Editing Count Zero (section)

{{Short description|1986 book by William Gibson}}
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{{infobox book | 
| name          = Count Zero
| image         = CountZero(1stEd).jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
| author        = [[William Gibson]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = [[Literature of the United States|United States]]
| language      = English
| series        = [[Sprawl trilogy]]
| genre         = [[Science fiction]], [[cyberpunk]]
| publisher     = [[Victor Gollancz Ltd]]{{citation needed lead|date = August 2024}}
| release_date  = 1986
| media_type    = Print (hardback and paperback)
| pages         = 256
| isbn = 0-575-03696-6
| isbn_note = (first edition)
| preceded_by   = [[Neuromancer]]
| followed_by   = [[Mona Lisa Overdrive]]
}}
'''''Count Zero''''' is a [[science fiction]] novel by American-Canadian writer [[William Gibson]], originally published in 1986.<ref name=PooleGuardian1996/> It presents a near future whose technologies include a network of supercomputers that created a "matrix" in "cyberspace", an accessible, [[virtual reality|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.<ref name = KirkusReview/> The novel is composed of a trio of plot lines that ultimately converge.<ref name = KirkusReview/>

''Count Zero'' is the second volume of the [[Sprawl trilogy]], which began with ''[[Neuromancer]]'' and concludes with ''[[Mona Lisa Overdrive]]''.<ref name=PooleGuardian1996/> It was serialized in the January through March 1986 monthly issues of ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction|Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine]]'';<ref name = GibsonLangford_Lttr/> the January cover was devoted to the story, with art by [[Hisaki Yasuda]].{{cn|date = August 2024}} According to Gibson, the magazine version was edited with his permission to allow access to youth audiences in the United States.<ref name = GibsonLangford_Lttr/>

While Gibson did not introduce the concept or coin the term "[[cyberpunk]]", a subgenre of [[science fiction]] (nor particularly associated himself with it), he ''is'' considered to have first envisioned and described the concept of "[[cyberspace]]".<ref name = OEDcyberspace/><ref name = GibsonDavisWomack_unabridgedaudio_afterward/> The novel, ''Count Zero'', is nonetheless regarded as an early example of the [[cyberpunk]] subgenre.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wytenbroek |first=J R. |date=1989 |title=“Cyberpunk -- Necromancer by William Gibson / Count Zero by William Gibson / Burning Chrome by William Gibson.” |journal=Canadian Literature |volume=121 |pages=163 |via=canlit.ca}}</ref>