''Count Zero'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novel by American-Canadian writer

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

, originally published in 1986. 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. The novel is composed of a trio of plot lines that ultimately converge. ''Count Zero'' is the second volume of the Sprawl trilogy, which began with ''

Neuromancer ''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian author William Gibson. Set in a near-future dystopia, the narrative follows Case, a computer hacker enlisted into a crew by a powerful artificial intelligence and a traumatis ...

'' and concludes with '' Mona Lisa Overdrive''. It was serialized in the January through March 1986 monthly issues of '' Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine''; the January cover was devoted to the story, with art by Hisaki Yasuda. According to Gibson, the magazine version was edited with his permission to allow access to youth audiences in the United States. While Gibson did not introduce the concept or coin the term "

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

", a subgenre of

(nor particularly associated himself with it), he ''is'' considered to have first envisioned and described the concept of "

cyberspace Cyberspace is an interconnected digital environment. It is a type of virtual world popularized with the rise of the Internet. The term entered popular culture from science fiction and the arts but is now used by technology strategists, security ...

". The novel, ''Count Zero'', is nonetheless regarded as an early example of the

subgenre.

Publication history

{{multiple issues, section = yes, {{expand section , with = a full description of the first published works, serialized and book, in appropriate corresponding {{cite... format, with clear statement of the details of each, and then any subsequent audio or anniversary editions , small = no , date = August 2024 {{refimprove section, date = August 2024 Volume 2 of the Sprawl trilogy, ''Count Zero'' follows ''

'' (1984), with the series being concluded by '' Mona Lisa Overdrive'' (1988).{{cite web, author = Poole, Steven , author-link=Steven Poole , date = 3 October 1996 , title = Virtually in Love , work =

TheGuardian.com ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/1996/oct/03/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror , access-date= 8 August 2024 It appeared in serial form in '' Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', in the January, February, and March 1986 issues (the January being the 100th of that magazine),{{cn, date = August 2024 where each part was accompanied by black and white art produced by J. K. Potter.{{verification needed, date = August 2024{{cn, date = August 2024 The January cover of the magazine was devoted to the story, with art by Hisaki Yasuda.{{cn, date = August 2024 According to a published letter from Gibson, the magazine version was edited with his permission to contain less swearing and sexual content, in part to allow access to youth audiences in the United States.{{cite letter , author= Gibson, William , author-link= William Gibson , recipient= Dave Langford , subject= Changes to the serialisation of 'Count Zero' , language= en-us , date= February 1986, orig-date = Orig. Date Unknown , url= , format= , location= , publisher= , access-date= , archive-url= , archive-date= , url-status= , author-mask= , mode= , id= as presented in {{cite journal , author = Langford, Dave , date = February 1986 , title = Ansible 45... / Shameless Self-Promotion: The Letter Column , journal = Ansible , volume = 45 , format = self-published web-blog , url= http://news.ansible.co.uk/a45.html , access-date=8 August 2024 , issn = 0265-9816 , location = Reading, England , publisher = Dave Langford , quote = Wm Gibson: 'Dear Fellow Hugo-Winner... I would like to point out, for the benefit of my massive and utterly devoted British following, that the version of my second novel, Count Zero, which will run in serial lumps (three) in Asimov's SF, is a special Lite version with reduced motherfucker-count and no graphic but intensely poetic and moving descriptions of oral sex... urther graphic details redacted I should also point out that these changes were made under my supervision and with my express approval. I agreed to go along with them, after due soul-searching, when it was pointed out to me how urgently young people in small towns in the US need fiction of this sort, and how much my new car is going to cost.' It was originally published in book form,{{what, date = August 2024 in 1986.{{cn, date = August 2024

Title allusions

{{refimprove section, date = August 2024 The title of the book is a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

of the main character Bobby Newmark,{{cn, date = August 2024 and is also claimed by Gibson to be a word-play on the

computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...

term ''count zero interrupt''.{{cn, date = August 2024 As presented on the front leaf of the book,{{what, date = August 2024{{cn, date = August 2024 there is a programming direction that states, " receiving an interrupt, decrement the counter to zero",{{cite quote, date=January 2023 that is, the title refers to a "count zero interrupt",{{says who, date = August 2024 an

interrupt In digital computers, an interrupt (sometimes referred to as a trap) is a request for the processor to ''interrupt'' currently executing code (when permitted), so that the event can be processed in a timely manner. If the request is accepted ...

