Harika Güzel Yarınlar

PM's Outspoken Authors #8

by Cory Doctorow, Sevda Deniz Karali (Translator)

Wumpuslar pek iyi savaşamıyordu. Değerlendirme işine yarayan insansız araçlardı onlar, avcı-katil robotlara benzemiyorlardı. Ana saldırı yöntemleri de benim onları ezebildiğimden daha hızlı bir şekilde yıkıntı binalardan kendi kopyalarını yaratmaktı. Pek spor sayılmıyorlardı gerçi ama olsun...

Disney dünyasının hâkim olduğu bir gelecek... Bu dünyada insan-ötesi bir çocuk olan Jimmy Yensid’in evi wumpus adlı makineler tarafından yok edilir. Kırbaç gibi dokunaçlarının ucundaki ağızlarla her türlü varlığı öğütüp toprağa çeviren devasa makinelerdir bunlar. Jimmy kaçmak zorunda kalır yaşadığı yerden. Hayatta kalmak kadar bir başka amacı daha vardır: ölümsüzlüğüne çare bulmak. Jimmy’yi çıktığı bu yolda yeni maceralar, eski dostlar ve alternatif bir gelecek bekliyordur...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Essays, Ebooks, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and Little Brother and novels for adults like Rapture Of The Nerds and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little sci-fi novella by Cory Doctorow. I've seen some criticism of his writing saying it tends to lack a real story. This is my first encounter with his work, and I'm glad to say that there is a story!

And it's peppered with a whole host of little sci-fi ideas, creating quite a lively, vibrant world.

Included also are an excellently written essay against stringent copyright, and an interview with Doctorow, where the interviewer's questions made me cringe.

(Picked up a review copy through Edelweiss)

[RJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I thought this would be a good way to introduce myself to Doctorow's fiction style, and because it's a great size and length for travel-reading.

My number one complaint here is how misled I felt. Goodreads describes the plot thusly: "In a Disney-dominated future, a transhuman teenager engages in high velocity adventures until he meets the 'meat girl' of his dreams and is forced to choose between immortality and sex". The back cover copy goes as far as to say: "He must choose between immortality and sex... and has fun doing it!" ...WHAT BOOK DID THESE COPY PEOPLE READ?

"Disney-dominated" and this "forced to choose between" stuff makes it sound like they heard about this book from a friend of a friend and are a bit fuzzy on the details. "Fun" is soo off the mark I wonder if it was an intentional trick. Do NOT sit down with this expecting some kind of scifi sex comedy romp. The one sex scene inspires neither laughter nor arousal. In a list of top words I would use to describe this novella, "fun" would be waaay down there below "grief", "heartwreching", "disturbing", "dad issues", "ambivalence", and "trauma". I mean, there are also dog-powered squirrel robots, but Doctorow is playing with some real psychic horror here. It's very clever, and often quite charming, but I would not say fun. Going in with that expectation left me feeling a lot more chewed up and spit out at the end than I think I would have otherwise.

Anyway, yeah, it's a fine dystopian story, and the speech and the interview were also pretty good reads.

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow is a brief read that contains three parts - it begins with the titular story, and continues with an address on modern copyright, and concludes with an interview with Terry Bisson. I have mixed feelings on the text, and thought that perhaps individual reviews culminating in the final score makes the most sense as the texts are so different.

Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow - 3 out of 5 stars
To begin, I love the Carousel of Progress - the ride that the story that is central to the piece. My favorite ride that I was ever on was when I went to Disney as an adult and the carousel got stuck about ¾ of the way through. It was an incredible experience - being stuck on the carousel of progress near the conclusion, and being unable to get off. We sat in the dark as the family of tomorrow repeated their final moments over and over and over again, the oven exploded over and over and over again, and the droning of the song, over and over and over again. It was both the most perfect nightmare and the most beautiful irony I have ever experienced in my life. It was amazing.

Of course, I picked the book up because I know about Doctorow, and wanted to see what he did with a story surrounding this iconic American institution. Frankly, I loved it, except for one major element and that is the heavy handed science fiction action sequences that seemed to be overbearing and leave too much to the imagination. As someone who likes the genre and only likes to read the pieces with subtle elements (there are a lot, but think Solaris, IQ84, and others) and allow the characters to drive the narrative. The action sequences were off-putting to me, and really were vague and elementally flat. The rest of the story - the parts without explosions and guns blazing - were touching and real, and I thought that to me it kind of ruined the amazing story he was trying to tell were it not for the parts seemingly thrown in to pacify an audience that might be bored with the part I liked. I am not sure. But he is a great storyteller when perhaps not trying to placate a standard audience member-type, and I really enjoyed everything after the first twenty pages or so when that all died down.

