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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
I'd give this 2.5 stars if I could because I'm torn. This was definitely an interesting book, but I don't think it was a good book.
There's a few different things going on in this book, none of which I really understood as well as I feel like I should have. The absurdity had no purpose sometimes and I'm not sure what the point of this story was.
I like Cory Doctorow, but I wouldn't recommend this one.
There's a few different things going on in this book, none of which I really understood as well as I feel like I should have. The absurdity had no purpose sometimes and I'm not sure what the point of this story was.
I like Cory Doctorow, but I wouldn't recommend this one.
An interesting read, about a person(?) whose father is a mountain and whose mother is a washing machine. Feels like an intense mix of Neil Gaiman-esque and regular Cory Doctrow writing (the Corty Doctrow part is all about decentralized networks and free speech.)
Hmm, Cory seems to be suffering from diminishing returns. I loved "Down and Out..."; "Eastern Standard Tribe" was pretty good; but this novel kinda blew. I just never got around to caring about either of the two plot threads - the struggle to bring free wi-fi to the citizens of Toronto and the attempt to reconcile flaws of the main character's disfunctionally supernatural family. That said, the writing is good, and Cory excels as usual in his ability to paint cool pictures.
This was a very strange book. It started off slowly, and I wasn't sure I would keep reading it. After all life is too short to finish bad books. However, about page 60 or so, just as I was about to give up the story grabbed me. Endless twists and turns. Flashbacks, interwoven threads of narrative. Fantasy and tech geekdom combined to make a very good book. I'm not sure I liked the way the fairy tale ended. I wonder if there is more to come in the story of the brothers Alan/Adam/Arn/etc, Ben/Brad/Billy/etc and Davey/Dan/Dirk/etc. By the last hundred and fifty or so pages it had turned from a story I wasn't sure I would finish to a tale I didn't want to put down. Good read.
weird, terribly pretentious, but I couldn't put it down. go figure.
Perhaps the strangest Doctorow book, funny that the punk rock kid basically had my outdated retirement plan.
It's weird... seriously weird in places, but it kinda grew on me.
3.5 stars
Very strange. Highly enjoyable. And very, very weird. So many unanswered questions.
Also it reminded me of all the places I used to go, and of how very much Kensington Market is like Deptford. So it made me feel all nostalgic and crap.
Very strange. Highly enjoyable. And very, very weird. So many unanswered questions.
Also it reminded me of all the places I used to go, and of how very much Kensington Market is like Deptford. So it made me feel all nostalgic and crap.
A guy whose father is a mountain and whose mother is a washing machine (and no, this is not metaphorical, that's really what they are, and one of his brothers really is an island and not in the John Donne way) gets involved with a winged girl and tries to bring wireless connectivity to Toronto while battling his murderous dead brother.
I am not making this up.
I am not making this up.