Rating: 
Summary: Good, but the ending is lacking.
Review: I rather enjoyed this book. The most interesting thing to me was his take on the future of both the online Disney fan community (who thought they knew what was best for the park, but ended up almost destroying it) and the offline fan community (who raided the park and took it from the Disney company). It was also quite interesting to see major plot points based on little known facts about the parks (such as the story of the rise and fall of the Knight in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion). His utopia of the future was quite interesting, and very thought provoking, but he fell into the tired cliche of looking at a utopia from the point of view of someone who has rejected it. The ending was also a bit unsatisfying, and was reminicent of "then I woke up and it was all a dream."
Overall, a great read for any sci-fi or Disney nut...
Rating:
Summary: the narrative does take you there
Review: ...... The reputation currency in Down and Out is called Whuffie, and it is absolutely made out to be the money of the time. It is said towards the beginning of the book that money was done away with, but it is clear that Whuffie is simply the new currency. The interesting result of this is that it is an emotional currency--rejection is not just a emotional blow, but a lifestyle modification as well. It is clear that Whuffie is bestowed by others and used up within the economy (late in the novel the main character has his car taken away once his Whuffie becomes very low). Exploring this type of economy is one of the main contributions of the story, in fact Cory must be laughing to himself when such an economy is argued for rationally, now. The other main thread of the book is the society that has resulted from the elimination of death. Because you cannot die but of your own choosing (choosing not to be "restored"), many things about society have changed. The hit-woman killed the main character. So what? He's restored from backup and his only concern is Why would someone want to kill me? When the hit-woman is found out, her Whuffie goes down, and her confession endears her to her victim. The paradigm shift it takes to understand this deathless society is quite severe considering the fact that almost everything about our current society revolves around the idea of death, and Cory does a fine job taking us along down that path. Cory could tell 100 more stories within this universe he has created, and each would be interesting in the way the characters existed within a world so similar, and yet completely opposite, of the one in which we live now. When the entire economy is based on an abstration such as reputation and death is a nonissue, what do our lives look like? What things become issues? When you know your life will go on indefinately, what do you do with yourself? When even the most Whuffie-poor are rich enough to travel and pursue whatever they want, what do you pursue? When even the most Whuffie-rich can lose it all in a failed scheme, where do you find security? What motivates you? I think Cory addresses all these questions well--for example our protagonist finds security in his job at Disney World and in his relationship with his lover, but when it all goes to hell he just starts over. Nothing surprises him. He's on his 5th life. He's been around. Perhaps the scariest thing about this universe Cory created was the cold indifference such a utopia can create. I had the three worst dreams I've ever had in my life, three nights in a row during the time I was reading this book. Coincidence? What would really happen in a world where we have objectified an emotion into the economy and eliminated death? It may not be as utopian and Cory would make it out to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Eh, not too bad
Review: An interesting idea, with well-thought-out themes underlying the story. The concepts surrounding a "reputation economy" are particularly timely considering the emergence of the blogosphere and robust collective filtering and collaboration mechanisms on the Net today. It's a shame that the characters and plot couldn't carry the message particularly well. The thoughts were stronger than the characters that voiced them, and empathy for the protagonist was a bit lacking. This book would have made a good non-fiction essay where the ideas could have been examined in more detail. Props to the author for the innovative concepts and the novel licensing terms.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow, not well developped.
Review: With endorsements from Larry Lessig, Eric Raymond and Bruce sterling, I thought I couldn't go wrong. I discovered that I could. So I got wiser, but not happpy about it. The story is set in a future world, where you "save" yourself once in a while and reload yourself into a new body when anything goes wrong. It's also a world which is not based on money but on reputation votes (called wuffies). The scary part is that you can check anyone's reputation any time, and people discriminate against you for that. The guy lives in Disneyworld, where it is maintained by volunteers. So Doctrow got his idea from free software development models, and made it into a story, but not too well. For example, the reputation is not supposed to be money but it turns out that if you have high scores, you can actually hire people to do dirty work ... well, then that's effectively money itself. Besides, if you think it out, things are really unclear. I have a high reputation for my translation and Japanese writing skills, but my girlfriend skill sucks. So what's my overall reputation? The attitude toward death is also not well thought out. You can get re-incarnated anytime, so death shouldn't be a big deal...but this guy is very upset because he was killed, and engages in petty sabotage against the person who he thought was behind it. But when the real killer is found, 10 minutes later, he goes on a date with her. What? And then in the end, it kind of implies that the guy sort of tries to embrace the one-time-ness of life, instead of playing clone-reincarnation, but then, it's unclear why, and since he didn't totally give it up, well... so what was the big deal? I'd say the overall writing is shallow, there are interesting motifs but they are not well developed and inconsistent. It's a quick read, sort of mildly entertaining for an hour or so if you have absolutely nothing else to do, but you'd never reread it. If it's free (and there is a free version), well, it's OK, and it's better than stuff on in-flight magazines, but not much.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book. Free, Too!
