I first discovered Cory Doctorow because I saw
Eastern Standard Tribe (or read it online
here) on the recent arrivals rack at my local library. I grabbed it purely because the cover was well designed and I've had good luck judging books by their covers (it provides a good way to find new authors). It was pretty good. The central story wasn't great but some of the sociological and technical ideas involved within were really clever. I finished it and quickly forgot his name, until I got hooked on
BoingBoing. Boing Boing is one of many blogs out there that regurgitate links they recieve. It is also one of the more popular blogs of this sort. It's a hub of sorts so other blogs that do exactly the same thing (myself included) can re-re-link what they liked. Cory Doctorow is 1/3 of BoingBoing and provides a strong copyleft viewpoint in a lot of his posts. Most of his work is available online, as well as in print and he allows people to do other projects based off of, and using his work (something I have a lot of respect for). I've since read other works by him, and it's my opinion that he is one of a few thought provoking Science Fiction authors left. While most Sci Fi authors write mindless action with little of the inteligence of the stories published decades ago, Cory Doctorow is writing thought provoking clever works, and better yet, he makes them all freely available online.
There was recently a link on BoingBoing to a novella he has been writing for
Salon.
Themepunks is a really good speculative Sci Fi at the next big revolution in business. There is some interesting comparison between the decline of industrialism and its effect on communities (primarily Detroit) and a possible similiar decline of technological service based economy. The likilihood of all this is debatable, but that is hardly the point. It's an intelligent, and entertaining look at the near future. The nature of the story probably won't have much timelessness unless it proves prophetic, but it is very interesting in the now. Read it if you have the time. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment.
-Brandon
