Overview
Less than a hundred years from now, the forces of law and order crack down on the world of the computer nets. The hip, noir adventurers who get by on wit, bravado, and drugs, and haunt the virtual worlds of the Shadows of cyberspace, are up against the encroachments of civilization. It's time to adapt or die.India Carless, alias Trouble, got out just ahead of the feds and settled down to run a small network for an artist's co-op.
Now someone has taken her name and begun to use it for criminal hacking. So Trouble returns. Once the fastest fun on the electronic frontier, she has tried to retire--but has been called out for one last fight. And it's a killer.
Set 100 years in the future, this is a cyberpunk SF novel about intrigue and adventure in the virtual reality of the computer networks, at the moment when the law is cracking down on a new generation of computer criminals. Someone has stolen Trouble's identity on the nets and she, the greatest hacker of them all, returns from retirement to track down and confront the impostor.
Synopsis
Less than a hundred years from now, the forces of law and order crack down on the world of the computer nets. The hip, noir adventurers who get by on wit, bravado, and drugs, and haunt the virtual worlds of the Shadows of cyberspace, are up against the encroachments of civilization. It's time to adapt or die.
India Carless, alias Trouble, got out ahead of the feds and settled down to run a small network for an artist's co-op.
Now someone has taken her name and begun to use it for criminal hacking. So Trouble returns. Once the fastest gun on the electronic frontier, she had tried to retire-but has been called out for one last fight. And it's a killer.
Publishers Weekly
Scott's talents for creating a future both hauntingly familiar and exotically remote are showcased in this feminist cyberpunk romp. Cerise and Trouble are lesbian lovers who plug into computer networks to steal industrial secrets to sell on the gray market. Both women have been wired with the newest technology, a ``brainworm'' that enables them to receive sensations when they're plugged in--a development despised by the older, mostly male heterosexual ``netwalkers.'' When Congress passes the Evans-Tindale bill to outlaw the brainworm, life on the net threatens to become more dangerous. Trouble predicts these changes and goes legit. Three years later, Cerise is working for an industrial corporation when someone begins impersonating Trouble on the nets, stealing secrets and leaving viruses behind. To save her own job and to clear her ex-lover's name, Cerise must team up with Trouble again. Their many adventures include a virtual-reality equivalent of a high-noon shootout, but loose plotting weakens the tension surrounding most of their escapades, as problems unexpectedly resolve or are simply dropped. Scott ( Dreamships ; Burning Bright ) seems more interested in using her command of the genre to explore such subjects as the importance of friendship, the strength and intelligence of women, lesbian eroticism and the workings of community. (May )
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Scott's talents for creating a future both hauntingly familiar and exotically remote are showcased in this feminist cyberpunk romp. Cerise and Trouble are lesbian lovers who plug into computer networks to steal industrial secrets to sell on the gray market. Both women have been wired with the newest technology, a ``brainworm'' that enables them to receive sensations when they're plugged in--a development despised by the older, mostly male heterosexual ``netwalkers.'' When Congress passes the Evans-Tindale bill to outlaw the brainworm, life on the net threatens to become more dangerous. Trouble predicts these changes and goes legit. Three years later, Cerise is working for an industrial corporation when someone begins impersonating Trouble on the nets, stealing secrets and leaving viruses behind. To save her own job and to clear her ex-lover's name, Cerise must team up with Trouble again. Their many adventures include a virtual-reality equivalent of a high-noon shootout, but loose plotting weakens the tension surrounding most of their escapades, as problems unexpectedly resolve or are simply dropped. Scott Dreamships ; Burning Bright seems more interested in using her command of the genre to explore such subjects as the importance of friendship, the strength and intelligence of women, lesbian eroticism and the workings of community. MayLibrary Journal
The passage of restrictive laws governing access to the ever-growing international computer network drives professional ``netwalkers'' like India Carless a.k.a. Trouble and her lover, Cerise, out of the shadows and into the glaring lights of legitimate enterprise-until their illicit pasts emerge to haunt them. The author of Burning Bright LJ 4/15/93 captures the spirit of new technology in a novel set partly in the next century and partly in the virtual future that is becoming today's reality. Scott's talent as a storyteller continues to grow, as evidenced by her sizzling prose and carefully balanced plotting. A priority purchase for most sf collections.From the Publisher
"A gritty, real-feeling book about sexy women from the punk side of the tracks, empowered by the nets but managing not to be corrupted by power: and a wry and interesting look at what happens when the law moves in on the wild cyberspace frontier." -Gwyneth Jones, author of White Queen