Would have been five stars were it not for hitting me over the head with sci fi violence I would have rather watched than read.

Creativity vs Copyright - 5 out of 5 stars
Loved this piece - and I am sure it is easy to find online if one wanted to find it for free. Great speech about creativity and the modern marketplace, supply and demand, and an incredibly easy to digest, decisive stance on DRM and what it does to modern distribution models. Very insightful.

Interview with Terry Bisson - 3 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but flat to me. Some of the questions were great, and his answers were illuminating, but I felt like there could have been more, deeper, longer, and what I got was a little meh with a few twinkly stars. Just my opinion - wasn’t one of the best interviews I have ever read. Doesn’t mean anything except perhaps there could have been more and it could have been edited down for the real meaty bits.

Averaging them together - 3 out of 5.

[Marc Lucke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is three separate texts in one book: a short story, a transcripted speech and a Q & A.

The closing interview is interesting enough, but his talk on copyright is the most interesting section of the book. As usual, Doctorow shows himself to be an insightful and erudite critic of contemporary copyright issues -- as well as artists' rights & concerns in an era of digital distribution and reproduction -- and DRM. Good reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the topic.

As for the fiction, it left me a little cold. Much like "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", I found the story clever and inventive, but ultimately unaffecting. I couldn't bring myself to really care that much for the characters and Doctorow's vision of an amnesiac dystopia is vaguely depressing without being especially moving.

[J.j. Metsavana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lugu transhumanistlikust poisist, kes elab koos oma isaga Detroidi varemetes, käib aegajalt vana lahingumecha ja küborgkoerte karjaga ringi ja tulistab selle käigus wumpuseks kutsutavaid isepaljunevaid ning varemeid söövaid masinaid. Ainsaks inim-sõbraks on tal üks tüdruk, puukallistajate kolooniast. Ühel päeva ründavad aga poissi ja tema isa mingid terroristlikud tehnovaenurid ja poiss peab kodust põgenema.

Hoolimata lühiromaani vägagi tulisest algusest jätkub edasine aeglases ja üsna melanhoolses tempos. Lahedaid ideid jätkub Doctorowl veel edaspidigi ohtralt, kuid mida edasi lugu hargneb seda visandlikumaks ta muutub. Lõpp oli minuarust eriti liiga segane ja pealiskaudne. Seega siis hindeks ka tubli kolm, kuna armastan terviklikumaid tekste.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed this story more if the narrator were the main character. But the main character in this book is really the overwhelmingly weird cyberpunk-gone-to-seed setting that Doctorow builds. The book was fun despite creating the lurking suspicion that I must be in the throes of a high fever and hence hallucinating the whole thing. But really, I enjoyed Doctorow's recent book of essays (Context) much more.

[David H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This special collection from the Outspoken Authors series has a novella, an essay (adapted from a speech), and an interview with the author.

I realized relatively quick that I had read the title novella before (in Jonathan Strahan's anthology Godlike Machines) but decided to continue anyway since I didn't remember how it ended. It's set in some kind of dystopia, covering roughly 3 time periods in Jimmy's life. It was weird, and I'm also not sure that I liked the ending, which felt a bit weak given the first half.

The essay was interesting, but it felt like preaching to the choir as I've been mostly aligned with Doctorow's views on DRM and copyright since I went to college in the early 2000s. I did like the interview a lot, though, and it just reminded me that I need to read more of Doctorow's books that I have; I'm especially interested in Little Brother now.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this. But the idea of the series is interesting. And this author is always interesting.

The story was an after-the-day weirdness with much death and destruction for no good purpose. And some immortality, also for no good purpose. And perhaps upload.

The essay was a good one on some problems around copyright.

The interview was fine, but nothing all that special.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like the fiction quite as much as Nalo's - it starts out strong but wraps up a little too quickly - but I liked the interview more.

Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow is centered on the most frightening of all Disney rides - the Carousel of Progress. It backdrops this monument to conservative kitsch (in the future, dads might COOK! Of course they'll be bad at it) against a future dystopia which is always in flux, where biopunks have literally disintegrated the past via monstrous machines that eat technology and poop fertile soil.

