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Cyber Overture #1
Sonorous
Who will create music 50 years in the future?
In a world where machines create music, Alice Parsons is fed up, but what can a single person do? When she loses the only job she’d ever liked, she stumbles on a club that caters only to humans. She’s intrigued and decides to inquire within. She discovers a group of rebels whose values align with her own. The president of MuseFam, the largest supplier of AI-generated music, takes an interest in the group of insurgents and wants them to stop.
Someone from Alice’s past reenters her life, and suddenly her world is turned upside down, and forced to come to terms with her situation.
Will Alice’s past ruin her future? Will she be able to reintroduce human-produced music to a society brainwashed with AI-generated rubbish? Find out in this Cyberpunk saga.
If you like movies like FM, Heavy Metal, American Pop, or Blade Runner, then you will love Sonorous.
Get your copy today!
In a world where machines create music, Alice Parsons is fed up, but what can a single person do? When she loses the only job she’d ever liked, she stumbles on a club that caters only to humans. She’s intrigued and decides to inquire within. She discovers a group of rebels whose values align with her own. The president of MuseFam, the largest supplier of AI-generated music, takes an interest in the group of insurgents and wants them to stop.
Someone from Alice’s past reenters her life, and suddenly her world is turned upside down, and forced to come to terms with her situation.
Will Alice’s past ruin her future? Will she be able to reintroduce human-produced music to a society brainwashed with AI-generated rubbish? Find out in this Cyberpunk saga.
If you like movies like FM, Heavy Metal, American Pop, or Blade Runner, then you will love Sonorous.
Get your copy today!
54 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 19, 2020
18 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
D.B. Goodin
33 books63 followersD. B. Goodin has had a passion for writing since grade school. After publishing several non-fiction books, Mr. Goodin ventured into the craft of fiction to teach Cybersecurity concepts in a less intimidating fashion. Mr. Goodin works as a Principal Cybersecurity Analyst for a major software company based in Silicon Valley and holds a Masters in Digital Forensic Science from Champlain College.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 24, 2021
This short book (a bit over 11,000 words) bills itself as “A Cyberpunk Journey into the Fight for Musical Identity”. I can just about buy the “fight for musical identity”, as the book is mainly concerned with the tension between human-produced and machine-produced music, but the “cyberpunk” part is a claim that this book struggles to stand up to.
The story concerns Alice, an opinionated, not to say bigoted, fan of human music and hater of music created by artificial intelligence. The world in which she lives seems to be dominated by a kind of underground war between “purists” such as Alice, and “music megacorporations” such as MuseFam which churn out AI-generated music for the masses. We follow Alice as she is drawn further into the shadier parts of this battle.
The very first page of the book places it in New York City in 2071, roughly fifty years from “now” when the book was published. Given the pace of change we see around us, I would expect the world in 2071 to be very different, and in unexpected ways. Yet, that same page has the protagonist queuing for a hipster take-out coffee, alongside a thinly-veiled jab at Starbucks. Just a page or two later, when she arrives at work, she has to deal with a toppling pile of papers which she regrets not filing the day before.
Admittedly, there is mention of cosmetic body modifications, and a little later we are introduced to the “visor” which seems mostly to be a face-mounted equivalent to today’s smartphones - perhaps a relative of the Google glass which was a commercial success - and there are even lifelike humanoid robots. But where is the pervasive communications infrastructure? Where are the environmental and economic effects of fifty years of global warming, or the drastic changes to mitigate it? Where are the political changes following the decline of the “American Century”? Where are the hints of half a century of gender fluidity? Delivery culture? Drones and surveillance? The list goes on and on.
The coffee, the queuing and the paperwork would have been easy opportunities to show how the world of fifty years time is not the same as ours, instead we see a “cyberpunk” world which feels more like the early 2000s than 2071. Classic cyberpunk takes handfuls of current trends and technologies, then extrapolates them for a wild ride. This story feels more like a speculative fiction tale which keeps most of the world the same but highlights one particular area to make a social or political point.
Even if we only look at the core area of music and the running war between human musicians and AI composers, the premise of the story doesn’t really stack up. In the real world of 2021, plenty of real people make music using synthetic instruments, and there have been plenty of examples of artificial compositions played on real instruments. The elephant in the room, though, is recorded music. We already have so much existing music available that it needs tools such as Spotify to make sense of it, and in fifty years time there will be so much more that it’s hard to imagine any significant financial benefit to making new music. In many ways that is true already. Ever since Napster broke the dam, pretty much any music ever recorded can be found for free, and music sales have been in continual decline.
This book is reasonably well written, although it does jump around a bit and includes some sections which don’t seem to have much purpose, such as Alice acting entitled and embarrassing her best friend in a fancy restaurant. I lay this at the door of the author's claim, in a slightly cringe-worthy preface, to be a “pantzer” - someone who writes without planning. Personally, I think the book would have benefitted from a bit more research, thought, and planning. And maybe looking up the normal spelling of “pantser”!
The story concerns Alice, an opinionated, not to say bigoted, fan of human music and hater of music created by artificial intelligence. The world in which she lives seems to be dominated by a kind of underground war between “purists” such as Alice, and “music megacorporations” such as MuseFam which churn out AI-generated music for the masses. We follow Alice as she is drawn further into the shadier parts of this battle.
The very first page of the book places it in New York City in 2071, roughly fifty years from “now” when the book was published. Given the pace of change we see around us, I would expect the world in 2071 to be very different, and in unexpected ways. Yet, that same page has the protagonist queuing for a hipster take-out coffee, alongside a thinly-veiled jab at Starbucks. Just a page or two later, when she arrives at work, she has to deal with a toppling pile of papers which she regrets not filing the day before.
