Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Fun, but perhaps a bit pretentious and the bad kind of masculine in some areas.
paperback, 208 pages
Published Dec. 5, 2003 by Tor Books.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
4 stars
(77 reviews)
Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.
Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the care of a network of volunteer "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.
Now, though, it seems the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself.
Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules …
Jules is a young man barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.
Disney World! The greatest artistic achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the care of a network of volunteer "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.
Now, though, it seems the "ad hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself.
Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war: war for the soul of the Magic Kingdom, a war of ever-shifting reputations, technical wizardry, and entirely unpredictable outcomes.
Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
There were some interesting ideas about society in a post-scarcity, post-death future, like the "currency" based on how others feel about you. Which is a bit like how self published Creative Commons authors make money now. But the characters and story were not very engaging and I took way longer than I should have to get through this book.
ThomD reviewed Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Ugh. I've never liked Disney World... and now I like it even less.
tivasyk reviewed Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
short review in ukrainian:
http://www.tivasyk.info/2010/08/blog-post_17.html
----->8-----
ось ще один канадець, ім’я котрого варте уваги, — і котре навряд чи втрапляло на очі пересічним цінителям сучукрлітів (от вже ж запало мені це словечко…а що, хороше діло сучукрлітом не назвуть). втім, припускаю, що декому таки ім’я знайоме, головне через активну громадянську позицію в питаннях авторського права і лецензування літературних творів.
down and out in the magic kingdom — дебютна повість автора, коротка, але динамічна і не позбавлена інтересу. за жанром це, мабуть, якийсь мікс фантастики (хоча практично всі згадувані технології існують та використовуються… тож вирішуйте самі) та детективу в світі недалекого вже майбутнього.
повість доступна вільно на сайті автора в багатьох форматах — як і решта згадуваних мною його творів, на умовах ліцензії creative commons (by-nd-nc).
adastra reviewed Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Never having read much by Doctorow except boingboing, I didn't quite expect this to be Sci-Fi - but it's even better this way! The described technology resembles that of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, 100 years advanced. Combine that with a Walt Disney World setting and you've got a pretty way-out story.
Curtis reviewed Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The first and best of Doctorow's books, Down and Out touches is one of those books that are "relevant" today, but likely won't be in 20 years or so once many of the issues that Cory cares about are either resolved or we're living in a post-apocalyptic world and therefore they don't matter anyway.
While the concept of Whuffie is a bit too utopian for me (and a logistical nightmare when you think about the massive computational power that would be required to crunch the complex algorithms to calculate Whuffie scores in real time), this book is a pretty fun read. Don't expect a whole lot of depth from it, though.
Review of 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A lot of fun. Interesting ideas.
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