Weight of expectation

[threemonkeys]

I was expecting something special. That is always dangerous. If you expect new and brilliant and get familiar and good then there is disappointment. If there are no expectations then familiar and good is perfectly acceptable. New (especially the mind blowing variety) is so rare that normally you don't expect it in SF these days.

So, I was somewhat disappointed in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. Reading the reviews I was waiting for a vital new vision of the future. What I got was an amalgam of visions from various '80s cyber writers (Sterling, Cadigan etc), quite a bit of John Varley and (obvious from the title) a bit of Hunter Thompson. They are all good sources and Doctorow does a sound job of stitching a world together, but it isn't new. I suppose if you are not familiar with those writers then this work may well be shocking and new. The story and character are very dependent on the setting so there is no edge there.

Of course, Doctorow's reputation does not really come from his novels so this might be irrelevant. In any case it is an OK book if you get past the lack of the new. As I noted above, new is very unusual these days. Rather sad and not a little ironic in an age of huge rate of change.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Mainstream publishers are very cautious of anything that is more than marginally new right now. (I was going to say a heap more, but I would be in danger of ranting, and it is Sunday morning and not a good time to rant.)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, that rant. I have my own version which is probably similar to yours in many respects but I couldn't be bothered unleashing it this morning either.

In the meantime I will continue to expect the "new" on the fringes and not in the mainstream.