27 Feb 2008

Themepunks coming?

Thirty months ago Salon.com serialized the first third of a novel-in-progress by Cory Doctorow: Themepunks. Set mostly in the near future in the dire swamps of Florida, the work is sprinkled with post-post-industrial economic upheaval, technical and medical wackiness. I enjoyed it a great deal, but kept anticipating for the rest: it left me hanging. Last night, kept awake by cold remedies, I browsed the contents of my ebook repository, popped open my copy of the first installment, and tore through it (nighttime cold relief my aching back). Since I keep up with Mr. Doctorow, I knew it hadn't been released, but wondered, so I searched, and lo: it will apparently be released 1 Jan 2009 by Tor (hardcover, 416 pages, ISBN 0765312794). That's too long to wait.

I am an inveterate Cory fanboy. Of course I'm hooked on BoingBoing, where Cory provides the best posts and I always read the excellent columns he produces. His books and short stories never come out often enough for my tastes, and his podcast has gone sadly silent. He'd better get cracking and turn out more stuff or one of these days I'm going to have to dust off the slash fiction I wrote featuring him and Jack Valenti.



Update: Cory is publishing a book based on this work called Makers for release in November 2009, serialized weekly starting now at Tor.com.



2nd update:Makers has been published, and is available at craphound.com/makers. Cory's best work yet, highly recommended.

5 comments:

KC Baltz said...

Now it says November, 2009. Based on the far off, changing dates and Cory's silence, I think this book is in limbo and stands a good chance of never being finished.

Unknown said...

I agree. The book seemed to be going someplace dark and depressing... a major plot turn seemed in the offing, but I couldn't sense the direction. Maybe Cory couldn't either.

doctorow said...

http://craphound.com/makers

KC Baltz said...

Totally forgot about this post. I've already got it loaded on my PDA and am almost caught up to where it left off the first time :).

Thanks, Cory!

Unknown said...

I've read it, although I haven't bought it (yet). I loved it. Best yet, Cory. Time to update this post :)