of a computing process that decrements a programming counter to zero.{{cn, date=January 2023 A 1982 edition of Charles Sippl's computer dictionary defines a "count zero interrupt" as " interrupt level that is triggered when an associated (clock) counter pulse interrupt{{jargon inline, date = August 2024 has produced a zero result in a clock counter".{{page needed, date = August 2024 The term, however, is not one generally understood.{{says who, date=August 2024{{cn, date=January 2023

Plot

{{long plot, section, date = August 2024

Introduction

In ''Count Zero'' Gibson presents "a high-tech near-future of linked super-computers... matrix thathas given rise to "cyberspace," an "inner" space something like a three-dimensional video display... n aworld is dominated by multinational corporations... a few fabulously rich individuals, and the cutthroat competition between them."{{cite web , author = Kirkus Staff , date = 26 March 1986 , title = "Count Zero" by William Gibson , work = KirkusReviews.com , url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-gibson/count-zero/ , access-date = 8 August 2024 , quote = Something like a cross between Gibson's hugely successful debut, Neuromancer (paperback only), and his short story about futuristic corporate dirty tricks, "New Rose Hotel." We're in a high-tech near-future of linked super-computers; this matrix has given rise to "cyberspace," an "inner" space something like a three-dimensional video display (cf. the movie Tron); the world is dominated by multinational corporations, plus a few fabulously rich individuals, and the cutthroat competition between them. The three plot lines here eventually intertwine. Seven years after the events of ''Neuromancer'', strange things begin to happen in the Matrix, leading to the proliferation of what appear to be voodoo

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

(hinted to be the fractured remains of the joined AIs that were Neuromancer and Wintermute). Two powerful

multinational corporations A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...

, Maas Biolabs and Hosaka, are engaged in a battle for control over a powerful new technology, a biochip, using hackers and the Matrix as well as espionage and violence.

Expansive plot summary

As with later Gibson works,{{cn, date = August 2024 ''Count Zero'' has multiple story-lines; in it, a trio of plot lines ultimately converge: Thread One: In the southwestern US, Turner, a corporate

mercenary soldier A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather th ...

, has been hired by former partner Conroy to help Christopher Mitchell, a brilliant researcher and bio-hacker, make an illegal career move from Maas' corporate fortress built into a

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

in the Arizona desert to Hosaka, a rival corporation. The attempt is a disaster, and Turner ends up escaping with Angie Mitchell, the scientist's young daughter, instead. Implanted in her brain by her father, she carries the secret plans of the construction of the valuable "biosoft" that has made Maas so influential and powerful. This "biosoft" is what multibillionaire Josef Virek (see thread three) ruthlessly pursues so that he can make an evolutionary jump to something resembling

omniscience Omniscience is the property of possessing maximal knowledge. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, it is often attributed to a divine being or an all-knowing spirit, entity or person. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any ...

and

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some species possess "biological immortality" due to an apparent lack of the Hayflick limit. From at least the time of the Ancient Mesopotamian religion, ancient Mesopotamians, there has been a con ...

. During their flight from both Maas and Hosaka agents, Turner and Angie stay with Rudy, the former's estranged brother, and Sally, his partner and caretaker. Rudy identifies a device implanted in Angie's skull: her father had apparently altered her nervous system to allow her to access the Cyberspace Matrix directly, without a "deck" (a computer with an interface directly into the user's brain), but she is not aware of this. During their stay, Turner has a one-night stand with Sally and then leaves with Angie. In the Sprawl he meets with Bobby's group in a shopping mall besieged by agents of Maas and Conroy. Thread Two: In Barrytown, New Jersey a young amateur computer hacker, Bobby Newmark, self-named "Count Zero", is given a piece of black market software by some criminal associates "to test". When he plugs himself into the matrix and runs the program, it almost kills him. The only thing that saves his life is a sudden image of a girl made of light who interferes and unhooks him from the software just before he flatlines. After fleeing his house (which is immediately thereafter destroyed) he meets Lucas, Beauvoir, and Jackie, a group fascinated by and dedicated to the recent appearance of voodoo deities in Cyberspace, who take him into their protection as they are collectively targeted by various corporate agents. It is eventually revealed that Bobby's mysterious savior is Angie (see Thread One); the two only meet physically at the very end of the book. Thread Three: Marly Krushkova, the former owner of a Paris art gallery whose reputation was destroyed when she was tricked into trying to sell a forgery, is recruited by ultra-rich, reclusive art

