Subject: Review of Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott

From: [email-masked] (Steven Gary Brock)
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 18:57:01 GMT

REVIEW

     Trouble and her lover Cerise wear brain implants (brainworms)
that let them experience computer networks with all of their
senses.  Each of their ventures into the net is a cacophony of
datastrings that can "flow and writhe like grass in the virtual
wind."  When IC(E) (Intrusion Countermeasures (Electronic), the
future form of what are now called "firewalls" in computer security
jargon) is encountered, however, it can "shock an unwary netwalker
off the nets, overloading the cutout circuits."  Attempts to crack
IC(E) can be fatal.  Trouble and Cerise, however, are undaunted net
crackers who plunge through corporate IC(E) to plunder files and
data to sell on the grey (in this case) market.

     Disagreeing over how to respond to legislation that will make
the use of a brainworm for any reason a crime of espionage, the two
separate.  Trouble becomes a syscop (a cross between a sysop and
security guard) at an art colony while Cerise takes a position as
a security specialist with an influential corporation.  Both
occasionally use their implants to peruse the virtual worlds of the
net.

     Three years after the split, someone calling themselves
Trouble has begun cracking corporate databases - stealing informa-
tion, leaving a virus, and then bragging about it on the net.  When
an attempt to plunder the database of the corporation Cerise works
for is barely thwarted, her boss sends her to catch either the
fraudulent Trouble or the real one, he doesn't care which.

     Cerise locates the real Trouble, and enlists her aid in
apprehending the imposter and, at the same time, clearing her name. 
This cyberpunk mystery has many flaws (especially in dialogue
construction and leaving loose ends with minor characters), but
when Trouble and Cerise take to the net, sparks fly and virtual
space turns into an area where the swordplay and spell casting of
Dungeons and Dragons is replaced by battling computer programs
carried in a toolkit.

     The descriptions of Trouble and Cerise maneuvering the nets is
spellbinding as they each move their icons through virtual cities
packed with other "tourists."  The ending chase scenes are as
thrilling as those in the movie "The French Connection."  "Trouble
and her Friends" is a must-read for cyberpunk and computer
enthusiasts, as well as those seeking an introduction to the genre. 
Grade: B.

     Also by Scott, a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best
New Writer: "Mighty Good Road," "Dreamships," and "Burning Bright."

%A Scott, Melissa 
%T Trouble and Her Friends
%I Tor Books
%C New York
%D September 1994
%G ISBN 0-312-85733-0
%P 379pp
%O hardcover, $22.95