Description
From Cory Doctorow, a powerful and funny novel about time, tribalism, and a young man's dismaying discoveries about his own life
Scathing, bitter and funny, Eastern Standard Tribe examines the immutable truths of time, and of societies rebuilt in the storm of instant, ubiquitous communication.
Art is an up-and-coming interface designer, working on the management of data flow along the Massachusetts Turnpike. He's doing the best work of his career and can guarantee that the system will be, without a question, the most counterintuitive, user-hostile piece of software ever pushed forth onto the world.
Why? Because Art is an industrial saboteur. He may live in London and work for an EU telecommunications megacorp, but Art's real home is the Eastern Standard Tribe.
Instant wireless communication puts everyone in touch with everyone else, 24 hours a day. But one thing hasn't changed: the need for sleep. The world is slowly splintering into Tribes held together by a common time zone, less than family and more than nations. Art is working to humiliate the Greenwich Mean Tribe to the benefit of his own people. But in a world without boundaries, nothing can be taken for granted-not happiness, not money, and most certainly not love.
Which might explain why Art finds himself stranded on the roof of an insane asylum outside Boston, debating whether to push a pencil into his brain....
About the author
Cory Doctorow is a multi-award-winning science fiction author, technologist, activist and speaker. His novels include Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe and the recently released contemporary fantasy, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.
Awards
- Nominated, Locus Awards - Nominee
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Eastern Standard Tribe :
"Utterly contemporary and deeply peculiar-a hard combination to beat (or, these days, to find)." -William Gibson
"Cory Doctorow is just far enough ahead of the game to give you the authentic chill of the future .Funny as hell and sharp as steel. " -Warren Ellis
"Immediately accessible Doctorow maintains an unrelenting pace; many readers will find themselves finishing the novel, as I did, in a single sitting." - Toronto Star
