Count Zero is sequel to Neuromancer. I listened it as audiobook. This had better narrator than Neuromancer. It was shocking how much narrator having breaks for dramatic effect helped. Neuromancer’s narrator trusted constant flow of words would be enough. But the narrator wasn’t only problem. I have hard time following William Gibson’s text. Book has three stories going on same time. It jumps between them. One chapter started by talking about him and her without telling which story this was. Like I was supposed to guess which it was and remember which one had only man and woman. Previous chapter ended with different man and woman talking by themselves.
That is my problem wit Gibson’s writing. It takes me a while before I get what is going on. This makes his books feel like interesting but disconnected scenes. At least these two I have listened. First should have been easier with one main story. In it problem was to understand where and with who main character was. With three different stories this becomes harder. I wish there was annotated edition of these books which add small section explaining who these characters are, where they are and what happened before each chapter or each change of scene. That would make these easier to read and listen. Based on reviews I am not only one having hard time with these. Some have understood you should praise these books but not everyone.
Again. I don’t hate this or Neuromancer. I just wish these would be easier to follow and easier to combine scenes into one continuous story. Those scenes work and have interesting ideas. Whole thing just needs something to connect it together. Visuals would show who are in the scene and where the scene happens. As far as I know there are no visual versions of these. There is old Neuromancer comic which was cancelled before it finished. Closest thing to visual version is Johnny Mnemonic movie which didn’t do that well. I liked it but it wasn’t popular enough to get more movies.