Count Zero (Sprawl, #2)

I had bought the entire Sprawl trilogoy some time ago, together with Burning Chrome. I was quite lukewarm on Neuromancer so I had been putting Count Zero off for a while and only really got around to it after changing how I take things from my to-read shelf (no more putting things off!).

I definitely enjoyed this a lot more, and it solidified my feelings on what it was that prevented me from enjoying Neuromancer as much as I had hoped too.

While Neuromancer had only really one pov character, I found it really hard to orient myself while reading it. Locations seemed to change in a way that I found hazy and indistinct, too transient characters would appear and fade away, and I was never quite sure where we were or who anyone beyond the protagonist and Molly were. Tracking all of this required a level of attention that I honestly didn't really want to give, as I didn't find it rewarding to invest.

Count Zero splices together three points of view that converge at the end in a very satisfying way. But it is far clearer where we are and who is in the scene. There are still some parts, particularly with the mercenary, where there are a few too many characters introduced at once and not well differentiated from one another as they are all other mercs. Other than this though, Count Zero should be harder to follow, but it was very much the opposite. And it made it a lot easier to get into and enjoy.

Until the end, I felt that it was something that could have been enjoyed as a standalone work, but the climax wouldn't make much sense without the context of Neuromancer's climax.

There's definitely something really unique about Gibson's writing as well. I can't sum it up well, but the general sense of the world the characters inhabit as being overwhelming and something they are very much resigned to and powerless under comes across so well. Some really creative turns of phrase that I'm not used to from sci-fi (though it's not my main go-to, so this just could be lack of experience).

I've got a few things to go through before Mona Lisa Overdrive, but I'm looking forward to it much more after this.

Lovely read, recommended for those that liked Neuromancer and those that tried to like it. It works standalone and might be worth a try if, like me, you had trouble getting through the first part.

Three stories, that seem unrelated at first but interweave beautifully towards the end, each contributing to the satisfying ending. Each story expands on a different part of the retro futuristic vision Gibson established in Neuromancer. We explore different locations in America (mainly the sprawl of the east coast, between Boston and New York), Paris, Brussels and Earth's orbit, through the eyes of a newbie hacker, a mercenary and an art curator.

In a way the world feels more grounded than in Neuromancer, while the themes are even more esoteric. Gibson foregoes technical feasibility in favour of something that could be described as cyber-magic. Sure, you could potentially try to explain how jockeys establish some kind of, potentially lethal, neural link with the cyberspace, but it works just fine within the story. Really, this is not for you if you prefer long technical info-dumps.

This is book is definitely one of my SF favorites.

another trip to the Sprawl and a worthy sequel to "Neuromancer"...

short plot description: set a couple of years after the events of "Neuromancer" we follow three seemingly unrelated plots. Turner is a mercenary whose speciality is assisting key employees leaving their employers. He is hired to get the scientist Mitchell away from his current employer but the attempt fails and Turner finds himself on the run with Mitchell's daughter Angela.
Bobby Newmark aka Count Zero is a wannabe console cowboy who gets duped into testing an experimental software which nearly kills him but gets saved by a near impossible event and in turn finds himself involved in dealings more wild than he ever imagined.
Marly Krushkova is an ex gallery owner down on her luck who gets hired by an incredible rich industrial magnat to find the unknown maker of Cornell-style art pieces. But the more she finds out about the pieces in question the more she questions her employers motives.

my thoughts: very good continuation of the Sprawl-series. The three parallel plots actually read like a series of short stories which might put some people off but is quite intriguing. The characters are interesting and are well developed. The setting is the same as in Neuromancer.

my advice: can be read stand-alone but should be read in sequence which means go with Neuromancer first.