K. W. Jeter wrote a novel called Dr. Adder in 1972 that, Dick lamented, might have been more influential in the field had it been able to find a publisher at that time. It was not published until 1984, after which Jeter made it the first book in a trilogy, followed by The Glass Hammer (1985) and Death Arms (1987). Jeter wrote other standalone cyberpunk novels before going on to write three authorized sequels to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , named Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995), Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996), and Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon . The term "cyberpunk" first appeared as
3885-471: Is published by GeekNation, an entertainment website based in Los Angeles. The book was originally written as a script, and was rewritten as a novel in an attempt to launch a film franchise. In August 2017, conservative publisher Regnery Publishing said it would no longer allow its writers to claim to be " New York Times best-selling authors" due to its belief that the Times favors liberal books on
3990-483: Is published. It is based on weekly sales reports obtained from selected samples of independent and chain bookstores and wholesalers throughout the United States. The sales figures are widely believed to represent books that have actually been sold at retail, rather than wholesale, as the Times surveys booksellers in an attempt to better reflect what is purchased by individual buyers. Some books are flagged with
4095-656: The British rule of Hong Kong , it was an area neglected by both the British and Qing administrations, embodying elements of liberalism in a dystopian context. Portrayals of East Asia and Asians in Western cyberpunk have been criticized as Orientalist and promoting racist tropes playing on American and European fears of East Asian dominance; this has been referred to as "techno-Orientalism". Cyberpunk can be intended to disquiet readers and call them to action. It often expresses
4200-515: The New York Times . The Times stated it was not counted because it was published by a Canadian company. According to Random House Canada , the book was handled properly for the U.S. market. American conservative commentator Dennis Prager wrote an article for National Review titled " The Times Best-Seller List: Another Reason Americans Don't Trust the Media" in which he contends that
4305-494: The title of a short story by Bruce Bethke , written in 1980 and published in Amazing Stories in 1983. The name was picked up by Gardner Dozois , editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine , and popularized in his editorials. Bethke says he made two lists of words, one for technology, one for troublemakers, and experimented with combining them variously into compound words, consciously attempting to coin
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4410-657: The " Stronger " music video, and Lupe Fiasco , whose album Tetsuo & Youth is named after Tetsuo Shima. The popular bike from the film, Kaneda's Motorbike, appears in Steven Spielberg ' s film Ready Player One , and CD Projekt 's video game Cyberpunk 2077 . Ghost in the Shell (1995) influenced a number of prominent filmmakers, most notably the Wachowskis in The Matrix (1999) and its sequels. The Matrix series took several concepts from
4515-477: The "real punks", but it did ensnare many new readers, and it provided the sort of movement that postmodern literary critics found alluring. Cyberpunk made science fiction more attractive to academics, argues Brin; in addition, it made science fiction more profitable to Hollywood and to the visual arts generally. Although the "self-important rhetoric and whines of persecution" on the part of cyberpunk fans were irritating at worst and humorous at best, Brin declares that
4620-646: The "rebels did shake things up. We owe them a debt." Fredric Jameson considers cyberpunk the "supreme literary expression if not of postmodernism , then of late capitalism itself". Cyberpunk further inspired many later writers to incorporate cyberpunk ideas into their own works, such as George Alec Effinger 's When Gravity Fails . Wired magazine, created by Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, mixes new technology, art, literature, and current topics in order to interest today's cyberpunk fans, which Paula Yoo claims "proves that hardcore hackers, multimedia junkies, cyberpunks and cellular freaks are poised to take over
4725-527: The 100,000 new, hardcover print books published each year, fewer than 500 make it on to The New York Times Best Seller list (0.5 percent). Many novels (26 percent) appear on the list for only one week. To make the list, it is estimated that novels sell from 1,000 to 10,000 copies per week, depending on competition. Median sales fluctuate between 4,000 and 8,000 in fiction, and 2,000–6,000 in nonfiction. The majority of New York Times bestselling books sell from 10,000 to 100,000 copies in their first year. During
4830-548: The 1982 film Burst City , and the 1989 film Tetsuo: The Iron Man . According to Paul Gravett , when Akira began to be published, cyberpunk literature had not yet been translated into Japanese, Otomo has distinct inspirations such as Mitsuteru Yokoyama 's manga series Tetsujin 28-go (1956–1966) and Moebius . In contrast to Western cyberpunk which has roots in New Wave science fiction literature, Japanese cyberpunk has roots in underground music culture, specifically
