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Can't write about this book without mentioning that it's available for free online (including a bunch of "remixes" that people have morphed from it). I bought the material version, though, as that's still my preferred reader.
A fun romp through this space; near-future random techy society, user-experience consultants, sudden startups, bits of the government outsourced to foreign countries, online music sharing systems for cars that collect their fees at the toll booths, frantic innovation, love, betrayal, and like that. Fine writing, and a fast and enjoyable read. And it's funny, and it has an actual ending, and the ending isn't afraid to be more or less a happy one. Modulo, of course, constant chaos.
Unlike Doctrow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", this world hasn't been radically transformed; it's the present day just extended a bit into the future (and into the dreams of the Wired set, but that's okay; it's a neat vector to think along). Even if you don't buy the Future of the Net and Future of the World goods that Doctorow's selling here, you may be annoyed, or you may have fun finding where you think he goes wrong, or you may just plain have fun anyway.
This web page is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.