In this fantasy novel, Alan purchases a home in modern-day Toronto's Kensington Market neighborhood and befriends Kurt, a punk who turns discarded computer components into Wi-Fi network access points. Together, they plan to blanket the entire neighborhood with free and secure internet access. However, Alan's past is not quite human - his father is...More
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.
Doctorow served as Canadian Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1999.
His ‘Down and Out...’ was nominated for a Nebula Award, and won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2004. ‘0wnz0red’ was nominated for the 2004 Nebula Award for Best Novelette.
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.
Doctorow served as Canadian Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1999.
His ‘Down and Out...’ was nominated for a Nebula Award, and won the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 2004. ‘0wnz0red’ was nominated for the 2004 Nebula Award for Best Novelette.
Book Summary
In this fantasy novel, Alan purchases a home in modern-day Toronto's Kensington Market neighborhood and befriends Kurt, a punk who turns discarded computer components into Wi-Fi network access points. Together, they plan to blanket the entire neighborhood with free and secure internet access. However, Alan's past is not quite human - his father is a mountain and his mother is a washing machine. He and his brothers have unique abilities, including seeing the future and being undead. Meanwhile, Alan's neighbor, Mimi, born with wings on her back, lives with her abusive boyfriend who amputates them every three months. The novel explores the connections between the human and non-human, as well as the relationships between characters with different abilities and struggles.