Impressions of Cory Doctorow’s “Homeland”
My son, Alex, is an ardent fan and admirer of Cory Doctorow‘s fiction. I really appreciate the way Cory’s mind works, his deep and abiding passion for freedom from the clueless and the oppressors, his ability to bring awareness to things I’d otherwise miss at BoingBoing, and that he understands technology and internetworking in ways that few among us do. But what I like most is that Cory can communicate all of that in his writings, public speaking, work for organizations like the EFF, and in entertaining ways that teach young people like my son about the forces at work for good and for evil with tech.
Cory Doctorow
Since Alex loved one of Cory’s works, Little Brother (so much so that he’s read it seven times), in early December I poked around Cory’s website to see what was new so maybe I could come up with a Christmas present for my son. Much to my delight I saw that he had a new novel, Homeland, a sequel to Little Brother. I instantly logged on to Amazon but saw that it didn’t ship until February!
Now what? Since I’d emailed a couple of times with Cory back in 2009 (about Alex’ and my experience with Little Brother as I explain here in this post) I sent him a note to find out if there was any way to buy an early copy. Unfortunately the answer was ‘no’ but was stunned when he replied:
Hey Steve! Sorry we can’t make a “real” book appear for Xmas, but I can give you an early, eyes-only, do-not-distribute ebook version of the book to share with the kid? (You could print it and stick it in a three-ring binder under the tree, I suppose!).
I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon so Alex would get it as soon as possible and then printed the PDF and bound it. To say Alex was blown away at Christmas is an understatement! Thank you Cory.
But what about the book Homeland? Is it good? Alex and I agree: though Little Brother was a resounding success and a great book, Homeland is better and a perfect sequel (and I think it would make a great movie…but I digress). Here is a schedule of Cory’s stops on his Homeland tour if you’d like to connect with him directly and learn more about Homeland firsthand.
PODCAST
Alex and I agreed we’d do a podcast when we both finished the book. I put Homeland on my iPad and, since Alex is in his first of college and jammed with homework, it took him a bit longer to get to reading it but he finished it this past weekend. Both of us loved the book and we talk about it at length in this just under 20 minute podcast: Download here
Bottom line? Go and buy Homeland now.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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About Steve Borsch
Strategist. Learner. Idea Guy. Salesman. Connector of Dots. Friend. Husband & Dad. CEO. Janitor. More here.
Connecting the Dots Podcast
Podcasting hit the mainstream in July of 2005 when Apple added podcast show support within iTunes. I'd seen this coming so started podcasting in May of 2005 and kept going until August of 2007. Unfortunately was never 'discovered' by national broadcasters, but made a delightfully large number of connections with people all over the world because of these shows. Click here to view the archive of my podcast posts.
At 40 years of age you would think that I would be beyond reading “teen novels.” But I was at a friend’s place in Lake Tahoe two years ago, it was snowing like crazy, and I was wandering around the house looking for something to do.
Cory’s Little Brother was in the bookshelf (my pal has a 15 year old son) and, since I’d read “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” and liked it, thought I’d read this too.
I was surprised how much I liked it, how it was good even for an adult reader, and have already placed an order for Homeland. Thanks for the heads-up on this book, Borsch, since I didn’t even know this was coming out this month.