Sci-Fi's Forgotten Masterpiece 

There is an amazing sentence in that book. "And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human."

Neuromancer is the book where cyberpunk is born, Count Zero is the book where it comes of age and becomes a powerhouse. Monalisa is the book where that powerhouse rewrites all the code and changes the rules of scifi forever.

Fun fact prior to the trilogy William Gibson wrote several stories including Johnny Mnemonic which chronologically is the 1st story in the series.

the whole Pacifica area area of the Cyberpunk game and the VooDoo boys are pure Count Zero

Count Zero is not only my favorite book by William Gibson, it may be my favorite book, period.

I dont think this is forgotten, but yes is a masterpiece

Count Zero is absolutely a masterpiece. Nice to see someone saying it.

For many years, my handle was Wintermute.

Hard Wired by Walter John Williams was also iconic when it was published. Whilst not as elegant as Gibson's writing a lot of people found it a more accessible route into cyberpunk back in the 80s. Nevertheless the opening lines of Neuromancer, and the world therein, have remained stuck in my head in a way only exceeded by Orwell's 1984 (which I would argue could almost be seen as proto cyberpunk).

I remember reading the first issue if neuromancer. After reading it i knew that this is a groundbreaking genre defining masterpiece. I was so looking forward for the release of the other two books of the trilogy.

The preferencing of ideas and world building over characters in sci-fi is the reason why in the Netflix series of Three Body Problem they had to combine and re-write various characters in the story since in Liu Cixin's original there are only a very small number of characters who are really developed at all and even these are not contemporaneous (i.e Luo Ji appears in the second and third books but not the first, Yun Tianming only appears in the third). Most of the characters are introduced, hang around for a bit and then disappear never to be heard from again. This would make for very confusing watch for a TV audience.

Not even heard of Count Zero. I’ll have to track it down.

George Alec Effinger's "Budayeen" series, Steven Barnes' "Streetlethal/Gorgon Child/etc", Mike Resnick's "Santiago: A Myth Of The Far Future (kind of a Western Frontier Cyberpunk - also a touch of R.A. Lafferty's Space Chantey in there as well, being a series of tall tales with a darkly humorous bent - you'll get that when you get to "What did you cut him with!?!").

Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners slowly creeps out of the room and into the shadows, notes in hand....

Bruce Sterling and his Shaper/Mechanist universe geets you. The final compilation published as Schismatrix Plus is the book that represents the staple of the genre for me, just right to 2nd Gibson. If you haven''t read it yet, definitely check it out.

Liking the content! Your intro and breakdown of what count zero is at the beginning, contrasted with the problems of modern sci fi was really solid. I haven't read Neuromancer/Count Zero but the dynamic of the characters and world building makes it seem like so much beyond imagination could happen. Plus that last quote makes me think of Ghost in the Shell plus with idea of Cyberpunk 2077 also sounds like it could've been an AI speaking.

Scavengers Reign. It's one of the most magnificent "cyberpunk" TV Shows I have ever seen. It's 12 episodes, so beautiful, the French artist Moebius would have lost his mind seeing it (in the best kind of way). The alien planet they created on it, and the "animals" is from the most gorgeous to the horrifically scary. It has scenes so calming and others beyond terrifying. It is on MAX, but they canceled season 2. Netflix bought it and will release it on 31 May 2024. If it's successful there, it will get a second season. PLEASE watch it. We need to tell studio's that this is what we as cyberpunk fans want and need. #scavengersreign

In the late-ish 1980's I came across and loved a "cyberpunk" quad-"rillogy" called 'Horn', but I don't remember the author's name. All four books were pretty good. The world in them greatly mirrored our own NOW and forecast a lot of what we have in technology. So basically the book was 40-50 years ahead of its time. Cyber-technology wasn't as prevalent in their world, but it was slowly (and subtly) being integrated into the world. 'Horn' was former cop with a cybernetic arm, because he lost his flesh arm on the job. He's a detective now, like Magnum P.I. He's secretly upgraded his low-tech arm for an illegal high-tech arm. One of the things I recall was there was a bounty hunter nicknamed 'The Boogey Man'. All people in the book (in civilized areas) were implanted with a computer chip in their hands at birth, not unlike the tracking chip up in pets, like dogs & cats. The government can track everyone all the time. Large drones with sniper rifles fly overhead in most cities, killing wanted criminals who have arrest warrants out on them. The Boogey Man hunts these criminals down before the drones can find them, and hacks off the criminal's hand (which has the implanted tracking chip) & he turns the hands into the police for a reward. Horn is hired to find a wanted person before the drones or the Boogey Man gets him first.

