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Title: Eastern Standard Tribe
Author: Cory Doctorow
Genre: Near-future science fiction
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: A user-interface guru ends up in a mental hospital, possibly because of betrayal.
Thoughts I'm giving this a 3 because I thought a lot of the world-building was interesting and I found the voice engrossing. However, the book is deeply flawed in some irritating ways.
The narrator is sarcastic and not particularly likeable, but he is interesting, I must grant. He's affiliated with a group based in the EST but finds himself in London undercover trying to sabotage other groups. (There's a really interesting theory here about how the internet changes the way that people self-identify; however, the lengths the narrator will go to and the different lengths his coworker Fede is willing to go to don't actually make that much sense to me, despite the explanations.) He meets his Magic Pixie Dream Girl by running her over by accident. She offers to split the insurance payment if he'll play along; shockingly, she's batshit and disloyal. Shocked, I tell you. Shocked. Still not sure why the narrator is.
There's a lot of flashbacks and forwards, as the narrator begins on the roof of a mental hospital, trying to decide whether it's better to be smart or happy. He declares that this is the driving force of the story, and it's a very effective hook. Unfortunately, he forgets it halfway through and we're never quite sure why.
There's a conservation of characters that is clever and yet nowhere near as effective as it should be. There's some shenanigans involving copyright law that's also clever, but perhaps not as well explained as it might be.
The characters are interesting, if dislikable. The plot is also quite interesting, if a bit underinflated. The worldbuilding is downright fascinating, but still a bit on the half-baked side. There's a lot of wit and clever asides, but it's not quite enough to bring this up to the level it aspires to be. There's so much potential here, but it never quite came through.
Author: Cory Doctorow
Genre: Near-future science fiction
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: A user-interface guru ends up in a mental hospital, possibly because of betrayal.
Thoughts I'm giving this a 3 because I thought a lot of the world-building was interesting and I found the voice engrossing. However, the book is deeply flawed in some irritating ways.
The narrator is sarcastic and not particularly likeable, but he is interesting, I must grant. He's affiliated with a group based in the EST but finds himself in London undercover trying to sabotage other groups. (There's a really interesting theory here about how the internet changes the way that people self-identify; however, the lengths the narrator will go to and the different lengths his coworker Fede is willing to go to don't actually make that much sense to me, despite the explanations.) He meets his Magic Pixie Dream Girl by running her over by accident. She offers to split the insurance payment if he'll play along; shockingly, she's batshit and disloyal. Shocked, I tell you. Shocked. Still not sure why the narrator is.
There's a lot of flashbacks and forwards, as the narrator begins on the roof of a mental hospital, trying to decide whether it's better to be smart or happy. He declares that this is the driving force of the story, and it's a very effective hook. Unfortunately, he forgets it halfway through and we're never quite sure why.
There's a conservation of characters that is clever and yet nowhere near as effective as it should be. There's some shenanigans involving copyright law that's also clever, but perhaps not as well explained as it might be.
The characters are interesting, if dislikable. The plot is also quite interesting, if a bit underinflated. The worldbuilding is downright fascinating, but still a bit on the half-baked side. There's a lot of wit and clever asides, but it's not quite enough to bring this up to the level it aspires to be. There's so much potential here, but it never quite came through.
