Count Zero (Sprawl Trilogy)

I first read this book (many years and many rereads ago) with low expectations. I'd been told that Gibson was a one book wonder, that he'd never managed to pull off a second book nearly as good as his brilliant first novel, NEUROMANCER. Gibson beat that rap, of course, with masterpieces like IDORU and PATTERN RECOGNITION. But somehow COUNT ZERO has always gotten ever so slightly lost in the shuffle. Well, I'm here to tell you that everyone, starting with Publishers Weekly, got it wrong. COUNT ZERO is no mere repeat of Neuromancer. It's a different beast altogether. It's older, subtler, and stranger. It's Neuromancer's hard-boiled street chic all grown up and with grown-up-sized problems. The characters are real, complex, and unforgettable. And the central image of the book - though I can't describe it without giving much of the plot away - generates one of the most hauntingly beautiful moments in all of science fiction.If you're one of those Gibson fans who hasn't quite gotten around to reading COUNT ZERO, you're in for a rare treat.

Count Zero extends Gibson's elaborate description of cyberpunk technology with a suspenseful story line that explores many future possibilities for an even more gripping story than its predecessor Neuromancer. By reaching out to new characters in the degenerate Sprawl, Gibson follows many unrelated characters through a series of suspenseful plots which work ultimately to a common good. Some characters and locations are familiar from Neuromancer although some play a bigger role than others. The Finn is instrumental in marketing software to cowboys in the Sprawl. Molly and Case are mentioned vaguely and the Tessier-Ashpools influenced several aspects of the story. The remnants of Freeside remain in orbit and have become almost deserted.Three separate plots follow three new main characters through their attempts to survive their dangerous lives. Turner, a business mercenary, is introduced in the story as a target for a bombing and barely survives the blast. The wonders of medical science in this time are able to reconstruct his body and reload his mind from a simstim construct. Bobby Newmark enters a run for his life when detected attempting to hack a company's mainframe with a new icebreaker. Marly Krushkova, an out of work art gallery owner, interviews with Joseph Virek for a job after struggling to make ends meet after being disgraced for mistakenly trying to sell a forgery. Virek hires Marly to find the maker of the artistic boxes that he has been collecting and makes his immense wealth available to her in her efforts to do so.These plots become more and more complicated for the characters as they continue to run into snags and attacks throughout the book. Count Zero will keep you reading to find out just how they will get through the growing difficulties encountered. Gibson in develops each separate plot well and brings them together in the end for an incredible finish. Well worth the read

Picking up where Neuromancer left off, I can understand why Count Zero was Gibson's favorite of the Sprawl series. He continues to combine cyberpunk with a sense of biopunk, capturing the reader from page one with a description of doctors rebuilding an agent from a description and body parts bought on the black market.We then watch as three seemingly separate story lines unfold, wait to see how Gibson is going to bring them all together. This book deals with everyone from rising cowboy, to top Hosaka agent, to struggling artist, to super rich vat dweller. I felt that the ending could have maybe been a little better, but did pull all three story lines and almost every major character together for one dynamic finish.I love to watch the interaction of Gibson's characters, as he is always creating dark and different characters that are often hated by the readers. I guess that is what I like about them. They're real characters they one would expect to find in the slums of the Sprawl, or working for Neotech, not just stereotype heroes. Throwing in hot cyberdecks, double-agents, lots of drugs, more awesome biotechnology, combined with Gibson's unique characters, this book is a must read for any fan of Neuromancer, Gibson, or Cyberpunk.

The second book in William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (NEUROMANCER, COUNT ZERO, MONA LISA OVERDRIVE), Gibson deftly brings together three stories, mixing voodoo and high technology into a fast-paced tale. Almost as brilliant as Gibson's NEUROMANCER, COUNT ZERO is, nonetheless, a thoroughly entertaining read. Less heavy that NEUROMANCER, the book has definite foundations in cyberpunk, but will probably appeal to a much wider audience. Slightly slow in beginning, but accelerating to a heart-pounding finish, COUNT ZERO is a book that should be read by Gibson fans, cyberpunk fans, and anyone who enjoyed NEUROMANCER.