Not really forgotten.. Apple is making a series

Count Zero laid the foundation of Cyberpunk’s (the tabletop game and 2077) solo. Turner is a solo.

I chanced across both Gibson's and Stephenson's first novels at a bookstore one day in September of 1984, a lucky day the likes of which I've never been able to hit again. I'd say that Gibson is an unsurpassed prose stylist when he really goes for it, and he has his own ways of using highly specific details in his scene-setting, and he makes new or unusual concepts the story's centerpiece to an unusual degree. As to his characterization, he plays very close to archetype, yielding up some iconic characters, and they really feel like people who have their own agency and make choices independently of what the plot may require. At the same time, I always felt that he does what a lot of sf writers do, which is tell you the character when he could let you observe it. I don't mean that as a huge complaint, since he's my favorite sf writer for decades, maybe of all time. Just a thing I've noticed.

Good Job! Well Done! It's been too long since I've the trilogy, or any subsequent gibson, so I have nothing to add besides I like what you just did!

I have always thought that Count Zero was equal to Neroumancer, so thank you for giving it some airtime. Several times, I have suggested to other YTubers that I review Count Zero would be welcome, but it always seems to fall on deaf ears. The story is just as compelling but tighter. In Neuromancer, by necessity, he focused more on the world-building. For me, Neuromancer took three to four reads to get it, and Count Zero took about two😀. What makes Count Zero (and Neuromancer) especially interesting is the question of AI and its impact on society. I would love to see a review of The Algebraist by Banks.

Great presentation, thank you for that. I look forward to reading Count Zero in the summer.

I like how you told me a story without having hit the plot details specifically. Makes me able to consider reading it now

Count Zero turned me into a Goth. Well, actually, I kinda already WAS, but--being that I grew up in rural southwestern Pennsylvania--I didn't really have a name to put to it, until I read that novel and said: "Hey, those guys are a gang I would totally run with."

I've always liked _Count Zero_ the most and _Neuromancer_ the least of the "Sprawl Trilogy" and I've always been surprised at how little recognition for excellence it gets. But then I'm a guy who thinks that _Return of the Jedi_ is the best-directed Star Wars film to date, surpassing even _The Empire Strikes Back_ for filmmaking acumen. _Monalisa Overdrive_ is also a masterpiece that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

I have re-read the trilogy every 2 to 3 years and always find new excellence. Count Zero used to be my least favourite, but the last few read throughs have definitely brought me to the side of it being the stronger of the 3 books. Great video!

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

I sure AF haven't forgotten reading it in the 90's

Yes! I love Count Zero and have been developing visual material for it for a few years. Trying to feel out the right vibe for some of its key scenes.

The first chapter of Count Zero is perfect

Do Mona Lisa! Do Mona Lisa!

please, after doing mona lisa overdrive, do gibsons bridge trilogy.

I fell in love with Neuromancer as a recovering drug addict with a super complicated relationship with a drug addict Asian woman while living in Atlanta and remember chain smoking Chinese cigarettes the whole time I read it. I gotta tell you if you’re gonna read Neuromancer for the first time read it while doing all of those things with your life

From where do you take these are comic slides? They are so awesome and i want more of these

thank you, i did not know about these books. just watched my nephew play cyber punk.

Im glad someone highlighted it, reading that trilogy Count Zero was a treat from beginning to end in a way that Neuromancer couldn't because of its closed POV and fever dream sexually driven world expansion and Mona Lisa was a bit too disconnected albeit both are still incredibly enjoyable. Count Zero, for me, was just so well written, clean, clear from the start and each plot added so much texture to the world. It's really a masterclass in world building through POVs while making each character compelling and each POV unique through their context. Count Zero is probably my favorite non-modern sci-fi novel, I need to reread it but I came out of every reading of it floored and excited and satisfied. I binged the heck out of it. Im still vibing more with this new wing of Sci-fi in the 'new-weird' movement going on with books like the Area X trilogy...but damn if the Sprawl Trilogy hasn't influenced me greatly.

