Rudy Rucker books

Rudy Rucker is a mathematician and science fiction author whose novels blend cyberpunk, transrealism, and higher-dimensional mathematics across a prolific career spanning 1980 to 2025.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Mirrorshades 1986 Buy
Mathenauts 1987 Buy
Semiotext SF 1991 Buy
Storming the Reality Studio 1991 Buy
Christmas Forever 1993 Buy
Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1994 1994 Buy
The Ultimate Cyberpunk 2002 Buy
Year’s Best SF 11 2006 Buy
Golden Age SF 2009 Buy
Hieroglyph 2014 Buy

Collections

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The 57th Franz Kafka 1983 Buy
Transreal! 1991 Buy
Gnarl! 2000 Buy
Mad Professor 2006 Buy
Complete Stories, Volume One 2012 Buy
Transreal Cyberpunk 2015 Buy
The Hollow Earth & Return to the Hollow Earth 2018 Buy

Non-Fiction

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite 1981 Buy
The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality 1984 Buy
Mind Tools 1987 Buy
Artificial Life Lab/Book and Disk 1993 Buy
Seek! Selected Nonfiction 1999 Buy
Software Engineering and Computer Games 2002 Buy
The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul 2005 Buy
Nested Scrolls 2011 Buy
Collected Essays 2012 Buy
How To Make An Ebook 2012 Buy
Journals I 2012 Buy
Journals II 2012 Buy
Better Worlds 2012 Buy
Notes for The Big Aha 2013 Buy
Journals 2015 Buy
Notes for Million Mile Road Trip 2019 Buy

Postsingular Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Postsingular 2007 Buy
Hylozoic 2009 Buy

Short Stories/Novellas

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Jack and the Aktuals, or, Physical Applications of Transfinite Set Theory 2010 Buy
Good Night, Moon 2011 Buy
Loco 2012 Buy
Where the Lost Things Are 2014 Buy
Totem Poles 2016 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
White Light 1980 Buy
Spacetime Donuts 1981 Buy
The Sex Sphere 1983 Buy
Master of Space and Time 1985 Buy
The Hacker and the Ants 1994 Buy
Saucer Wisdom 1999 Buy
Spaceland of the Fourth Dimension 2002 Buy
As Above, So Below 2002 Buy
Spaceland 2002 Buy
Frek and the Elixir 2004 Buy
Mathematicians in Love 2006 Buy
Jim and the Flims 2011 Buy
Turing & Burroughs 2012 Buy
All the Visions 2014 Buy
Million Mile Road Trip 2019 Buy
The Secret of Life 2019 Buy
Juicy Ghosts 2021 Buy
Notes for Juicy Ghosts 2021 Buy
Sqinks 2025 Buy

The Hollow Earth Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Hollow Earth 1990 Buy
The Hollow Earth & Return to the Hollow Earth 2018 N/A
Return to the Hollow Earth 2018 Buy
Notes for Return to the Hollow Earth 2018 Buy

The Next Wave Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Alien Tongue 1991 Buy
Red Genesis 1991 Buy
The Modular Man 1992 Buy

Ware Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Software 1982 Buy
Wetware 1988 Buy
Freeware 1997 Buy
Realware 2000 Buy

Rudy Rucker is a mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction writer whose work sits at the intersection of all three fields. He was part of the cyberpunk movement in the 1980s, and his Ware series (Software, Wetware, Freeware, Realware) won two Philip K. Dick Awards. His fiction often explores what happens when technology, mathematics, and human consciousness collide.

Beyond cyberpunk, Rucker developed the concept of transrealism, a style that mixes personal experience with speculative fiction. His non-fiction books on infinity, higher dimensions, and the philosophy of mathematics have reached audiences well beyond the science fiction community. With 70 books spanning novels, short fiction, non-fiction, and collections, he is one of the most mathematically literate authors in science fiction.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Rudy Rucker written?

Rudy Rucker has written 70 books across nine series.

What was Rudy Rucker's first book?

Rudy Rucker’s first book is White Light, published in 1980.

What is transrealism in Rudy Rucker's work?

Transrealism is a literary approach Rucker helped develop, blending autobiography with science fiction. His transreal novels use real-life experiences and people as starting points, then push them through speculative scenarios involving higher dimensions, artificial intelligence, or alien contact.

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