Walkaway: A Novel

Cory Doctorow

Apr 2017 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

Kirkus' Best Fiction of 2017

From New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow, an epic tale of revolution, love, post-scarcity, and the end of death.

"Walkaway is now the best contemporary example I know of, its utopia glimpsed after fascinatingly-extrapolated revolutionary struggle." —William Gibson

Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza—known to his friends as Hubert, Etc—was too old to be at that Communist party.

But after watching the breakdown of modern society, he really has no where left to be—except amongst the dregs of disaffected youth who party all night and heap scorn on the sheep they see on the morning commute. After falling in with Natalie, an ultra-rich heiress trying to escape the clutches of her repressive father, the two decide to give up fully on formal society—and walk away.

After all, now that anyone can design and print the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter—from a computer, there seems to be little reason to toil within the system.

It’s still a dangerous world out there, the empty lands wrecked by climate change, dead cities hollowed out by industrial flight, shadows hiding predators animal and human alike. Still, when the initial pioneer walkaways flourish, more people join them. Then the walkaways discover the one thing the ultra-rich have never been able to buy: how to beat death. Now it’s war – a war that will turn the world upside down.

Fascinating, moving, and darkly humorous, Walkaway is a multi-generation SF thriller about the wrenching changes of the next hundred years...and the very human people who will live their consequences.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I'm a huge Doctorow fan in general, so it's not surprising that I loved this book. It delivers the mix of whacky-yet-plausible tech alongside whacky-yet-plausible setting with a heavy helping of social commentary we've come to expect. I tried to make a list of all the weird tech ideas but stopped after the first few chapters because it was enough to get in the way of just enjoying the story.

I almost never leave a 5 star rating, but this book was so amazing that I wish I could rate it higher! It highlights and explains a lot of the stupid behaviors ingrained into us that we allow to rule us, so anyone can understand them. Explains a better way for the future, and wraps it all up in a great story that is actually well written. A pleasant surprise for the discounted price I got it at. I highly recommend it even when not on sale!!

What a great premise for a good story. Unfortunately, it seems there's two different stories between the same covers: walkaways and walkaway culture on the one hand, and the effort to achieve a type of immortality on the other. Either could work on their own, I think, but for me they don't work together. I also had a hard time getting to like any of the characters. So many seemed so very much alike, even when they differed in their speeches and beliefs. Finally, the slang. Not only does it get tiresome but it also seems to be used at times when, in my opinion, the situation demands that it not be. About 1/3 through, several people die and others are injured and the main characters continue their slang. It gives the impression they have no serious feelings. I ended up very disappointed. Could have been so much better.

About the author

CORY DOCTOROW is special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an MIT Media Lab Research Associate and a visiting professor of Computer Science at the Open University. His award-winning novel Little Brother and its sequel Homeland were a New York Times bestsellers. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.