Reviewed by Ted Gioia

In his fanciful debut novel Down and Out in the Magic
Kingdom, author Cory Doctorow wastes no time in
shaking up your familiar coordinates.  In the opening
sentence, readers learn about the abolition of work and
a cure for death. Governments are also gone,
superseded by ad hoc arrangements known as (but, of
course!) adhocracies, sort of a
cross between mafia fiefdoms
and the "mutual protection
associations" of philosopher
Robert Nozick.  Money has
been replaced by Whuffie—
think of it as a psychic credit
score, but based on getting
more props than disses from
your home boys.   Meanwhile,
those who get tired of im-
mortality and adhocracy can
always sign up for a few cen-
turies of medically-induced
"deadheading"—no prescription required!    

But some things don’t change, namely your favorite
theme park rides.  

Our hero Jules may be more than one hundred years
old, but he is still young at heart—and has moved to
Disney World, where he is a member of the adhocracy
that runs Liberty Square and Tom Sawyer Island.  The
group’s leader is Jules's girlfriend Lil, who is only 15%
his age, but who’s counting?—and with her parents off
deadheading in Kissimmee, the two lovebirds are free
to enjoy romance in the happiest place on earth.  

But the Magic Kingdom becomes the menacing
kingdom when a rival adhocracy, run by the power-
hungry and tech-savvy Debra tries to encroach on Lil’s
turf.   Debra learned the ropes at the Beijing
Disneyland, where she rose to the top with ruthless
reworkings of time-honored rides.  Now she wants to
shake up Orlando, expanding her empire one attraction
at a time.  First she seizes the Hall of Presidents, where
her flash-baking of various Oval Office residents into
the cerebellum of visitors is a huge hit.  Now she has
here eyes set on the Haunted Mansion, currently
controlled by Lil’s adhocracy.

Jules is determined to block Debra’s various power
plays, but he is killed in a bloody shooting at the Tiki
Room in chapter three.  But, in case you forgot, death
has taken John Donne's advice in Doctorow's future
world, and murder most foul is now murder merely
inconvenient.  Yes, a direct hit with an exploding bullet
destroys most of our hero’s viscera in a grand Sam
Peckinpah moment. But in a flash, he is reconstructed
with the help of a clone and a download from the
memory backup…and is hopping mad over his brief,
unscheduled date with grim reaper.  The murderer got
away, but Jules is convinced that Debra is behind his
short-lived demise.

Does this sound zany enough for you? Different genres
battle for control over Down and Out in the Magic
Kingdom, and what starts out as a science fiction story
veers into a murder mystery (with the victim as
investigator—a new twist!), and finally morphs into a
turf battle akin to those celebrated in various gangster
movies.   And any novel that ends with a showdown in
a haunted mansion inevitably reminds us of ghost
stories and horror tales.  Meanwhile Doctorow
populates his novel with a host of secondary characters
that add to the pageantry.  Jules’s best buddy Keep-A-
Movin’ Dan would fit nicely into a cowboy story, and
his ex-wife Zoya, a spaced-out hippie girl with red fur,
might be an exile from Dr. Moreau’s island.  The only
constant in this book is the furious forward motion of
the story, and the unpredictable turns it take along the
way.

What the above summary may not make clear is this
author's light touch. Doctorow's prose avoids the
banality of so much genre fiction with its fanciful and
colloquial tone, daubed with touches of humor.   And
while his peers reach for the stars—offering
intergalactic wars, dark empires of the universe, and
slimy green aliens with rad weapons—Doctorow is
capable of channeling his sense of the fantastic into the
familiar icons and mementos of current-day pop
culture.

But the theme park itinerary presented here is not just
a collection of cheap thrills.   Doctorow is always in
control, and never lets the theatrical elements in the
story run away with it.  Readers looking for a fun ride
will definitely get a star attraction, but there is much
more here than a quick buzz.  As Down and Out in the
Magic Kingdom makes eminently clear, Cory
Doctorow is the real deal, a new millennium sci-fi
writer with plenty to say and Whuffie to spare.
conceptual
fiction
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Down and Out in
the Magic Kingdom

by Cory Doctorow
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Abbott, Edwin A.
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I, Robot

Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale

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The State of the Art

Ballard, J.G.
Crash

Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World

Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man

Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine

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Fahrenheit 451

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The Illustrated Man

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The Martian Chronicles

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

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House of Leaves

Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

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The Man in the High Castle

Dick, Philip K.
Ubik

Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Gaiman, Neil
American Gods

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Burning Chrome

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Neuromancer

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The Forever War

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The Raw Shark Texts

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Light

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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

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Stranger in a Strange Land

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Time Enough for Love

Herbert, Frank
Dune

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Brave New World

Le Guin, Ursula K.
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Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time

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Conjure Wife

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Swords & Deviltry

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The Wanderer

Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice

Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris

Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude

Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia

Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude

McCarthy, Cormac
The Road

Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station

Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz

Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas

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The Time Traveler's Wife

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Ringworld

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Vurt

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The Famished Road

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Gateway

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Gravity's Rainbow

Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars

Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone

Saramago, José
Blindness

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Frankenstein

Silverberg, Robert
Dying  Inside

Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings

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City

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The Trouble with Tycho

Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia

Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man

Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash

Stross, Charles
Glasshouse

Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human

Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood

Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A

Verne, Jules:
Around the Moon

Verne, Jules:
From the Earth to the Moon

Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth

Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest

Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon

Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau

Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine

Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light



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Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100


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