Count Zero was published by Arbor House in 1986, Gibson’s first hardcover publication. Set seven years after Neuromancer, the novel follows three storylines that converge in the corporate warfare between zaibatsus (multinational conglomerates).
Bobby Newmark, a teenage hacker in a New Jersey slum, attempts his first run in cyberspace using cheap stolen software. Something saves him from the lethal ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) that should have killed him — something that manifests as a voodoo loa. Turner, a corporate mercenary, is hired to extract Christopher Mitchell, a biochip researcher, from the Maas Biolabs corporation. Marly Krushkhova, a disgraced Parisian art gallery owner, is hired by the reclusive billionaire Josef Virek to find the creator of mysterious Cornell-box assemblages — small, perfect artworks that seem to come from nowhere.
The three storylines converge in the revelation that the superintelligence created at the end of Neuromancer has fragmented into multiple entities — entities that the inhabitants of cyberspace experience as the loa of Haitian voodoo. The art is being made by one of these fragments. Bobby’s salvation came from another. The corporate war is fought over access to them.
Gibson’s prose in Count Zero is more controlled than Neuromancer — less pyrotechnic but more assured. The novel’s structure (three intercut narratives that only converge at the climax) anticipates the technique Gibson would use throughout his career.
Collecting Count Zero
First edition (Arbor House, New York, 1986): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $200–$600
- Very good/very good: $80–$200
- UK first (Gollancz): $100–$300
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation. Second in the Sprawl trilogy.
The Voodoo Internet
Count Zero (1986) expands the Sprawl universe of Neuromancer into a three-strand narrative: a corporate mercenary, a young hacker who nearly dies jacking into cyberspace, and an art dealer tracking mysterious Cornell-box artworks created by an unknown artist. Gibson introduces the idea that the AIs from Neuromancer have fragmented into entities resembling Haitian voodoo loa — gods living in cyberspace — an audacious merger of high technology and folk religion.
Frequently Asked Questions
What order should I read the Sprawl trilogy? Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988). The novels share a universe and some characters but each stands alone. Burning Chrome (1986) collects short stories set in the same world.