Bobby Newmark is entirely human: a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo on the Net and a price on his head, Newmark thinks he's only trying to get out alive. A stylish, streetsmart, frighteningly probable parable of the future and sequel to Neuromancer

Product Description
The second book in the "Neuromancer" trilogy, offers more adventures inside and outside the matrix, and narrated in a futuristic slang. The author takes the reader into a computerized fantasy world.

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.


A good sciebce-fiction work   November 17, 2000
 18 out of 21 found this review helpful

The first paragraph of this book sets the narrative tone for the rest of the work, indeed, it is the trademark style of William Gibson and his growing body of science fiction work. Turner is a mercenary in a not-to-distant future earth civilization. In this networked world, multinational mega-corporations, with names like Maas Biolabs and Hosaka wield enormous power especially over the network and the cyberspace world it encompasses.

In these corporations, genius scientists have lifetime contracts. They are well-paid prisoners of these giant enterprises. One such scientist, Christopher Mitchell, a man credited with creating the biochip, a replacement for the silicon chip, wants to leave his current employer Mass Biolabs and join rival Hosaka. The latter commissioned a reconstituted Turner with the job of bringing Mitchell safely out. "It took the Dutchman and his team three months to put Turner together again," the author writes. "They cloned a square meter of skin for him, grew it on slabs of collagen and shark-cartilage polysaccharides. They bought eyes and genitals on the open market. The eyes were green."

Count Zero is the second in a trilogy Gibson has created based on a networked society. The three books explore the notion of information as a life force unto itself that can be stored, manipulated, and evolved into different life forms. In the telling of his tales, Gibson introduces the reader to a rich assortment of unforgettable characters.


Not as absorbing as Neuromancer   October 24, 1999
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

I read Neuromancer and LOVED it...so of course I had to finish the trilogy. Count Zero was a good read, but didn't have enough new techno gadgets to satisfy me. Also, I didn't think the characters were as empathetic as Molly and Case were. Still, you definitely have to read it before you get to Mona Lisa Overdrive since MLO is pretty much a direct continuity from Count Zero.


Liked It - Didn't Love It - Not Sure Why   May 15, 2005
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

I really, really, really expected (and wanted) to love this book. When I first curled up with it, I was very anxious to dive right in. I love geeky techno-fi, sci-fi, and Gibson, as a general rule. But something just didn't work for me in Count_Zero.

I think it was not so much the story, which was satisfying, as much as the jerky cadance of Gibson's style in this book that was off-putting. I do not remember having to work so hard with the prose of Neuromancer. This was a significant issue for me, in that Count_Zero quickly became so fragmented and disjointed in its delivery that I struggled to remain in the flow. This, in turn, nearly ruined the otherwise enjoyable experience for me.

I would recommend Count_Zero - with a dash of trepidation. Sadly, I feel as if I missed something. I look at all these great reviews and I have to shrug my shoulders: it could very well just be me. Or maybe my expectations were out of whack. Or, I wasn't in the right mood. Or, Neal Stephenson has really spoiled me (similar to what happens to music in general after being exposed to Steely Dan). Or, most likely, I should have just read this immediately upon the heels of Neuromancer.


Great writing, bad medium   September 7, 1999
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is my second Gibson novel behind Neuromancer, and I'm just as impressed as I was with the first. Excellent writing, although the fragmented sentences do get annoying. Nonetheless, I'm always taken by his mastery of the language, and how well Gibson can take you away to another world.

My one problem lies with the publisher, Ace Books out of New York. The paperback I purchased was falling apart withing a few days, and pages detaching by the time I was through reading. I will never purchase a book in their name again.