Examples of Cyborg in literature:
- Agent G: The protagonist is one of 26 Letters who are all heavily modified Super-Soldier assassins who have only their brains remaining organic. They aren't alone in this as "Shells" are apparently used by many governments and assassination groups. Regular humans are just completely outclassed by these enhanced individuals but they are able to live otherwise normal lives.
- Alan Alone: A man contains machinery to shoot lasers out of his hands to fight off swarms of small flying robots. Nicknamed Bai, he later introduces himself to Alan by stating that they are both cyborgs, humans mixed with machine, but it's less severe in Alan's case, who was given technological implants to help him through a life-threatening disease.
- Alice Long: Cyborgs are the norm rather than baseline humans simply due to all the advanced abilities cybernetics give. The titular character is the most advanced Cyborg ever born.
- Alterien features a few cyborgs. The technology they're created with can have dangerous consequences for anyone, including Alteriens. Oberon went up against two cyborgs on two different occasions, nearly getting killed both times.
- Animorphs: Taylor, a former Alpha Bitch turned Quisling, is rebuilt with Yeerk technology in exchange for voluntary infestation. One of her arms is a prosthesis capable of deploying various types of deadly gases and possibly a Ray Gun.
- Behind Blue Eyes: The Guardian Angels are a Super-Soldier death squad enhanced with numerous implants designed to make them the world's deadliest killers. It also brainwashes them into obedience while leaving the majority of their personalities intact.
- In Bounders, high-ranking Alkalinians have their six natural limbs removed and replaced with a single robot arm.
- The Cobra Trilogy features as its protagonists members of the elite Cobra guerrilla commandos, who receive surgically-implanted skeletal laminations (to make their bones effectively unbreakable), servomotors (to give them superhuman strength), hidden weapons (two small antipersonnel lasers in their fingers, one anti-armor laser in the calf and foot of one leg, an "arc thrower" that shoots an electric current down the ionized trail of one of the finger lasers to fry electronics, sonic projectors, and an emergency self-destruct mechanism), optical and auditory enhancements, a tiny supercomputer to control it all (as well as giving them pre-programmed combat reflexes), and a tiny fusion power plant to power all that. Quite an impressive load-out, especially considering they can still pass for normal civilians, which is necessary because they work in sabotage and subversion in cities captured by their enemies. After the war is over, they find it difficult to re-assimilate into regular civilian life, and most go on to move to a group of new colony planets where they prove themselves equally adept at surviving the ridiculously dangerous local fauna. It should be noted that the Trofts (the enemies in the war) actually believe the Cobras to be unkillable. They're just that good. That said, there are major side effects, including early-onset arthritis.
- Creatures of Light and Darkness: Blends of man and machine are common on the human worlds. They include the Pleasure-Comps — oracles which are human from the waist down — and one of the ultimate examples, the Steel General, who still wears a ring of his original flesh on his pinky.
- The Cyber Dragons Trilogy: Cybernetics are ubiquitous and used to replace bad organs and missing body parts. They can also be used as enhancements for soldiers or those who don't like their existing bodies with the most extreme example being "Shells" who are all machine but for their brains. Technology is advanced enough that their quality of life improves rather than diminishes.
- Cyborg and its sequels, by Martin Caidin, star Colonel Steve Austin, a US Air Force test pilot who was horribly injured in a crash and received prosthetic replacements for his lost limbs (both legs and his right arm) along with an artificial eye that contained a camera and a steel plate to replace part of his skull that was shattered in the crash.
- DFZ: Cyberware is extremely common in the DFZ. Nik has a lot of cyberware, though it's not as obvious as most.
- In Distress, the reporter Andrew Worth has technology in his body that includes cameras in his eyes and a computer in his gut that can connect to external computers via a port in his navel.
- Empire from the Ashes: The Fourth Imperium used "biotechnic" enhancement to give its military personnel Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Senses, and a lot of other things. The main character gets improved versions of the implants.
- Fractured Stars: Young people who seem like promising soldiers are put through a variety of hormonal and surgical enhancements and assigned to work in the military for a certain number of years. Most cyborgs die in the line of duty, but a minority live long enough to retire. Most choose to live in enclaves with other cyborgs, as they can no longer relate to anyone else.
- Gearbreakers: The Windup pilots are cybernetically enhanced to connect to their mechas. Many have Electronic Eyes as well.
- Harry Potter: Mad-Eye Moody is essentially a "magical cyborg", given that he replaced a lost eye with a magical one that gives him enhanced abilities. He also has a prosthetic leg, but this isn't described as giving him any extra abilities and is more often than not a hindrance.
- Heart of Steel: Alistair Mechanus is a cyborg Mad Scientist who rebuilt himself after a horrific car accident. Noteworthy in that his upgrades were largely DIY, including his own heart (he had help).
- Hostile Takeover (Swann): Dominic Magnus has been extensively rebuilt, including a replacement arm and leg, as well as complete skin replacement and facial reconstruction.
- In Incandescence, Rakesh and Parantham have modifications that include infrared sensors in their fingertips and a Brain/Computer Interface — when they're using physical bodies, that is.
