Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Cory Doctorow
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town Hardcover – 1 July 2005

by Cory Doctorow (Author)
See all formats and editions
With Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and Eastern Standard Tribe, Cory Doctorow established himself as one of the leading voices of next-generation SF: inventive, optimistic, and comfortable with the sheer strangeness of tomorrow. Now Doctorow returns with a novel of wrenching oddity, heartfelt technological vision, and human pity set on the streets of Toronto today.

Alan is a middle-aged entrepeneur in contemporary Toronto, who has devoted himself to fixing up a house in the bohemian neighborhood of Kensington. This naturally brings him in contact with the house full of students and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment of stress, reveals to him that she has wings--wings, moreover, which grow back after each attempt to cut them off.

Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two. His father is a mountain; his mother is a washing machine; and among his brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls.

Now two of the three nesting dolls, Edward and Frederick, are on his doorstep--well on their way to starvation, because their innermost member, George, has vanished. It appears that yet another brother, Davey, who Alan and his other siblings killed years ago, may have returned...bent on revenge.

Under such circumstances it seems only reasonable for Alan to involve himself with a visionary scheme to blanket Toronto with free wireless Internet connectivity, a conspiracy spearheaded by a brilliant technopunk who builds miracles of hardware from parts scavenged from the city's dumpsters. But Alan's past won't leave him alone--and Davey is only one of the powers gunning for him and all his friends.

Wildly imaginative, constantly whipsawing us between the preposterous, the amazing, and the deeply felt, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town is unlike any novel you have ever read.
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    315 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Tor Books
  4. Publication date
    1 July 2005
  5. Dimensions
    14.8 x 2.8 x 21.3 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0765312786
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0765312785
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details

Product description

From the Back Cover

Praise for Cory Doctorow

"I know many science fiction writers engaged in the cyber-world, but Cory Doctorow is a native...We should all hope and trust that our culture has the guts and moxie to follow this guy. He's got a lot to tell us."
--Bruce Sterling

"Cory Doctorow is just far enough ahead of the game to give you the authentic chill of the future...Funny as hell and sharp as steel."
--Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan, on Eastern Standard Tribe

"Utterly contemporary and deeply peculiar-a hard combination to beat (or, these days, to find)."
--William Gibson, author of Neuromancer, on Eastern Standard Tribe

"Doctorow throws off cool ideas the way champagne generates bubbles...[he] definitely has the goods to be a major player in postcyberpunk science fiction. His ideas are fresh and his attitude highly engaging."
--San Francisco Chronicle on Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

"Artful and confident...Like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, Doctorow has discovered that the present world is science fiction, if you look at it from the right angle."
--Vancouver Sun on Eastern Standard Tribe

"Doctorow peppers his novel with technology so palpable you want to order it up on the web. You'll probably get the chance. But technology is not the point here. What is unexpected, shocking even, is how smart Doctorow is when it comes to the human heart, and how well he's able to articulate it....He seems smart because he makes the reader feel smart. When Doctorow talks, when Art argues, we just get it. There's nothing between the language and the meaning. The prose is funny, simple and straightforward. This is a no-BS book."
--NPR on Eastern Standard Tribe

About the Author

Canadian-born Cory Doctorow is the UK coordinator for Creative Commons and the European Affairs Coordinator of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing, with nearly a million visitors a month; he also maintains a personal site. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer at the 2000 Hugo Awards. His other books include two previous novels, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and Eastern Standard Tribe, and a story collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More.


Canadian-born Cory Doctorow is the UK coordinator for Creative Commons and the European Affairs Coordinator of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing, with nearly a million visitors a month; he also maintains a personal site. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer at the 2000 Hugo Awards. His other books include two previous novels,Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and Eastern Standard Tribe, and a story collection,A Place So Foreign and Eight More.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (1 July 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 315 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765312786
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765312785
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.8 x 2.8 x 21.3 cm
  • Customer reviews:

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. His latest novel is ATTACK SURFACE, a standalone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
70 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

EGil
5.0 out of 5 stars Startlingly original and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2011
Verified Purchase
When I first read the plot description for this book, I was immediately interested, but wondered if such an idea would actually be a main theme in the story, or just a sideline to make for an interesting tagline. I was pleasantly surprised, in that the whole 'my father is a mountain, my mother a washing machine, etc' theme is in fact a central tenet of the storyline. Wacky? Definitely. But for those who would immediately consign the idea to the bin for the sheer ludicrousness of it, I ask you this - is it any more impossible than elves, or wizards, or people with wings? For me, this book challenged my preconceptions of Fantasy/SF, in that I didn't realise how 'normalised' or narrow the genre really has become. Doctorow has thrown this bizarre premise into the mix, and I think it works well.

