The Curfew is a forthcoming Channel 4/Littleloud game for kids 14+ that explores issues of surveillance, authoritarianism and liberation in a near-future Britain where a law-and-order party has taken over the country. Meant to be a tonic against sleepwalking into the surveillance state, it’s subversive, thought-provoking and way fun. Due out end of July.

via The Curfew: edugame about fighting the surveillance society – Boing Boing.

Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing sez:

Spanish graphic novelists Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido created their hardboiled, anthropomorphic animal comic Blacksad for the French market in 2000, producing three full-length stories over the next five years (Spanish editions were published shortly after the French market). The individual stories have been published in English, but now, for the first time, Dark Horse has collected them all in a single volume.

In the hands of a lesser writer and artist, Blacksad would be a trite furry joke — anthropomorphic cat/hard-boiled detective solves crime in an alternate America populated by other anthropomorphic animals. But Blacksad is superb: Guarnido uses the animals as totems, to expand the range of expression into expressive realms that make the story more gripping and immediate, despite the fantasy element. And Canales keeps puns and double entendres to a minimum, airbrushing in the faintest references to the animal natures of the players, to excellent effect.

via Blacksad: hardboiled detective fiction about anthropomorphic animals (no, really) – Boing Boing.

Great review of Cory Doctorow‘s new book For the Win at Tor.com, a blog from Tor books.  Cory also talks about Economics which plays a big part in the story.  Cory Sez:

“Economics is a game. Even economists look at game theory. It’s all about people agreeing to play by a set of rules, and pretending game tokens have intrinsic value. A lot of people have written a lot of ink about whether money is worth something, whether gold is worth something. Whatever value it has comes out of a consensus, and that consensus is not so different from the consensus that virtual gold is worth something or that Monopoly money is worth something.”

Cory also goes on to talk about how sci-fi is more about the present than the future:

“Science fiction uses changes in the world to illustrate what’s going on in the world today. It uses a kind of warped futuristic mirror to tell a story about the present day. I think even when a writer doesn’t know they’re doing it, they often end up doing it.

“[Isaac] Asimov, for example, clearly was reflecting on things like the New Deal when he started writing about rational technocratic governments that sit down and plan out thousands of years of future history in order to ensure maximum benefit. He really was talking about his present-day technology but coating it in futuristic clothes. He may not have known it, but in hindsight we can see that’s what he was doing.”

Read the Rest of the Review: Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / The digital revolution hits the slums of India and China. Cory Doctorow’s For the Win.

Doctorow is also offering an insanely hand-detailed limited hardcover for $250, which will include all sorts of fascinating stuff he obtained … with a little help from his friends, who include Neil Gaiman, Rick Lieder, Will Wheaton, Frank Wu, Rudy Rucker and Kelly Link.

There's something for every level of reading obsession, from the iPhone readers all the way up through the people whom I may or may not resemble in terms of covering books with wrappers, storing them in glass cases, reading them with little white reading gloves, or that lovely between-step, the taqueria TPB, for rough and ready reading.

via This Just In …. Agony Column News.

Perry and Lester invent things—seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent entirely new economic systems, like the “New Work,” a New Deal for the technological era. Barefoot bankers cross the nation, microinvesting in high-tech communal mini-startups like Perry and Lester’s. Together, they transform the country, and Andrea Fleeks, a journo-turned-blogger, is there to document it.

Then it slides into collapse. The New Work bust puts the dot.com bomb to shame. Perry and Lester build a network of interactive rides in abandoned Wal-Marts across the land. As their rides, which commemorate the New Work’s glory days, gain in popularity, a rogue Disney executive grows jealous, and convinces the police that Perry and Lester’s 3D printers are being used to run off AK-47s.

Hordes of goths descend on the shantytown built by the New Workers, joining the cult. Lawsuits multiply as venture capitalists take on a new investment strategy: backing litigation against companies like Disney. Lester and Perry’s friendship falls to pieces when Lester gets the ‘fatkins’ treatment, turning him into a sybaritic gigolo.

Then things get really interesting.