Admittedly, there is mention of cosmetic body modifications, and a little later we are introduced to the “visor” which seems mostly to be a face-mounted equivalent to today’s smartphones - perhaps a relative of the Google glass which was a commercial success - and there are even lifelike humanoid robots. But where is the pervasive communications infrastructure? Where are the environmental and economic effects of fifty years of global warming, or the drastic changes to mitigate it? Where are the political changes following the decline of the “American Century”? Where are the hints of half a century of gender fluidity? Delivery culture? Drones and surveillance? The list goes on and on.
The coffee, the queuing and the paperwork would have been easy opportunities to show how the world of fifty years time is not the same as ours, instead we see a “cyberpunk” world which feels more like the early 2000s than 2071. Classic cyberpunk takes handfuls of current trends and technologies, then extrapolates them for a wild ride. This story feels more like a speculative fiction tale which keeps most of the world the same but highlights one particular area to make a social or political point.
Even if we only look at the core area of music and the running war between human musicians and AI composers, the premise of the story doesn’t really stack up. In the real world of 2021, plenty of real people make music using synthetic instruments, and there have been plenty of examples of artificial compositions played on real instruments. The elephant in the room, though, is recorded music. We already have so much existing music available that it needs tools such as Spotify to make sense of it, and in fifty years time there will be so much more that it’s hard to imagine any significant financial benefit to making new music. In many ways that is true already. Ever since Napster broke the dam, pretty much any music ever recorded can be found for free, and music sales have been in continual decline.
This book is reasonably well written, although it does jump around a bit and includes some sections which don’t seem to have much purpose, such as Alice acting entitled and embarrassing her best friend in a fancy restaurant. I lay this at the door of the author's claim, in a slightly cringe-worthy preface, to be a “pantzer” - someone who writes without planning. Personally, I think the book would have benefitted from a bit more research, thought, and planning. And maybe looking up the normal spelling of “pantser”!
July 15, 2020
Big fan of DB's other works in the Cyberteen project. Brought me here and am loving the shorter tales. All are in audiobook and can be devoured in a long afternoon.
October 4, 2025
Artificial intelligence is woven into modern life, shaping the world in countless ways. But should there be limits? A line that AI—or Robots, for that matter—shouldn’t cross whatsoever? To allow people to enjoy the fruits of their creativity. Good human-created music for one. To answer these questions, get immersed in D.B. Goodin’s Sonorous: Cyber Overture. Here, we meet Alice, an intriguing woman who stands up for her beliefs. She works to sustain herself and her cat. She’s passionate about music, particularly human-created music; she effortlessly distinguishes between human-created music and AI music. She says, “I agree, but it (artificial intelligence) has no place in generating music—neither do robots playing music, for that matter.”
As Sonorous progresses, it would be interesting to see how things shape up. Goodin’s technologically advanced world, where AI rules the day, emphasizes AI and robots as another race, one hated and liked in equal measure, and that makes the book an engaging read.
I’m all available to the coming books because I’m eager to know more about Alice and Elias. These two have come out strong when it comes to what they stand for. Additionally, the story world has captured my interest—it’s well-crafted, so believable, and so easy to get immersed in. While we know it’s racism to undermine some based on their skin color, how about undermining or hating or totally rejecting somethings because blood doesn’t pump through their veins, but instead ones and zeros do? In other words, this book offers a fresh take on AI and the world’s future.
For cyberpunk and sci-fi readers, this is a great book.
As Sonorous progresses, it would be interesting to see how things shape up. Goodin’s technologically advanced world, where AI rules the day, emphasizes AI and robots as another race, one hated and liked in equal measure, and that makes the book an engaging read.
I’m all available to the coming books because I’m eager to know more about Alice and Elias. These two have come out strong when it comes to what they stand for. Additionally, the story world has captured my interest—it’s well-crafted, so believable, and so easy to get immersed in. While we know it’s racism to undermine some based on their skin color, how about undermining or hating or totally rejecting somethings because blood doesn’t pump through their veins, but instead ones and zeros do? In other words, this book offers a fresh take on AI and the world’s future.
For cyberpunk and sci-fi readers, this is a great book.
July 22, 2022
Yikes. I got this because I love scifi but it really reads like an anti-scifi instead. There are multiple trans/homophobic bits and it honestly sounds like a thinly-veiled allegory for white nationalism, and its related ideologies: Humans are angry that AIs make music (the AIs are described as gender deviants and very queer-coded). So the humans become “rebels” and try to take America back for “humans,” by making a music club where only “humans” are allowed…I mean, it’s really quite transparent. I honestly wouldn’t have even finished it except that I had it downloaded for a long bike ride and had nothing else. It’s a little scary that stuff like this is parading as “YA dystopian fiction,” but perhaps a sign of the times. :(
September 21, 2025
This story had an interesting premise, unfortunately this installment felt very exposition heavy. While the idea itself was intriguing, the execution in this issue didn't pull me in. Evaluating this installment on its own, I would probably not continue the series. Readers who enjoy dense worldbuilding up front may enjoy this series more than I do.
I received this book for free as an ARC reader and am voluntarily leaving this review.
I received this book for free as an ARC reader and am voluntarily leaving this review.
January 30, 2021
It's hard to rate this because it is not a complete story. It is like a serialization, but to pick up the rest of them would cost quite a lot more than buying just a regular book. I suppose that is clever of the author to do, but I am not a fan of the strategy.
September 26, 2025
Music is now AI generated and she feels there needs to be more humans involved. She loses the only job she enjoys and she is drawn to a club who want the same as her for music. See just where it will all lead
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and an interesting read
I received an advance copy from hidden gems and an interesting read
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews