Count Zero

Count Zero
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
AuthorWilliam Gibson
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSprawl trilogy
GenreScience fiction, cyberpunk
PublisherVictor Gollancz Ltd[not verified in body]
Publication date
1986
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages256
ISBN0-575-03696-6 (first edition)
Preceded byNeuromancer 
Followed byMona Lisa Overdrive 

Count Zero is a science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson, originally published in 1986.[1] It presents a near future whose technologies include a network of supercomputers that created a "matrix" in "cyberspace", an accessible, virtual, three-dimensionally active "inner space", which, for Gibson—writing these decades earlier—was seen as being dominated by violent competition between small numbers of very rich individuals and multinational corporations.[2] The novel is composed of a trio of plot lines that ultimately converge.[2]

Count Zero is the second volume of the Sprawl trilogy, which began with Neuromancer and concludes with Mona Lisa Overdrive.[1] It was serialized in the January through March 1986 monthly issues of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine;[3] the January cover was devoted to the story, with art by Hisaki Yasuda.[citation needed] According to Gibson, the magazine version was edited with his permission to allow access to youth audiences in the United States.[3]

While Gibson did not not introduce the concept or coin the term "cyberpunk", a subgenre of science fiction (nor to particularly associate himself with it), he is considered to have first envisioned and described the concept of "cyberspace".[4][5] The novel, Count Zero, is nonetheless regarded as an early example of the cyberpunk subgenre.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference PooleGuardian1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference KirkusReview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference GibsonLangford_Lttr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference OEDcyberspace was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference GibsonDavisWomack_unabridgedaudio_afterward was invoked but never defined (see the help page).