Trouble and Her Friends

Rating:
Summary: didn't catch my interest
Review: I love sci fi with strong active women, realistic women though, women I can relate, and men I can relate to. However, this book I could not relate too. Perhaps I'm not into computers enough, perhaps the first chapter where "her friends" (?are they?) talk about her not being there and about new laws was just too boring, or perhaps the book is too much into telling me what is going on in the realworld compared to showing me what is going on in cyberspace. Whatever it was, this book did not catch my interest, did not make me want to keep reading. But I did read it because it was a gift. If you like cyberpunk or computers please strong women and men, then you might get more out of this book than I did.

Rating:
Summary: Thriller in cyberspace
Review: In the not-so-distant future, India Carless, known as Trouble, has left the shadowy world of cyberspace after the American government cracks down on netwalkers like her. A few years later, a new hacker pops up using the name 'Trouble' and begins creating havoc. The original Trouble comes back to clear her name and catch this new upstart, and she reconnects with old friends to do so, including Cerise, the woman she walked out on. Trouble finds a changed cyberworld hiding more dangers than she anticipated. For me the hard sci fi aspects were a bit dry, but Scott compellingly addressed various social issues and created intriguing characters ... that compelled me to continue. And I do agree that it went on too long and the ending is a bit disappointing, but overall I did enjoy the book. I like Melissa Scott's approach, so I'll probably read more by her.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best of Cyberpunk
Review: Melissa Scott has written many of the best visualizations of possible computer futures. "Trouble and Her Friends" is one of her best, and a great introduction to the author. It is well written, and takes you places you might not have expected to go. Ms. Scott imagines a believable and exiting computer world that will keep you reading. It stands as one of the best books of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: I don't even LIKE cyber-punk!
Review: Scott has written an interesting, but typical mainstream book. I'm not sure it rates all the accolades it seems to draw. I've been a devotee of cyberpunk, sci-fi, and hard edged writing for along time. Net writing needs to be fast, tight, and with a continuous edge to it. This isn't.

There are some great sections in this book: they're hard, and fast, and flowing, with great potential for visualization. Yet they appear to be bound together with afterthought. It reads as if Scott wrote several strong scenes and then loosely tied them together. I found myself looking ahead of my place on more than one occasion, especially with the repetative net node descriptions, and was able to loose neither plot nor character development.

So I rate this fair. It's a good read but nothing special.

My only other comment is a question. Are we being set up, during the denouement, for the return of Trouble? As a shorter story I hope so.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read...
Review: This is a wonderfull book worthy of any Sci-Fi reader's interest. The story moves along well and keeps you guessing until the end. Note the use of neural 'net' precluding 'Strange Days' and 'The Matrix'. I can't wait to read the rest of her books...

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read...
Review: This is a wonderfull book worthy of any Sci-Fi reader's interest. The story moves along well and keeps you guessing until the end. Note the use of neural 'net' precluding 'Strange Days' and 'The Matrix'. I can't wait to read the rest of her books...

Rating:
Summary: two strong women, but not much more
Review: This is the only novel I have read by Scott, so perhaps my take on her intentions is off, but Trouble struck me as a novel very consciously written to flout the conventions of traditional cyberpunk. As such, Scott creates two very strong female main characters who do much to carry the story which takes place as much online as off. However, the story itself is very weak with an almost transparently thin premise and flimsy supporting characters. The novel is fairly slow paced and seems to contain an inappropriately large amount of detail on very minute points (e.g. characters' clothes are described absolutely exhaustively) while major plot points go totally unaddressed or are just steamrolled over with technobabble. The ending is EXTREMELY disappointing. Many of the story's major points go completely unexplained and most of the characters introduced in the first half of the book are subsequently dropped and never returned to. I picked up this book looking for something with a somewhat different take on cyberpunk, which Trouble does provide, but I ultimately found it to be a very disappointing and frustrating read.

Rating:
Summary: Already been done
Review: Well, the first thing to mention about this book is the timing. It was published in 1994, I believe, a decade after Neuromancer started the cyberpunk genre. So just about every piece of science and technology Scott uses should be very familiar to readers. (Another similar flaw is that the book is set a century from now, but the computer systems aren't nearly advanced enough).

The story is basically a thriller with some science fiction behind it. Trouble, a retired hacker (a la William Gibson's Case) returns to the business to track down a hacker who is using her name and reputation. She meets up with her ex-girlfriend, and they travel across the country on their mission. This isn't that bad, and Scott's settings and descriptions are interesting enough, but the whole thing ends up in an action climax and a too-happy ending that doesn't seem real at all.

The virtual reality sequences are another problem. By the time Scott wrote this, personal computers were much more widespread than in Gibson's day, so she's weighed down by reality. Sometimes it's like reading about some guy using a modern computer, which is in no way exciting or interesting. She writes these scenes in present tense, but sometimes forgets and slips into past tense.

The characters weren't bad, except Scott is constantly forcing out feminist and gay issues with absolutely no subtlety. Feminist and gay issues certainly have a place in science fiction, and even in this book, but the symbolism was just too obvious (hackers and homosexuals as the outcasts of society) and at the same time far-fetched (why are all the old hackers gay?). Scott seems very committed to this particular theme, sacrificing the plot of her book, and the scientific believability, to get it out there.

If you've read any book by William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, or Bruce Sterling, Trouble and Her Friends will be too familiar, and it isn't worth the energy required to get through Scott's always-troublesome first 50 pages.