4935-566: The Advice How-to list." To achieve this, the contract stated that "RSI will be purchasing at least 11,000 total orders in one week." This took place, and the book successfully reached No.1 on the hardcover advice bestseller list on January 22, 2014. In July 2015, Ted Cruz 's book A Time For Truth was excluded from the list because the "overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales [of Cruz's book] were limited to strategic bulk purchases" to artificially increase sales and entry onto
5040-474: The Japanese punk subculture that arose from the Japanese punk music scene in the 1970s. The filmmaker Sogo Ishii introduced this subculture to Japanese cinema with the punk film Panic High School (1978) and the punk biker film Crazy Thunder Road (1980), both portraying the rebellion and anarchy associated with punk, and the latter featuring a punk biker gang aesthetic. Ishii's punk films paved
5145-562: The Shell as a source of inspiration, citing it as an influence on Avatar . The New York Times Best Seller list This is an accepted version of this page The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. The New York Times Book Review has published the list weekly since October 12, 1931. In the 21st century, it has evolved into multiple lists, grouped by genre and format, including fiction and nonfiction, hardcover, paperback and electronic . The list
5250-611: The benefits of making The New York Times Best Seller list (speaking engagements, more book deals, and consulting) the authors felt that buying their own work was an investment that would pay for itself. The book climbed to No. 4 on the list where it sat for 15 weeks; it also peaked at No. 1 on the BusinessWeek best seller list. Since such lists hold the power of cumulative advantage , chart success often begets more chart success. Although such efforts are not illegal, publishers consider them unethical. In 1999, Amazon.com announced
5355-538: The creation process of Warcross , she took particular inspiration from League of Legends tournaments, stating that "fifty thousand people will pack into the Staples Center to watch the world championships, and that very much influenced the creation of Warcross ." For the structure of the Warcross game, Lu compares it to "a mix between Overwatch , Mario Kart , and Quidditch ". Lu's characterization of
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#17327868989895460-429: The dormitory. Emika wakes up in a hospital to find herself surrounded by some of her teammates. As she turns on the television, she finds out that she and Ren have been disqualified from the tournament. Simultaneously, Hideo pays her a visit and informs her that her contract has concluded. Hideo agrees to pay her the sum that he offered for the bounty, but he implores her not to meddle in the Warcross finals. A member from
5565-622: The edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body. Cyberpunk plots often involve conflict between artificial intelligence , hackers , and megacorporations , and tend to be set in a near-future Earth , rather than in the far-future settings or galactic vistas found in novels such as Isaac Asimov 's Foundation or Frank Herbert 's Dune . The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to feature extraordinary cultural ferment and
5670-483: The film Blade Runner was adapted) is also seen by some as prefiguring the movement. Blade Runner can be seen as a quintessential example of the cyberpunk style and theme. Video games , board games , and tabletop role-playing games , such as Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun , often feature storylines that are heavily influenced by cyberpunk writing and movies. Beginning in the early 1990s, some trends in fashion and music were also labeled as cyberpunk. Cyberpunk
5775-613: The film, including the Matrix digital rain , which was inspired by the opening credits of Ghost in the Shell and a sushi magazine the wife of the senior designer of the animation, Simon Witheley, had in the kitchen at the time., and the way characters access the Matrix through holes in the back of their necks. Other parallels have been drawn to James Cameron 's Avatar , Steven Spielberg 's A.I. Artificial Intelligence , and Jonathan Mostow 's Surrogates . James Cameron cited Ghost in
5880-478: The first generation of teenagers who grew up truly "speaking computer". Afterward, Dozois began using this term in his own writing, most notably in a 1984 Washington Post article where he said "About the closest thing here to a self-willed esthetic 'school' would be the purveyors of bizarre hard-edged, high-tech stuff, who have on occasion been referred to as 'cyberpunks' — Sterling, Gibson, Shiner, Cadigan, Bear." Also in 1984, William Gibson's novel Neuromancer
5985-430: The forefront with a business model of selling newly published best-sellers with mass-market appeal. They used the best-selling status of titles to market the books and not just as a measure of sales, thus placing increased emphasis on the New York Times list for book readers and book sellers. The list is compiled by the editors of the "News Surveys" department, not by The New York Times Book Review department, where it
6090-534: The genre has grown steadily since Blade Runner . Several of Philip K. Dick's works have been adapted to the silver screen. The films Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and New Rose Hotel (1998), both based on short stories by William Gibson, flopped commercially and critically. Other cyberpunk films include RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Hardware (1990), The Lawnmower Man (1992), 12 Monkeys (1995), Hackers (1995), and Strange Days (1995). Some cyberpunk films have been described as tech-noir ,
