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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
This one just didn't resonate with me. Perhaps this is my fault, and not the book's? Anyway, the longer the book went on the flatter the characters kept getting, the more the plot devolved into aimless noodling and the less engaged I personally felt. Was it Vonnegut (perhaps via Kilgore Trout) who commented that SF writers can't write for a damn, but that this doesn't matter because they're addressing "big ideas?" I'd have to put this one in that category, except that the first 100 pages had both interesting characters and those "big ideas." But after that things just seem to slide into tedium on the level of plot and characters.
Cory Doctorow is really good at extrapolating current trends and finding fascinating places for them to lead. Makers is a masterful example of this.
Essentially, it's a book in two parts, with the same characters moving through both pieces.
The first part is about "New Work," a nebulous concept that I'm actually having a hard time calling back into my memory despite the fact I read that part only a month ago. Consider it the concept of all the little people who go to the Maker Fair every year actually getting consistent funding and a distribution channel. It's fun, and exciting, and a way to brew new products, and probably involves a lot more hand-waving of details than the real world would let you get away with. It's quite inspiring, though...
The second part is years later, in the age of little robots and common 3-D printing. Much more character-driven and filled with plot, it becomes the story of our little-guy heroes taking on the mighty Disney Parks corporation. This section is a little bit lighter on "ideas you could see happening tomorrow" than the first, but it's got a lot better characterization and story. It's also more about the fight between those who build and those who litigate, and how money intertwines them both. It's good, if a bit bloated.
Overall, it's got that Doctorow "near-future" shininess that I like, providing a little beacon of joy and wonder for what may yet happen.
4 of 5 stars.
Essentially, it's a book in two parts, with the same characters moving through both pieces.
The first part is about "New Work," a nebulous concept that I'm actually having a hard time calling back into my memory despite the fact I read that part only a month ago. Consider it the concept of all the little people who go to the Maker Fair every year actually getting consistent funding and a distribution channel. It's fun, and exciting, and a way to brew new products, and probably involves a lot more hand-waving of details than the real world would let you get away with. It's quite inspiring, though...
The second part is years later, in the age of little robots and common 3-D printing. Much more character-driven and filled with plot, it becomes the story of our little-guy heroes taking on the mighty Disney Parks corporation. This section is a little bit lighter on "ideas you could see happening tomorrow" than the first, but it's got a lot better characterization and story. It's also more about the fight between those who build and those who litigate, and how money intertwines them both. It's good, if a bit bloated.
Overall, it's got that Doctorow "near-future" shininess that I like, providing a little beacon of joy and wonder for what may yet happen.
4 of 5 stars.
Yes, yes, yes, the characters are a little underdeveloped and the plots just serviceable, but it's like being in a room of the brightest people you will ever meet, and if my biggest complaint is that I wish I got to know them better rather than just overheard their political debates, that's still an overall win.
i agree that the below are all valid criticisms, but they are followed by the mitgating factor for me personally:
yes.....it's like reading boing boing in book form, but i like boing boing.
yes.....it is proselytizing, but i'm a member of that church.
yes.....it's speculative fiction with only minor amounts of technical detail. if i wanted technical details, i would read a manual or a technical journal, not a novel.
what i liked: the same things i like about doctorow's other books. economics and tech.
what i didn't like: the dialogue is pretty stilted, sometimes distractingly so. the story meanders a bit.
i found it entertaining. i enjoyed it.
yes.....it's like reading boing boing in book form, but i like boing boing.
yes.....it is proselytizing, but i'm a member of that church.
yes.....it's speculative fiction with only minor amounts of technical detail. if i wanted technical details, i would read a manual or a technical journal, not a novel.
what i liked: the same things i like about doctorow's other books. economics and tech.
what i didn't like: the dialogue is pretty stilted, sometimes distractingly so. the story meanders a bit.
i found it entertaining. i enjoyed it.
i like his blog. this book has some good ideas, but i never really felt the thrill of enjoyment reading it that i associate with good books.
I really wanted to like this book more, but I found that the central story got bogged down a bit in itself. It was like there was a filter (emotional? engagement?) between me and the text that I absolutely did not feel when reading Little Brother.
As always with Cory, there are some interesting ideas and forward-thinking plot twists, but the characters never really leapt off the page for me.
As always with Cory, there are some interesting ideas and forward-thinking plot twists, but the characters never really leapt off the page for me.
It's a good enough book, interesting characters, satisfying enough ending, but it doesn't really have much of a driving plot. The shorter first section is about the rise and fall of a subculture. The second section, however, makes you think it's going to be about a battle between underdogs vs a bid corporation, but in actuality it's just about the slow dissolution of several friendships, which isn't necessarily the most enjoyable thing to read about. There's some good, well-thought out speculative near-future technology, but with a lot of near-future stories, the stuff that they miss really starts to become noticeable.
Though I don't know why, I sometimes forget that Doctorow is as smart as he is, or as funny, or as prescient. He writes with the conviction that, though he may be writing fiction, this is a world that we can all live in.
This book isn't as fantastical as some of work, nor is it written as a warning per se. I think, as he writes on the book when he signs it, this book is to inspire us to "get excited and make things."
This book isn't as fantastical as some of work, nor is it written as a warning per se. I think, as he writes on the book when he signs it, this book is to inspire us to "get excited and make things."
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The basic story was very interesting. I just couldn't get past the disjointedness of the entire novel. The perspective kept changing without warning. Some characters were just set pieces without much development. The explicit sex scene really was surprising. I don't mind reading erotica from time to time, but the explicitness felt way out of place in this book. Unfortunately, this book was neither very entertaining nor thought provoking for my taste.