Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software | 1982 | Rudy Rucker | Buy |
| 2 | Wetware | 1988 | Rudy Rucker | Buy |
| 3 | Freeware | 1997 | Rudy Rucker | Buy |
| 4 | Realware | 2000 | Rudy Rucker | Buy |
The Ware series is Rudy Rucker’s most celebrated work. Software, the first book, introduces a future where robots called “boppers” have achieved consciousness and want to free themselves from human control. Wetware continues the story as boppers and humans merge in unexpected ways. Freeware and Realware push the ideas further, exploring artificial life, nanotechnology, and the nature of consciousness itself.
Software and Freeware both won the Philip K. Dick Award. The series helped define cyberpunk alongside the work of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, but Rucker’s version has always been stranger and funnier, reflecting his background in mathematics and his interest in pushing ideas to their most absurd logical conclusions.