Makers

416 pages

English language

Published April 25, 2009 by Tor.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-1279-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
317928750

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (59 reviews)

What happens to America when two geeks working from a garage invent easy 3D printing, a cure for obesity, and crowd-sourced theme parks? Lawsuits against Disney are only the beginning in this major novel of the booms, busts, and further booms in store for America in the age of open source and its hero/hacker culture.

10 editions

Review of 'Makers' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I really like other Books by Cory Doctorow, and am interested on a lot of the ideas in this book. Yet for some reason I didn't find it as exciting or fun as other books of his.
I think it is still worth the read, and thoroughly enjoyed the story of the New Work, the effects of the popularization and the imminence of a new Industrial Revolution. Even the concept of theme park rides as works of art is fun and unexpected. But the characters seemed to be too one sided to be really engaging... the stakes never really seemed to matter that much.
Anyway, it was a fun and enjoyable read... and it raises many questions about DIY, about the ownership of all these products we surround ourselves with. And about the possibilities of humans as innovators and creators.

Review of 'Makers' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I love the three (or four) act structure with a time gap in between the parts of the story. Doctorow's characters grow during the interludes and the story does a real good job discussing what can be done by geeks with resources.

I'd read Little Brother and Homeland before this, and Makers is in the same theme. Doctorow definitely puts forth a proposed "Let the geeks at the free market" solution to a ton of what's happening today, even if the results aren't always the rosiest. Definitely an excellent book.

Review of 'Makers' on 'LibraryThing'

No rating

A novel of ideas that includes well-developed characters and endless inventiveness. In a near future, large corporations begin to invest in small entrepreneurial operations. Two makers in Florida catch the eye of an investor and a Silicon Valley blogger. Each of the three has to decide how their work will fit with their values in a world where the US has huge Hoovervilles full of homeless folks. Lots of fun and lots to think about.

Review of 'Makers' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

I initially rated this book three stars, for a couple reasons. For one, I had just rated a bunch of books 4 and 5 stars and felt like my rating scale was too narrow. But mostly - and this isn't something that I have changed my mind about - the writing isn't stellar. It's not really bad, but the craft of writing itself isn't something that seems to be Doctorow's strength, and at times that was pretty evident, and made it a little difficult to get into the book at first. Some of the dialog feels stilted or forced, character development is a bit awkward at times, and the writing/editing juts isn't as polished as I've gotten used to.



So why the upgrade and late review? Because over the past few year, this book just kept popping back into my head, because the ideas and characters were intriguing and …

Review of 'Makers' on Goodreads

4 stars

I initially rated this book three stars, for a couple reasons. For one, I had just rated a bunch of books 4 and 5 stars and felt like my rating scale was too narrow. But mostly - and this isn't something that I have changed my mind about - the writing isn't stellar. It's not really bad, but the craft of writing itself isn't something that seems to be Doctorow's strength, and at times that was pretty evident, and made it a little difficult to get into the book at first. Some of the dialog feels stilted or forced, character development is a bit awkward at times, and the writing/editing juts isn't as polished as I've gotten used to.



So why the upgrade and late review? Because over the past few year, this book just kept popping back into my head, because the ideas and characters were intriguing and …

Review of 'Makers' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I initially rated this book three stars, for a couple reasons. For one, I had just rated a bunch of books 4 and 5 stars and felt like my rating scale was too narrow. But mostly - and this isn't something that I have changed my mind about - the writing isn't stellar. It's not really bad, but the craft of writing itself isn't something that seems to be Doctorow's strength, and at times that was pretty evident, and made it a little difficult to get into the book at first. Some of the dialog feels stilted or forced, character development is a bit awkward at times, and the writing/editing juts isn't as polished as I've gotten used to.



So why the upgrade and late review? Because over the past few year, this book just kept popping back into my head, because the ideas and characters were intriguing and …

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Subjects

  • Inventors -- Fiction
  • Businesspeople -- Fiction
  • Technology -- Fiction