This 2019 Nebula award winner tells the story of Rosemary and Luce in the near future after social unrest and some sort of pandemic(!) leads to anti-congregation laws, so everyone pretty much lives in the "Hoodie", which is a VR device. Luce is a musician, who either lives to play music or plays music to live - it is her, through and through. She became know as "The Last Power Chord" - the last person to play before a live audience.

Rosemary lives a quiet sheltered life in the country, working for SuperWally, a giant conglomerate that does all its business via the Hoodie. Barely into her 20s and barely remembering the Before, she gets involved in StageHolo, an entertainment giant that produces music and shows in this "hoodie space" as a talent acquisition expert. She and Luce bounce off each other through the book, exchanging chapters describing their lives in the After. Rosemary tries to find out who she is and what she should do, while Luce tries to find her musician's way in this new world order.

I am such a sucker for books about the creative process, particularly about music (one of my favorite books last year was [b:Daisy Jones & The Six|40597810|Daisy Jones & The Six|Taylor Jenkins Reid|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580255154l/40597810.SY75.jpg|61127102]), and this one is no exception. The setting is eerily prescient, especially with Rosemary reacting in different ways to being around people, sometimes far too close for comfort. It's beginning to look like that is how I am going to feel if / when things ever open up again.

Luce is a real strong character. Her passion for her music and how it "rescued" her from a life she desperately did not want, pours through every word. And you can tell that Pinsker is a musician (she has 3 albums to her credit) because her writing about the passion music can create is powerful stuff indeed.

So I really enjoyed this book. I would like to read the short story that started it all out, Our Lady of the Open Road, published in Asimov's, which, according to the author, "features Luce at another point in her life." I'd like to learn more about Luce. It is exactly the kind of sci-fi I enjoy - just barely enough future to make it sci-fi, but really about timeless themes like longing, love, music and the creative driving force. Good stuff!