Cory Doctorow is a writer who has some wonderful ideas ([b:Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|29587|Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168033624s/29587.jpg|1413]) and a solid technical grounding to support many of his stories ([b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255817214s/954674.jpg|939584]). But sometimes, as in this book, he meanders. Plot threads are introduced that don't actually advance the story. Characters go from villains to mostly-nice guys at whiplash speeds. There's a single, graphic sex scene that (in its solitariness) seems gratuitous or as if Doctorow was challenging himself to see if he could write credible erotica.
Most troubling for me was the cloying arrogance Doctorow was displaying towards people. Even background characters are noted to be fat, acned, smelly, dull, lacking fashion sense, etc. I came away thinking far less of Doctorow as a person than I did of the kinds of people he was skewering.
In any event, I found myself just wanting the story to move along faster and get to a point. Good thing he added the Epilogue, which ends the book on a very human, very bittersweet note. ( )

Doctorow spends too much time on boing boing self promoting his books. At the same time too much of his books are devoted to wacky gizmos that we've read about the year before on boing boing. His last novel Little Brother was a powerhouse of post 9/11 paranoia and at the time very current. Many of his concepts seem almost too current, and quickly outdated the year past their publishing. So is the case with Makers.

Every other paragraph is devoted to highlighting the funky gadgets the Maker Duo come up with. Which has left little in the way of character or plot. Instead it reads like...dialogue dialogue dialogue....funky device or idea...mention of a real life researcher who came up with a funky device...dialogue dialogue...another funky device. Huge spans of time are skipped over which "sum-up" all the cool stuff you'd want to read about.

I've spent my fair share of time tinkering with gizmo's and cannibalizing spare parts to make something new. It's exciting and I love it. But Makers takes away that joy by giving you too much information and not enough heart to connect to any of it. ( )

IMO, it wasn't up to Doctorow's usual standards. The story didn't hold me, and his portrayal of overweight folks really rubbed me the wrong way. (Oh yes, they're all waiting for a cure that lets them eat 10,000 calories per day - and when they finally get thin they do nothing but worry about their wardrobe when they're not sleeping with each other).

Particularly disappointing because I know he can do *far* better. Gave up about half way through... ( )

These folks didn't change, grow, adapt, evolve, or mature for nuthin'. Stuff happened and they did the same thing over and over again. Blah. Written well but blah. ( )

awesome book.
loved his take on copyrights.
Thought its great what he is doing by gigivng the ebook away.
Awesome story. want to read more by him.
lesson learned (if you can get those from fiction):do what you love and the rest will follow?


p.s. first book I read on my nook