Makers was an incredible book. Cory Doctorowdid a really great job in character building to where I felt I knew the attitude and look of each character. Even characters with relatively small parts to play in the book were interesting to me.  The book has a minor dystopian feel to it but not as drastic as some books describe but it seems realistic. 

It was hard to see an overall theme to this book but I feel that, even though it is a sci-fi book, the underlying theme to the book is friendship. I could feel the connection that each character has for the other. But also I believe that there was a “political” (for lack of a better word) message too in sort of the same way, but not as overtly as, say Fahrenheit 451. I do feel that Doctorow does impart some of his personal views on the business environment and if you read BoingBoing you will know what I mean. But I did not feel he was “pushing his agenda” even though I dig his agenda.

The book is definitely a geeky book but I feel that even a non-geek or a shade-tree geek like myself could enjoy the book overall. Makers is witty and heartwarming too. I love a book that can make me feel the emotions of each character. There were definitely times where I actually laughed out loud as well as wept for the characters.

It is also a great book for those who are interested in economics and the power struggles with the corporate machine and the mom and pop store.  I felt for the struggles that Lester and Perry have throughout the book to be themselves and enjoy life but not get pushed around. 

The dialogue was very effective. Not too simple but not overly wordy. The only negative I can say is the publisher’s description of the book on the dust jacket. I think that it is a little misleading in that it is kinda a pseudo-spoiler. Pseudo in that I don’t think it was quite accurate and it gives you information that I feel either does not fit the overall feel of the book or just does not make since.

I highly recommend you read Makers. You will laugh, cry, get pissed and be thoroughly entertained.

Content is a collection of essays on expounding upon the issues of free speech and universal access to information.  I am a proponent to having owning the copyright to my own works but make it available to whoever wants it with some rights reserved  with the use of Creative Commons.   Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

Donate One of these books. See Cory’s website, Craphound.com, for more information.

In Canada, the US and the UK, kids will be going back to school in a short while, so now’s a good time to remind you of the donation program for my books. Here’s how it works: teachers, librarians and others, like people who work in family shelters, halfway houses, prisons, etc indicate that they’d like copies of my books for their classes or collections. Then, people like you order copies and have them sent straight to the teachers. I pay someone who checks out each donation solicitation to make sure that it’s legit.

via Back to school donation drive for my books – Boing Boing.

I wish I could have been at WorldCon just to see Neil and Cory together!  I know I am a nerd.  Not metal at all…what can say…

On Saturday at WorldCon, Guest of Honor Neil Gaiman read Cory Doctorow’s short story “The Right Book” to a full house for later audio release with an upcoming self-published project. During the question and answer session afterward, the subject of giving digital work away for free came up.

via Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Gaiman and Doctorow Discuss Giving It Away.

The thing about it though is that it’s such a compelling read. The first time I read it, I literally didn’t put it down. I started reading it in bed one night and kept on reading it until 2am. This time I did manage to put it down, just about, but I still zipped through it at top speed. (It’s not as much fun reading something in manuscript as you probably think. You have to wait months to talk to other people about it, which turns out to be just as bad as waiting to read it yourself.)

via Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / 2009 Hugo Best Novel Nominee Spotlight: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow.

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I listened to the podiobook “Eastern Standered Tribe” by written and read by Cory Doctorow.  This book is one of my favorite books to date.  A book set in the near future where the 24 hour life of chatrooms has meshed into tribes that work against each other in the online world.

When I was in Norway for Inferno they had a display for the Anti-Sweden Jeans.  They are basically overpriced black jeans.  But today I came across one of their commercials on Youtube that has a song from Sunn O))).

Video on Youtube of Anti Swedish Jeans

And finally another example of the spirit in the other life froms that tells me there is something special in life and we should do our best to live in harmony with the other life forms on earth

Yang Yun was taking part in a free-diving contest at Polar Land in Harbin, north-east China, in which participants were required to sink seven metres to the bottom of a pool and stay there for as long as possible without the aid of breathing equipment.

Cramped ... the diver said her legs "failed to work" in the Arctic temperatures of the pool. Pic: CEN/Austral