Misinformation, PR, disinformation, rumors, spinning, lies--in the near future, the art of untruth has evolved into the jazz: virtual-reality Internet theatre, an entertainment for the cognoscenti and a source of pain and scandal for those who believe what they see, read, or experience. Tin Lizzy has escaped her troubled criminal adolescence to become one of the premiere design programmers of the jazz. But when she agrees to design the back-tech for a teenage boy's brilliant jazz scenario, she discovers too late that Keyz created his jazz with a sophisticated program stolen from a Hollywood studio. Now Lizzy is a criminal again, a desperate fugitive on the run with Keyz through the dangerous underground of the 21st century, fleeing cops, bounty hunters, studio detectives, and a powerful, ruthless CEO who has a secret to preserve, and boundless resources and vindictiveness.

Quietly, outside the hot, critical spotlight turned upon the original cyberpunks and second-generation cyberwunderkind Neil Stephenson, Melissa Scott has become one of the strongest, most productive, and least street-glamour-blinded cyberpunks writing at the turn of the millennium. This is not entirely a surprise; in 1986, she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She is also a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for best science fiction novel. If you haven't read Melissa Scott, The Jazz is a fine place to start. --Cynthia Ward


From Publishers Weekly
Best known for her densely conceived, far-future settings, complex plotting and radical political commentary, Scott (Dreaming Metal; The Shapes of Their Hearts) here offers her fans a more straightforward, near-future cyberthriller. Tin Lizzy, another of the author's highly competent hackers with a heart of gold, makes her living producing virtual background scenarios for the jazz, the newest Internet art form: an inspired combination of personality journalism, gossip, cyberpranks and outright lies. When Lizzy finds herself teamed with Keyz, a teenaged boy whose jazz has jumped seemingly overnight from amateur to brilliant, she senses that something isn't right. Her fears are confirmed when, soon after his first professional sale, Keyz discloses that he's been helped by Orpha-Toto, a secret and highly experimental expert program that he's stolen from one of the major movie studios. Hounded by Gardner Gerretty, the ruthless CEO of the studio, the same man who was responsible for Lizzy's having done hard time many years earlier, the two hackers find themselves fleeing across an increasingly strange, near-future America, looking desperately for a way to escape from Gerretty's monomaniacal pursuit. Less ambitious than Scott's very best work and marred by a villain whose sheer relentlessness strains credulity, this is nonetheless a powerfully imagined suspense novel. Scott maintains her position, first established in Trouble and Her Friends, as one of the best writers around in portraying what life online may really be like in the future. (June) FYI: Scott has won two Lambda Awards for her SF. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When a 16-year old hacker named Keyz "borrows" a hot new computer program, he finds himself pursued by the authorities who represent the media-controlled world of the near future. His only hope of survival lies in the skills of Tin Lizzy, a techie with her own reasons to defy the establishment. The author of Trouble and Her Friends creates a rapid-fire tale of fugitives in cyberspace that sizzles with electric prose and bold images drawn from technology's cutting edge. This high-tech adventure belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Gerald Jonas
A story of the Internet that, refreshingly, does not rely on the wonders or terrors of virtual reality to sustain interest.


From Booklist
In a supercyberconnected world, jazz is electronic rumour, accelerated and elaborated to the nth degree. One day jazz-master Tin Lizzy offers to help Keyz, a teen hacker who has pirated a program from powerful, paranoid film exec Gardner Gerretty. She does it because long ago, when a teenage prostitute, she encountered Gerretty, stole his smoke, and was viciously punished by several years in a harsh prison. Keyz, unfortunately, remains a pasteboard character, but the others are vivid and engrossing. The story loses some momentum as the chase after Lizzy and Keyz extends through a series of safe havens that include a re-created Viking community and a wealthy offshore enclave, but the menace of Gerretty and his security force is convincing enough. On the run, Lizzy calls on old friends: a teacher who ran afoul of Gerretty's studio years before, a powerful black nightclub owner, and a fellow jazz player who is also a cop. Lizzy stands to lose career and life protecting the hapless Keyz, but her determination to do right makes her character outstanding. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"A story of the Internet that, refreshingly, does not rely on the wonders or terrors of virtual reality to sustain interest. Set in a near-future America dominated by media corporations, the novel deals with a theme as current as the latest E-mail gossip or virus alert."--Gerald Jonas, The New York Times



Book Description
Melissa Scott, winner of the John W. Campbell Award, twice winner of the Lambda Award for best novel, and author of the cyberpunk classic, Trouble and Her Friends, returns with a hip novel of the media-dominated future, when the internet is filled with Jazz: intentional misinformation and bewildering disinformation that are both an artform and a business.

Tin Lizzy, a respected Jazz artist with a checkered past, is a theatrical Web site designer who does backgrounds for Jazz productions. When a nifty new script shows up on the web, Lizzy is surprised to learn it came from a teenage boy named Keyz. It turns out Keyz used his parents' access codes to borrow a Hollywood studio's editing program- the true, hidden source of the studio's success. Now the studio head wants to lock him in jail and throw away the key.

