/ / For The Win, News


I’ve just hit San Francisco on my book tour for For the Win, and I’m doing three stops in the Bay Area:

Tonight (Monday), I’m at Borderlands Books in the Mission, reading and taking questions at 7PM

Tuesday, I’m at Books Inc in Palo Alto, as part of the Not Your Mother’s BookClub event, starting at 7PM.

Wednesday, I wrap up with a fantastic EFF benefit at the 111 Minna Gallery at 730PM.

After this, I head on Austin, where the EFF-Austin folks are planning an event in conjunction with BookPeople on Thursday, then I’m in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, then New York and Brooklyn, and finally finishing in my home town, Toronto, on June 4.

Full tour schedule

Review:

SFX

Regardless of your own political views, what Doctorow writes is important, and his stories are fast-paced and informative… For The Win is worthy.

SFX

/ / For The Win, News


Hey, Portlanders! I’m on my way today to the Powell’s location in Beaverton at 2PM for the latest stop in my For the Win tour.

After that, I’m off to the Bay Area, where I’ll kick off with a signing at Borderlands Books in the Mission on Monday at 7PM. Then it’s a stop in Palo Alto at Books Inc for the Not Your Mother’s Book Club event on Tuesday at 7PM.

It culminates with a kick-ass EFF fundraiser at the 111 Minna Gallery on Wednesday at 7:30PM.

After that, the tour goes on, with stops in Austin on May 20, Raleigh on the 22nd, Chapel Hill on the 23d, New York on the 26th, Brooklyn on the 27th, New York again on the 28th, and Toronto on June 4. Hope to see you!

Full tour schedule

Review:

Seattle Times

“For the Win” is not a perfect book — merely a glorious one. Its end is open, almost ambiguous. It asks more questions than it answers. It stirs up trouble in its readers’ hearts and worries in our minds, presenting problems without providing forever-and-all-time solutions. But it dares much, and daring is the best way humans have of making progress.

Nisi Shawl, The Seattle Times
Review:

The Guardian

It’s the near future and online labour is globalised: millions work in virtual sweatshops with no rights and no union representation. Gamers Matthew from China, and Mumbai slum-dwellers Mala and Yasmin, among others, labour online to amass millions for exploitative global corporations, until they realise that by overcoming their differences and working together they can defeat their oppressors. Doctorow isn’t afraid of taking on big ideas and difficult themes. Here he mixes online gaming, trades union politics and economics in a realistic near-contemporary setting. In lesser hands, this might make for a dull read, but Doctorow is a fine stylist. In For the Win he has produced an exhilarating, unputdownable novel that’s likely to be nominated for the genre’s top awards.

/ / For The Win, News


Hey, Chicagoans! I’m headed your way this week for the kick-off of the tour for my new young adult novel, For the Win. I’ll be at Anderson’s Books in Naperville on Weds, May 12 at 7PM and at the Chicago Public Library Harold Washington Library Center on Thurs, May 13 at 5PM.

My next city is Portland, OR, where I’ll be at the Powell’s Location in Beaverton on May 15. From there, I head to San Francisco (EFF benefit!), Austin, Raleigh and NYC. Hope I get a chance to see you!

Full tour schedule

/ / For The Win, News


Are you a teacher, librarian, youth worker, or someone else who could use a copy of my new young adult novel FOR THE WIN?

As I’ve done with my previous three books, I’ve set up a matchmaking service for people who need copies of my books and people who want to buy copies of my printed books as a way of paying me back for the free, downloadable versions I make available on my site.

If you work at an institution that could use a free copy, please send your details to freeftwbook@gmail.com. The book launches tomorrow, and the website and free ebook editions direct potential donors to the list of institutions that need copies. Previous donation programs have resulted in hundreds of hardcovers being donated to worthy institutions by generous readers.

Please pass the word!

In the virtual future, you must organize to survive

At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual “gold,” jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless “gold farmers,” bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.

Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of “General Robotwalla.” In Shenzen, heart of China’s industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.

The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power—including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister’s people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once—a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.

Imbued with the same lively, subversive spirit and thrilling storytelling that made LITTLE BROTHER an international sensation, FOR THE WIN is a prophetic and inspiring call-to-arms for a new generation

Review:

PopMatters

Doctorow keeps up a driving pace, full of action and violence both inside the games and in the real world as the union efforts heat up. With the popularity of online gaming today, it’s certainly easy to believe that the stakes are high for the players and companies, as well as the workers. Access to information, net neutrality, and fair use of the work of others are all issues that come into play in For the Win, set in the game context and mixed up with a global labor movement. It just might be that the author is describing a not-so-distant future.

Lara Killian, PopMatters