Where the first book of the Sprawl-trilogy was very narrowly focused on Case, the band of runners he got pressed into, and the Straylight-run, the second book takes a vastly different approach: it follows the stories of Turner, a, uhm, freelance career-change agent, Bobby, the titular Count Zero and a wannabe-decker, and Marly, a former gallerist finding herself exceedingly gainfully employed.
Their stories do converge in the end, but it takes quite a while for the connections to become apparent.
What connects them all is that they have to deal, one way or the other, with the fall-out from the Straylight-run and the new entities hounding the Matrix.

It can be read on its own, especially since it is only very loosely connected to Neuromancer, but it would give context.

Technically a re-read, but also the first time I’ve read this fundamental, genre-building piece of cyberpunk in the english version.

Contrasting it to the before-finished Fortunate Fall, it does become painfully obvious why the latter was rec’d as “non-tech bro-y” – Neuromancer is very tech, and sometimes painfully bro-y.

Still, it is A Ride, and a damn good one at that, if you’re willing to deal with it.
Also, I completely forgot how much of this book is the actual Straylight run, but then in terms of misremembering plot points that’s by far not the biggest whoops I’ve made xD

And now: deeper into the Sprawl! There’s two more books in the trilogy, after all.