This book just might be my favorite of the year (so far). It combines relevant issues with the power of music. And not just the power of music, our inherent need for music and the connection it can bring.

Sarah Pinsker has created a thoughtful commentary on a potential future without dwelling on the horrific events that led to that future. If you've lived through the events of September 11, 2001 or any other mass tragedy (and even if you haven't), you can relate to this book. You can't help but wonder about politics, liberties, and freedoms or lack thereof that led to the anti-gathering policies in A Song For A New Day. And while that drives the plot of this story, it's still about the people and the power of music. The specific events and persons who created this future are a footnote. One you figure out through minor bits and pieces throughout the tale. Because it is not the focus. The focus is on the music. And the power of shared experiences with that music.

A Song For A New Day is written by someone who loves music. It's evident in the words and the lyrical, articulate way that live music experiences are described. If you've ever been to a show that left you feeling any emotions well after it ended, this book is for you. Throughout the book, I stopped reading to reminisce about my own experiences. And the book felt all the more meaningful because of that.

There are alternating points of view and each one gives you a way into this new world from people who experienced the before and the after in different ways. It allows anyone to connect to the story. You can pause and think about being safe or social and whether or not those characteristics are mutually exclusive. This book can serve as a reminder, a warning, and a message about social media, personal connections, and even constitutional freedoms.

I can't recommend this book enough and I hope everyone reads it. And then goes to a live concert afterwards.

Summary: Due to a rash of bombings and shootings that killed thousands of people, the government passed the congregation laws. Public gatherings of more than two or three people in an area are prohibited. This changed the way restaurants and hotels function. Large office buildings are sometimes completely abandoned. There are no more movie theaters or concert venues. Traditional stores can no longer operate and have been subsumed into a huge, automated center called Superwally, that provides drone delivery service for everything anyone could need.

Rosemary, a young woman, still lives with her parents on their family farm. She works for Superwally from her bedroom via “hoodie space”, a virtual reality conduit. She is a tech troubleshooter. She’s never seen anything beyond the farm, is very isolated and is too young to remember “before”.

One day, Rosemary does some troubleshooting for a representative of StageHolo. He offers her a chance to see a StageHolo concert and sends her an upgraded hoodie. Rosemary is suddenly introduced to the larger virtual reality world, where people meet in cyberspace to hear music, dance, drink and share experiences.

The flashy concert brings some excitement into Rosemary’s dull life. She decides to apply for a job with StageHolo and leaves home for the first time. She is now a recruiting agent, looking for bands in hiding, playing in private homes and illegal clubs around the country.

She soon realizes she’s made a deal with the devil and determines to help the musicians she finds in a very different way.

Comments: A Song for a New Day is an amazing book. It projects from the current situation in the US to a not too distant future, where people live in fear and isolation. The book also addresses the loneliness and falsehoods in social media. People project avatars in hoodie space that homogenize them. This is a place where mega-corporations rule and the government dictates behavior. In our current world, laws that separate us are being passed now. Not to this extreme, but the seeds are being planted. We are living in fear of shooters at malls, concerts and schools.

I related to this book on multiple levels. I grew up in a suburb of Baltimore, where some of this book takes place. I used to play guitar and sing in small venues and coffee houses in the area. I saw those struggle to stay in business.

But most of all, I have been a resident in virtual reality for thirteen years. I know how it feels to attend cyberspace concerts and clubs, to have coffee with friends that I never meet in person. I have experienced deep isolation with most of my friends being just contacts on social media.

Sarah Pinsker hits the mark on so many points. I’ve become an instant fan of her writing and hope she writes more novels!

A dystopian novel with a unique focus, almost entirely devoted to musical performance in a world where the government actively discourages large gatherings of any sort. Two events conspire to create that world: a series of seemingly random bombings at large events (e.g. sporting events and concerts), and a mysterious disease that is transmitted by physical contact.

The narrative follows two protagonists: Luce Cannon, a singer/songwriter whose career was just taking off before the big events (now referred to as the Before); and Rosemary Laws, a resident of the After, whose job revolves around virtual contact rather than physical contact. Luce finds ways to continue performing, all of them technically illegal. Rosemary finds herself working for the big holographic concert service that has replaced live concerts.

