Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow

Rating: C

My first Doctorow book. I've been reading his posts at BoingBoing seemingly forever and have always been curious about his novels. And what can I say, it was almost exactly as I imagined... very (*very*) smart, fairly political and excruciatingly boring. I just couldn't bring myself to feel *anything* for the protagonist.


Main characters:
Art - User-experience Engineer who "belongs" to the EST, a group of people who feel home in the Eastern Time Zone. So much so that he tries to sabotage businesses in other time zones.
Fede - Art's business partner
Linda - Art's love interest

Art is working in London trying to come up with subtly bad ideas for a local company. He meets a Californian girl (who has a nasty temper) and falls for her. In the meantime, he comes up with a brilliant plan for music sharing on toll-roads and he and Fede plan to sell the idea to an East-Coast company. But Fede and Linda stab Art in the back. They have him committed to a psychiatric ward while they sell the idea to a Californian company. In Fede's defense, he planned on cutting Art in, but didn't tell him because of Art's religious feelings towards the EST. In the end, the music thing is a bust (because of corruption) while Art goes off and founds a successful psychiatric ward 'improvements' company.

Anyway, the only nifty thing about the book (besides the cool gadgets and stuff Art aka Cory comes up with) is that the second half of the book is two timelines intertwined. One, continuing from the end of the first half, where Art comes to realize the betrayal. And two, one where he is already in the ward and must convince the doctors that he isn't crazy. The first ends with Art hurting Fede pretty badly and storming off, and the second ends with Art getting out of the asylum and starting his new business. I have to admit, I would have enjoyed the book much more if Art *had* actually been paranoid. Ah well.

I'll definitely try more of Cory's books... I still have Someone Comes to Town from the library and will be checking out Magic Kingdom when I get a chance either way.

Very Bad Deaths by Spider Robinson

Rating: B-

A decent Spider yarn. Not his best work, but even his mediocre stuff is still good reading.


Main Characters:
Russell Walker - good guy
Zudie aka Smelly - telepath
Nika - cop
Allen - bad guy

Russell befriends Zudie in college. Zudie is horrifically smelly (and hence keeps people far away. Decades later, Zudie suddenly shows up at Russell's isolated home near Vancouver saying he 'overheard' (via telepathy) an incredibly evil sadist (Allen) and he need's Russell's help to kill him. Russell enlists Nika to help find Allen. Instead, Allen finds him and begins torturing him. At one point they 'bond' over how much of an asshole George Bush is. Weird. Eventually, Nika and Zudie show up and Zudie fucks up Allen's brain which kills him.

This being Spider, Russell loves the ganja, and coffee with Irish Whiskey.