BeigeJournal

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow. Tor Books, 2003. Also available on the web in a variety of formats under a Creative Commons license.

This is certainly different in style from the last work of fiction I read, Heinlein’s For Us, the Living, which I have also reviewed They are both set in a utopian future, with utopian economics and a utopian social order, but while the story in For Us exists primarily to allow the author to lecture the reader through the characters, Down and Out is considerably more subtle. The unfamiliar concepts are introduced with enough context to understand what’s happening, and more detail is filled in later in a natural manner. I also found suspension of disbelief easier Down and Out even though the technologies described are rather more…advanced. The principle that the less said about how the gadgets work the better seems to hold true.

I think the really clever trick was devising ways, in a story set in a world where death itself can be cured, to keep the tension up high enough to be interesting while still being believable in that context.

I liked the book a lot.