She's a talent scout, which brings her into contact with Luce. After a disastrous first scouting job which results in Luce's illegal performance space being raided by the police and shut down, both she and Luce have to find new ways to follow their passions. As they find a way, Rosemary engineers a performance for Luce that redeems her and offers a way out of the social deadlock they live in.

Pinsker is a musician (as am I), which makes the narrative especially well-tuned to the details of composing and performing music. This is rare, and was a delight to read. I quickly relaxed while reading it, secure in the feeling that there would be no shortfalls in the background research. If there is a weakness, it is the fait accompli nature of the societal collapse. It's never explained in any detail: we see the results, but not the causes.

A fun but oddly non-compelling book. Described as science fiction, it's set in a future where public gatherings are illegal, killing off live music and sports. A principled singer, Lucie, runs an underground club, where she meets naive Rosemary, who has left her family home for the first time in order to seek new talent for the StageHolo company. The writing about music is great, but it's easy to forget this is an SF novel, partly because the technology is not well-described (what exactly are the "hoodies" and who operates them?). A Song For A New Day displays an admirable commitment to diversity and is effective at portraying connections between people; I'll be recommending it on that basis rather than as an SF/dystopian novel.

Great choice for science fiction and music fans alike. Delves into what happens to society to in closes inward to lonliness and the natural tendency to need connection.

It's the end of the world but there's still music only you have to see it live by hologram since large gatherings are forbidden. In the "before" Luce Cannon was on the edge of music stardom but a series of terrorist attacks and a world wide plague put an end to that Now in the "after" Rosemary wants to revitalize Luce's career without selling out to the corporation or her ideals. A fun, interesting, plausible,
dystopian story about music with two lesbian protagonists, what could be better.

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

I'm a big fan of Sarah Pinsker's work. I adored her collection <i>Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea</i> and have been genuinely excited that her first novel would be inspired by her fantastic novelette "Our Lady of the Open Road." The book absolutely lived up to my high expectations.

Pinsker's science fiction is eerily plausible: a near-future world where a series of terrorist attacks and illness with high mortality have led to laws against congregations of people. Society fully embraces the digital and insular, relying on drone delivery for most all goods and on virtual experiences for dating, sports events, and--most notably for this book--concerts, with StageHoloLive being the major purveyor of much entertainment.

Enter the two protagonists: Luce, a gifted musician on the cusp of going big when the world fell apart, and Rosemary, a young woman rendered agoraphobic by her parents and culture, but who perkily heads out to find undercover musical acts as part of her new job for StageHoloLive. All of the characters in the book are nuanced and realistic, and Pinsker's own background in bands completely grounds the world. This develops into a book with some shades of Charles de Lint's works, yet with an original, fresh approach to a timeless theme: a celebration of music, of EXPERIENCING music, of how much more is involved than merely listening.

This book is beautiful, and its depths with linger with me for a long while.

A Song for a New Day follows two women tyring to discover (or rediscover) who they are and how they can make a difference in a worryingly plausible future where it's illegal to gather in groups of more than three or four people at a time. Luce Cannon, a singer who was briefly famous before the anti-congregration laws were put in place (In the "Before"), wants to push people out of their isolation and back into publich. Rosemary Laws, who doesn't remember much of the Before, is stuck in a dead-end job and wants to make something of herself. When Rosemary takes on a job as a recruiter for a performing arts company that isn't quite what it seems, the two are put on a collision course.

I don't know a lot about music beyond enjoying it, but this book was amazing, and a real pleasure to read. Both characters are sympathetic, with plausible flaws and very personal dreams that make them both feel like real people. The tension is a nice mix of internal (Rosemary's naivete clashing with the cynicism required by her new job; Luce's desire to change the world one fan at a time clashing with her fear of getting too close to others) and external, as both characters struggle against the restrictions put upon them by the non-congregration laws and the social structures that have grown up around it.

