Recently, I caught some of The Peripheral (television) series, which is based on a novel by William Gibson — and motivated me to reread Count Zero, which is one of his much older works.

Published in 1986, Count Zero is the second in what I think of as William Gibson’s Neuromancer trilogy, i.e. Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive, which are credited with creating Cyberpunk, a science fiction subgenre centered on a dystopian near-future.

Although each story is linked, the stories effectively read as standalone novels, so can be read out-of-sequence. (Officially, I think they comprise The Sprawl series.)

I’ve always thought the series’ worldbuilding is brilliant and each book introduces a cast of fascinating characters, many of them decidedly offbeat. In Count Zero, four central characters get caught up in events that span computer hacking, corporate warfare, voodoo, and sentient AIs. The narrative is fast-paced but with plenty of character development.

If you haven’t already discovered the Neuromancer ‘verse, I’m pretty much of the view that there’s absolutely nothing here that’s not to like.

In terms of disclosure, I know I bought my copy of Count Zero, but it’s so like ago I really can’t remember more than that. However, it’s been a fixture of my personal library ever since.

My edition, ca. 1995