ARE YOU PART OF THE EASTERN STANDARD TRIBE?

Last weekend was a long one here, and I took some time to catch up on some accumulated reading. One item that had been standing in my inbox for more than a year was an e-mail serialization of Cory Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe. I got that through DailyLit, a website that keeps a growing library of material ready to be consulted one e-mail at a time.

Now, when I registered for the free service, I figured it would be neat, reading the story on lost time here and there without actually noticing that you’re progressing; eventually, you’re finished and that almost comes as a suprise. But a few personnal things fell through and I found myself with very little time for e-mails for a few months. So the serialization stayed, neatly tucked away in a secret corner of my Google account, waiting for me to remember it was there.

Good thing I finally did, because it really is an awesome story. As usual, the tech ideas are clever, the story is engaging and the voice is dynamic, all qualities I always enjoy in Doctorow’s stories. There’s also a thinly disguised plea for free culture, but then what else can we expect from the author of Little Brother? Maybe there was a little too much of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest sprinkled in for my taste, but I’m all right with being a little annoyed at the familiar surroundings - a sizable portion of the text is told from the view point of an inmate in a mental facility; still, the unique voice of the narration works well at avoiding the traps that this setting could bring.

The point being: I enjoyed the story, enough so that I my next action after I was done with the last e-mail, I decided to go back to DailyLit and see what else was available.

Turns out the service has vastly improved while I wasn’t looking. The selection of CC licensed works and public domain books is pretty great. You can now manage the frequency of the installments on a direct basis; using a simple link on the e-mail, you immediately receive the next episode; perfect for those moments where you find yourself with some unexpected free time.

So I decided to start Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town. Why stop a good thing, you know?