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eliyesI was assigned this book for my Recent Science Fiction Class. I really like it. The author is Cory Doctorow, who is pretty new to the writing thing compared to the other two authors we read - Gibson and Cadigan - but reads very smooth.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is post-cyberpunk (or, if you prefer, postcyberpunk). It takes concepts introduced in the cyberpunk genre, even literary mannerisms, and uses them in a story that isn't cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a difficult thing to manufacture authentically these days, because the attitudes that informed it have been largely gone for a decade and a half, really. That's okay; this is a really good book.
Told in the first person, from the p.o.v. of Julius, for reasons that I suspected by about the halfway point, was sure of by three-quarters, and which he admits in the finale. First-person can be difficult to pull off, especially when writing in a world that doesn't exist. You can wind up being unrealistically expositional, or not providing any explanation at all. I've read both. This was neither. This is pretty much perfect. We do get explanation of the world via Jules, but in a realistic way - he thinks about it, he debates it with his best friend, he writes theses (or has written). Everything is introduced quite smoothly and believably, and Jules has a definite slant on it.
Doctorow also employs the cut-scene technique so popular in cyberpunk, giving us flashbacks in the form of reminiscences, back-story that Jules reflects on as he considers events. It works well. For example, when he starts to believe he's going crazy, he thinks back to when he married a woman and drove her very much nuts. It makes sense for him to think about it, for him to compare what he saw with what he's doing.
While this is, arguably, an adventure, its also a book about friendship. The friendship between Jules and Dan might feed really devoted slashficcers (the first thing Dan ever said to Jules was "You get any closer, son, and we're going to have to get a pre-nup.") but it's definitely friendship, true friendship. But realistic, within its context, with ups and downs, betrayals and forgivenesses, and the kind of thoughtful devotion that really deep friends have. That's probably the major factor in why I loved it.
One last note: I've never been to Disney Land or Disney World, or any other colony of the Magic Kingdom. I understood the book just fine without the experience, which is a very, very good sign.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is post-cyberpunk (or, if you prefer, postcyberpunk). It takes concepts introduced in the cyberpunk genre, even literary mannerisms, and uses them in a story that isn't cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a difficult thing to manufacture authentically these days, because the attitudes that informed it have been largely gone for a decade and a half, really. That's okay; this is a really good book.
Told in the first person, from the p.o.v. of Julius, for reasons that I suspected by about the halfway point, was sure of by three-quarters, and which he admits in the finale. First-person can be difficult to pull off, especially when writing in a world that doesn't exist. You can wind up being unrealistically expositional, or not providing any explanation at all. I've read both. This was neither. This is pretty much perfect. We do get explanation of the world via Jules, but in a realistic way - he thinks about it, he debates it with his best friend, he writes theses (or has written). Everything is introduced quite smoothly and believably, and Jules has a definite slant on it.
Doctorow also employs the cut-scene technique so popular in cyberpunk, giving us flashbacks in the form of reminiscences, back-story that Jules reflects on as he considers events. It works well. For example, when he starts to believe he's going crazy, he thinks back to when he married a woman and drove her very much nuts. It makes sense for him to think about it, for him to compare what he saw with what he's doing.
While this is, arguably, an adventure, its also a book about friendship. The friendship between Jules and Dan might feed really devoted slashficcers (the first thing Dan ever said to Jules was "You get any closer, son, and we're going to have to get a pre-nup.") but it's definitely friendship, true friendship. But realistic, within its context, with ups and downs, betrayals and forgivenesses, and the kind of thoughtful devotion that really deep friends have. That's probably the major factor in why I loved it.
One last note: I've never been to Disney Land or Disney World, or any other colony of the Magic Kingdom. I understood the book just fine without the experience, which is a very, very good sign.