I should have read this book before "Dreaming Metal" (the sequel).
Some of the things I expected to become clear (that weren't so clear in the second book) did - for example, why so many people in the books are deaf (random mutation, small population), and the origin and exact stances of the many political groups. Other things were not really explained (why Red was in jail, anything having to do with his & Imre's very odd relationship.)
The main character here is Reverdy Jian, a starship pilot and part of a team with Imre and Red. Their agent is approached by a wealthy woman who wishes to hire them for a job - but she's a little mysterious and cagey about the exact nature of the venture, which will definitely involve both testing an experimental ship's computer and searching for her missing brother - who is variously rumored to be a brilliant programmer, crazy, and/or dead.
Not wanting to get into anything more than they can handle, the team goes behind their new employer's back to try to get more information about what's actually going on. Slowly, but suspensefully, they uncover a complex web of crime, underground programming secrets, big companies that will do a lot to get their hands on those secrets, and questions about the nature of the Spelvin constructs - computer personalities without which starships would be impossible to fly."
( )

I liked Burning Bright because it had interesting characters and a good plot, plus the world it created, incorporating virtual reality games, was fascinating. I did NOT like Dreamships. Too much focus on the world she was creating, incorporating virtual reality technology, and not enough on characters and plot. I kept waiting for the book to "start." About a fourth of the way through I gave up. ( )

If one were to take a mash-up of my undergraduate degree (Computer Science:Artificial Intelligence, also Psycholinguistics wannabe) and crossed it with my graduate degree (Information & Archive Management) and mixed in my random interests you might come up with this book. I randomly picked it off the shelf at the used bookstore and am delighted to have found it. I enjoyed reading it and will look into Scott's other writings. ( )

A rollicking yarn whose center contains an attack on the whole turing test dealy from a fresh if not entirely convincing angle. But you can chew on it in your head, and it's a good read even without. ( )

F/SF