COUNT ZERO

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. Mercenary Turner, hired by corporate giant Hosaka to pry bioengineering whiz Mitchell away from Maas biolabs, is double-crossed—but manages to escape with Mitchell's daughter Angie, who has a weird biocomputer inside her head, giving her immediate access to cyberspace. Elsewhere, amateur computer jockey Bobby (a.k.a. Count Zero) is hired to test a bootleg biochip; the operation nearly kills him, so he seeks refuge with some dudes who take their orders from voodoo gods—insisting that said gods are a manifestation of cyberspace. Meanwhile, former art gallery owner Marly (she lost everything for unwittingly displaying fakes) is contacted by rich, mad old Virek (his body is riddled with cancer, so he appears only in cyberspace), who hopes that Marly will lead him to a mysterious Someone who has the know-how to grow Virek a new body. The plot doesn't always add up, and the characters resemble computer programs; still, it's fast moving, often gripping, and not a little slick. However, the ideas that gave Neuromancer its sparkle are, here, just about played out.