Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hardwired | 1986 | Walter Jon Williams | Buy |
| 2 | Hooked | 2018 | Walter Jon Williams | N/A |
| 3 | Solip:System | 1989 | Walter Jon Williams | N/A |
| 4 | La voce del vortice | 1987 | Walter Jon Williams | N/A |
| 5 | Voice of the Whirlwind | 1987 | Walter Jon Williams | Buy |
| 6 | Solip | 1989 | Walter Jon Williams | Buy |
Hardwired (1986) established Walter Jon Williams as a major voice in cyberpunk fiction. Set on a future Earth dominated by orbital corporate powers, the novel follows a smuggler with a cybernetically enhanced nervous system who runs contraband across the ravaged American heartland. The book has the gritty, street-level feel of classic cyberpunk but adds its own flavor with its rural American setting and its focus on characters fighting back against corporate exploitation from below.
Voice of the Whirlwind (1987) shares the same universe but moves to a different story about a clone soldier trying to reconstruct the life of his dead original. Solip:System (1989) is a related novella. The series also includes translations and alternate editions, including the Italian-language La voce del vortice. Williams returned to the setting in 2018 with Hooked, showing that the world he built in the mid-1980s still had stories worth telling.