A cosplayer poses for a photograph during the Comic Market 90 (Comiket) event in Tokyo Big Sight on August 12, 2016, Tokyo, Japan. Many manga and anime fans wearing cosplay lined up in the sun for the first day of Comiket. Comiket was established in 1975 and focuses on manga, anime, gaming and cosplay. Organizers expect more than 500,000 visitors to attend this year's summer event which runs for three days until August 14. (Photo by Aflo/Splash News)

William Gibson is not one of the authors that spits out novels like a machine – in his long and fruitful career he has only published 11 novels andof short stories and articles in the tens each. Still his impact on modern literature was huge – the “noir prophet” of the cyberpunk subgenre (that he was one of the pioneers of) has predicted the rise of reality television, virtual reality, video games and the internet. He is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer, with a special eye for what the future might bring.

Drivers push cars to gas station during “oil crisis”, Roslindale, Boston, Massachusetts, 1973. (Photo by Spencer Grant/Getty Images)

A Chinese tourist plays with water as she celebrates during the Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year in Bangkok, Thailand on April 13, 2023. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

A young farmer harvests water lilies from a canal in Barisal, Bangladesh on October 12, 2019, where the flowers cover the 10,000-acre waterway, to take to nearby markets. (Photo by Azim Khan Ronnie/Caters News Agency)

A woman poses for a photograph during Holi celebrations in the town of Barsana in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, March 6, 2017. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

Presentation run of beautiful candidates for the Miss France 2020 pageant and press conference of the MIss France 2020 election at the Hotel Inter Continental in Paris, France on November 15, 2019. The pageant will be the 90th edition of the Miss France, slated 14 December 2019 at the Le Dôme de Marseille in Marseille. (Photo by Romuald Meigneux/SIPA Press)

Revellers enjoy themselves during Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh, Scotland on December 31, 2017. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)