Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow

From Goodreads:

Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe is a soothsaying jaunt into the not-so-distant future, where 24/7 communication and chatroom alliances have evolved into tribal networks that secretly work against each other in shadowy online realms. The novel opens with its protagonist, the peevish Art Berry, on the roof of an asylum. He wonders if it's better to be smart or happy. His crucible is a pencil up the nose for a possible "homebrew lobotomy." To explain Art's predicament, Doctorow flashes backward and slowly fills in the blanks. As a member of the Eastern Standard Tribe, Art is one of many in the now truly global village who have banded together out of like-minded affinity for a particular time zone and its circadian cycles. Art may have grown up in Toronto but his real homeland is an online grouping that prefers bagels and hot dogs to the fish and chips of their rivals who live on Greenwich Mean Time. As he rises through the ranks of the tribe, he is sent abroad to sabotage the traffic patterns and communication networks in the GMT tribe. Along the way, he comes across a humdinger of an idea that will solve a music piracy problem on the highways of his own beloved timezone, raise his status in the tribe and make him rich. If only he could have trusted his tightly wound girlfriend and fellow tribal saboteur, he probably wouldn't be on the booby hatch roof with that pencil up his nose.

As a musing on the future, Doctorow's extrapolation seems entirely plausible. And, not only is EST a fascinating mental leap it's a witty and savvy tale that will appeal to anyone who's lived another life, however briefly, online. --Jeremy Pugh

I was hoping Eastern Standard Tribe would be similar to Little Brother, which I LOVED. And the concept is fascinating. To quote above, "As a member of the Eastern Standard Tribe, Art is one of many in the now truly global village who have banded together out of like-minded affinity for a particular time zone and its circadian cycles." Basically, in a hyper-connected and rather homogenized global village, our most meaningful relationships are based on when we're awake.

Both Little Brother and EST have concepts that are a bit complex and a little difficult to grasp if you're not a cybergeek (me) but while Little Brother explained things in terms that were easily understood without making me feel stupid and then completely changed my perception of hacking, EST left me in the dust, assuming I already knew what on earth it was talking about. Which I didn't. A decent explanation of the "tribes" and the ideas I wrote in the paragraph above finally came about 3/4 of the way through the book, long after I had become annoyed at the stupid book and its air of smarty superiority.

Plus, the writing was so-so, the plot was meh, and I didn't care much for any the characters. The book was mercifully brief so I was able to plow through it in an evening but I really just didn't care for it.

In the book's defense, because of where I found it in my library I thought it was YA. So I was totally judging it through the curse words and one rather lurid description of a breast and wondering what on earth made people think it was a book fit for teenagers. I just double checked though and it looks like it was just in the wrong place but thinking it was YA while reading it made me dislike it that much more.

Overall: don't bother.