Conference noted::sf

    Highly recommended.  More cyberpunk neuro-stim jacking into the
    sprawl matrix with the console cowboys.  Check it out.
    

    Finally rediscovered my base note. CZ takes place in the 
    "Neuromancer" world about seven years after that story.
    I didn't think it was quite as good. Does anyone know when
    Gibsons' short story collection is due out ? Thanks  Dana

re: .2
You mean out in paperback?  "Burning Chrome" has been out in
hardcover for a while now...

    RE:  Count Zero
    
    (being in same Universe as Neuromancer) Yeah.  Several times they
    drop hints referring back to events in the first book.  Furthermore,
    the space station where Marly met the artist of the mysterious boxes
    was, I believe, the abandoned hulk of Tessier-Ashpool's Freehold--and
    the artist "him"self was the AI "being" created at the end of
    Neuromancer from Wintermute and its alter ego.
    
    I enjoyed Count Zero a good deal; definitely worth a read.  Agreed,
    though, that the pacing doesn't work quite as well as in
    Neuromancer-- simply because he's trying to juggle three characters'
    plotlines at once, alternating between them, and although he more
    or less pulls it off (no mean feat) it inevitably loses continuity
    and narrative drive (and I found myself having to thumb back to
    the last encounter with each character to remind myself of where
    he left them).
    
    But there's no doubt that Gibson has a hell of a flair with this
    insane world he's created.  The problem may be, he's so good at
    the particular, unique style of the "console cowboy" books that
    I don't know if I could take him seriously writing anything else.
    
    RE:  Burning Chrome
    Does anybody know if this is in the same vein as Neuromancer, etc.?
     What's this about a collection of short stories?
    

    	Isn't "the artist" just one of the manifestations of the AI,
    for are not the "gods" specifically the voodoo ones also part of
    the AI?
    
    	re. _Burning_Chrome_
    
    	Does anyone know if this book is available in paperback in the
    US?  I have looked at a few places in Worcester, Fab Fiction, Waldens,
    and a small book store.  Waldens claims to never have heard of it.

    RE: .4 and .5
    
    >RE:  Burning Chrome
    >Does anybody know if this is in the same vein as Neuromancer, etc.?
    >What's this about a collection of short stories?
    
    BURNING CHROME is a collection of Gibson's published short stories
    to date. I believe only one story that he's written isn't in the
    collection.  Some of the stories are set in Gibson's "Sprawl" world,
    that is, the same world as that of NEUROMANCER and COUNT ZERO. In
    fact, a few characters from the novel(s) appear in some of the stories.
    
    BURNING CHROME hasn't been released in U.S. paperback yet, but probably
    will be soon. The book *is* available in hardcover release.
    
    BTW, Gibson is currently working on the third (and, he said probably
    final) novel of the NEUROMANCER series. Should be released in HC
    sometime next year.  He's also working on a collaborative novel with
    someone (he didn't want to tell me who), which he said is going
    to be a "historical fantasy." And ... he's also working on a movie
    script, *not* the NEUROMANCER script - which he's seen, has totally
    disavowed, and says will probably never be produced.
    
    Fred

    According to the new "Locus", Gibson has been signed to write the
    script for the movie "Alien III", based on a treatment by Walter
    Hill and David Giler (who co-produced the first two movies, and
    had story credits on the second).
    

    Aw, ya beat me to it.
    
    --- jerry

>    simply because he's trying to juggle three characters'
>    plotlines at once, alternating between them, and although he more
>    or less pulls it off (no mean feat) it inevitably loses continuity
>    and narrative drive (and I found myself having to thumb back to
>    the last encounter with each character to remind myself of where
>    he left them).
                                                   
    Yes, I enjoyed the "texture" of the book, but in terms of it being 
    structured with 3 different characters plotlines I found that
      a) I had to keep thumbing back to remember what the character
         had last been doing
      b) When an author has structured different character plotlines I 
         usually expect that the way in which the relationship between
         the characters is revealed and the nature of that relationship
         will be a key (and interesting) point of the book. I guess
         Count Zero felt to me like he was just writing along, then
         all of a sudden realized "oops I've got to end this soon" and
         so pulled the characters together quickly.  But then, I always
         hate the way books end, so I wouldn't pay a whole lot of
         attention to my opinion :-)

    An example of separate plotlines I did like was in Spider
    Robinson's Mindkiller, which (as I recall... it has been a while)
    starts off with two, apparently unrelated streams, then eventually 
    the nature of the relationship between them is revealed to the reader.
    (but not here, due to SPOILER potential!)
    

    "Count Zero" is the first SF that I've read in a number of years,
    (I follow this conference for movie and TV notes,) but I did enjoy
    it tremendously. The general complaint concerning the 3 concurrent
    plotlines didn't bother me at all, and in fact struck me as a desired
    effect; Gibson regards his audience in the same way as his characters,
    looking for constant stimulation, and used to a quick fire world.
    Three stories running simultaneously requires no concentration
    compared to following several programmes on the TV, whether
    simultaneously or over time.
           
    
    Steev
     

    Re .10  Try "Neuromancer". Same future, better story. CZ refers
    to it several times.