Keeping it Real by Justina Robson

Romance lit hit a weird little revival in the late 90's and early 2000's with the creation of, what I call, supernatural smut. Laurel K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris are two writers in this genre. It's not that these sorts of books didn't exist before this, but something happened and people who don't usually read smut were suddenly gobbling the Anita Blake series and Southern Vampire series as fast as they come out. A big piece of it is that these writers are pretty darn good at writing genre fiction. The first Laurel K. Hamilton book I ever read was a Star Trek Next Gen tie in. Charlaine Harris writes really solid mystery novels. *shrug*

So, I think what happened is that writers of good genre fiction that got good reviews but had a small fan base started trying to catch the wave. I suspect their editors suggested it them. I think Justina Robson is one of those authors. I was handed the first four books in a five book series by Carra. She's got a pretty good handle on my genre fic taste. I'd never heard of the series or the author but after a little research Ryan discovered that Robson was much more well known for her straight up sci fi. I will investigate further.

Keeping it Real is a cross between cyber punk and modern fantasy lit. The world plays with the idea of layered realities that are permeable to some extent. So there's a fractured earth (Otopia), layered with several other realities such as the world of the dead, the world of the elves, Fairy, and the world of demons. I like the way Robson played with traditional elements of fairy tales while fitting it all in a more contemporary world.

Lila, the protagonist, is a cyborg and a damaged young woman. (Seems to be a hallmark of the genre that the female protagonists must ever be tough and incredibly emotionally damaged) As is always the way, she meets Zal, who she hates, but ends up falling in love with.

So here's the thing.

It didn't need any sex. There are two sex scenes. The first is completely unnecessary and the second was fine, but it didn't really need to be there and didn't really fit the feel of the rest of it.