- Incarceron has many people living inside the gigantic, living prison, and a lot of them aren't pure human, but also part robot. This is because nothing is allowed to come into or escape the prison, and as the prison is running out of bodies to use to make new people with, it instead uses metal. An odd case where some of these people have no metal on the outside of their body, so they are impossible to distinguish from normal humans, as the metal is all inside their bodies.
- Kosmotehnoluhi: In the footnotes, the author explains that by definition, even an old woman with a prosthetic jaw can be considered a cyborg, albeit common usage usually implies more advanced models. In the story, cyborgs are basically cloned human bodies with integrated processor and other implants. They are considered expendable biological machines, produced by DEX Company corporation in several models: DEX (general purpose/military), "Mary" (domestic servants), "Bond" (espionage/secret service) and "Irien" (sex toy). In human society, cyborgs are assumed to be non-sentient, incapable of developing any level of self-awareness. They actually are capable, but this ability is deliberately suppressed by DEX Company because laws absolutely forbid enslavement of self-aware beings.
- Laszlo Hadron and the Wargod's Tomb: Numerous characters have cybernetic enhancements:
- Isis has neural and retinal implants to assist in hacking computer systems.
- Emara Larroe, the Durendal's chief engineer, has cybernetic arms.
- Lord Admiral Rigel's entire body is cybernetic.
- Limbo by Bernard Wolfe is about a post-World War III world where people willingly amputate their limbs for nuclear-powered prosthetics.
- The Lunar Chronicles: Linh Cinder is a cyborg living in New Beijing after the Fourth World War.
- Machine Man has Dr. Charles Neumann spend time as an exceptionally powerful one along with the Security Guard Carl, before ending up just Brain Uploading.
- Millennium (1983): Many of the people in the future have aspects of this, especially as the 21st century came up with "genetic warfare"; diseases that not only killed enemy populations, but left the survivors with congenital conditions. After a few centuries of that, people who didn't have at least one failing organ replaced with prosthetics are completely unheard of, the most common being a "skinsuit" that acts as an external immune system and general cosmetic for a blighted appearance. It's rather common for people to spend the rest of their lives in the equivalent of iron lungs.Louise: The critical problems were all inside. Various organs were in advanced states of disrepair. Many were gone, replaced by artificial ones. It was a toss-up which would be the next to go. Some we can replace with self-contained, life-sized imitations. Some require a roomful of machinery if they go rotten.
- The Mouse Watch: The Mad Scientist rat Dr. Thornpaw lost one eye, one arm and both legs to horrific Animal Testing by human scientists. He replaced them with mechanical parts that he crafted himself.
- Neuromancer: Molly Millions has retractable razors beneath her fingernails and can see the time by pressing her tongue against a tooth. Most impressively, though, her eyes sockets have been sealed with mirrors and her tear ducts rerouted to her mouth so that, when she cries, she spits.
- Noon Universe: Tried and largely rejected. It turned out that few people have required psychic plasticity to accept the changes that happened to them, and those that do slowly turned cold and indifferent observers.
- Observation On The Spot: The people of Lusania turned to replacing each cell in their bodies by Nanomachines in attempt to reach immortality only to run into the "Who Wants to Live Forever?" wall at full speed. Most of the experimental subjects quickly became obsessed with death, trying to kill themselves at all costs — which, given the nature of their new bodies, became nigh impossible, though most persevered. There was one survivor of the experiment, a philosopher who never had any illusions about the whole experiment to begin with.
- Otherland: Mr. Sellars is a moderate version; he implanted computer hardware into his own body in order to allow him to connect to the Net without his captors noticing; by the time of the main story, he's practically half computer. Treated fairly realistically in that it doesn't make him any stronger; quite the opposite, in fact.
- The Outside: Priests have circuitry implanted in their brains that allows them to directly communicate with the Gods, while angels have had more than half their neurons burned away and replaced by machinery, giving them a much higher bandwidth connection.
- Quantum Gravity: Lila Amanda Black, the protagonist, begins as a fairly standard (if fusion-powered) cyborg of the We Can Rebuild Him variety. It all eventually gets subverted and the experimental prototype first-of-your-kind thing gets pulled to tiny little bits. Subverted in the first book, as the cybernetic parts are actually more physically powerful than her body can withstand. Her Super Mode simply involves turning off the governor units that prevent this and flooding her body with painkillers. The first time this is shown in the book, she manages to break her own spine. Fortunately for her, she's back at base when this happens, and spends a while in a regeneration tank instead of a body bag.
- Rebuild World: Come in two types, those with Nanomachines in their bloodstream that are stored somewhere in the person, and more typical cyborgs (usually Full-Conversion Cyborg).
- Sara is introduced having medical nanomachines that serve to control her incurable illness, but also grant her Super-Strength and a Healing Factor by consuming the expensive to refill nanomachines stored in her breasts (which shrink as she uses them).
- Brain Uploading technology is often used in a black box on a hunter's person as part of insurance plans for an Emergency Transformation if that hunter "dies". The subject of Sense Loss Sadness from low quality prosthetic bodies gets explored in depth, and the full type of cyborg have the benifit of a plug in Brain/Computer Interface to better control Automated Automobiles or Mini-Mecha.
