Book Review: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Julius is part of the Bitchun Society, living through his third lifetime after science found a way to eradicate death. All he wants to do now is to follow his dream of living in the Magic Kingdom. Happily, he's found a way to do that by moving in with his girlfriend Lil, a member of the ad hoc committee charged with taking care of the Haunted Mansion. But an enemy looms quite close on the horizon in the form of Debra, a new breed of Disney enthusiast who wants to bring the Haunted Mansion, as well as the rest of Disney World, up-to-date with technology.

Debra's already enjoyed much success with her efforts at Disney Beijing, and with all the Whuffie she's earned from all the well-wishers, she might get her way soon. Julian, who sees her as a threat to the centuries of fun and entertainment that the theme park has brought to the world, will do whatever it takes to stop her. The only problem is that he's been murdered so along with trying to stop a technological overhaul of his beloved Mansion, he needs to find out who killed him. With Lil and his friend Keep A-Movin' Dan, he sets out to the Magic Kingdom's soul.

A kind of cyber-mystery, Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom turns out to be a fun ride. I enjoyed the battle between the ad hocs, one side trying to maintain the Haunted Mansion as we know it today, with its Doom Buggies, ghosts twirling about the ballroom floor, mysterious chills wafting down corridors, and that wonderful song of Grim Grinning Ghosts playing non-stop throughout your head. The other side wants to make the attraction even more interactive by flash-burning ghostly tales directly into a guest's uplink so the thrills and scares are more realistic. This makes for a great backdrop to Julius tale of trying to find his killer while maintaining some kind of connection with Lil.

In Doctorow's universe, everyone is connected by an uplink. Anyone can ping someone, find out their background or Whuffie levels (which is worth more than money ever was), plug in to what millions of people are saying or doing, anywhere in the universe, call anyone through a cochlear implant just by thik king about it. (Sounds almost like the social media of today, doesn't it? Minus the implants, of course.) But Julius, after his murder, loses the connection and must figure out how to function and to survive without it, without something he takes for granted as always being there. I liked the twist of watching him flounder without all the connectivity but still keep plugging on, not allowing it to keep him from his goal.

Anyone who enjoys science fiction or Disney or both will definitely love the story as much as I did.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
by Cory Doctorow
A Tor Book
ISBN: 0-765-30436-8
hardcover, 206pp.

borrowed from the Long Beach Public Library

Image from SF Reviews.Net.