Tag: sci-fi

Read my review of Sarah’s previous book – A Song For a New Day

From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.

Everybody’s getting one.
Val and Julie just want what’s best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all.
Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device.
Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology
once it’s everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot’s powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.

Sarah Pinsker is a singer, songwriter and author. Her short stories have won the Nebula, Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick Awards. Currently finishing her second novel and fourth album, she lives with her wife in Baltimore, Maryland.
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My thoughts: I don’t really fancy this version of the future, with weird little computers inserted in people’s brains, supposedly to make them better, more efficient, but not necessarily smarter. It just seems creepy and considering what we know about tech companies, they’re definitely harvesting your thoughts and selling them.

Luckily there are people fighting back, refusing to allow these modifications, or who aren’t eligible and ask questions. People like Sophie and Gabe, like Val. And then there’s those who bought into it and changed their minds – like David. I felt bad for David, there was something wrong and nobody would listen.

This was intelligent, engaging and thoughtful. I was fully invested in the plot and the characters, I would certainly have a lot of questions too, were I ever in this sort of situation. I remember when there was things like mobile phones as implants mooted, which seemed a bit weird, would you really want a corporation with that much access to your every action? This book feels very timely and astute, as technology increasingly encroaches on every aspect of our lives.

An unnervingly prescient, Nebula-award-winning novel explores life in a world permanently locked down in the aftermath of a pandemic.

BEFORE.
Luce Cannon is on the road. Success is finally within her grasp: her songs are getting airtime; the venues she’s playing are getting larger. But mass shootings, bombings and now a strange contagion are closing America down around her.
The gig Luce plays tonight will turn out to be the last-ever rock show as the world’s stadiums, arenas and concert halls go dark for good.

AFTER.
Rosemary is too young to remember the Before. She grew up, went to school and works in the virtual world of Hoodspace.
Working for StageHoloLive, which controls what is left of the music industry, her job is to find new talent, search out the illegal backroom jams and bring musicians into the
Hoodspace holographic limelight they deserve.
But when Rosemary sees how the world could actually be, that won’t be enough.

Sarah Pinsker is a singer, songwriter and author. Her short stories have won the Nebula, Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick Awards.
Currently finishing her second novel and fourth album, she lives with her wife in Baltimore, Maryland.

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My thoughts:

This book made me cry, I don’t think it meant to but after a year with no live music, no theatre, no mooching round art galleries, no hearing buskers in the Tube stations, no tiny gigs in sticky floored bars, no crowds, no festivals, no hugging friends with shared glee or going a bit deaf from standing too close to a speaker, a book that celebrates the necessity, the essential-ness of music, of art, of crowds, of dancing, of being present hits hard. Really, really hard.

I love music, I love going to gigs, I’ve been to hole in the wall bars with a band in the basement, I’ve been to mega stadiums. I’ve danced in fields, in back gardens and parks, I’ve missed the last train home to hear the second encore. I’ve sat on concrete floors because the singer told us to, I’ve perched on the edge of stages sipping watered down cider in plastic pint glasses while the band tunes up.

And I miss it like you wouldn’t believe. I miss the thrill of a live band, of being squeezed up way too close to other humans, of dancing with strangers, of singing along even though I really can’t sing.

And this is what this brilliant book is all about. After a pandemic and some really brutal violence, people are afraid, they’re staying home and only mingling virtually. And no recording, no live streaming is ever as good as in the flesh. Something Luce knows and Rosemary learns.

I loved Rosemary, I loved Luce, I loved their passion and optimism (R) and defiance and scepticism (L) and the way that both of them are determined that live music, shared experience, the way a bass line can go right through you to your soul if played correctly, should never really be replaced by the hollow virtual kind.

A Song For A New Day is a call to arms, to retain your love, your passion, your joy for making things, for sharing things and for experiencing it right there in front of you. Not through a screen, headphones on, alone.

I cannot wait to go to the theatre, to a gig, to hear someone play an instrument or sing live again. I cannot wait to be connected to a room full of strangers by lyrics, by a guitar riff, a drum beat.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Long ago, the Great Sundering ripped the universe apart, creating two separate realities. The kuldain realm developed advanced technology, and its inhabitants travel the universe on massive ships to colonize and expand their empire. The aether realm, meanwhile, harnessed the magic of the massively powerful eldrich energy that connects everything within their realm.

Now, a tentative peace reigns between the two realms, maintained by a treaty and by the Imperial Investigative Service–a force designed to monitor interactions between the realms and ensure that most kuldain inhabitants don’t even know aether space exists.

Leilani Falconi, a talented agent of the IIS, polices the galaxy with quick sarcasm and a quicker temper. When a series of suspicious deaths in kuldain space threatens the secrecy and peace, Lei must solve the mystery–fast–before both her realities change forever.

My thoughts:

This was a gripping, clever sci-fi thriller that whizzed all over the universe as Lei raced against time to unravel a conspiracy with far reaching consequences for both kuldain and aether realm and their peoples.

She’s smart, quick and happy to commit violence to get what she needs if her bag of tricks and bribes don’t quite cover it. As an agent she has licence to do whatever it takes in service to the emperor, and a talent for disguise and assuming new identities as needed.

I liked Lei and her take no prisoners attitude, I appreciated her dry sense of humour and determination. The plot whizzed along taking in all sorts of weird and wonderful events and characters. Really enjoyable.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

A famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor’s least favorite grandchild, Prince Kiem is summoned before the Emperor and commanded to renew the empire’s bonds with its newest vassal planet. The prince must marry Count Jainan, the recent widower of another royal prince of the empire.
But Jainan suspects his late husband’s death was no accident. And Prince Kiem discovers Jainan is a suspect himself. But broken bonds between the Empire and its vassal planets leaves the entire empire vulnerable, so together they must prove that their union is strong while uncovering a possible conspiracy.
Their successful marriage will align conflicting worlds.
Their failure will be the end of the empire.

My thoughts:

This was so good. I did not know I needed a gay space conspiracy thriller in my life, turns out I did.

The relationship between Kiem and Jainan is lovely to watch blossom as they investigate what really happened when Prince Taam was killed, unravel a plot to destabilise the treaty that keeps the Empire and its vassals from war, get to know each other better and wind up the security service.

Kiem is one of those people who lead a charmed life, people like them, even their worst moments are amusing and humanising. He can be a lot (I have a friend who is exactly the same) but he means well.

Jainan is a lot more reserved, and with reason as his story is revealed, he’s learnt to keep his thoughts to himself and make himself smaller to avoid attracting attention.

I also loved Bel, Kiem’s aide, who does her best to keep him on the straight and narrow, but has secrets of her own and not just about how she’s so organised.

This was a tremendously fun read, with lots of action and a labyrinthine conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, with the risk of serious danger the closer they get to the heart of it.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.