William Gibson is the undisputed father of Cyber Punk and a contributor to Steam Punk. He may not have actually been the first Cyber Punk writer (although he probably was), but he did more than everyone else to define and popularise the subgenre.
Burning Chrome has a good introduction by Bruce Sterling that could helpfully be summarised here.
William Gibson is held by many to be a damn fine writer, whose work gives the lie to the common assertion that SF has no characters. However, an argument could made that all his characters are simply noir cliches, and that he is a very good example of how good characterisation is not a precondition for good SF.
The term 'undisputed father' is ever so slightly too strong; there is at least one one person who disputes it, namely William Gibson himself, who points the finger at John Shirley, describing him as "cyberpunk's Patient Zero, first locus of the virus, certifiably virulent" (from Gibson's foreword to Shirley's 'City Come A-Walkin'').
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