Dahlgren by Delaney had a similar effect for me. I borrowed it from a friend to read on a long train ride, expecting to while away the hours with a standard post-apocalyptic SF story.
I was dumbfounded before I got twenty pages in. The prose, the worldbuilding, the characters,… It took a long time before it all clicked (not sure even now if it ever really did. I’ve been planning to reread it.), but it’s one of the most absorbing books I ever read.
Oh, that’s a good one. Crow 64 had a similar response from me, probably because I hadn’t encounted the genre before then, although I still believe it is a standout in its execution.
Gibson has such an incredible way with words and such a unique style. For a while, he spoiled other sci fi for me; I’d read PKD and balk at the lack of transcendent description & metaphor
Yeah, same here: Neuromancer as a book. But also The Hobbit. And the books by Philippe K. Dick.
A Mind Forever Voyaging as IF.
Matrix as a movie.
That made me laugh, because I had the same experience. Stories about exploring outer space suddenly seemed quaint.
Elsewhere someone mentioned the game Circuit’s Edge, which introduced me to George Alec Effinger’s When Gravity Fails series. Although not as sublime as Gibson’s prose, they tided me over between Mona Lisa Overdrive and Virtual Light.
Oh, I forgot one: Terry Pratchett! Doesn’t matter which book, any of them. His humor (while still elaborating a serious, complete Fantasy world) made me view Fantasy differently.