A Place So Foreign and Eight More

by Cory Doctorow

Book Overview

Considered one of the most promising science fiction writers, Cory Doctorow's name is already mentioned with such SF greats as J.G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. He was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer at the 2000 Hugo Awards. Cory's singular tales push the boundaries of the genre, exploring pop culture, trash, nerd pride, and the nexus of technology and social change. His work...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568582862
• ISBN13: 9781568582863
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Running Press Adult
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Imaginative stories that defy easy classification

The nine stories contained in _A Place So Foreign_ can only be easily classified together as "imaginative" - any other grouping fails to do them justice. From the cyberpunk (or "Nerdc0re" as the author describes it) story "0wnz0red," the alien buddy story "Craphound," the time-travelling caper "A Place so Foreign," and the dark fantasy "Return to Pleasure Island," the author shows that he can be creative and interesting in many different areas of fiction. "All Day Sucker" and "The Re-Branding of Billy Bailey" represent commentaries on aspects of society, and the three "bugout" stories ("Shadow of the Mothaship," "Home Again, Home Again," and "The Super Man and the Bugout") are also included. If you're interested in reading imaginative science fiction, then this is the anthology for you. It is one of the most interesting works I've read in years.

From before he was down and out in the Magic Kingdom

Doctorow (no provable relation to E. L., by the way) made his first big splash with his off-the-wall short stories -- especially the last one in this collection, "Ownz0red," which is a Leet Geek work of narrative art about taking copyright commons to the next level, by way of the personal biosphere. "Craphound," on the other hand, while it's a well-written and entertaining story about junk-hawks, is almost the sort of thing you might have found in the old Analog. "To Market, to Market: The Rebranding of Billy Bailey," has a strong Gibsonian flavor and is probably the second-best thing in this collection. The title story is a not entirely successful time travel yarn that seems to lose its way at several points. "Return to Pleasure Island" is just strange, and also not enitrely successful. The remaining three stories are sort of a set, sharing a future in which the aliens have come and are shaping us up whether we like it or not, but none of the three shares characters. This is the best single-author collection I've read in several years.

Picky, aintcha?

I suppose I'll lose points on cleverness and critique, but...I read the first page of the first story, and bought the book on that alone; halfway though, it provoked a rare "damn, I'm really glad I bought this book" moment. That's all I'm really looking for in a book anyhow. ***UPDATE 4/18: driving in to work I started randomly thinking about the story "craphound" from this collection...so I guess you could say Doctorow has stay-time, considering it's been a year since I read it and it still occasionally bounces around my brain.

Challenging the boundaries of science fiction

The nine short science fiction stories comprising Cory Doctorow's Place So Foreign And 8 More aren't your ordinary everyday tales: it was on the strength of this collection that Doctorow was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for best new science fiction writer, challenging the boundaries of science fiction and detailing worlds which are new and different, from a 19th century Huck Finn in love with Jules Verne's fiction to alien friends obsessed with American ephemera. Thoughtful and often funny are these powerful nine short stories.

A Map for Territories that Don't Yet Exist.

Ah, frustrating read -- not because of Cory Doctorow's stories, but because I wish I'd found them earlier. Not that everyone else won't enjoy them too, but these stories are perfect for the Web geek, the technoscience hack, the computer nerd, and others of that ilk. Cory is all-of-the-above and then some. His knowledge and familiarity with all-things-geek comes shining through brightly in the stories in this collection. The book starts auspiciously with Cory's classic "Craphound," which follows thrifty aliens through rummage sales, out for ephemera of all kinds. The centerpiece, "A Place so Foreign," is an intriguing historical riff on time travel. Cory's Disneyfied California environs crop up in the creepy "Return to Pleasure Island," and another wildly futuristic, yet timeless environment sets the stage for three stories: "Shadow of the Mothaship," "Home Again, Home Again," and "The Superman and the Bugout" -- each of which actually stand quite well on their own two. My favorites here are the twist on ubiquitous marketing, "To Market, to Market: The Rebranding of Billy Bailey" and the full-on, geeked-out, bio-engineered "0wnz0red." A Place So Foreign (and 8 More) is a time machine, a map for territories that don't yet exist, and a damn fine read though and through.