Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Lisa’s Take: Eastern Standard Tribe (Cory Doctrow)

That was fun!

Um… what else is there to say? I feel like if I give a plot summary of this little gem I’ll practically be transcribing the whole (very short) book. You know you’ve been reading too much fantasy when a 200 page book is “ridiculously short.” I seriously sat down and consumed this one in a couple of hours – and enjoyed it thoroughly, at that.

Eastern Standard Tribe is set in the not-so-far-off-future when everyone has omnipresent handhelds and online communities have split themselves both by interest and time zone – leading tribe members around the world to have rather broken sleep schedules. Erm. Hijinks ensue! You know, Business, Technology, Sex, User Interface Design, Betrayal… the usual.

This little morsel has a very entertaining and what seems to me to be a very plausible view of the next 10 years. Also witty dialog, a fun story, and the (best + shortest) chapter ever to exist in a book. Pick it up, suck it down in an evening, and be entertained.

End of Line.

1 comment:

JD said...

I likee the one-sentence chapters. A lot. I should really start noting down where they appear, because I know I've come across more than just the one in EST and "My mother is a fish". Although those are both great examples. I wanna say Doug Adams had one and maybe Tom Robbins.... hmmmm....