Cory Doctorow 45 min read

On the island where Pinocchio's donkey-boys were made, the servants who keep the magic running have their own uneasy business, a dark, unsettling reworking of a familiar tale.

Cory Doctorow's 1999 story is a disturbing, inventive fantasy retelling of the Pleasure Island episode from 'Pinocchio.' Sharp, unnerving, memorable. Read it for a well-crafted and genuinely unsettling take on a childhood tale, from behind the scenes of its dark machinery.

In its time

Published in 1999, during the 1990s, the web age dawns.

Reading it

45 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).