The heroine, Lana, lives in a synthetic city and works as a pixel. Every evening millions of people, working as pixels, perform a 20-minute light show for the other citizens. They wear colourful robes and during each sunset they receive commands in the form of music through headphones. Each command means a certain type of movement, so that by moving/dancing, different parts of their clothes are exposed to the sun rays, thus reflecting the sunlight in different colours. All this can be seen on a huge screen in the synthetic city, where all citizens watch it. After every light show all pixels receive a packet of energy which allows them to survive until their next dose. If a pixel makes a mistake during a show, so that the picture appears distorted, they are punished by not receiving an energy packet. If they haven't stored anything from their previous doses, they will not survive the next day.
Authors
Марина Дяченко Marina and Serhiy Dyachenko - co-authors of novels, short fiction, plays and scripts. They primarily write in Russian (and in the past also in Ukrainian) with several novels translated into English and published in the United States. These include, Vita Nostra (2012), The Scar (2012), The Burned Tower (2012), Age of Witches (2014) and Daughter from the dark (2020). The primary genres of their books are modern speculative fiction, fantasy, and literary tales.