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

Josef Virek to find the unknown creator of a series of futuristic collage boxes styled after the work of Joseph Cornell. Unbeknownst to her, the reason behind Virek's interest in these boxes is related to indications of biosoft construction in the design of one, which he suspects may be contained in the others. These plotlines come together at the end of the story. Virek—the hunter of immortality and unlimited power—becomes the hunted. It is hinted that multiple AIs inhabiting cyberspace are the fragmented, compartmentalized remains of two AIs, Neuromancer and Wintermute (introduced in the first book of Gibson's Sprawl series, ''Neuromancer''), having joined. The AIs were designed by the head of a multi-generational techno-oligarchical family, the Tessier-Ashpools. These AI units now interface with humanity in the form of different Haitian voodoo gods, as they have found these constructs to be the best representations of themselves for communicating. Hackers worldwide are becoming aware that there is something weird loose in the cyberspace matrix, but most are reluctant to talk about (or deal with) "voodoo spooks" supposedly haunting cyberspace. The "voodoo gods" gave Mitchell the information to develop the biosoft, instructing him to insert a biosoft modification in his daughter's brain, and then sent the Cornell boxes into the world to attract and enable the disposal of the malicious Virek. A pair of epilogue chapters resolve the fates of the protagonists, until '' Mona Lisa Overdrive''. Angie has attained celebrity status as a simstim star, and has entered a relationship with Bobby who is employed as her 'bodyguard'. Marly has returned to Paris and now curates one of the largest art galleries in the city. Turner has returned to his childhood home (the same one occupied by Rudy and Sally earlier in the book) to raise the child conceived during his affair with Sally; Rudy was killed by Conroy's agents when they were trailing Turner and Angie. The Cyberspace Matrix, a synergistically linked computer network of databases that encompasses all information on Earth, has become home to sentient beings. But most of humanity remains unaware.

Characters

{{multiple issues, section = yes, {{long plot, section, date = August 2024 {{unreferenced section, date = August 2024 Bobby Newmark. At the beginning of the novel, Bobby is a small-time "cowboy" (

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

) who wants to be a big name in cyberspace. He is given what he naïvely trusts is an "ICE breaker" (hacking software), unaware that he is in fact being used to test some unknown software to see what it does. He is directed to use the software to infiltrate a black ICE database which nearly ends up killing him. The acronym ICE is shorthand for "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics". The most formidable of these data defense networks are powerful enough to trace back and kill any hacker making an attempt to defeat them. This is legally sanctioned or is, at least, not illegal. But at the last moment Bobby is rescued, while in Cyberspace and dying, by an image of a girl, Angela Mitchell, who is somehow able to enter cyberspace without using a "deck" (computer). Bobby realizes his target must now know where he lives, so he flees. Shortly after leaving his apartment, he is brutally mugged for his deck and left for dead, only to be rescued and given medical attention by the owners of the software Bobby tried out, a small group who are very interested in what happened to him in Cyberspace. Bobby and Angela (who are roughly the same age) meet at the end of the book. Bobby makes a minor appearance in the third Sprawl novel, ''Mona Lisa Overdrive''. Turner. Turner (the only name by which he is known in the novel) is a

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

who is employed by various

corporations A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

to help vital employees of competing corporations "defect" to Turner's employers. The novel begins with an account of a job in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

in which Turner was nearly killed by a Slamhound, a type of mobile

bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

. After three months of reconstructive

surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, Turner takes a vacation in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, where he meets and becomes sexually involved with a woman named Allison. While on the beach with Allison, Turner sees a familiar yacht close to shore and a powerboat from the yacht approaching the beach, bearing the logo of the Hosaka Corporation. Turner tells Allison to leave while he waits for the raft's passenger to come ashore. He already knows that the passenger is Conroy, another mercenary with whom Turner has worked in the past. Conroy recruits Turner for another "extraction" job; this time, Conroy and Turner are to help a man named Christopher Mitchell leave Maas Biolabs for Hosaka. Mitchell carries with him the expertise to design and manufacture "biochips", a technology superior to the nearly ubiquitous silicon

microprocessors A microprocessor is a computer processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry r ...

of the era. Maas Biolabs holds the patents and secrets to biochip technology and will use every means it can to prevent Mitchell's escape. Conroy also reveals that Allison is a "field

