Justina Robson

This is a very imaginative science fiction story -- the kind of risk that might work magnificently or fail catastrophically. It fell somewhere in the middle for me.

Robson conjures a future in which genetic engineering has allowed the human race to intentionally evolve special purpose types -- creatures who can do the work barred by human limitations but who remain human at their core. The "forged" have been specially engineered to travel through space or mine asteroids or terraform planets. show more As time goes along, the interests of the forged diverge from those of the "unevolved", and, of course, there are the downsides of lives devoted entirely to special purposes. The forged do remain human at their core, and they have the needs, ambitions, and desires of humans. But their fate, which of course they didn't choose -- they were engineered from conception or birth -- precludes much of that.

The book's plot takes that situation and inserts a discovery by the forged of an alien technology -- something that would allow them to separate from the unevolved and build a civilization of their own, one tuned to their own needs rather than to the service of the unevolved.

The aliens themselves seem absent, but in fact, they are presenting the forged (and one unevolved) with a choice. The use of their technology requires a choice to give up something maybe more fundamental to human life than any of the things that the forged miss in their current world and seek in a new one.

I think the story is a good one, a really ambitious one, and it's great to see science fiction that takes the risks that this story does. And it raises great questions.

It may be unavoidable that, in reading, finding my way through the world that Robson imagines detracts a bit from the focus on the question that she raises about what makes us human and what we would or would not give up. A less risky story would keep as much of the world familiar as possible in order to focus the reader's attention on the question it raises. Robson pays special attention to what is different -- the appearances and abilities of the forged -- though because it is part of the question. How much can we change and still remain ourselves? How much would we really be willing to change? show less

I had read Justina Robson's first novel, Silver Screen, and been unimpressed by it. But this, her second novel, turned out to be a beast of a different stripe. From the outset, we had a selection of well-rounded characters, and a situation that was quite novel - a research project into using nanoware and brain scanning techniques to build a therapeutic tool for psychiatric disorders. But of course, having mapped the interface between the human mind and the actual neurological structures show more within the brain, the work comes to the attention of various players who see the opportunity to use the tool for nefarious purposes - nothing less than being able to exercise mass mind control over a population.

We are introduced to one of the scientists leading the research; her flat-mate; an FBI agent investigating the whole project because it touches on other areas that he is investigating, either officially (who is the mysterious Russian defector who does not appear to have a past - or has too many of them?) or unofficially (why was the agent's sister attacked on the reservation where she lives by neighbours who she grew up with?); and a fellow agent who has multiple layers and seems to be playing at least two games for different bosses simultaneously; plus a lot of walk-on characters who are more than just bit players.

The setting is also unusual - a lot of the action takes place in the UK city of York, which is quite well drawn, and the setting of a research institution has a ring of authenticity about it. The race to control and understand the wetware is well-described and the outcome always in doubt.

The book was slightly spoiled for me because of some sloppy editing, which in turn allowed some sloppy writing through. These were all details, rather than anything that would derail the plot, but I stumbled over them nonetheless. For example, York is some distance from any major airport (an hour to Doncaster Robin Hood, and hour and a half to Manchester) from where one of the protagonists is due to get a suborbital flight direct to Washington; yet everyone talks as though "the airport" is just down the road, and when another character follows, they give themselves 30 minutes to get to the airport and make their flight. The thing is that Justina Robson is a northern Brit and ought to be expected to understand these things. And there is a character (the FBI agent's sister) called "White Horse", which I persisted in reading as "White House" nearly all the way through, which seeing as the book involves plottings in the US military was quite possible. (In fact, the last instance in the book really was "White House", which took me completely by surprise.) And for a thriller about conspiracies in the US and British governments, Robson shows little sign of understanding exactly how these bodies work and are organised.

But these are minor issues. What really struck me was this: in 2001, when the book was written, an author could only imagine achieving mass thought control through complex and potentially dangerous nanoware infestation. Twenty years later, we seem to have achieved that through the far simpler vehicle of social media. The arguments are all there: a boon to humankind vs. a threat to freedom and democracy; how people identify with groups/tribes and how they react to new ideas or cleave to old ways. And bad actors from all sides are active in the novel as in real life. I found the whole thing rather chilling and quite compulsive reading. show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
www.allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com

KEEPING IT REAL was reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, ON THE ROAD, and DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? all rolled into one, though the way these elements came together is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Magical and lyric and lovely, this book sweeps from page to page like breathing, wrapping you in the world building so completely it is both foreign and utterly encompassing. Like learning a show more language through immersion, the music of what you read carries you along until the meaning emerges, and even now I’m still trying to put together the pieces into a greater whole.

This immersion style affects both world building and characters. Both Lila and Zal are presented as inscrutable and larger than life, but as events unfold their secrets start to dribble out on to the page. Not that this makes them any more predictable, nor their happily-ever-after even remotely certain, but the romance aspects of KEEPING IT REAL were the raft that kept me afloat in this complex story. There were definitely parts of the story where losing sight of Lila and Zal had my attention wandering from the book, but never to the point where I lost the thread of the plot. The world building in KEEPING IT REAL is fascinating, and despite an opening primer called “Common Knowledge”, much of what Robson teaches readers comes on the fly, woven into the action of the story. I particularly enjoyed how drastically Lila’s perception of elves changes over the course of the novel, either her growing understanding of elves’ formal, stilted speech or her complicated relationship with the elf who’s torture was the reason Lila had lost so much of herself.

Like classic fantasy and science fiction, KEEPING IT REAL is not light reading in and of itself, and it’s the start of a series that promises to be a serious (if rewarding) time investment. Despite my five bats, I still recommend readers check out the excerpt linked above before buying, the style of KEEPING IT REAL is very different from the usual Urban Fantasy fare (to the point where I don’t think that genre label really applies). Dole this book out to yourself when you’re willing to be immersed and swept away and you won’t be disappointed.

Sexual Content: Sex scenes and references to sex. show less

This collection of short stories displays a good breadth of imagination, both in variety of sub-genres and in the concepts of the stories themselves. They range from fantasy to far-future science fiction. It was interesting to see what direction each new story would take, from the post-apocalyptic (but not depressing) “I Give You the Moon” to the strange insect-fantasy world of “Recipes For Good Living.”

For most of the stories, the tiny peephole we, as readers, had into the fully show more formed world in the author’s mind was a good thing. It made the world seem richer and deeper to have this sense of a larger picture lurking just out of sight.

Sometimes, however, it was a barrier to enjoyment. Too much of the world was hidden, which gave the resulting story a hard shell of impenetrability. For example, in “A Game of Clones,” so much was different than our world, but the story only skittered off the surface of one concept before leaping to another, and then another, and then another, and on and on. It never paused and explored. The result was a story less than successful for me.

Other than a rather surprising number of typos for a final draft, I’d say the book is put together well. The changeups in pace and genre keep things fresh.

It's somewhat serendipitous finding this on Early Reviewers. Justina Robson was on a list of female science fiction authors I was reading my way through, but I hadn't gotten there yet. This gave me the opportunity. Any collection of short stories is going to have those that appeal to a given reader and those that do not. There were only three that I really didn’t care for, and there were a couple that I really liked, so that’s okay. show less