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.

A follower shows a ring of La Santa Muerte (The Saint of Death), a cult figure often depicted as a skeletal grim reaper, near at the saint's altar at Tepito neighborhood, in Mexico City January 1, 2015. Followers gather at the saint's altar at the start of the new year to leave offerings of apples, flowers, cigarettes, coloured candles and tequila to thank the saint for favours that have been granted and to ask for new ones in the new year. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

A German Air Force Officer sits astride a dead boar outside a house where he is stationed near the Western Front, in this 1918 handout picture. This picture is part of a previously unpublished set of World War One (WWI) images from a private collection. The pictures offer an unusual view of varied and contrasting aspects of the conflict, from high tech artillery to mobile pigeon lofts, and from officers partying in their headquarters to the grim reality of life and death in the trenches. The year 2014 marks the centenary of the start of the war. (Photo by Reuters/Archive of Modern Conflict London)

Images of Europes most spooky abandoned hospitals show just how frightening these once sparkling medical facilities can be. The haunting shots show the beds patients would have recovered on as well as the tables and instruments that would have been used during grim operations. Peeling, flaking paint and crumbling walls are prevalent in some of the hospitals while others look almost untouched by time. The spooky pictures were taken by Austrian photographer Stefan Baumann (35) from Vienna as he travelled across Europe. (Photo by Stefan Baumann/Caters News)

In this photograph taken on September 1, 2024, a tea picker shows her hands whilst she reaps leaves at a plantation in Hatton. The backbone of the economy, Sri Lanka's tea pickers are determined to use their powerful vote to choose a president this month who will change grim working conditions for good. The pickers' main political party, the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), are backing the incumbent Wickremesinghe. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

People walk along Beachy Head, close to Eastbourne on the south coast of England on April 12, 2020, as life in Britain continues over the Easter break, during the nationwide lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson was making “very good progress” on Saturday in his recovery in hospital from coronavirus, officials said, as the country's deaths toll from the disease approached the grim milestone of 10,000. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP Photo)

A tale of two foxes. Surprising behaviour, witnessed in Wapusk national park, on Hudson Bay, Canada, in early winter. Red foxes don’t actively hunt Arctic foxes, but where the ranges of two predators overlap, there can be conflict. Though the light was poor, the snow-covered tundra provided the backdrop for the moment that the red fox paused with the smaller fox in its mouth in a grim pose. (Photo by Don Gutoski/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Hospitality staff are reflected in a puddle of water as they prepare to pose for photograph in front of a giant basket decorated with replicas of flowers and fruits on display on Tiananmen Square during the opening ceremony of the 19th Party Congress in Beijing, Wednesday, October 18, 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take on a more forceful role in society and economic development to better address “grim” challenges facing the country as he opened a twice-a-decade national congress. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)