Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
by:
Cory Doctorow (author)
On The Skids In The Transhuman FutureJules 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...
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On The Skids In The Transhuman FutureJules 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 keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.Now, though, 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....
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780765309532 (076530953X)
ASIN: B000B85BDM
Publish date: December 5th 2003
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages no: 208
Edition language: English
Like I often do, I went into this book blind, not knowing anything about the plot, and I assumed the title was some sort of a metaphor for a superficial society. In fact, most of the book is actually set within Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. My progress through the book went something like this:1. ...
I was gripped by "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" as soon as I discerned its startling premise. It is an accomplished adventure.
Cory Doctorow is one of the high profile current crop of sci-fi authors, he is also famous for his blogs on Boing Boing, and his stance on liberalising copyright laws (he even got into a trouble with the legendary [a:Ursula K. Le Guin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/12442914...
Fun book with hard sci-fi ideas about the near future. And if you know your Disneyland rides well, it makes it even more fun.
There were some interesting ideas in this book. The world (or one fragment of the world) from the future that Doctorow writes about is creatively designed, but not too well explained. I do appreciate Gibson style: drop readers right in the middle of the story, letting them find their way around. How...