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.
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