Today’s edition of SciFi Wire (the wire service of the SciFi channel) features an amazing, flattering article about the fact that my novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a finalist for this year’s Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Doctorow also tackles morality, cloning, socialism, poverty, the right to die, freedom of choice, hubris and the cult of celebrity in the book. He said he has heard from many Disney people, and the reaction and comments about the book were “all positive. They say I captured the mood and details just right.”
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was released in February 2003 to widespread acclaim. Blog critic Kevin Marks wrote, “About once every 10 years, a science fiction novel appears that redefines the art form. One that describes a world different from our own, but recognizably yours: extrapolated from current trends, but richly evocative of its difference, adding words to the language that needed to be coined.”
The Austin (Texas) Statesman said, “It may be the best debut science-fiction novel since [William Gibson’s] Neuromancer.”
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom went on to win a Locus Award for best first novel. If it wins the Nebula, it will join Neuromancer (1984) as a debut-novel winner.
