Keeping It Real

by Justina Robson

Book Overview

The Quantum Bomb of 2015 changed everything. The fabric that kept the universe's different dimensions apart was torn and now, six years later, the people of earth exist in uneasy company with the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591025397
• ISBN13: 9781591025399
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Pyr
• Length: 337 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Great fantasy-suspense tale: cyborgs, elves, magic...

A Quantum explosion in 2015 changes the universe and opens gateways to five other realities; a realm of elementals, Alfheim of the elves, Demonia, Thanatopia--requiring one to be dead to enter and Faery. On Earth, called Otopia since the Q-Bomb went off, Lila Black, a special agent, is on her first mission after becoming half-cyborg after nearly dying on her previous assignment. She's assigned to protect Zal, a rock-singer from the band No Show. Zal is a elf, and in this scenario, elves are extremely isolationist snobs who would not be seen dead hob-nobbing with the hoi-polloi anywhere outside of Alfheim, and would certainly never do anything as gross as sing in a rock band. This is so anathema that Zal has been getting death threats, many from powerful forces in Alfheim that may precipitate an inter-universe incident, something Lila is charged with investigating and preventing. Yes, the tropes here are familiar, but I still enjoyed the author's take on the whole urban fantasy, paranormal mystery/suspense thing. It was derivative--but not as much as I thought it would be; it was well-written and interesting and deviated enough to make the characters, the worlds, the magic and the societies fascinating in their own way. I will certainly be getting the next book and the next in this series!

Justina Robson returns to form

In this kicky and splendidly written blend of sf and fantasy, Justina Robson returns to the form of her brilliant "Natural History." This time out she invents a world of fascist elves and predatory faeries. Demons also appear, and so do dungeons and dragons. Unlike in her previous, and far less successful, novel "Living Next Door to the God of Love," here Ms. Robinson establishes the rules of her world in the introduction, and she sticks to them. Readers who need a refresher course when the plot thickens need only turn back to that introduction, and they'll be up to speed. The author sets the scene in her opening paragraphs of that introduction: in 2015 an explosion at a "superconducting supercollider" (gotta love it!) has torn a hole in the fabric of space time, which has in turn opened the paths to other realms. Old Earth, now known as Otopia, is visited by fantasy creatures, and trade routes have been established between the realms. Lila Black, a semi-cyborg government agent (she's been rehabbed with cybernetic and mechanical add-ons after a previous caper), is assigned to duty as bodyguard for Zal, an Elf who's the lead singer of the Rock Band "The No Shows." His own people are trying to kill him. Our guys want to learn why the elven land (Alfheim) has closed its borders, and use the threats against Zal's life to bring Lila in. The action starts quickly and builds to a fine, logical conclusion. Along the way the author has fun (you'll probably laugh in places) with fantasy conventions--she stretches them to the limits without breaking them--and she has a great time contrasting the flowery speech of the Elves' leader, Arie, with Lisa's street-gal patter. Ms. Robson also has some fun with gender, too. The proactive female bodyguard falls (with the aid of some magic) for the relatively passive male diva (divo?) Their scenes together are hot--great fun. The book (handsomely designed large-sized paperback on good paper) is billed as "Quantum Gravity, Book 1," but it's complete in itself. It won't leave you hanging from a cliff, but you'll probably be anxious for the followup, which is to be called "Selling Out."

her elves are different

While Keeping It Real by Justina Robson is her fifth published novel, she shows off the full strength of her imagination here and announces to those who may not have heard already that she is a major talent and that she will write a blend of science fiction and fantasy that demands to be read. How is that as a selling point? Keeping It Real opens with a not quite a chapter, not quite a prologue telling us what we need to know. In 2015 there was some sort of Quantum Bomb which detonated in Texas and which opened our world to five alternate / parallel worlds where there are elves, fairies, demons, the dead, and elementals. The other races insist they have known about us all the while. The novel takes place in 2021 and we need to know that this is the state of being because this is not what the novel is about nor is it the story Robson is telling. But it is the setting. Lila Black is possibly less than half human. The other half is machine. At the start of the novel we do not know why or how, only that she is assigned security for a rock band called the No Shows which consists of fairies singing backup and an elf as the lead singer. The No Shows are immensely popular and someone is trying to kill the elf, Zal. Lila, as it turns out, does not entirely trust elves and is barely comfortable in her own skin, such as it is. She is in control of her body and machine, but not entirely. There are glitches. This is the starting point of Keeping It Real. The rest needs to be discovered to be believed. Robson keeps the novel moving at a reasonably fast clip with action, excitement, elf sex, imperfect cyborg machinery, inept fake [...] attempts, and a heroine who is broken more on the inside than on the outside...and this is the woman who must protect Zal, and elf who barely wishes to be protected. Keeping It Real is perhaps the most original science fiction or fantasy novel I have read in some time and it is because Robson is able to blend the two genres so seamlessly that it is simply just good storytelling. Robson plays with familiar concepts (elves, cyborgs, different worlds, magic), but in doing so she puts them together in ways we haven't seen before. The elves here are aware of the stereotypes brought on by countless fantasy novels and Lord of the Rings (the elves crack on lembas bread so that the humans can't). Remember, this is our world, just altered in our future. Keeping It Real is the first volume in a proposed trilogy and I cannot wait to see what Robson brings us next. -Joe Sherry

I loved this book !

I wish there were more authors like Justina Robson. Keeping It Real is like an urban fanasty with faries and elves and cyber technology. I loved it and can't wait until the second one comes.

First in the brilliant new "Quantum Gravity" series

This is the first book in the "Quantum Gravity" series. The publication date for the second, "Selling out", has unfortunately slipped to mid 2007 and I don't know how I'm going to stand the wait. The Quantum Gravity series is set in a future where a disaster in 2015, the "Quantum bomb" has removed the barrier between the world inhabited by humans like ourselves, (formerly known as "Earth" and now as "Otopia") and other realms including those of Elves, Demons, and Faeries. The book starts six years later in 2021. The heroine and central character is Special Agent Lila Black, who works for the human National Security Agency. (It is never made quite clear whether this is the USA's agency by that name or a united human body, but the omission doesn't matter as all the intrigue in the book involves different factions of Elves and other non-humans.) Lila Black is a brilliant creation: having been severely wounded she has been rebuilt as a cyborg powered by her own miniature nuclear reactor, with rocket jets in her legs, more lethal weaponry than a squadron of main battle tanks, more electronic snooping equipment than a Hawkeye AWACs, and more computing power than IBM. Unsurprisingly the human mind inside this lethal killing machine is worried about to what extent she is still human and self-conscious about what she has become. Dduring the course of the book it becomes clear that she is still capable of everything that is best about being human. The book is a strange mix of hard science fiction and fantasy, but it works well, and the author manages to include seriously weird events and somehow make them seem completely plausible while you are reading about them. If you really don't like books with Elves, fairies etc you probably shouldn't read this. If you accept the premise that a bridge between worlds has allowed magic and advanced technology to co-exist, the book is internally consistent and good fun. There is plenty of snappy, cynical humour in the book - anyone under forty reading this who wants to get one of the funniest jokes should look up the lyrics to the old song with the first line "I am the God of Hell-Fire" before reading it, but that was the only joke which most readers won't easily get. Anyone who liked Firefly/Serenity, Blakes 7, the novels of Peter Hamilton, or those of Jack Chalker will almost certainly enjoy "Keeping it Real". (It's actually better than Chalker but I mention him because there are a lot of transformations.) Anyone else who likes either science fiction or fantasy is also likely to love this book.