Tag: #dystopian
The Girl in the Machine — Philip Harris
The Girl in the Wilderness — Philip Harris
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom — Cory Doctorow
Published a year after Altered Carbon this book takes a lot of the re-sleeving ideas from Richard’s book and instead of placing them into the realm of super warriors, criminals, etc.; Cory puts them into a future Disney Land theme park in an alternative dystopian future.
Having very much enjoyed Altered Carbon, i was left quite disappointed by the sequels, especially Woken Furies, and so it was rather nice to find a story like Cory’s that took some of the best ideas of Altered Carbon and spun them into a new Earth-side future that we can all begin to relate to because we’ve all heard of these real places.
No, this isn’t the blood and gore fest that Altered Carbon was, and neither does it have the amazing future-sex-drugs thing — they’re still smoking crack from crack pipes FFS. 
But it does have the murder mystery and the loss of the intervening memories between back up and re-sleeving that Altered Carbon does, all wrapped around who gets to control various Disney Land attractions.
So yeah, if you’ve read any other Cory Doctorow books and enjoyed them then do give this a go, and also, if you enjoyed Altered Carbon, i’d bet a few pennies that you’ll enjoy this also, albeit a very much tamed down version.
There’s also a follow up novella: Truncat.
Cory’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #corydoctorow
The Monitor — Paul Heingarten
It was free, it wasn’t going to take up much of my time, so i thought i’d give it a read.
I wouldn’t call it bad in any way, but at the same time it doesn’t come across as good either. It’s just another one of those beige, average sci-fi short stories that you sometimes read to fill in an hour or so — a bit like a sudoku puzzle. Ergo — 3/5 stars.
Paul’s Page
#dystopian #paulheingarten
Shift — Hugh Howey
Once More Into Darkness — D. Michael Withrow
Also available in The Legacy — Melissa Delport
Also available in Melting Shlemiel — Jason Werbeloff
An interesting allegorical novella that has as a good metaphorical dig at those who build walls of exclusion around themselves.
Set in a very pious Jewish area of Jerusalem, during 2054, it’s pretty obvious who the author is pointing at and why. The Jewish state first build walls to separate and defend their country, then it’s walls to separate and defend each town, then each district, then each house, until each person has their very own impregnable, permanent second skin.
Can also be read as a fun little dystopian/cyberpunk thing if you don’t want to think too much.
Currently only available in the anthology, 2054.
Also available in