In my reading career so far, I have met characters that loved music, that made music and engaged with music at a higher level, but before A Song for A New Day, I never met anyone who lived music. When I pick up my guitar to practice next time, when I think ‘music’ and ‘book’, it won’t be the sheet/tab music books that will come to mind – it will be Luce and her passion. If you haven’t met Luce yet, I’m happy to introduce you to her and her world a little bit today, by telling you about Sarah Pinsker‘s book A Song for A New Day, where Luce is the protagonist.
If you like music, or sports (yes, sports), you need to read this book. If you read and enjoyed Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, you will like this book. This book is partly about performances, and has so much to offer, giving a glimpse of the future we are headed towards. Enjoy dystopian stories? Read this book!
Before I rave about it, check out the synopsis below.
In this captivating science fiction novel from an award-winning author, public gatherings are illegal making concerts impossible, except for those willing to break the law for the love of music, and for one chance at human connection.
In the Before, when the government didn’t prohibit large public gatherings, Luce Cannon was on top of the world. One of her songs had just taken off and she was on her way to becoming a star. Now, in the After, terror attacks and deadly viruses have led the government to ban concerts, and Luce’s connection to the world–her music, her purpose–is closed off forever. She does what she has to do: she performs in illegal concerts to a small but passionate community, always evading the law.
Rosemary Laws barely remembers the Before times. She spends her days in Hoodspace, helping customers order all of their goods online for drone delivery–no physical contact with humans needed. By lucky chance, she finds a new job and a new calling: discover amazing musicians and bring their concerts to everyone via virtual reality. The only catch is that she’ll have to do something she’s never done before and go out in public. Find the illegal concerts and bring musicians into the limelight they deserve. But when she sees how the world could actually be, that won’t be enough.
The Short Take – From Goodreads
A Song for a New Day is set in a world where public gatherings are illegal and, the only (read legal) way to enjoy music and sports, is through the virtual systems of StageHolo. A virus destroyed part of the world’s population and people prefer to stay home, get things delivered using drones, or drive in self-driving cars if they must commute. This is a world where the kids go to online schools and real life is in the Hoodspace.
We meet Luce Cannon, an artist who was there Before the laws changed. She was touring around the US, gaining momentum for her career, when everything came crashing down. She had to find a way to continue to make music and reach people who wanted to listen to it, bypassing the restrictions in place. People have been living in the After for so long that the 5 year olds who were in the Before are now in their early twenties and do not know how to function in crowds and without their devices. Rosemary is part of this generation who does not remember much from the Before. When she is hired to be a music recruiter for Stage Holo Live, she has to venture out of her comfort zone, meet new people, find the hidden pockets where music is still alive, and experience what the Before had, which the After does not.
This is an amazing story about music, finding oneself and one’s purpose, while at the same time, touching on many of the issues that we are starting to see in everyday life, the addiction to devices, in particular.
With an underlying commentary on big cooperations controlling everything, data privacy and recommendations, A Song for a New Day follows Luce’s journey to bring her music to those who want to hear it as well as Rosemary’s struggle to reconcile with the the job she thought she was hired for and the one she ultimately got. The characters are strong and likeable, the descriptions of places where people play are vivid and detailed. A book I highly recommend!
The Long Take – Themes for Thought
If you have read any of my previous book thoughts articles, you know the drill. What follows will be how I connected with the book, highlights of major themes and quotes. As a story about creativity, I think this book warrants something different. Luce writes and performs a number of songs in this book, and for this Long Take, I’ll be using three of her songs to summarize my takeaways.
End Days
Today, we are engrossed in our devices, whether it is at parties or on the way to work. In the After, when public gatherings are no longer allowed, terrorism and deathly viruses have reduced human contact to the minimal, where else does one turn but the devices? I read Rob Hart‘s The Warehouse which talked about the future when all deliveries happen by drones and the cities as we know them are long gone. I feel A Song for A New Day provides another aspect to that world. Rather than focusing on the people making the deliveries happen like in The Warehouse, A Song for A New Day focuses on the people in the cities, trying to make a living and keep their passions alive. I am not saying the two books are meant to be related in any way, but when you are an avid reader, ideas from different authors start to come together, building a whole new world. 🙂
What really causes our demise from our current system of living? The way this plays out in Sarah’s world of multiple terrorist threats and widespread epidemic-style viruses are believable ideas. And when this does come about, how would we choose to live?
Enclosed in her Hoodie all day she sometimes came to believe there were no real people, just voices and messages and lines of code and avatars spread out across the world.
Rosemary in A Song for A New Day
Would we crave the freedom of the outside world, where we can only set cautious feet, or will we be content with the regulations and rules that keep us safe? That allow us to ‘meet’ people and not be hurt the same way? Through Rosemary, Sarah raises important questions about the future and what we loose when we shut ourselves off in our devices.
A Minor Second
A Song for A New Day teaches about valuing the connections we have with people and never taking time with them for granted. Luce meets amazing artists throughout her adventures in the Before, but is only when life is thrown off-course by circumstances that she realizes the importance of people in her life and origins. Whether it is checking in on her mom and the family she left behind, or camaraderie with her friends and roommates, she makes the best of what she has, living to the best of her abilities, keeping in mind the people she is helping along the way.
Every second, every connection matters. No matter how we connect with people, when we are present for them, we have to give them our best. Always.
Manifest Independence
While independence is the belief of whether we are capable of doing something, freedom says that we are allowed to do certain things. Independence is a self-expression while freedom grants the permission. Through A Song for A New Day and Luce’s actions, this difference between freedom and independence becomes hard to miss.
People in the After do not have the freedom to enjoy public gatherings and are limited to experiencing only the music concerts (and sports) available through StageHolo, but if they truly want, they can go and find the hidden artists in their areas who will give them the experience. Luce offers this to anyone who wishes to be a part of her small rebellion to keep the passion for music alive and the ability to participate in it, physically, available.
I immensely enjoyed reading this book and, writing this article, made me appreciate it in depth! This is definitely another one of the books I have read this year which I look forward to rereading, especially once HoodSpace gets running.
A Song for A New Day is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! Let’s have a book-discussion!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Penguin Random House Canada and am grateful to them and the author for letting me be a part of this story. Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Sarah Pinsker, out tomorrow! 🙂
Cover image: Photo by Vishnu R Nair on Unsplash
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