I have read Neuromancer but not Count Zero or Mona Lisa Overdrive. I will have to add it to my read list. Great video.

I read all three books but the only one I can remember is Mona Lisa Overdrive, it turns out. I had to look up the synopsis for the first two and remember the story but thought all of it happened in the last book.

I remember my excitement when I first cracked Count Zero. I was not disappointed, not at the first read, but the many after.

So I read Neuromancer when it was first published in 1986 and was blown away by it. About two months ago I dusted off my paperback copy of it (which it turns out is a first edition btw) and read it again. Once again I was blown way by it. I cannot believe how well it has stood the test of time. An absolute masterpiece that single-handedly started an entire new genre of science fiction. It’s still so contemporary it could’ve been released last week. There was nothing that even came close to it back when it was first released and IMO there’s only been a few other SF novels that have come close since then. Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks being one of them.anyway mate thanks for the vid, will dust off Count Zero (probably also a 1st edition lol ) and v]give it another go. I remember being a little disappointed with it as a sequel back in the day but it truly had some big boots to fill…

**SPOILER** I remember this book years later: especially the scene of the AI "building" art stuck with me - and it is incredibly relevant now. Totally agree on the character and world-building issue - a lot of sci-fi was always just someone running with a cool idea (I love Asimov, but his characters were 2D), the really great sci-fi stories have cool ideas, but with real people in them.

Still disappointed that Chris Cunningham didn't commit to the Neuromancer project.

Loved count zero❤

yeah, Count Zero was my fav too 👍

I recognize this guy !

I sometimes wonder whether Gibson‘s incredible stories in Burning Chrome and the sprawl trilogy (and those of his contemporaries, eg Bruce Sterling) now seem so prophetic because they wove an imagined world & terminologies that we who read them have since hacked into reality…?

I want to buy that trilogy, those specific books (with those specific covers), does anyone knows where can I get them? Or the ISBN?

Where does this art come from? Is there a graphic novel of these books? I tried to search for one but other than a very old graphic novel of Neuromancer couldn't find one.

Count zero was my fav of the series

Absolutely agreed! I love the whole trilogy, but "Count Zero" really is "the jewel in the crown". 🤗

The bedrock of my reading history I really should return to the well once again. Given your output I do expect a video on GITS, the true heir to Blade Runner.

I recently read the trilogy and completely agree.

Very nice content, I was just wondering where do you get the artwork from?

Wow I thought it was common knowledge that count zero is a masterwork. Crazy.

I don't get why they havent made these a movie trilogy yet

Schizmatrix

Dystopian

I agree with you. Count Zero was the best book of the trilogy.

What songs did you use in this video?

🌻

My impression of Count Zero was that it was a more dry, worse paced, and less visually descriptive version of Neuromancer. I'd recommend it to people who found they enjoyed the genuine article of 1st gen cyberpunk, and wanted more.

First book I read by Gibson

You said Bobby takes a different path. Does he? I thought he goes on to be one of the best cowboys?

I did enjoy Count Zero, but I still think Neuromancer is the superior work. For one, it was the first of the trilogy, so it feels fresher. Probably my main comparison between the two where Neuromancer is the superior is this: The main players in Neuromancer all come together relatively early on, then they advance through the story as a team. In Count Zero and, I believe, Mona Lisa Overdrive (I admit I remember this one the least of the three), you are following these characters on their own, disparate journeys, so it feels more disconnected (even though it's not). I did really enjoy the Turner chapters - he's kind of a badass (dude gets blown up in the first chapter, ends up jacking-in to a jet later on, just some really cool stuff that was fun to visualize). Turner is like the ultimate G.I.Joe, if G.I.Joe existed in a cyberpunk world. As cool as Turner is, Molly fulfills his role in a more classically cyberpunk way in Neuromancer - she comes off not so much as an ex-military mercenary, but as some kind of cybernetically-enhanced, punkish rebel. Her character, and Case, are very successful prototypes for many-if-not-all cyberpunk characters to come after them (I know Johnny Mnemonic was actually the prototype of Case, but that story isn't quite as iconic as Neuromancer, despite being very awesome in its own right). Count Zero is still great, and I'm glad Gibson didn't try to clone the first book or bring Molly and Case back for a new adventure, but I still think it's hard to beat the original. In fact, I don't know if Gibson ever did beat it, solely based on how iconic and influential the first book is. How many Molly Millions have we seen since Neuromancer in cyberpunk-stories? How many Cases? The cyberpunk genre is brimming to full with Molly and Case clones, and for good reason. Like Conan for sword-and-sorcery, or like Gandalf for epic fantasy, Molly and Case are the two archetypes of the cyberpunk genre.