6195-766: The goal is that the lists reflect authentic best sellers. The list has been a source of controversy. When the Times believes a book has reached the list in a suspicious way—such as through bulk purchases—the book's entry on the list is marked with a dagger symbol (†). Although the first best seller list in America was published in 1895, in The Bookman , a best seller list was not published in The New York Times until October 12, 1931, 36 years later, with little fanfare. It listed five fiction and four nonfiction books for New York City only. The next month,
6300-549: The idea that the New York Times doesn't like it?" The Post compared the list to best seller lists from Publishers Weekly looking for bias but could not find anything convincing. In February 2018, the Toronto Star published a story by books editor Deborah Dundas who found that the best-selling book 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson , who topped Publishers Weekly chart list, did not even chart on The New York Times bestsellers list, without reliable answers from
6405-453: The impact of technology, drug culture , and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction. Comics exploring cyberpunk themes began appearing as early as Judge Dredd , first published in 1977. Released in 1984, William Gibson 's influential debut novel Neuromancer helped solidify cyberpunk as a genre, drawing influence from punk subculture and early hacker culture . Frank Miller 's Ronin
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#17327868989896510-400: The inconsistencies in the most recent reporting cycle, we decided that the sales for Handbook for Mortals did not meet our criteria for inclusion. We've issued an updated 'Young Adult Hardcover' list for September 3, 2017 which does not include that title." It was uncovered, by author Phil Stamper, that there had been unusual bulk ordering patterns which inflated the number of sales. The book
6615-624: The issue with Peterson's book, as well his The Rational Bible: Exodus , is their conservative context and the lack of inclusion is the American mainstream media's manipulation. The Times denied any bias. In 2019, the release of Donald Trump Jr. 's book Triggered was shown to have only reached the best-seller list through approximately $ 100,000 in behind-the-scenes bulk purchases meant to pump up its sales numbers illegitimately. Vanity Fair reported in October 2020 that this sort of gaming of
6720-642: The landscape of cyberpunk Los Angeles in Blade Runner to be "Hong Kong on a very bad day". The streetscapes of the Ghost in the Shell film were based on Hong Kong. Its director Mamoru Oshii felt that Hong Kong's strange and chaotic streets where "old and new exist in confusing relationships" fit the theme of the film well. Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City is particularly notable for its disorganized hyper-urbanization and breakdown in traditional urban planning to be an inspiration to cyberpunk landscapes. During
6825-421: The line between actual and virtual reality . A typical trope in such work is a direct connection between the human brain and computer systems. Cyberpunk settings are dystopias with corruption, computers, and computer networks. The economic and technological state of Japan is a regular theme in the cyberpunk literature of the 1980s. Of Japan's influence on the genre, William Gibson said, "Modern Japan simply
6930-525: The list due to either negligence or intentional falsehood, saying it should have been included due to high sales. The Times countered that the list was not mathematically objective but rather was an editorial product and thus protected under the Constitution as free speech. Blatty appealed it to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Thus, the lower court ruling stood that the list
7035-559: The list was expanded to eight cities, each with its own list. By the early 1940s, fourteen city-lists were included. A national list was created on April 9, 1942, in the Sunday New York Times Book Review as a supplement to the Monday edition regular city lists. The national list was ranked according to how many times the book appeared in the city lists. Eventually the city lists were eliminated, leaving only
7140-458: The list. In response, Cruz called the Times "a liar" and demanded an apology. The Times said it stood by its statement and evidence of manipulation. In August 2017, a young adult fiction book, Handbook for Mortals by previously unpublished author Lani Sarem was removed from the list, where it was in initially in the No. 1 spot. According to a statement issued by the Times , "after investigating
7245-416: The list. The Times responded that the political views of authors have no bearing on the list and noted conservative authors routinely rank highly on the list. The Associated Press noted the Times is a frequent target of conservatives and Republicans. The Washington Post called Regnery's ban a "stunt" designed to increase sales, "What better way to sell a book to a conservative audience than to promote
7350-407: The main protagonist was inspired by her mother's computer skills as a computer scientist , perseverance and determination; however, Lu concedes that Emika shares the same interests and flaws as her. 18-year old Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter for a living, which entails capturing individuals who are suspected of betting on Warcross, the largest internet game in the world, in which players access
