Eastern Standard Tribe

Doctorow, Cory, 1971-Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

3.6

Word count: 301K words
Chapters: 31

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory DoctorowAuthor: Doctorow, Cory, 1971-,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Nov 20, 2005

Editor's review

Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe is a science fiction novel with a distinct mark of its era, narrating around online communities, time-zone identity, and corporate conspiracy. Its most striking value lies in its keen capture of internet culture: the author weaves online tribes, cross-time-zone collaboration, and spiritual belonging into a tightly paced story, leading readers to think, as the plot advances, about how technology reshapes human connections. Released free by Project Gutenberg, the book has a low barrier to access and suits as an entry read for understanding early internet science fiction. The narrative language is colloquial and information-dense, with the wit and irony peculiar to tech circles, and reading requires keeping up with rapidly shifting scenes and dialogue. For readers concerned with digital culture, community identity, and near-future imagination, this short novel offers a brisk and thought-provoking reading experience, and also serves as a prompt for discussing online identity.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Science fiction readers who like internet culture and cyber themes
Readers concerned with community identity and time-zone collaboration
Learners who want to practice reading through short English novels
Explorers interested in the style of early internet science fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer the grand premises of traditional hard science fiction
Readers not comfortable with fast-paced, colloquial English narrative
Readers expecting full world-building and a slow-burn buildup

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then revisit details about tribal identity in the dialogue.
While reading, note the relation between the time-zone premise and the characters' schedules; it helps you follow the narrative logic.
Read alongside articles discussing online communities to broaden your thinking.
The English original is not long; read it in two or three sittings to keep the pace.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for science fiction beginners?

Fairly suitable. The work is not long, the plot moves fast, and the language is colloquial; you don't need much science fiction background to enter the story. It leans more toward internet culture and community issues than space-opera premises, though, so readers expecting traditional hard science fiction may find the subject matter soft.

Do I need to know the author's other works to read this book?

No. The book can be read on its own; its storylines are relatively focused and don't depend on characters or worlds from the author's other novels. First-time readers of Cory Doctorow can finish it smoothly and then decide whether to read his other works.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg version?

This version is provided free by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook resource, easy to obtain on a computer or e-reader. The text is the English original, suitable for readers who want low-cost access to original science fiction and convenient for distributing materials in classes or book clubs.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Doctorow, Cory, 1971- Author

Cory Doctorow (1971– ) is a Canadian science fiction writer, journalist and internet activist known for young adult science fiction and writing on internet culture. Thirteen of his works are held in the collection, including Little Brother, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Makers, Eastern Standard Tribe, A Place So Foreign and Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. His novels often centre on young people growing up and resisting digital surveillance and corporate power, with fast pacing and close engagement with real technological issues, combining entertainment with social critique; the nonfiction Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books discusses digital publishing and copyright. Because public information is limited, his education, awards and specific biography are not detailed here, but his work has had a notable influence on English-language young adult science fiction and writing about internet culture.