A Song for a New Day Audiobook By Sarah Pinsker cover art

A Song for a New Day

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A Song for a New Day

By: Sarah Pinsker
Narrated by: Dylan Moore, Nicol Zanzarella
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WINNER OF THE NEBULA AWARD

After a global pandemic makes public gatherings illegal and 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.

Accolades & Awards

Nebula Award
2019
Dystopian Nebula Award Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
Prescient Storyline • Engaging Narrative • Beautiful Interwoven Voices • Thought-provoking Premise • Lyrical Writing

Highly rated for:

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Liked how author pulled me into a futuristic world and also kept me grounded in live music venue. Old coffee houses provided political safety, once upon a time. Perhaps a resurgence.

Fantasy or future

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This story needs to be told, even as we hurtle towards all of it's dark predictions. The artist in me is inspired to go out and build a new future for our fearful and uncertain present. If you are a creative person, then this story is for you, too. Don't let the chaos of Now distract you from considering what type of world we are building. Thanks, Sarah Pinsker, for giving us a glimpse of how to move forward in this world. You couldn't have known how much your story would come to matter for 2020.

Anthem for Culture Change

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In a strange way, Sarah Pinsker must have had a premonition of what was coming when she penned this novel, which gives it even more mystique. An excellent listen.

Prophetic and affirming

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I thought this would be more ‘post apocalyptic’ genre but found it kind of chatty / girlie. That aside Pinsker nailed it constructing an after- pandemic scenerio. Really interesting from that perspective. Not sure I would recommend this book to people who are looking for post apocalyptic- fiction but I am glad I read it.

Not my thing but...

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This passionate, lyrical novel, drawn from the author’s own deep experience of live music, is a challenge thrown to those who would resist oppression in all its forms. Its controlling metaphor of the infinite ways in which human beings create and express dovetails with its serious inquiry about collaboration, capitulation, subversion, self-protection, sin, and the search for redemption.

My only quibble (which you can see did not affect my ratings) arises from my legal training. The major premise of the novel depends on a set of statutory reactions to a crisis that I am reasonably confident would not survive First Amendment challenge. I am able to believe in both the mass hysteria and the political and corporate opportunism that would seek to create and perpetuate such reactions, but I don’t think the emergency exceptions to the Peaceable Assembly clause would extend this far. Because there is so much legal and constitutional misinformation out there, I think it’s important to correct such misapprehensions where they arise. However, the average reader would not notice or care about this issue (which is part of the problem), and so it would not affect anyone’s enjoyment.

A Gauntlet Thrown

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