It plays onto all of Doctorow's themes, and he has his themes. He is a writer blessed with a Cause, and so when you read Doctorow, you read about intellectual property rights. I won't spoil how it comes into the story, but it does in a big way. Suffice it to say: always read the agreement before clicking 'okay'.

His essay in the book is on this subject, and it comes up in the interview, too. The book has a feeling of a cohesive exploration of Doctorow-ness and I'm glad I chose to read it on the plane home from my Clarion reunion because Cory was one of our instructors and it felt like having him at the reunion, too.

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novella is good, but you'd never know it by reading the back cover which is decidedly misleading, in fact let's just say it has absolutely nothing to do with it.
I had already read the essay and I still consider it one of the best things written on the subject, even if I do not often read about copyright, but in fact my opinion is based on very few facts.
The interview could be considered interesting by ignorant people like me, but if you are a Doctorow superfan you don't even need to read it.

La novella é bella, ma non lo diresti mai leggendo la quarta di copertina che é decisamente fuorviante, anzi diciamo pure che non c'entra assolutamente niente.
Il saggio lo avevo giá letto e lo ritengo a tutt'oggi una delle cose migliori scritte sull'Argomento, anche se non é che io legga spesso di copyright, ma infatti la mia opinione é basata su pochissimi fatti.
L'intervista potrebbe essere considerata interessante dagli ignoranti come me, ma se magari siete super fan di Doctorow non avete nemmeno bisogno di leggerla.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

[Zülfikar Yamaç · Rating 4 out of 5]

İyi Güzel Muhteşem Yarın gibi nadir kitapları bir kenara koyacak olursam, okuduğum bilimkurgu kitaplarında genellikle bilimin ve teknolojinin -eğer ki eser bu doğrultuda yazıldıysa- savunulduğu ve korunduğu gibi durumla karşılaştığımı söyleyebilirim. Teknolojinin nimetleri ilerleyen sayfalarda sorun olacaksa da öncelikle hayrımıza olan etkilerinden bahsetmek yazarların bu anlamda en çok tercih ettikleri yöntem. Nitekim kitapta cereyan eden olayların anlaşılması açısından mantıklı bir yol olarak da gözüktüğünü söylemek mümkün. Ancak Cory Doctorow az evvel ismini verdiğim kitabında bu yolu tercih etmeyerek, farklı sayılabilecek bir yaklaşım kullanmış.

Teknolojik ilerlemenin durma noktasına geldiği ve bu noktaya kadar her türlü felaketin yaşandığı bir dünyada geçiyor hikaye. Jimmy adındaki görünüşte on, on iki yaşındaki bir çocuğun başından geçenleri okuyoruz. Görünüşte kısmına birazdan değineceğim, önce ana hatları belirginleştirelim.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the free download version of this book. Skimmed the essays, which looked good, but mainly read the novella.

The story is prime Doctorow, in concept and zany execution. What's not to love about a story that starts, "I piloted the mecha through the streets of Detroit, hunting wumpuses."? And follows through with the immortal-child narrator's adventures living with brain-wired but agreeable cultists. It gets weirder when the wumpuses (which you felt sorry for when he was hunting them) return and basically destroy all artifacts and any semblance of postmodern civilization.

What I didn't like was that it ended abruptly, unsatisfactorily (for me) and with unanswered questions, like who is/are the hive mind(s) and is all the physical immortality work wasted or just rendered irrelevant?

[Alicen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book up because I was intrigued by the kitschy connection to Disney. It was a strange but interesting novella.

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some pieces are heartbreaking. Specially the end.

[Jeatherhane Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this series, each book contains a short story, plus… other content such as controversial essays and “outspoken” interviews. I requested this backlist title from Edelweiss because I have been meaning to read Cory Doctorow for a while.

His story “The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” was more hard SF – about a futuristic transhuman teen with a crush on a “meat girl”. A lot of technological and scientific jargon are not my preference, so this one didn’t grab me.

Doctorow’s essay about DRM and copyright was fascinating, and his interview was interesting. The questions were thoughtful and cohesive. It made me take a second look at Ursula Le Guin's interview in this series - the interview asked her some pretty ridiculous questions which made her answers seem very sarcastic. I wonder why the two authors got different treatment.

