Count Zero

Description

They set a Slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the colour of his hair. When the Maas Biolabs and Hosaka zaibatsus fight it out for world domination, computer cowboys like Turner and Count Zero are just foot soldiers in the great game: useful but ultimately expendable. When Turner wakes up in Mexico - in a new body with a beautiful woman beside him - his corporate masters let him recuperate for a while, then reactivate his memory for a mission even more dangerous than the one that nearly killed him: the head designer from Maas Biolabs says he wants to defect to Hosaka, and it's Turner's job to deliver him safely. COUNT ZERO is a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the designer's defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo gods in the Net and angels in the software, he can only hope that the megacorps and the super-rich have their virtual hands too full to notice the amateur hacker with the black market kit trying desperately to stay alive . . .

William Gibson was born in South Carolina in 1948. Educated in the USA, he emigrated to Canada in 1968 and retains dual nationality. Gibson began writing in 1977 and burst upon the literary world with his acclaimed first novel, NEUROMANCER, the book that launched the cyberpunk generation, and the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction, the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards. Although best known for his early cyberpunk novels, Gibson's work has continued to evolve over the ensuing years, always casting an astute critical eye on modern societal trends. In 1999 The Guardian praised him as 'probably the most important novelist of the past two decades'. His most recent books include ZERO HISTORY and THE PERIPHERAL. William Gibson's website is www.williamgibsonbooks.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @greatdismal

A masterly peek into the computer-obsessed electronic global ghetto, narrated in a futuristic sland-enriched vocabulary - Time Out Gibson is the Raymond Chandler of SF - Observer Gibson is up your alley. He is a technological fantasist with unparalleled sensitivity . . wired direct to the mains - New Musical Express