- The Revelation Space Series has the Ultranauts, which are the crews of the slower-than-light interstellar freighters, who use extreme cybernetic replacements to counter the effects of age and help with ship maintenance. Captain John Brannigan is the most extreme; when his pre-Melding Plague appearance is shown, all that is left is one leg, one arm, and his face (mostly). Diamond Dogs has the main character being slowly, voluntarily being turned from a human into a cybernetic dog-like creature with a skull full of computer bits. Unfortunately, the doctor who did this took himself apart so he wouldn't have to undo his 'greatest work'.
- "Scanners Live in Vain": Humans are unable to cope with the "Great Pain of Space" and rely on cold sleep ships crewed by habermans whose brain has been severed from all sensory input except the eyes, and whose body therefore has to be regulated by implanted instruments.
- "Segregationist" involves a doctor replacing the heart of his patient. He tries to persuade the patient that an organic prosthetic is the way to go, only for the patient to decide that he doesn't trust it and wants to go with a mechanical heart. We discover at the end that the doctor is actually a robot, one of the few who has not chosen to become more human by surgery while the humans have all been becoming more and more robotic. The implication is that eventually, they'll all slowly morph into one cyborg species.
- Shade's Children: The creatures turn out to be this. Along with being altered to new, horrific organic forms, they also have brain implants which make them obey the Overlords, acting as they wish.
- The Ship Who...: Human children who are too deformed to live normal lives are turned into "shellpeople", cyborgs whose bodies are confined in electronic shells that can then be used as the [{Wetware CPU CPU]] of many kinds of large machines: a spacecraft, a city, a space station...
- In Soon I Will Be Invincible, the heroine Fatale agrees to have her legs and right arm replaced after an accident. The scientists have to modify most of the rest of her body in order to make those parts work. After the experiment she weighs hundreds of pounds because of all of her cybernetic parts. The corporation that funded her reconstruction promptly vanishes, leaving her to pay for the regiment of antibiotics necessary to prevent infection caused by her new parts.
- Space Academy: Vance is enhanced in several unnoticeable ways. These include having translation software in his brain, computerized memory, and machines in his body that protect him from the side effects of space travel. This is apparently quite normal in the future but not required.
- Spare Parts is about a girl selling her young healthy human body so she can be implanted in a "cyberform".
- The Star Trek Novel 'Verse book Q Squared features an inversion of the usual form of this trope. An alternate universe version of Data consists of a positronic brain in a cloned human body.
- The Star Wars Expanded Universe really likes the Artificial Limbs trope.
- It's not usually explicitly mentioned whether or not they make people stronger, and the prejudice against cyborgs is lessened when they have convincing synthetic flesh covering them, but Ton Phanan feels that his Cybernetics Ate His Future. Interestingly, though he's mentioned as having synthflesh on his limbs, which are once seen to be twitching eerily when malfunctioning, there's none on his face.
- Shadows of the Empire: Guri is a Terminator-like one, a human built around a robot core rather than the other way around. Her outer layers are cloned human material, but her "brain" and inner mechanisms are robotic.
- Tales Of The Continuing Time by Daniel Keys Moran:
- The Peaceforcer Elites are cyborged super soldiers. Gi'Suei'Obodi'Sedon, a purely organic Super Soldier, considers the Elites to be horribly maimed (not to mention, not all that elite).
- Trent Castanaveras is also modified, in that he had the Tytan NN-II, a "nerve net that's designed to sit in high memory and model what's happening in your brain. It has nearly half a million processors, and makes a discrete connection somewhere inside your brain for every one of them. Once it is installed between your skull and the outer surface of your brain, it doesn't come out."
- Terminal World has a man whose lungs were crippled in a war; he's linked up to a furnace which powers a pump that replaces most of his chest.
- Time Machine Series: In the future shown in The Rings of Saturn, cyborgs are typically feared by mundane people because they make for dangerous competition in the job market. On the other hand, the cyborgs seem to frequently think themselves superior to humans, to the point of establishing crime organizations and pulling off acts of terrorism.
- In Transpecial, some people have artificial nervous systems supplementing their biological ones to improve their reaction time. They can be used to program people for violence, so people who have them aren't allowed on Mars unless they get them removed.
- The Ultimate Killing Game: Felix Gilfer has metal bones. That includes his teeth. His friends don't know how much human is actually left of him.
- War Girls: Onyii has a robotic arm and eye.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Possibly the earliest example of a full-body-replacement cyborg in modern literature is the Tin Woodsman — once a perfectly ordinary human being, he had progressively more parts of his body replaced with tin prosthetics as they were chopped off by a cursed axe — until essentially all that was left was a mind in a tin shell.note
- Xandri Corelel: Cybernetics is referred to as chroming. Most people have personal nanobots and HUDs, and the protagonists all have translator and filter implants that allow them to talk to aliens and breathe on other planets. Some people have Artificial Limbs, although those have become increasingly uncommon as regeneration technology improves. Advantage chroming, or chroming not done out of necessity, includes weapons implants, bulletproof skin, limb mods for greater athleticism, and eye and finger mods that make it easier to cheat at cards.
