Interface Masque

by Shariann Lewitt

A hard SF novel of high-end data manipulation in a baroque future Venice.In the ancient and future city of Venice, poised above the drifting tides of her canals, is House a guild specializing in the making and breaking of data systems. Cecilie is a senior apprentice in Sept-Fortune, on the brink of her adult career. It is time for Cecilie's last test, the one that will prove her mastery of her profession and end her apprenticeship. But she has not anticipated the nature of the test that will be required of her.Frightened and furious, Cecilie plunges into a very secret, very private, very dangerous quest to discover the nature of her world, behind its disguises... and to discover as well who runs the world. The truth is elusive but she knows it's out there, in the flow of the datastream and in the equally unfathomable eddies and currents of Venice's masked intrigues. And all interfaces are masks that cover the underlying system... but masks are hidden face.No matter. Truth is something Cecilie desperately needs. And she will pursue it in the face of all peril and strangeness, breaking through from one set of appearances to another... and another... to find what lies beyond.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction, Italy

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Alternate Known Names:
Shariann Lewitt
Shariann N. Lewitt
S.N. Lewitt
Nina Harper
Gordon Kendall - pseudonym also for Susan Shwartz

Reviews

[Andrea]

Early books about the future of the internet are always something of a curiosity - divergent futures that have net users navigating symbolic landscapes, where interaction is visual and physical instead of textual.

This outing adds a highly structured and restricted society, where the internet has become stratified and controlled rather than the fields of opportunity, exploration and roiling hate speech that we enjoy.

Plot-wise and character-wise, this isn't destined to be a re-read for me. A lot of time was spent in David's head, and since I thoroughly disliked David, I skipped large bits of the centre of the story.

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an overlooked work of the cyberpunk genre.
In a future Venice still redolent of the past, brilliant young people and experts are recruited into Septs - organizations that are a combination of corporation, cult and convent/monastery.
Cecile, a novice, is proud to have been accepted into Sept-Fortune, which specializes in data management. However, when she's given her "final exam" - a test with pass-or-be-expelled consequences, it's an assignment which violates all the ethical standards the Sept has so carefully inculcated in her, involving stealing private data.
In deciding what path she should take, Cecile unwittingly becomes drawn into depths she hadn't guessed at - blackmail, terrorist plots, forbidden jazz concerts at underground nightclubs...
It's a fun, exciting story with the importance of free expression and free speech as a major theme. Rich with music, I was almost-convinced that I like jazz a lot more than I do in real life!
My one problem with the book was that at one point there's a major (and really indefensible) terrorist act. It happens - and then it's not really dealt with. I'm not asking that all fictional perpetrators of violence get punished... but the emotional repercussions, and the deeper ramifications of such an act are just kind of slid over, I felt. It was a little disturbing to me.
Still, I very much enjoyed it, overall. The 'feel' of the book reminded me a lot of Melissa Scott's "Dreaming Metal," (which came out the same year). If you're a fan of that book, I'd highly recommend this one.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in a single day. It's technically "young adult" fiction, but it's one of the freshest takes on cyberpunk that I've read so far. It was written in the mid-90s, but works every bit as well today. Plus, it's intriguing blend of historical Venice, jazz, and futuristic computers is lush and full of symbolism. I'm going to be reading every one of Lewitt's books in the future.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that the book didn't handhold the reader. The author expected the reader to keep up, and I liked that also.

The plot seemed to move a bit jerkily, and I wasn't always convinced of the characters' motivations, but those aspects weren't enough to detract from the enjoyment of seeing an alternate Venice, and how things might have been technology-wise.

I really, really, enjoyed the depictions of working in the global/local networks.

And I _loved_ the important and subversive role that music played. The intermingling of music and tech really hit my sweet spot.

[Gene Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this book 20-21 years ago, it's aged pretty well, dealing with the debate over a free, open web vs. a tightly regulated corporate-controlled internet. This time I definitely found the ending hurried and abrupt.

[Mpho3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Masking meant that Venetians could remain themselves beneath the masks instead of pretending they were barefaced and honest. When in truth everyone masked and those who learned to do it with their faces showing to the world were merely creating another mask, a more dangerous one."

Twenty-plus years ago, when this book was published, the Internet was a very different creature than it is now. Lewitt's imaginings are amazingly prescient (the fight for net neutrality, the ubiquity of online shopping, the dangers of Internet fraud, savvy applications of virtual reality, the preference for some of avatars rather than engaging with "the meat world"), and while we don't have information guilds as such, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple are perfect stand ins.

As a story of intrigue, Interface Masque mostly satisfies and as sci fi, it's mostly successful (although I agree with some other readers that aliens* as ghosts in the machine is a little much). The things that worked for me: I really enjoyed the Venetian setting, the idea of and ideas around the role of masks and music, and as a jazz fan I was ... jazzed by her descriptions of that genre's ability to spark creativity. Where the book misses: small details such as more than one reference to "ice cream" rather than gelato, given the Italian setting; the ways in which some storylines aren't fully developed; and the ending isn't particularly rewarding.

All in all though, this was a fun read. I don't regret the time spent reading it. 3.5 stars

*Getting back to the aliens, her conception of an alien mind is intriguing, but I just didn't feel it needed to be part of this story, which already had a lot going on.

[Arachne8x · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got to read this book because I'm a friend of the author and she needed people to read the books for free. I'm a martyr at heart so I volunteered.

The book is fun and interesting. Cecille finds more than she can handle when she goes through her final exams for her Sept. The Sept is up to things she would have never dreamed they'd do, and now she has to decide what she's going to do about it.

The treatment of music in the book is interesting, and the way it affects people. Choirs sing background music to keep people productive. But underground there are musicians who break out from the accepted music, and play dirty, anarchist, jazz.


I'd recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the 'speculative' part of sci fi that deals with social dynamics.

[Thelma Kastl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago and it has recently been playing into my thoughts with the release of Avatar and the discussion of avatars. When written, the book, was very forward thinking as is most science fiction. The piece itself is a good piece of work. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It makes for an interesting thought-provoking piece on the play of power, technology control and technology assessment. I have often debated on the use of this book as a classroom tool.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like Interface Masque, and even finished it, but it never quite clicked. It was always on the verge, but somehow it never quite worked for me. I also found the end quite depressing. There is so little hope that the world can be better.