I didn't see anyone mentioning Jeff Noon. Then again he's not the biggest thing in North America. In my cyberculture cosmology the trajectory is Gibson > Stephenson > Noon. His major works: Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice, Nymphomation, Cobralingus, Needle in the Goove, Pixel Juice (short stories), Falling Out of Cars are simply astounding. Cobra's actually written in a form of code. Noon is the only cyberwriter I would gush endlessly over. I'm putting together an annotated bibliography of research on him (though it is presently in rough notes), and will be republishing Noon's short story "Chromosft Mirrors (v.4.2)" in _The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments_ that Joel Weiss and I are editing. His world is very much a restructuring of _Through the Looking Glass_, as Celia Hobart (Alice's doll) actually is credited with having invented the Vurt Feathers (cyberspace). And stylistically Noon is heavily influenced by early JG Ballard (1950s, 1960s). Noon can't be missed, though he's hard to find. Check on amazon for used copies. I'm collecting a class set of Vurt... slowly. J