Review: Mr. Doctorow creates a wonderfully futuristic world, where money and death are gone, and everything is ruled by popularity and "ad-hocs." 62 pages and a great ending.
Rating:
Summary: Great fun.
Review: This is one of those books that makes you go, "Why didn't I think of that?" The idea to set a sci-fi novel in Disney World is absolutely brilliant. The idea that certain attractions are at "war" with one another is also absolutely brilliant. Growing up and living just miles from Disney World my whole life, having known cast members for years, I feel like I know every nook and cranny of the Magic Kingdom, and for the most part, Doctorow gets it all right. He describes certain places that I know like the back of my hand. The only slip-up occurs early on, when Julius' killer escapes and runs past "Sleeping Beauty Castle," which is the castle in Disneyland, CA. Later on, he corrects it back to Cinderella's Castle. Oh well, it's only one little thing. There are so many innovative ideas in this book, concerning the lack of money especially. Money is replaced by Whuffies, which are essentially "esteem points," you earn more if people like and respect you and you lose them if people don't. Isn't that the way our world already works? It's great to see that written down so creatively. The bottom line is that this book is just plain fun. Doctorow has created this entire society in the inner mechanics of Disney World, and once you struggle through the language for the first couple of pages, it's truly hard to put this one down.
Rating:
Summary: Great read but buy the dead tree version instead
Review: "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" is a wonderful, if somewhat short, trip to a future based on the emerging trends of today. The setting of the book is in many ways as important as the story. The Bitchun society allows us to imagine a world where credit is based on respect, death is effectively vanquished and everybody can change bodies at whim. Add to that the ability to back-up your brain regularly and you've got a great twist on the classic murder mystery, where the protaganist must solve his own murder. But my main reason for writing this review is to discourage people from buying the e-book version. This e-book costs money, is not printable and is restricted to one platform. If you want a portable, printable, free and legal downloadable version of Cory Doctorow's book, you can download it here: http://www..... If you can't get your around the concept behind the distrubution, you may have serious difficulties with the visions of the future contained within. Still feel like buying? Get the paper version. The cover is gorgeous and, call me old fashioned but there's still something satisfying about the heft and feel of a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Simply fantastic geek fiction
Review: I grew up in Southern California and owned a disneyland annual pass for some of my youth, later on I became a computer geek and now work in the web industry. I'm the perfect audience for this book and I can say without a doubt this was the best piece of fiction I've read in years. It's got a lot of great science/computer geek sheen, a fantastic future world that I would trade the real world for any day of the week. It was great to live in a fantasy world free of death and money obligations, and of course, to live inside disneyworld. Underneath it all is a great story of relationships between friends and lovers, and that's what really kept me turning pages throughout. It's a short read, and I couldn't put it down, reading it straight through in one sitting (something I very rarely do). If you're not a complete geek, the first 10-15 pages or so will be a jargon-soaked slog, but trust me when I saw after you get through it, there's a wonderful story awaiting you.
Rating: 
Summary: really [weak] story that goes nowhere
Review: First, the good news about this book. It's a very quick and easy read. Unfortunately that is about the only good thing I can say about it.
This story has no plot. The author seems so in love with his vision of a Utopian Networked Future, that he doesn't want to get it dirty with anything so mundane as real conflict. That is fine if you're building a dollhouse, but if you're a reader looking for a good story, look elsewhere. It is hard to care who care who controls DisneyWorld in the future. I kept hoping that the struggle for control of the Magic Kingdom would be about something bigger, more sinister. But if anything, this story is just a snapshot of what one guy hopes the future will look like.
Rating:
Summary: Down and out in the Magic Kingdom
Review: I purchased this book based on other reviews and I am a big disney fan. I was not impressed. I found it hard to follow and although the background on disney was great I couldn't make heads or tails of half the "features" in the future that were discussed.
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