Subject: "Harmonies of the 'Net" by Jane S Fancher

From: [email-masked] (Rex Croft)
Date: 21 May 93 02:10:00 GMT

"Harmonies of the 'Net" by Jane S Fancher
				- reviewed by Rex Croft  [email-masked]

This book is the last in the trilogy begun in "Groundties" and "Uplink".

See the excellent review of "Ground-Ties" just posted by Douglas Reeder.

From the back cover:
"The star-spanning 'Net is crashing -- collapsing under its own unwieldy
 weight, its vital database losing bits and connections at an alarming rate.
 The politicians and technocrats that depend on it are desperate."
    Desperate enough to come looking for the boy they dispatched on a mission
 larger than they knew, and for the prankster whose exploits are notorious
 among programmers on the 'Net.
    Stephen Ridenour -- tormented boy genius and survivor of HuteNamid's
 secrets -- has found a refuge from the civilization whose bigotry almost
 destroyed him.
    Wesley Smith -- genius, seducer, joker, and certifiable loose cannon --
 has captured the ultimate prey and isn't about to set it loose.  And no one
 realizes what _can_ be done is already a dead issue..."

A different and intriguing plot.  The star-spanning culture is assumed.
It is held together by a data network to which odd things are happening.
The book is mostly about personalities and their interaction, but it is
engaging all the same.

Recommended.

%A  Jane S Fancher
%T  Harmonies of the 'Net
%I  Questar (Warner Books)
%C  New York
%D  November 1992
%O  paperback, US$4.99
%P  378 pp.
%G  0-446-36243-3
%S  The 'Net  (no series name supplied)
%V  3
%O  Cover design by Don Puckey, cover illustration by Barclay Shaw