I also appreciated that the dystopian future is not all dystopian. Some people genuinely like some of the changes, and one character, Joni, points out that in some ways the anti-congregration laws have levelled the playing field. It's always nice to see some nuance in near-future dystopias, instead of backwards-looking fantasies about The Good Old Days.

The plot, the characters, and the setting all kept me reading along past my bedtime, leading to a few bleary-eyed mornings, which I always know means I've found a book worth reading.

I could go on, but in short, this book is fantastic! Read it!

An interesting premise and well done. After terrorist attacks gatherings are banned. Music is played in secret. Very cool

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker is a near future dystopian cyberpunk speculative fiction novel (is that a redundant group of labels?) that centers women musicians and technology experts existing within an unjust society. This review will contain some information about the plot and characters, but I will attempt to keep it relatively spoiler free.

The story is told from the perspectives of two queer women: Luce, who is a musician and composer of what seems to be some amalgamation of rock music genres, and Rosemary, who is a computer expert stuck working for mega-corporations- Superwally and SHL- in order to survive. Live music gatherings, among other things, are illegal and Luce is doing everything in her power to keep the real-life music interaction alive. Rosemary becomes entangled in all of this when she begins working for a music corporation- StageHolo Live (SHL)- which organizes virtual concerts which can be experienced via "hoodies"- a sort of virtual reality technology that is worn by the user, allowing them to become integrated into the simulation.

I enjoyed this book and found it captured my attention and interest well. I do have to say that one thing that was difficult to follow while reading was the timeline. It seems to be set in the future. But, then there are mentions of the 30-something characters having seen Neil Young and other older artists in concert. I kept thinking, wait, are we in an alternative reality to today? Or is this a very very near future in which someone my age could have witnessed these bands and also exist in this repressive anti-music regime? It was also not clear to me exactly why music gatherings were illegal. There are some dangerous occurrences such as bomb threats and disease outbreaks at the start of the novel that I assumed would be further explained later, but the story just sort of passes over them on to the story surrounding seeking out live music in a world where it is illegal. When I started the book, knowing this premise from the blurb, I assumed that the illegality of live music was some sort of repression of free expression by an authoritarian government. However, it is explained that music itself is not illegal, only gathering for live music (as well as protests.) So, I now wonder if it is promoted to "protect" from bomb threats or plague outbreaks. This is never really made clear to me aside from the fact that the illegality is real and oppressive.

This is an acceptable way to create a dystopian environment, don't get me wrong. I don't necessarily need everything to be spelled out for me. But, when it is not, I prefer the world building to be a little more immersive than it was in this book. That said, I still felt drawn into the story. The environments that were created around live shows and everything surrounding them as well as Rosemary's lived experiences were very immersive.

Something I really enjoyed about this book was the centering of queer women as main characters. Often a story that dares to put a queer women near the center will be too afraid to center more than one woman and will supplement with less marginalized characters. This author was brave enough to build the story around the lives of two queer women. It is not entirely clear if queerness itself is also illegal along with live music, but the weaving of queer and occasional trans characters into a story with oppressive governments and corrupt megacorportations obviously says something about both backgrounds. There was a bit of the assumption of universal whiteness- characters of color were introduced by their race while other characters are assumed to be white by default. So, the handling of race could have been better. But, overall, I enjoyed the character make up in this book a lot.

In order to make this review as spoiler-free as possible, I won't say too many specifics about the plot. I will say there are some interesting twists and turns fitting in nicely with the classic cyberpunk genre (which I love.) The characters are well written, imperfect, relatable, and believable. The book is interesting with a premise I have not read about before. There are so many books in the world that I cannot say for sure whether the whole music take on the dystopia has been done before. But, it was original as far as my own experience goes.

A Song for a New Day comes out in September of 2019 and is definitely worth a read. It will likely appeal to many audiences, but it is extra special for those of us who are LGBTQ to see ourselves represented in a story in such immersive ways. The story is not about being LGBTQ as much as the characters just happen to be. Thus, it is appropriate for anyone into dystopian stories, stories surrounding musicians, and/or cyberpunk fans.