Eastern Standard Tribe, Cory Doctorow, Tor Books, 2004
Here is a near-future novel about an industrial saboteur who finds himself on the roof of an insane asylum near Boston.
In a 24-hour, instant communication world the need for sleep is the only thing that hasn't changed. The world is splintering into tribes based on time zones; those in other time zones will be at lunch or sleeping when you need them. Only those in your own time zone can be depended upon.
Art lives in London, and he works for a European telecommunications mega-corporation. His "real job" is to make life as difficult as possible for those in the Greenwich Mean Tribe by inserting user-hostile software wherever he can. Of course, other tribes are doing the same thing to Art's "home tribe," the Eastern Standard Tribe.
Art is also working on managing data flow along the Massachusetts Turnpike. Most cars have some sort of onboard computer on which songs are stored, sometimes tens of thousands of songs. Art comes up with a system for wireless transfer of songs between cars, while they are driving on the Mass Pike. Art's business partner, Fede, sends him to Boston to sign an agreement selling the system to a local company. After several days of being told to wait, while "details" are being finalized, Art realizes that he is being screwed by Fede, and Art's girlfriend, Linda. The two met when Art hit her with his car in London. That is how Art finds himself on the roof of a forty-floor insane asylum near Boston; Fede and Linda had him committed there.
As with any Doctorow novel, this book is full of interesting ideas. It's easy to read, very plausible and very much recommended.
Showing posts with label doctorow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctorow. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tesseracts Eleven
Tesseracts Eleven, Cory Doctorow and Holly Phillips (ed.), Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2007
Here is another compendium of new fantasy and science fiction stories from north of the border (in Canada).
A mother, her teenage son, and two younger daughters seem to be the only survivors of a plague that has ravaged North America (Dad was not so lucky). Now the mother and son are faced with the difficult task
of replenishing the population. A pair of high school students experiment with what looks like Michael
Jackson's glove. It can create portals in time, but the catch is that the portals only go to famous dates
in rock and roll history, like the days that Kurt Cobain and John Lennon died.
A family goes on a trip out west to a national park to see some real, live vampires in the wild. After
a year-long internet relationship with a man in northwest Canada, a woman travels there for a visit, and
possible marriage. He just happened to omit the part about every night, all night, he turns into an actual bear, with fur, claws, and sharp teeth. Another story is about the next step in athletic doping, using gene therapy to, for instance, turn a middle distance runner into a sprinter. A new reality show, called Beat The Geeks, tricks, or otherwise makes fun of, scientists. The book ends with a story that is half screenplay about a trio of kids that want to make their own near-future science fiction film.
The striking thing about these stories, aside from the fact that they are all really good, is that many of them are very contemporary stories. They could easily take place last month, or a couple of years from now. This book is very much worth the search.
Here is another compendium of new fantasy and science fiction stories from north of the border (in Canada).
A mother, her teenage son, and two younger daughters seem to be the only survivors of a plague that has ravaged North America (Dad was not so lucky). Now the mother and son are faced with the difficult task
of replenishing the population. A pair of high school students experiment with what looks like Michael
Jackson's glove. It can create portals in time, but the catch is that the portals only go to famous dates
in rock and roll history, like the days that Kurt Cobain and John Lennon died.
A family goes on a trip out west to a national park to see some real, live vampires in the wild. After
a year-long internet relationship with a man in northwest Canada, a woman travels there for a visit, and
possible marriage. He just happened to omit the part about every night, all night, he turns into an actual bear, with fur, claws, and sharp teeth. Another story is about the next step in athletic doping, using gene therapy to, for instance, turn a middle distance runner into a sprinter. A new reality show, called Beat The Geeks, tricks, or otherwise makes fun of, scientists. The book ends with a story that is half screenplay about a trio of kids that want to make their own near-future science fiction film.
The striking thing about these stories, aside from the fact that they are all really good, is that many of them are very contemporary stories. They could easily take place last month, or a couple of years from now. This book is very much worth the search.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)