"Justina Robson - Quantum Gravity 01 - Keeping it Real" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robson Justina)

information. At the time of writing, in 2021, an uneasy state of affairs exists between Alfheim and the
other realms.
CHAPTERONE




The story of how The No Shows got signed was one of those legends that seem completely
manufactured by the celebrity press. Rolling Stone ran it as lead story the day their first single was
released for download. Lila Black reviewed it as she travelled to a meeting with the owner of Ozo
Records, Jelly Sakamoto.

A few months ago Jelly had been the producer of a modestly successful indie music label. He was sitting
in his office playing a quick five-minute game of Dune Car Rally on his pod, which had become an hour
long frustrating game of Dune Car Rally by the time his AftR girl burst in without warning and said
breathlessly,
'You gotta hear this!'
Jelly was used to being told that, but he knew that Lucie was frequently right. Still, no point in breaking
old habits. He saved and shrugged without looking up, 'What?'
'This great new band. They play their own gear, write their own material, and do this kind of weird
heavy rock Mode-X number. The backing vocals are all faeries, the DJ is that chick from Zebra Mondo.
And - get this - their lead singer is an elfV
'Elves don't rock,' Jelly said, unknowingly coining one of the great-est quotes in the history of popular
music and the phrase that would follow him to his deathbed. He added, rather more forgettably, 'They
pavane and jig, they play the flute and the triangle, they do orchestra, they do chant, they sell shitloads of
that. They sing like cats with firecrackers up their asses. The only time they ever get sampled is when
they've been pushed through an audio sieve so human listeners don't shit themselves, or when they're
slowed down ten times to scrape the
frequencies for distortion effects to shove behind Crash bands. So, what? Does she mime? Does she
look good?'
'Here.' Lucie threw a Berrypic of the band down on the desk. 'He sings his own lyrics.'
Jelly ignored her and the invitation of the Berry's flashing Play command, got up and went out, allegedly
to the toilet, although he claims in a later interview that he was going to fit some new EarWax with higher
grade buffers, in order to protect his hearing.
Lucie hung out waiting and when she convinced herself he must have gone down the fire escape she
stormed out, leaving the Berry face-up on his empty desk. An hour later in came Roxanne, the sales
director for Northern Otopia at Ozo Records, the largest music company in the Four Realm Trading
Bloc. Fed up of waiting for Jelly, who was notoriously late for everything, she sat herself down in his
chair and, glancing down at the Berry, pressed Play.
Twenty minutes later Jelly comes into his own office and she says, 'Why didn't you tell me you were
going to be sending me a million-bytes-a-minute-shifter? I need another month at the least to prep
publicity! Honestly, you'd be late for your own funeral.'
Jelly bought Ozo Records on the first week's sales and Lucie ran it for him in her new post as
executive director, whilst he fussed around producing a whole lot of other bands and arguing with The
No Shows' volatile addict of an agent, Buddy Ritz.
The rest, Lila reflected as she re-read the tale, was the talk of the medianets every other day of the
week. There was no hotter property than The No Shows at the moment.
Lila Black was undercover. She was pretending to be a bodyguard working for Doublesafe, a
company specialising in personal security for celebrities. It was an easy job since she was already kitted
out for much more active duties as part of her job in the Otopian National Security Agency's Intelligence