7455-489: The methodology on his blog; he posted: "If I could obtain bulk orders before Leapfrogging was released, ResultSource would purchase the books on my behalf using their tried-and-true formula. Three thousand books sold would get me on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list. Eleven thousand would secure a spot on the biggest prize of them all, The New York Times list." In 2014, the Los Angeles Times published
7560-517: The most copies in one year followed by the biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson . The list has been criticized by authors, publishers, book industry executives, and others for not providing an accurate accounting of true best-seller status. These criticisms have been ongoing ever since the list originated. A book industry report in the 1940s found that best-seller lists were a poor indicator of sales, since they were based on misleading data and were only measuring fast sales. A 2004 report quoted
7665-465: The most successful cyberpunk films. Newer cyberpunk media includes Blade Runner 2049 (2017), a sequel to the original 1982 film; Dredd (2012), which was not a sequel to the original movie; Ghost in the Shell (2017), a live-action adaptation of the original manga ; Alita: Battle Angel (2019), based on the 1990s Japanese manga Battle Angel Alita ; the 2018 Netflix TV series Altered Carbon , based on Richard K. Morgan 's 2002 novel of
7770-401: The movie omits the religious and mythical elements of Dick's original novel (e.g. empathy boxes and Wilbur Mercer), it falls more strictly within the cyberpunk genre than the novel does. William Gibson would later reveal that upon first viewing the film, he was surprised at how the look of this film matched his vision for Neuromancer , a book he was then working on. The film's tone has since been
7875-477: The national ranking list, which was compiled according to "reports from leading booksellers in 22 cities". Ranking by bookseller sales figures continues today, although the process has remained proprietary. By the 1950s, The Times ' s list had become the leading best-seller list for book professionals to monitor, along with that of Publishers Weekly . In the 1960s and 1970s, shopping-mall chain bookstores B. Dalton , Crown Books , and Waldenbooks came to
7980-753: The next century, but nearly always clutched in the secretive hands of a wealthy or corporate elite . Cyberpunk stories have also been seen as fictional forecasts of the evolution of the Internet . The earliest descriptions of a global communications network came long before the World Wide Web entered popular awareness, though not before traditional science-fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke and some social commentators such as James Burke began predicting that such networks would eventually form. Some observers cite that cyberpunk tends to marginalize sectors of society such as women and people of colour. It
8085-526: The novel appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list in the young adult category where it remained for 12 weeks. The novel received mostly positive reviews, with reviewers praising the seamless transition between plot elements. Some critics took exception to the predictability of some of the plot elements and the shallow relationship between Emika and Hideo. In her list of the best science fiction books to read in September 2017, Everdeen Mason praised
8190-434: The novel for its quickly developing plot and entertainment value. Moreover, she argued that the novel transcends its young-adult billing, likening it to Neal Stephenson 's Snow Crash . Kirkus praised the novel for the romance between Emika and Hideo and the plot which captures the feel of an action movie. Kirkus included Warcross in its list of the best teen science fiction books of 2017. Feliza Casano of Tor.com
8295-416: The number was 4,000 bookstores as well as an unstated number of wholesalers. Data is adjusted to give more weight to independent book stores, which are underrepresented in the sample. The lists are divided among fiction and nonfiction , print and e-book, paperback and hardcover; each list contains 15 to 20 titles. The lists have been subdivided several times. "Advice, How-To, and Miscellaneous" debuted as
8400-519: The period studied (August 6, 2008, to March 10, 2016), Dan Brown's book The Lost Symbol held the record with 3 million copies sold in one year followed by The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee which sold 1.6 million copies each. In nonfiction, more than half of the hardcover books that make the list are in the biography category. The autobiography of George W. Bush, Decision Points , sold
8505-505: The popular development of "realism" within the genre Delany's 1968 novel Nova , considered a forerunner of cyberpunk literature, includes neural implants, a now popular cyberpunk trope for human computer interfaces. It also influenced one of the genres most well known cyberpunk novels, William Gibson 's Neuromancer . Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , first published in 1968, shares common dystopian themes with later works by Gibson and Sterling, and
8610-458: The power-ups, which eventually lead her team to victory. As the game concludes, Zero spawns into the map. He vaguely warns Emika of the dangers of Hideo's plans without going into further details. Emika meets up with Hideo once again and he divulges the true intentions of Warcross. He mentions that the new contact lenses used as alternative for the glasses interact with the user's brain, thus he will be able to stop individuals who plan on committing
