Futuristic Tales Of The Here And Now

Cory Doctorows book for young adults that I reviewed a wee while ago has spent the last four weeks on the New York Times best sellers list. This is the first time a book licensed under the Creative Commons has done so, that this book is a sci-fi novel in which the main bad guys are the US Department of Homeland Security (still not going to link to them) is quite something.

For those who have not read my review you should do so asap, you will also be able to download the .pdf from the review as well.

Doctorow is quite a talent in the world of Science Fiction and I have been a fan ever since I first read Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom last year. In fact that was the first book I had ever read on a computer screen. I have a distaste for reading long documents on a screen and much prefer to have good old fashioned wood pulp ‘tween my fingers for anything more than a page or two.

The work of Cory Doctorow however I pile through whatever format it’s presented in.

Cory has just had a series of his short fiction gems transformed into graphic novel form, Cory Doctorows Futuristic Tales Of The Here And Now. I finished reading the last story five minutes ago and heartily recommend that everyone, fan of graphic novels or not, check it out.

Half a dozen stories have been given the graphical make over by half a dozen different artists giving each story its own unique style. The range of stories is quite representative of Cory’s work from Anda’s Game featuring a young girl playing an MMORPG who gets involved in a workers struggle to the humorous When Sys Admins Ruled The World and the disturbing condemnation of Intellectual Property _ After The Siege.

Each story is followed up with a short interview with Cory and gives a nice insight into his motivations for the tales.

You can grab the .pdf here but I would really recommend that you go out(?) and buy a copy so you can savour the artwork and read it in the way it was meant to be read.

:)

Moshe the artist has been sent to the gulag for some minor indiscretion, where it appears he will be left to rot, until one day Stalin asks what became of him. Moshe is immediately brought back from Siberia, dressed in smart clothes, and taken to the Kremlin, where Stalin chides him: “Moshe, you haven’t been producing works of art lately. What’s the matter with you? Have you run out of ideas?”

“No, Comrade Stalin,” says Moshe. “I have an idea for a painting gestating now, and all I need is a studio and materials to bring it to fruition.”

“And what is the subject of this painting?” Stalin inquires.

“Lenin in Poland.”

“That’s a very fine subject,” says Stalin. “When the painting is complete you must invite me to the unveiling.”

So, a few weeks later, Stalin and members of the Politburo gathered at Moshe’s studio for the unveiling of his new painting, entitled Lenin in Poland. But when the curtains were drawn back, what confronted the visitors was a graphic picture of a man and a woman engaged in a sexual act. The man’s face was easily recognisable: it was Leon Trotsky, and the woman was unmistakably Lenin’s revered wife, Nadya Krupskaya. This outrageous image is met with stunned silence, until Stalin’s blurts out: “But where’s Lenin?”

Says Moshe: “In Poland.”