[1] It presents a near future whose technologies include a network of supercomputers that created a "matrix" in "cyberspace", an accessible, virtual, three-dimensionally active "inner space", which, for Gibson—writing these decades earlier—was seen as being dominated by violent competition between small numbers of very rich individuals and multinational corporations.

[citation needed] Volume 2 of the Sprawl trilogy, Count Zero follows Neuromancer (1984), with the series being concluded by Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).

[citation needed] According to a published letter from Gibson, the magazine version was edited with his permission to contain less swearing and sexual content, in part to allow access to youth audiences in the United States.

][citation needed] In Count Zero Gibson presents "a high-tech near-future of linked super-computers... [a matrix that] has given rise to "cyberspace," an "inner" space something like a three-dimensional video display... [in a] world is dominated by multinational corporations... a few fabulously rich individuals, and the cutthroat competition between them.

Implanted in her brain by her father, she carries the secret plans of the construction of the valuable "biosoft" that has made Maas so influential and powerful.

This "biosoft" is what multibillionaire Josef Virek (see thread three) ruthlessly pursues so that he can make an evolutionary jump to something resembling omniscience and immortality.

Thread Two: In Barrytown, New Jersey a young amateur computer hacker, Bobby Newmark, self-named "Count Zero", is given a piece of black market software by some criminal associates "to test".

After fleeing his house (which is immediately thereafter destroyed) he meets Lucas, Beauvoir, and Jackie, a group fascinated by and dedicated to the recent appearance of voodoo deities in Cyberspace, who take him into their protection as they are collectively targeted by various corporate agents.

Unbeknownst to her, the reason behind Virek's interest in these boxes is related to indications of biosoft construction in the design of one, which he suspects may be contained in the others.

These AI units now interface with humanity in the form of different Haitian voodoo gods, as they have found these constructs to be the best representations of themselves for communicating.

The Cyberspace Matrix, a synergistically linked computer network of databases that encompasses all information on Earth, has become home to sentient beings.

Shortly after leaving his apartment, he is brutally mugged for his deck and left for dead, only to be rescued and given medical attention by the owners of the software Bobby tried out, a small group who are very interested in what happened to him in Cyberspace.

After three months of reconstructive surgery in Singapore, Turner takes a vacation in Mexico, where he meets and becomes sexually involved with a woman named Allison.

Turner is a disciplined professional, but is troubled by memories of past jobs that ended tragically as well as his relationship with his gifted brother Rudy (who is a reclusive alcoholic and drug addict).

She became notorious as a result of the disgrace from attempting to sell a forged box assemblage that was supposedly a lost piece by the American sculptor Joseph Cornell.

Unemployed and living with her friend Andrea, Marly receives a job offer from the immensely wealthy businessman Josef Virek.

During her interview, conducted via a very advanced simstim link, Virek informs Marly that he has collected several remarkable box assemblages similar to those created by Cornell.

[citation needed] Dave Langford reviewed Count Zero for White Dwarf #76, and stated that "This may not have the impact of Neuromancer's first window on Gibson's future, but it's a far better novel.