8715-401: The repercussions of her decision. As the match concludes, images of Emika with Hideo emerge, which stirs the media into a frenzy. When she arrives at her team's dormitory, her teammates Asher, Hammie, and Roshan are mad at her for her actions. Although they press her for details, Emika keeps quiet to avoid divulging her secrets. As she walks away from her teammates, an explosion erupts that levels
8820-415: The same name ; and the video game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and original net animation (ONA) miniseries Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), both based on R. Talsorian Games 's 1988 tabletop role-playing game Cyberpunk . Lawrence Person has attempted to define the content and ethos of the cyberpunk literary movement stating: Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on
8925-471: The shield, which Hideo suggests is related to the Dark World, a place where people commit crimes through Warcross and their fake persona. There, Emika stumbles upon Ren placing small bets and conversing with an ominous figure, known as Zero. Since the bets are so small, Emika believes them to be a set of coordinates that map out future attacks against Henka Games. After Emika's team wins their first match,
9030-469: The stadium is plunged into darkness. Emika, fearing that something is amiss, sends a message to Hideo, warning him of a possible attack against him. Hideo escapes unscathed from the attack; however, his colleagues suggest that he should leave Tokyo to avoid further incidents, which he downplays. Emika meets up with him in an attempt to change his convictions; however, Hideo remains steadfast. Nevertheless, he reveals that he has developed feelings for Emika and as
9135-496: The staple of many cyberpunk movies, such as The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003), which uses a wide variety of cyberpunk elements. A sequel to Blade Runner was released in 2017. The TV series Max Headroom (1987) is an iconic cyberpunk work, taking place in a futuristic dystopia ruled by an oligarchy of television networks. Computer hacking played a central role in many of the story lines. Max Headroom has been called "the first cyberpunk television series". The number of films in
9240-423: The system has been a common practice among American conservative political figures, and has also included the use of political campaign funds to purchase the books in bulk in order to boost their rank on the list. A Stanford Business School analysis suggests that the "majority of book buyers seem to use the Times ' list as a signal of what's worth reading". The study concluded that lesser-known writers get
9345-478: The term in 1983 for his short story " Cyberpunk ", which was published in an issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories . The term was quickly appropriated as a label to be applied to the works of William Gibson , Bruce Sterling , Pat Cadigan and others. Of these, Sterling became the movement's chief ideologue, thanks to his fanzine Cheap Truth . John Shirley wrote articles on Sterling and Rucker's significance. John Brunner 's 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider
9450-474: The time of writing the novel Gibson did not know the location of Chiba and had no idea how perfectly it fit his vision in some ways. The exposure to cyberpunk ideas and fiction in the 1980s has allowed it to seep into the Japanese culture. Cyberpunk anime and manga draw upon a futuristic vision which has elements in common with Western science fiction and therefore have received wide international acceptance outside Japan. "The conceptualization involved in cyberpunk
9555-558: The top spots on the fiction list for an extended period of time. The children's list was printed monthly until February 13, 2011, when it was changed to once an issue (weekly). In September 2007, the paperback fiction list was divided into "trade" and "mass-market" sections, in order to give more visibility to the trade paperbacks that were more often reviewed by the newspaper itself. In November 2010, The New York Times announced it would be tracking e-book best-seller lists in fiction and nonfiction starting in early 2011. "RoyaltyShare,
9660-476: The tournament. Thus, he signs Emika up for the tournament so that she could spy on her competitors without raising suspicion. In the Wardraft, where wildcards are drafted into teams, Emika is the first player picked, and joins Team Phoenix Riders. Emika becomes wary of one of her teammates, a wildcard called DJ Ren, who has set up a system of shields to encrypt his information. Emika extracts a string of code from
9765-417: The use of technology in ways never anticipated by its original inventors ("the street finds its own uses for things"). Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes film noir , and written works in the genre often use techniques from detective fiction . There are sources who view that cyberpunk has shifted from a literary movement to a mode of science fiction due to the limited number of writers and its transition to
9870-481: The way for Otomo's seminal cyberpunk work Akira . Cyberpunk themes are widely visible in anime and manga. In Japan , where cosplay is popular and not only teenagers display such fashion styles, cyberpunk has been accepted and its influence is widespread. William Gibson's Neuromancer, whose influence dominated the early cyberpunk movement, was also set in Chiba , one of Japan's largest industrial areas, although at
