Somebody Comes to Town, Somebody Wanders Around Town

Some friends had been urging me to read Cory Doctorow's novels. Certainly comments in articles in Locus and other sources made it look like he was the hottest thing since sliced bread. I was already familiar with him from his co-edited site BoingBoing (a place that equally enchants and irritates me on a regular basis). So, I got a hold of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

But, before reading that, I came across free (yes, free!) and legitimate copies of two of his other books in multiple eBook formats: Eastern Standard Tribe and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. So it just so happened that I ended up reading these two first.

To be quite honest, I'm glad I got them for free.

Tribe has its viewpoint split between the first person viewpoint (the thread of the story that takes place "now") and the third person viewpoint (the events that took place in the "past", that eventually lead up to the "now"). Our main character is in an institution, for having done something bad to a co-worker. The tale in the present details his efforts to get out, while the tale of the past details what happened.

There just wasn't anything really compelling, to me, about the story. The technology mentioned here and there in the story isn't very futuristic or innovative. The main idea of the story (that people would be attracted to different locales or groups, and "time shift" to keep up with that group, developing "time tribes") isn't explored in much detail. And there is a bit of a disconnect between the event that causes Our Hero to be institutionalized and the eventual ease with which he gets out of the institution. Overall, I got the feeling that Doctorow had read Pattern Recognition by William Gibson and decided to write something in a similar vein. He's no William Gibson, alas.

O.K., I got it for nothing. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Town is a much better novel. Doctorow shows that he has grown significantly in experience in the time between the writing of Tribe and the writing of this novel. However, we're still not quite there yet. It's a "urban fantasy", something in the vein that Gene Wolfe might produce, or Tim Powers, or several authors who are published by Baen Books. A relatively realistic tale with elements of fantasy.

There is one "cute" literary technique that drove me bonkers though. Several of the characters change their names in the narrative. Constantly. Heck, it gets so bad that the author makes a mistake in the flow of the story involving these names.

Then there's a pacing problem. One of the main character's brothers is in the process of offing other brothers. The character witnesses the kidnapping (and possible murder) of three of his brothers. So what does he do? Does he rush off home to try and rectify things? Does he mount a rescue effort? No, he spends twelve weeks or so setting up a wireless network in town. Excuse me?

Town was a much better novel than Tribe. As I said, Doctorow grew as an author between the two books. But to me, this shows that he really could not decide what kind of novel he was writing. Are you writing a gritty urban fantasy where primal elements are fighting for control? Or are you writing a near-future social commentary about how the internet, wireless networks, etc., can change society and bring it back to a world of "Third Places" and alternative lifestyles?

As with Tribe, I get the feeling that Doctorow is channeling another author here, in this case Neil Gaiman. But, since Gaiman is a shadow of Tim Powers, things are quite diluted from where they could be.

Again, it was free. I would have been really irritated if I had purchased it in hardcover.

Addendum (June 14, 2006): Ah. I understand now. It is all metaphor.

Addendum (July 16, 2007): Once again, proof that I ain't no academic!