In the Stacks (Maisie’s Tune) by Robin Sloan is a short story AND a synthesizer with knobs you can fiddle with. Read the entire story at Brand New Box
I’M A LIBRARIAN, so of course I was picking melted plastic out of the 3D printer when I heard the news that Maisie Martin had died.
I wandered out of the maker space, past the robotics lab, around the VR cave, into the music studio. We do have books in this library, lots of them. But these days, we have more than books.
Maisie was dead, so it was time, at last, to break down the synthesizer.
3D printers, LEGO robots, VR goggles: these offerings are not, among well-funded public libraries, uncommon. The Big Red Synthesizer is, by contrast, unique. Before it was Maisie’s instrument, it was my headache.The music studio, I could handle. Generally, it was reserved by various squads of scruffy teens. They howled and tittered behind…
