![]() ![]() Someone once described this book as "snarky" to me and I think they got it dead wrong that's the usual way to handle satirical SF, by looking down your nose in hipper-than-thou mode at the foolishness of our blighted human race. True, some of his jokes might be a bit arch, but this is the kind of social satire we see all too rarely in SF. Having said all that, now this: Cory Doctorow is a talented guy, and his debut novel is a witty and inventive piece of work that succeeds on a surprisingly unpretentious level. (That's definitely what was going on when Neil Gaiman came to town.) You find yourself reviewing not the book you actually read, but the book you'd heard about and already built up expectations of beforehand. We litcrit wankers can be just as subject to communal reinforcement as anyone, and oftimes, when a majority of critics are in paroxysms of joy over some Hot New Talent, that's what's going on. (Though it also just wasn't that good a novel.) One reason I myself don't read other critics' reviews until well after I've read the novel in question is that I don't want to be influenced by implanted preconceptions. ![]() My own hyping of China MiƩville, for instance, probably fed some of my disappointment in Iron Council. And I'm sure I've been as guilty of it as any other critic. ![]() ![]() I hate having my expectations built up too high. The problem with a writer's being on the receiving end of a big steaming mound of hype is that I'm immediately dubious. ![]()
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