44.12: Coda, by Emma Trevayne (Advance Uncorrected Proof, to be released May 2013)

I picked up this advance reader copy of Coda at the NCTE convention in Las Vegas in November, and it intrigued me enough to make me pick it up ahead of the (likely hundred) books ahead of it in my to-be-read pile. For readers interested in technology, music, and/or dystopic literature, it's a great selection.

Anthem lives in a world where music is the basis of socital organization--and control. After a war of undetermined nature, the Corp has established a system of energy development using humans, with music as the driving force and drug of choice. Adults tune in to music--and, indeed, are required to do so lest they have the police call upon them--and "track" for entertainment, mood enhancement, and survival--paying credits for each encoded (brainwashing) song on the basis of strength and need. With the commoditization of music comes its tight control, so Anthem and a group of friends secretly practice on improvised and blackmarket instruments, building up a sound that they hope will start a revolution.

Trevayne's first book is interesting, sort of a teen-targeted early William Gibson novel. While less gritty than that in Gibson's Cyberpunk tomes, Trevayne's alternate world is also one in which technology has changed the shape of society. Whether the change is for better or worse depends on who is ultimately in control.