When the Counting Gets Tough …

Do you remember, a few week’s ago, I wrote about William Gibson’s influential novel, “Neuromancer”?

I was always impressed by it.

And by the sequels, as well, come to that …

And I’m not to sure if I made it clear at the time, but all three novels — “Neuromancer”, “Count Zero”, and “Mona Lisa Overdrive” — are available to read online, at Project Cyberpunk.

It also looks like a certain Mr Gibson wasn’t the first person to use the phrase, although it was in relation to his work I first heard it.

They’re well worth checking out, I think, but I’m something of a sci-fi fan; just a touch biased, you could say …

But moving on …

Both sequels are a little different to the original novel.

“Neuromancer” had one plot; by contrast, both “Count Zero” and “Mona Lisa Overdrive” have three plot threads, that meet and resolve at each sequels climax.

“Count Zero” follows three threads to a joint climax.   One thread follows a mercenary called Turner, as he and others attempt to help a scientist called Mitchell — along with some revolutionary research — defect from the company he works for; another follows the activities of small time, young hacker, Bobby Newmark — the ‘Count Zero’ of the title — almost being killed as a result of testing out some black-market software he’s picked up; the third sees out-of-work art-gallery owner Marly Krushkova, hired by the reclusive industrialist Josef Virek, to trace some Cornell style boxes he’s interested in.   In addition, cyberspace — Gibson’s future version of the net — seems, after the events of “Neuromancer”, to have developed … inhabitants.

Who claim to be Vodou gods …

“Mona Lisa Overdrive” uses the same form three-thread, one climax form.   The third novel in Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy sees title character, and hooker, Mona hired for an unexplained, and possibly dangerous, job.   A second thread sees gangster’s daughter Kumiko having to move to London — and assigned Molly, one of the central characters of “Neuromancer” — for safety during a Yakuza mob war.   Thread three finds reclusive artist and ex-con, Slick Henry being burdened with an apparently comatose body, hook up to a very strange — and very LARGE — exterior-drive.

Now writing a story like this isn’t something else, except in other works by William Gibson; “All Tomorrow’s Parties” springs to mind, but don’t quote me on that.

I couldn’t even tell you what what the technique is called.

 

But I do know I’ve enjoyed these.

Go follow those links through.

I think you’ll like them.