9975-447: The web only, which tracks combined print sales (hardcover and paperback) in fiction and nonfiction. On December 16, 2012, the children's chapter books list was divided into two new lists: middle-grade (ages 8–12) and young adult (age 12–18), both which include sales across all platforms (hard, paper and e-book). According to an EPJ Data Science study that used big data to analyze every New York Times bestselling book from 2008 to 2016, of
10080-512: The weekly unit sales of all titles reported by book retailers as their general interest bestsellers. We will not comment beyond our methodology on the other questions." The New York Times did not alert its readers to this, unlike The Wall Street Journal, which admitted that books had landed on its bestseller list due to ResultSource's campaign. Soren Kaplan, the source who admitted he had paid ResultSource to land his book, Leapfrogging , on The Wall Street Journal ' s bestseller list, revealed
10185-481: The world through almost-magical computer skills, but whose actual use of the Net amounts to dialing up the scatophilia forum and downloading a few disgusting pictures. You know, cyberpunks. Primary figures in the cyberpunk movement include William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, Bruce Bethke, Pat Cadigan , Rudy Rucker , and John Shirley . Philip K. Dick (author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , from which
10290-407: The world". The film Blade Runner (1982) is set in 2019 in a dystopian future in which manufactured beings called replicants are slaves used on space colonies and are legal prey on Earth to various bounty hunters who "retire" (kill) them. Although Blade Runner was largely unsuccessful in its first theatrical release, it found a viewership in the home video market and became a cult film . Since
10395-574: Was awarded the Hugo , Nebula , and Philip K. Dick Awards. Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) followed after Gibson's popular debut novel. According to the Jargon File , "Gibson's near-total ignorance of computers and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate about the role of computers and hackers in the future in ways hackers have since found both irritatingly naïve and tremendously stimulating." Early on, cyberpunk
10500-492: Was critical in her review of Warcross , citing the monotony of the plot as a hindrance to the overall story. In particular, she took exception with the romance between Emika and Hideo and the disclosure of Zero's identity, believing that these plot elements were too easy to foretell. It was announced in September 2020 that the book rights had been optioned for a TV adaption by Bruna Papandrea's Made Up Stories and John Cameron ( Fargo , Legion ). Cyberpunk Cyberpunk
10605-563: Was cyberpunk. The Japanese themselves knew it and delighted in it. I remember my first glimpse of Shibuya , when one of the young Tokyo journalists who had taken me there, his face drenched with the light of a thousand media-suns—all that towering, animated crawl of commercial information—said, "You see? You see? It is Blade Runner town." And it was. It so evidently was. Akira (1982 manga) and its 1988 anime film adaptation have influenced numerous works in animation, comics, film, music, television and video games. Akira has been cited as
10710-400: Was cyberpunk." Cyberpunk is often set in urbanized, artificial landscapes, and "city lights, receding" was used by Gibson as one of the genre's first metaphors for cyberspace and virtual reality. The cityscapes of Hong Kong has had major influences in the urban backgrounds, ambiance and settings in many cyberpunk works such as Blade Runner and Shadowrun . Ridley Scott envisioned
10815-1108: Was hailed as a radical departure from science-fiction standards and a new manifestation of vitality. Shortly thereafter, however, some critics arose to challenge its status as a revolutionary movement. These critics said that the science fiction New Wave of the 1960s was much more innovative as far as narrative techniques and styles were concerned. Furthermore, while Neuromancer ' s narrator may have had an unusual "voice" for science fiction, much older examples can be found: Gibson's narrative voice, for example, resembles that of an updated Raymond Chandler , as in his novel The Big Sleep (1939). Others noted that almost all traits claimed to be uniquely cyberpunk could in fact be found in older writers' works—often citing J. G. Ballard , Philip K. Dick , Harlan Ellison , Stanisław Lem , Samuel R. Delany , and even William S. Burroughs . For example, Philip K. Dick's works contain recurring themes of social decay, artificial intelligence, paranoia, and blurred lines between objective and subjective realities. The influential cyberpunk movie Blade Runner (1982)
10920-416: Was published, delivering a glimpse of a future encompassed by what became an archetype of cyberpunk "virtual reality", with the human mind being fed light-based worldscapes through a computer interface. Some, perhaps ironically including Bethke himself, argued at the time that the writers whose style Gibson's books epitomized should be called "Neuromantics", a pun on the name of the novel plus " New Romantics ",
11025-480: Was the TV series Max Headroom from 1987, playing in a futuristic dystopia ruled by an oligarchy of television networks, and where computer hacking played a central role in many story lines. The films Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and New Rose Hotel (1998), both based upon short stories by William Gibson, flopped commercially and critically, while The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003) and Judge Dredd (1995) were some of
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