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

" working for Hosaka to monitor Turner and help his recovery. Turner is a disciplined professional, but is troubled by memories of past jobs that ended tragically as well as his relationship with his gifted brother Rudy (who is a reclusive

alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...

and

drug A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...

addict). Turner comes to realize that the unsuccessful attempt to "bring over" Christopher Mitchell from Maas to Hosaka resulted from a betrayal and suspects that Conroy is behind it. He also recognizes that Angie Mitchell was sent out from the Maas facility by her father, and that she is in grave danger. He resolves to protect her while finding out who is pursuing her and why. Marly Krushkhova. Marly, prior to the beginning of the story, operated a small art gallery in Paris. She became notorious as a result of the disgrace from attempting to sell a forged box assemblage that was supposedly a lost piece by the American sculptor Joseph Cornell. She was unaware that the piece was a fake, having been duped by her then-lover Alain, the gallery's co-owner, who had embezzled money from the gallery to finance the forgery. Unemployed and living with her friend Andrea, Marly receives a job offer from the immensely wealthy businessman Josef Virek. During her interview, conducted via a very advanced simstim link, Virek informs Marly that he has collected several remarkable box assemblages similar to those created by Cornell. Virek then hires Marly to find out who is producing the pieces, offering her unlimited financial support during the course of her search. Although Marly welcomes the opportunity to get out of her current situation, she does not fully trust the mysterious and secretive Virek. This mistrust only deepens when it becomes clear that she is being followed and monitored by Virek's agents, in particular Virek's right-hand man, Paco. Marly tries to stay a step ahead of Virek and Paco while discovering the identity of the boxes' creator.

Impact and reception

{{expand section , with = further source-derived content on the contemporaneous and more recent review and analysis of this work, in the context of the trilogy , small = no , date = August 2024 In this and his earlier

work, Gibson—while not creating, naming, or (per Jack Womack) much wishing to be associated with the term—nevertheless became associated with the

moniker subgenre of

; more importantly, he is considered to have first envisioned and described the concept of "

".{{cite web , author = OED Staff , date = 8 August 2024 , title = Cyberspace (Etymology) , work = OED.com , url = https://www.oed.com/dictionary/cyberspace_n?tl=true&tab=etymology , access-date = 8 August 2024 , quote = Apparently coined by William Gibson (see quot. 1982). {{cite AV media , people= Gibson, William (author); Dean, Robertson (narrator); Womack, Jack (afterword) , date= June 30, 2011 , orig-date = July 1984 , title= Neuromancer , trans-title= , type= , language= , url= https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson-audiobook/dp/B0058R83CW/ , access-date= 8 August 2024 , archive-url= , archive-date= , format= unabridged audiobook, in streaming format, in U.S. English , time= 22:35-22:13 mins. remaining , location= New York, NY , publisher= Penguin Random House Audio , id= , isbn= , oclc= , asin = B0058R83CW , quote= nd Credits; Afterword by Jack WomackFor if Gibson in truth had nothing to do with the making of cyberpunk, as it came to be known—he didn't create it, didn't name it, and after it was cursed with its catchy moniker, didn't want a whole lot to do with it—in the most genuine sense, he did create ''cyberspace''. Not merely the word—see the OED—the place. The ''Count Zero'' novel is regarded by some,{{who, date = August 2024 as an early example of the

subgenre.{{cn, date = August 2024 Dave Langford reviewed ''Count Zero'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'' #76, and stated that "This may not have the impact of ''Neuromancer''{{'s first window on Gibson's future, but it's a far better novel."{{cite journal , last =Langford , first =Dave , author-link =David Langford , title =Critical Mass , journal =

, issue =76 , pages =9 , publisher =

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

, date = April 1986 ''Count Zero'' was nominated for the

Nebula A nebula (; or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in ...

and British Science Fiction Awards in 1986, as well as the Hugo and Locus awards in 1987.{{Cite web , title=Count Zero by William Gibson , url=https://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?id=199 , access-date=2023-05-01 , website=Worlds Without End , language=en

References

{{citation style, 1=section, date = August 2024 {{reflist

External links

* {{ISFDB title, 2195
Count Zero
Chapter 1 excerpt at Worlds Without End {{William Gibson 1986 American novels 1986 science fiction novels Cyberpunk novels Dystopian novels Fiction about malware Novels by William Gibson Novels first published in serial form Sprawl trilogy Victor Gollancz Ltd books Works originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction Books about computer hacking