Catch 22 -- Everyone should read this novel. It created a phrase, after all. The brilliance of it is the way it examines war through humor without forgetting that war is about death. The main character is a man who wants desperately to leave the military--he's an American bomber crewman stationed in Europe--and tries to do everything in his power to achieve that. It turns out to be a very difficult task, however. The story is full of crazy, hilarious characters and situations but also black comedy that does not shy away from tragedy.
“You have a morbid aversion to dying. You probably resent the fact that you're at war and might get your head blown off any second."
"I more than resent it, sir. I'm absolutely incensed."
"You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don't like bigots, bullies, snobs, or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate."
"Consciously, sir, consciously," Yossarian corrected in an effort to help. "I hate them consciously."
"You're antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated, or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Persecution depresses you. Violence depresses you. Corruption depresses you. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if you're a manic-depressive!"
"Yes, sir. Perhaps I am."
"Don't try to deny it."
"I'm not denying it, sir," said Yossarian, pleased with the miraculous rapport that finally existed between them. "I agree with all you've said.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch 22
Neuromancer -- This is pretty much the beginning of "cyberpunk". With this novel, the author, William Gibson, made sci-fi stylish and cool and created many of the terms and technology that would define the genre. Beyond that, it's also a very interesting read about the Pandora's Box of creating sentient Artificial Intelligence. The main character was once a hot-shot hacker who would jack his brain into cyberspace and steal industrial secrets, at least until he messed with the wrong people and got his circuits burned out. However, he's about to learn that some very powerful interests still have a use for him.
“A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken and the corners he cut in Night City, and he'd still see the matrix in his dreams, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colourless void... The Sprawl was a long, strange way home now over the Pacific, and he was no Console Man, no cyberspace cowboy. Just another hustler, trying to make it through. But the dreams came on in the Japanese night like livewire voodoo, and he'd cry for it, cry in his sleep, and wake alone in the dark, curled in his capsule in some coffin hotel, hands clawed into the bedslab, temper foam bunched between his fingers, trying to reach the console that wasn't there.”
― William Gibson, Neuromancer
