Playing 'The Jazz' has its delights!, 28 Sep 2000

Set in a near-future world with cyberpunk atmosphere but without the usual 'cyber' accoutrements, this book is about people living on the grey side of the law. Keyz is a teenage hacker who has stolen a program from a major studio without realising how important it is. Pursued by the studio, he turns to Tin Lizzy, the women who put up a piece of his satirical writing ('The Jazz' of the title). Unfortunately, Tin Lizzy has her own problems, not least a colourful history that comes back to haunt her.

As always, Scott's conviction in the worlds she builds and her skill at conveying it mean the book immerses you effortlessly. Tin Lizzy is a well-realised character, someone you think you would like to meet, but that you would probably hate if you did. Her motivations are clear and understandable, but she is by no means a saint. Keyz never really develops as a character, but as he is the initiation of the story rather than its impetus it doesn't really matter. (In addition, it works quite well to convey an 'innocent' caught up in events that he doesn't really understand).

The negative on this book surrounds the plot. It's not a bad plot, and it is sustained the length of the book quite nicely. The problem is that the plot does not require the milieu. It fails the SF test of being unable to be told outside of the world in which it has been set. In fact, it faintly reminded me of the film 'The Parallax View', though I haven't entirely figured out why. Scott is capable of writing top-notch SF ('Dreamships', 'The Kindly Ones', 'Burning Bright', 'Shadow Man'), but this is not quite up to that caliber.

What it is, however, is an undeniably enjoyable read and a decent way to spend a few quid. It doesn't, to me, reveal or question any fundamentals, the way the other books listed do.

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