Rudy Rucker's seminal Ware cyberpunk novels (Software, Wetware, Freeware, and Realware) have been collected in a single volume from Prime Books, with an introduction by William Gibson. To celebrate, Rudy and Prime have released the full text of the book as a free Creative Commons BY-NC-ND download!

These are four of my all-time favorite sf novels; to have them back in print is cause for celebration — a CC release on top of that? HEAVEN. (Insert "zero-day warez" joke here)

It starts with Software, where rebel robots bring immortality to their human creator by eating his brain. Software won the first Philip K. Dick Award. In Wetware, the robots decide to start building people­–and people get strung out on an insane new drug called merge. This cyberpunk classic garnered a second Philip K. Dick award. By Freeware, the robots have evolved into soft plastic slugs called moldies­–and some human "cheeseballs" want to have sex with them. The action redoubles when aliens begin arriving in the form of cosmic rays. And with Realware, the humans and robots reach a higher plateau.

Download The Ware Tetralogy (PDF)

The Ware Tetralogy (Amazon)

The Ware Tetralogy (RudyRucker.com)