"You know, the jack goes in the head and then you're in thermal freefall."

A good article on William Gibson here. It's something of a primer, but there are some interesting comments from other authors too. One of them is Jon Courtenay Grimwood, whose novel Pashazade I found an exercise in irritation. He knows how to work cyberpunk, but he hasn't quite managed to engage fully with the genre.

Remember, kids - cyberpunk is a mindset, not a genre. It's easy to get caught up in the trappings, but if you do you're missing the point. Far too many people, both readers and authors, did latch onto smartguns and mirrorshades back in the day. I think that's what killed cyberpunk. Idoru marked a comeback, thankfully (though I prefer Virtual Light).