[Shannon Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book by one of my favorite authors I had somehow kissed when it was first published. Finally got around to reading this (as an ebook). The main story is good with a creative near future world however like many of Doctorow’s books I did find the ending a bit unsatisfying. Lots of loose ends and open ideas that were not fully resolved. It was good, I enjoyed it and it was thought provoking. But I also find he doesn’t always stick the ending (or at least leaves me wishing for more). Since this was written in 2010 (I assume) and I don’t think he has returned to this world I’ll just have to keep wishing.

The speech and interview that were included were also good quick reads. I do like this format of a book - mixing a novella with an essay and an interview resulting in a feeling akin to a great workshop with a favorite author.

[John Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another terrific entry in PM's Outspoken Authors series. The title of the centerpiece novella, "The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" is taken from the song of Disneyworld's "Carousel of Progress." The novella is both a rip-roaring adventure about an immortal person who does not age and an examination of the very notion of "progress." If someone doesn't age, do they progress? What would a truly static society look like? Doctorow's true strength as an author is his ability to wrap such questions in fiction that also tells a page-turning story.

Also included is Doctorow's provocative thoughts on the evils of corporate weaponizing of copyright in order to protect corporate profits rather than artists' interests. He is absolutely right about this.

[Dakota Sillyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really great novella by Doctorow. A lot of the sci fi Doctorow writes (and much of the sci fi I enjoy) involves protagonists that try their hardest to do the right thing under any circumstance, so it was interesting that in this story the protagonist was kind of the opposite of that. Someone who was a bit selfish, who didn’t necessarily want to get involved in right and wrong, but rather figure out how to just live their life. It certainly made for an interesting change and with another interesting new future world to explore and a fast moving plot I ended up really enjoying it! The interviews included with my copy were worth the read as well!

[Edward B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is... interesting?
I'm not actually sure whether I like it or not.
Nor whether it's dystopian or not.
But it is full of ideas.
And my default position is that Doctorow is worth reading.
Plus, it's only 100 pages.

Doctorow sure is fascinated with Disney World. The main character's last name here is Yensid - ie. Disney spelled backwards. If I recall correctly, that name is mentioned twice in the opening pages and then never referred to again. Seems a bit odd, to me, to put that in at all, then.

[Barış Toprak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bu e kitap olarak başka bir platformdan aldığım, kitabın birinci bölümünün eksik olduğunu ikinci bölümün birinci bölümün tıpa tıp aynısı olmasıyla fark ettim, tesadüf eseri kitabın başka bir yayınevinden fiziksel formunu görünce aldım. Sonuçta ikinci bölümden başlayan bir okuma ve iki farklı çevirmenden karmaşık bir okuma oldu fakat kitabı beğendim. Cory Doctorow'un başka kitaplarını da merak ediyorum, uzayda geçmeyen ve tümüyle de olanaksız olmayan gelecek kurgusu ve yarattığı dünya, oyunlu dili ve akıcı yapısıyla kolay okunan bir kitap.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This didn't feel fully realized as I read it. I'm not sure if Doctorow isn't big on tying up loose ends, or if he was going for an incomplete feeling to the ending provided. This just didn't strike me as "done" yet.

[Aslı · Rating 3 out of 5]

Çok beklediğimi bulamadığım bir kitap oldu. Arka kapağında "Disney dünyasının hakim olduğu bir gelecek" ifadesini okuduğumda kafamda daha farklı bir tahayyül oluşmuştu. Bir disney distopyası olduğunu düşünmüyorum.

[Sean Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good novelette story that wanders and dips and dives into a hilarious and traumatic future. Essay about tech & creative ownership after that is great. Finishes with an interview, which is kind of a great format (story, non-fic, personal words) to intro reader to an author. Huh.

[Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly original post-apocalypse world. Short read - little more than 100 pages. Not much for characters, but the world the author created was why sci-fi can be so interesting. I could have spent more time in this world, but appreciate the brevity.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting take on a dystopian future by Doctorow. I get the ending, but I'm not sure I like it.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the experience. It's a quick fun read. Just don't take it to seriously.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, not going to lie. Don't think the ending on the title story worked, and it took up 75% of the book. Gotta stick the landing.

[Vaughan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story and the essay were OK, but far from Doctorow's best. The interview was probably the most interesting of the 3.

[Reycan Çetin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting ideas but not a real story. I didn't enjoy it

[Sefa · Rating 3 out of 5]

bitip tükenmez distopyalardan biri daha. Bildiğimiz medeniyet yıkılmış, sonrasındaki kaosta amerikada geçen kısa bir roman.