Nueromancer is lauded for launching cyberpunk. Great ideas and spots of brilliant writing. But it's end is a bit of a mess. Count Zero comes from a more confident and experienced writer. The story is tight, compelling, and has masterful characters.

On a sidenote (and a new comment^^) I highly recommend "The Repossession Mambo" by Eric Garcia.

where's the art from? it's great.

Agree. Not my type of books when they released. (too young, i'm from '77, 1977! I read J.Verne and Sherlock Holmes stories) But i started Shadowrun in the nineties and found Gibson and H. Ellison. CBRPNK!!!

Yeah, due to his cancers, Virek didn't look very human in the book....

where are these illustrations from? A graphic novel adaptation?

I don't think that you can really appreciate the Sprawl without reading all the short stories associated with it collected in Burning Chrome, and certainly skipping Count Zero and Mona Lisa amounts to an injustice to Neuromancer and Gibson's overall vision. There was a crazy B-minus sci-fi movie from 1992 called "Nemesis" that was a shoot'em up ripoff mish-mash of Neuromancer, Count Zero and "Bladerunner". It features Hollywood's characteristic incoherent depiction of sci-fi concepts, a low budget(spent mostly on explosions and blanks) and a seriously bad cast...yet somehow...there is entertainment value in seeing so many Gibsonian scenes and concepts smooshed unapologetically into a 95 minute straight to video movie.

We are all entitled to our own opinions. "Burning Chrome is one of Gibson's most overlooked works.

Why did you forget about these books?

All three books are absolutely utterly necessary to understand the story but if you only read one of them, yes, the story of Count Zero stands alone best.

Count Zero had me hooked a lot faster than Neuromancer.

I don't agree that Count Zero is overlooked. We who are into the genre certainly haven't overlooked it.

where is all this art from?

wtf do you mean by "forgotten"?! by whom exactly?

It’s funny how Fallout:New Vegas has House yet they were really just copying Count Zero. And yeah, it is hella awesome book. Lots of cool stuff.

Jumping onto the "where is this art from" bandwagon.

I know Gibson is getting a lot of the credit for creating the cyberpunk genre, but have you read the novel city come walking by John Shirley??

Neuromancer is getting a tv series ! So who knows if that’s a success we might get count zero as a tv series too! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯😎😎😎😎😎👍👍👍👍👍

I almost took you up on your offer to disagree, thinking Neuromancer is far from overlooked, until you said Count Zero. I agree it is fairly overlooked. I haven't read it in well over a decade so I can't comment on it being a masterpiece but it's true that outside of hardcore sci-fi fans Gibson's work gets overshadowed by Neuromancer.

Who in their right mind calls Cyberpunk 2077 light on character building?!!?! It's greatest strength is likely just that!

Forgotten? its genre difining!!

I take it you've not read Bruce Sterling then?

You got sources for that all that art?

: )

The opening of this video is a statement of Sturgeon’s Law. 90% of SF has crappy characterization. 90% of all literature has crappy characterization.

😗

The voice on the narration on the presenter has changed? Three days ago, it was a young lady, now it was a young man. Both with British accents? Is the narration AI generated?

I'm going to have to read books 2 and 3 again. I didn't find them nearly as interesting or memorable as Neuromancer.

Wait, Cyberpunk 2077 characters were underdeveloped? I don't know about you, but they are the most detailed characters I've seen a video game. Must be me, I guess.

Great video but dude TAG your SPOILERS

can cyberpunk exist in a context without capitalism?

Hope you got permission from Josan Gonzales to use that thumbnail image, my dude

Cringeworthy romance scenes? That sounds a lot like Cyberpunk 2077 and it’s community.

In Count Zero, Gibson simplified and toned down his style, and basically wrote a something more akin to Tom Clancy. I dislike it very much. Also, atrocious happy ending - a constant bane of his career.