Gibson, William (1948– )

US writer. His debut novel Neuromancer (1984) is credited with inventing the concept of virtual reality and establishing the cyberpunk genre; it won the Hugo and Nebula awards for science fiction.

Neuromancer was followed by Count Zero and Burning Chrome (both 1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), Virtual Light (1993), Idoru (1996), All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), and Pattern Recognition (2003). Other works include The Difference Engine (1990), co-written with Bruce Sterling, about Babbage's original 19th-century computer, and the screenplay for the 1995 film Johnny Mnemonic, which was based on his 1986 short story of the same name. Agrippa (1992) was a set of engravings and a disk, designed to self-destruct after being read.