The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow Plus...

This short collection harnesses the harmlessly nihilistic title story with the essay “Creativity vs. Copyright” and Terry Bisson’s interview with Doctorow. In the novella, a young man wanders an America where extremist factions armed with powerful technology have shattered the old social order, replacing it only with often violent chaos. The essay is classic Doctorow on copyright, denouncing its extreme applications as destructive and counterproductive. The rambling interview discusses the Web site BoingBoing, where Doctorow’s an editor; his work habits; and the present state of young adult fiction. “The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” is harmlessly nihilistic. The interview is the high point of this short book, particularly the examination of the parallels between BoingBoing and Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog, a 1970s collection presenting tools both technophile and traditional. Agent: Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. (Feb.)