So, is the Count Zero audiobook worth your precious bandwidth? Or does it suffer the dreaded "middle-child syndrome" of the Sprawl trilogy?

★★★★☆ (4/5) – Glitchy, beautiful, and occasionally confusing. Just like the Sprawl itself. Have you listened to Count Zero ? Did you understand the voodoo subplot on the first go, or did you have to rewind three times? Let me know in the comments.

You want to understand where The Matrix got its "ghosts in the machine" theology. Skip if: You need non-stop cyber-heists and can't handle a plot about 20th-century sculpture.