One of the most original things I have read in a long time, and it gets 5 stars for that alone. The writing is fairly consistent, and to a good standard, although I do agree that some of the main characters lack detail. It's a quick read, and I enjoyed it more for its originality than for any sense of epic, thrill or adventure. I would (and do) recommend this to any SF/Fantasy reader who feels bored or jaded by a supposedly avante-garde genre that has failed to innovate for a very long time.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked it - perhaps I'm wierd!!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2011
very strange book, but after 50 pages you get used to it. The fact that the book has people with wings, are washing machines, mountains and symbiotic people within people sounds very bizarre and it is, but very very readable!
Helpful
 Report
Rob D
5.0 out of 5 stars Wacky and different
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 February 2014
Verified Purchase
You really can not pass this up for 99p second hand. But be ready for the weirdest book you have every read! Yet it is really easy to read and enjoy. Yes there are characters like the Mountain and the Washing machine, but it is great fun ride/read. I want more of this style of book.
Helpful
 Report
Patterns of Life
3.0 out of 5 stars Alternative Reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2011
Verified Purchase
Only recently discovered Cory Doctrow, and really liked the first book of his I read - Makers. Tried another and struggled mightily, unfortunately it was this title - the blurb warns you its strange, and it is, but doesn't tell you there isn't much of a story either. A lot of things build within the pot, but then don't go anywhere. Worth reading if you want something different.... not really S.F or fantasy, wouldn't like to say where it fits....
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Weird & Fantastic!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2005
Simply amazing book.
Weird, weird, weird! Hard to put down, you are driven along by the interesting characters and storyline. This story grabs you and forces you to deal with the strangeness (Bizareness even) of the characters.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
GOTTON
3.0 out of 5 stars I so wanted to love this... but not quite
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2016
This is definitely a book that suffers from a case of not really knowing what it wants to be.

On the one hand, it is a wonderfully written and unapologetically strange tale that was reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's writing at times. On the other, it was a book that pushes the personal agenda of the author in regards to his views on technology and freedom of information. It simultaneously pushes a number of different stories with various tones in many directions, and these stories never seem to blend together nicely but instead clash against each other.

In essence, this is the story of a supernatural man who has managed to live to middle age but is still struggling to not only find his place in the world but also understand exactly who and what he is. He has done this by jumping from business to business, making speedy friendships with different people so that he can analyse them and see what makes them tick.

This is a genuinely interesting premise that led to some wonderful moments in this book. I love that his father is an island and his mother a washing machine. I loved that his brothers were a fortune teller, an island, a group of Russian nesting dolls, and a psychopath. I even liked that because of how they grew up without human interaction, their names were interchangeable. Other than the first letter of their name, they often called each other and referred to themselves by a different name every time. These were wonderfully strange flavours that gave the story its soul.

However, that alone is enough to keep track and make sense of. Throw into that a story told on a broken timeline and things start to get a little stranger. Split that broken timeline up between three different stories being told simultaneously and then insert random snippets of a story that the protagonist is writing in his head, and you start every new chapter/section in a state of confusion. It made the story seem bitty and hard to follow. I listened to this as an audiobook, so maybe it is better when reading it yourself, but I find that a broken timeline only works so long as the reader is instantly aware of which timeline the current story belongs to.

Add on top of all this strangeness a subplot about his brothers going missing, a girl who is dealing with the issues that come with having wings, and a storyline about trying to give free internet access to the world, and you suddenly have a lot going on in a very small amount of space. I'm afraid to say that maybe it was a little too much at times.

I hate having to say that because I love these weird and quirky books. They are original and so different to other books out there that they instantly make me smile and keep me engaged. I so want them to succeed but this time, I didn't quite get there.

I suppose really I have two main flaws that are the reasons for the loss of the stars in this review:

1 - There's too much going on at once and it is all jumbled up. Broken timelines, impossible creatures, strange situations, magic and technology, characters with interchangeable names; these are all issues that can work in novels. However, to use all of them in the same novel runs the risk of making the story seem jumbled and hard to follow, and this is what happened here.

