Literary Significance and Reception
Kirkus Reviews described this novel in their review as "A near-future yarn that would have worked better as a piece of speculative nonfiction." Regina Schroeder in reviewing for Booklist said that "Doctorow’s fast, bizarre follow-up to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a reaction to the impact of instant global communication in which it is hard to tell whether the phenomena being reacted to have actually been observed or are the consequences of his imagination."
Don D'Ammassa in his review for Chronicle addressed satire in science fiction saying "There was a time when broad satires had an honored place in SF, but that has changed over the course of years, and now novelists have to slip their satire in around an otherwise serious story most of the time. Cory Doctorow pushes the envelope a bit, because very little of the present story is particularly serious, but the satire is done with so light a touch that it's not intrusive at all." He described the novel as "funny and superficially lightweight, but when you're done, you might find yourself subject to troubling afterthoughts."
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