So Lizzy rescues him and takes him on the road, across the altered landscape of twenty-first century USA, trying to stay one step ahead of the police . . . . and the vengeance of a megalomaniac CEO.

The Jazz is a road chase novel of the future, filled with shady characters, close calls, and colorful neat ideas.



Download Description
Melissa Scott, twice winner of the Lambda Award for best SF novel, and author of the cyberpunk classic, Trouble and Her Friends, returns with a hip novel of the media dominated future. Tin Lizzy, a young woman techie with a criminal past, and Keyz, a teenage boy who used his parents access codes to borrow a Hollywood studio's editing program (that is the hidden source of its media success), are on the run from the studio police and the vengeance of a megalomaniac CEO across the altered landscape of mid-21st century USA. The jazz is the new artform of the internet in the new century, the art of spreading convincing entertaining lies. The Jazz is a triumph.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tin Lizzy, a young woman techie with a criminal past, and Keyz, a teenage boy who used his parents' access codes to borrow a Hollywood studio's editing program (the hidden source of its media success), are on the run from the studio police and the vengeance of a megalomaniac CEO across the altered landscape of mid-21st century USA.

SYNOPSIS

Melissa Scott, twice winner of the Lambda Award for best SF novel, and author of the cyberpunk classic, Trouble and Her Friends, returns with a hip novel of the media dominated future.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

Known by several aliases, Tin Lizzy has been in trouble with the law before and is not happy to be embroiled in another unlawful scenario. As an adolescent, she stole a "smoke" from an executive named Gardner Gerretty and was unjustly charged with a harsh jail sentence in order for the executive to prove a point. Now years later, Keyz, a teenage computer hacker, is in trouble with the same man. Keyz created a program for the "Jazz" (the latest technological innovation used to provide entertainment and to spread mainly false information). Tin Lizzy has agreed to help Keyz by creating the back-tech for his program. Unbeknownst to her, Keyz stole a program from Gardner's big-budget studio that aided him in his creation. Once Gardner finds that his computer program has been hacked, Keyz is in serious danger. When Keyz tells Tin Lizzy the truth about his acquisition and his precarious situation, Tin Lizzy empathizes with the teenager and offers to provide him with help against her former foe. Lizzy meets Keyz in futuristic Crystal City and the two of them go on the run, receiving help from Lizzy's old acquaintances in the District and even from a friend on the police force while Gardner's thugs incessantly search for them. This SF novel blends a futuristic setting with a touch of noir as the two computer experts elude those chasing them by traveling through some gritty and bizarre cities and communities. Tin Lizzy definitely has an attitude that will appeal to YA readers and although she can be quite sarcastic, she is intelligent, caring, and harbors some emotional difficulties and vulnerabilities of her own. The characters that are close to Lizzy are also fully realized and although the plotmeanders a bit as Lizzy and Keyz run from place to place, this novel is highly original and definitely recommended for fans of cyberpunk literature. Author Scott is a previous winner of the John W. Campbell Award and has won the Lambda Literary Award twice for Best SF Novel. Category: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Tor, 316p., Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Ginger Armstrong; Principal Lib. Assoc., Chesterfield Cty P.L., Ches

Library Journal

When a 16-year old hacker named Keyz "borrows" a hot new computer program, he finds himself pursued by the authorities who represent the media-controlled world of the near future. His only hope of survival lies in the skills of Tin Lizzy, a techie with her own reasons to defy the establishment. The author of Trouble and Her Friends creates a rapid-fire tale of fugitives in cyberspace that sizzles with electric prose and bold images drawn from technology's cutting edge. This high-tech adventure belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Kirkus Reviews

More maneuvers at the man/machine interface, from the author of The Shapes of Their Hearts (1998), etc. In the near future, cyberspace is dominated by the "jazz," creative, entertaining, convincing lies (imagine AOL, CNN, and the National Enquirer all rolled into one). Young teenager Keyz, desperate to play the jazz, has hacked into a powerful Hollywood studio's program, Orpha-Toto, which edits mediocre works into winners. Tin Lizzy, a creative technician with a checkered past (prostitution, porn movies, hacking) helps Keyz get his jazz into shape. But then the studio's president, Gardner Gerretty, finds out about the theft of Orpha-Toto, the secret key to his success. Vindictive and monomaniacal—he busted Lizzy for a minor infraction—Gerretty threatens to destroy Keyz and his parents, and dispatches studio cop John Hallac to track down Keyz and Lizzy. They flee with a copy of Orpha-Toto, getting help from cop Chessie Vara, a friend of Lizzy's, and Lizzy's old mentor Russ Conti—who, it turns out, helped write Orpha-Toto. Using her jazz to evade capture and buy them some time, Lizzy contacts Njeri Shida, a possible customer for the program. But they seem to escape Hallac too easily. Is Gerretty aware of what they're doing, waiting to grab them all once they meet up? Nobody writes about the cyberspace experience better than Scott, despite the deflationary ending and a plot that doesn't hold water.