2 - The negativity. This story starts out with a protagonist who is easily one of the most positive and optimistic protagonists I have read about in a long time. He was wondrously chipper, innocent and a joy to read about. Then over the course of the book, that fun, harmless man is torn down over and over until the point where it feels as though you are just reading a book about how to torture a really nice man. It left a sour taste in my mouth and made reading this book a bit of a chore at times.

So overall this is a three-star book that had the potential to be a five. I feel with a bit of working about and some more editing, this book could easily gain one of its stars back. To me, even something as simple as reorganising it to follow a linear timeline would instantly make it easier to follow and therefore more pleasant to read.

However, that isn't the case so we end up with a story that I enjoyed reading and can happily recommend, but sadly have to score a bit lower than I hoped. If you're looking for something a little different from the norm, then definitely give this a try.
Helpful
 Report
Nellig
3.0 out of 5 stars Could do better
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 August 2005
Enjoyable, but doesn't quite work. Disparate strands are roped together to make a workmanlike narrative, but the structure strains and leaves gaping holes. It's not properly cooked. It's not properly developed. It has the signature Doctorow themes of craphounds, unexplained freaks passing as human, and dysfunctional but loving families (of freaks). The technology stuff is vaguely cool but very incidental, and I kept wondering how the freaks were getting on.
Bits of it are brilliant. I loved the riff about house-renovation, the girl with wings is a great image (that cover art is fabulous) and other nice images come up. But I wanted to know what Alan/Alvin/Abe looks like. Why are the visuals so patchy? I could see Mimi, I could see Kurt, but the protagonist (whose manifest weirdness we have to take on trust) remains a cipher. I didn't get the feeling of a living, seething world. The illusion kept sputtering and fading and the grid kept showing through.
Worth a read, though. Wait for the paperback, maybe.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

MD Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Any book by Cory
Reviewed in the United States on 16 November 2020
Verified Purchase
Any book by Cory is worth reading. Note that they are all on the internet for free if you want to download them, but having a physical copy goes to the beach well, sand in the pages is no problem, and hopefully some residual payment goes back to the author or by the author's choice.
Report
GDMF
4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic story, very well written
Reviewed in the United States on 21 September 2010
Verified Purchase
Parts of this book are so well written that I had to force myself to put the book down and do something else.
The story moves around and each segment sucks you in further.
My only mild criticism is that the symbolism around one the characters and her relationships is so obvious I was literally embarassed at times while reading the book.
The book iteslf is a great size to hold and read.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Lars
5.0 out of 5 stars Just you wait... Read along
Reviewed in the United States on 5 February 2015
Verified Purchase
It starts out real good, a man is renovating his new home and the author is adding a boatload of details on how it is done. That's in itself is joyful as I am a sucker for renovation. Then he states something that you probably just think is a funny expression of his.
A chapter later he says the same thing and adds another very curious observation. I just read along a bit nonplussed. Then another and I was totally hooked and.. Spooked in a fascinating way. It's all fabulous reading from that point.
This was my first book by the author, I had read a novella before so I liked the way with words he had.
After this... What a story, and what a strange man he must be. :-)
Report
Brandon Whitfeld
2.0 out of 5 stars Someone Needs An Editor
Reviewed in the United States on 29 July 2005
Verified Purchase
I'm sure Cory Doctorow really is a "leading voice" of "next-generation SF" as the book jacket brazenly announces, but what does that really mean?

Kudos to Doctorow for fearlessly creating this fuzzy, hyperreal universe that bends and stretches all conventional narrative technique. Doctorow must see himself as some sort of latter-day literary infidel (after all, the protagonist's parents are a washing machine and a mountain) on a torch-blazing mission to the stars.

But with all the experimenting going on here, all the lip-smacking, throw-it-to-the-wind risk-taking in the writing, I found neither the characters nor the storyline compelling enough (or developed enough) to make this book interesting or enjoyable in the least.

This book is mainly comprised of lots and lots of technobabble, with very little substance. Is that what "next generation SF" really is? Isn't that kind of pretentious?

Plus, there's a pretty tangible mean streak in the text that is given neither thematic justification nor a much-needed irony; there are flippant bouts of violent atrocities on almost every page, and I began to tire quickly of all this bitter malice and revenge.
53 people found this helpful
 Report
Tomactually
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on 7 November 2020
Verified Purchase
I very rarely read fantasy, it's even more rate for me to enjoy it but Doctor Cory really delivers a great story, great characters and excellent philosophy of life.
Report