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A review by midici
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
3.0
*3.5 stars
This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. There is a plot, but the plot is a vehicle for exploring various philosophical ideas and contrasting ideologies that occur throughout: philosophies about societies, about people, about meritocracies and capitalism, about self-sufficiency and creating your own place in the world, about the final frontier of space and death, etc.
In a somewhat futuristic dystopian-esque world, three people decide they are sick of the way things are and go walkaway. Walkaways, as the name implies, are people who have left behind the world of inequality and authoritarian rule in order to live freely, outside of cities, by using technologies that already exist to create micro-communities where everything is shared freely.
Seth, Natalie, and Etcetera are the initial main characters but the cast grows as the story follows them learning how to be walkaways, how to resist the "Default" world they left behind, and how they become involved in the revolution that eventually brings Default crumbling down.
I was not into this at first. I thought all three main characters were obnoxious at first, and I'm not overly fond of long philosophical debates that they all needed to have in every conversation for a good chunk of the beginning of the book. However, I was very interested in the ongoing conflict between Default and Walkaway societies, and Natalie trying to escape her "zotta" family, and the romances the three of them eventually fall into.
This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. There is a plot, but the plot is a vehicle for exploring various philosophical ideas and contrasting ideologies that occur throughout: philosophies about societies, about people, about meritocracies and capitalism, about self-sufficiency and creating your own place in the world, about the final frontier of space and death, etc.
In a somewhat futuristic dystopian-esque world, three people decide they are sick of the way things are and go walkaway. Walkaways, as the name implies, are people who have left behind the world of inequality and authoritarian rule in order to live freely, outside of cities, by using technologies that already exist to create micro-communities where everything is shared freely.
Seth, Natalie, and Etcetera are the initial main characters but the cast grows as the story follows them learning how to be walkaways, how to resist the "Default" world they left behind, and how they become involved in the revolution that eventually brings Default crumbling down.
I was not into this at first. I thought all three main characters were obnoxious at first, and I'm not overly fond of long philosophical debates that they all needed to have in every conversation for a good chunk of the beginning of the book. However, I was very interested in the ongoing conflict between Default and Walkaway societies, and Natalie trying to escape her "zotta" family, and the romances the three of them eventually fall into.