The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (Outspoken Authors)
Doctorow is a highly respected blogger (as coeditor of Boing Boing), a journalist, and a tireless advocate for the open-source movement to allow greater freedom to distribute content on the web, in such areas as digital-rights management and file sharing. He is also an award-winning writer of contemporary science fiction. In this bleak yet vibrantly populated novella (part of the PM Press Outspoken Authors series), Doctorow takes readers into the futuristic wasteland of Detroit, a “toxic post-Disney dystopia” where a wumpus-hunting Jimmy Yensid, a transhuman teenager, must choose between immortality and sex with Lacey Treehugger, the forbidden meat girl of his fantasies. This slim yet thought-provoking volume, which is available online as a free download via a Creative Commons license, will have Doctorow’s hard-core fans buzzing, but it may be a bit too dark and dense for the casual sci-fi reader. A transcript of his “Creativity vs. Copyright” address to the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention and a lively interview with the outspoken author are also included. --Chris Keech