Book #15

Keeping It Real
Justina Robson

Imagine if something that never existed blew up.  And caused us to actually meet up with things that don't exist.

Well, that is the story that precedes the story in Keeping It Real, the first book in the Quantum Gravity series.  Is there anyone out there who remembers the Superconducting Supercollider?  It was a huge supercollider, like the one at CERN, but the funding never came through and it was never built.  Well, in the Quantum Gravity series it was built, I guess, and then one day it disappeared....and all hell broke loose, sort of.

Basically, it seemed to punch a hole in the Time-Space Continuum and connected Earth with five other dimensions.  Now, Earth is Otopia, and the other dimensions are Alfheim, Thanatopia, Demonia and Zoomenon, and a dimension of faeries.  So, here is where it gets real weird.

Alfheim is inhabited by elves, yep, elves.  Demonia...yep, you guessed it, demons.  Thanatopia, undead. Zoomenon is inhabited by elementals, primal beings of earth, air, water, fire, and also metal and wood, possibly others. And the realm of the faeries as well.

So, our hero, Lila Black is a cyborg, and her job is bodyguard to an elf rock star.

Okay, this keeps getting weirder, and it does.  What shows the talent of Robson is that she keeps the story moving forward without bogging you down too much with all of this backstory.  Also, despite all of this, the story is really more of a hard science fiction novel.  In many ways it fits in well with the genre of paranormal romance, only so far there are no vampires, just elves and demons, and yes they have magic.

I should just tell you to go read the book.  If you like paranormal romance, and you like science fiction, I think you will like this one.  However, be warned that this falls into the genre very tightly, and there is sex in the novel, fairly graphic sex, but only a few times, and in all cases it fits into the story neatly...mostly.

It's a good read, and a lot of fun, and I am moving on to book two in the series.