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Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present
Now available for the first time with two additional stories! Cory Doctorow has been hailed as one of the freshest voices in science fiction, and this collection of intriguing novellas is yet another reason why. Have you ever wondered what it's like to get bitten by a zombie? To live through a bioweapon attack? To have every aspect of your life governed by invisible ants? In Cory Doctorow's collection of novellas, he wields his formidable experience in technology and computing to give us mindbending sci-fi tales that explore the possibilities of information technology, and its various uses, run amok. And yes, there is a story about zombies too.
Contents:
* Printcrime (2006) / short story by Cory Doctorow
* When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (2006) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* Anda's Game (2004) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* I, Robot (2005) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* I, Row-Boat (2006) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* After the Siege (2007) / novella by Cory Doctorow
* Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* The Man Who Sold the Moon (2014) / novella by Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licenses for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics. Doctorow began selling fiction when he was 17 years old and sold several stories followed by the publication of his story Craphound in 1998.
Contents:
* Printcrime (2006) / short story by Cory Doctorow
* When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth (2006) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* Anda's Game (2004) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* I, Robot (2005) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* I, Row-Boat (2006) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* After the Siege (2007) / novella by Cory Doctorow
* Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014) / novelette by Cory Doctorow
* The Man Who Sold the Moon (2014) / novella by Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licenses for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics. Doctorow began selling fiction when he was 17 years old and sold several stories followed by the publication of his story Craphound in 1998.
438 pages, Paperback
Published October 25, 2016
About the author
Cory Doctorow
236 books4,759 followersCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and
Little Brother
and novels for adults like
Rapture Of The Nerds
and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 17, 2018
What we have in “Overclocked” is a passionate, smart collection of shorts and novellas that plies the territory of speculative sci-fi with an absurdist, cyberpunk edge. It reminds one of the Netflix series “Black Mirror,” a sci-fi anthology that explores a twisted high-tech near future—except in “Overclocked” a ray of hope often pierces the darkness.
Some of these stories are vintage, dating back to 2005-2007 when the Web was still a gangly teenager, while other tales are more recent, but all take on a special resonance in today’s grim, chaotic online environment.
With the death last week of John Perry Barlow, the role of Internet freedom torchbearer has been passed to Doctorow, who mines the intersection of cyberspace and the physical world not through provocative manifestos but with stories of loss, dislocation and occasional redemption.
Sci-fi fans will recognize the knowing tributes to the genre’s masters, including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Orson Scott Card (can you tell which ones by the titles?).
• “Printcrime” gives us a snappy takedown of the copyright cartel’s sometimes thuggish behavior. Are 3-D printers mankind’s last best hope to democratize technology?
• In “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth,” you’ll find IRC chat rooms, Usenet newsgroups, Trojan bots, zombie computers, and blogs teeming with “millions of posts from scared survivors huddling together for electronic warmth” after an unnamed enemy unleashes a bioweapon pathogen that sends civilization reeling. While surviving techno-geeks debate whether to shut down the Internet or keep it running, Felix, our protagonist, doesn’t want to rebuild the old world. He wants a new one.
• “Anda’s Game” offers a take on cyber sweatshops where the schoolgirl Anda and other low-wage online gamers are exploited to generate in-game and real-world wealth.
• “I, Robot” transports us to a techno-totalitarian era when robots are at war and only one mega-corporation is allowed to produce anything and wields the power of the state, including a police officer sent to arrest anyone who pirates copyrighted goods. His daughter, a rebellious teen, takes up the cyberpunk mantle. Bad things happen.
• “I, Rowboat” takes a more fanciful approach, featuring a sentient rowboat with free will that heads out and disturbs a self-aware coral reef. The story explores the question: What is the nature of consciousness when all the people are gone?
• “After the Siege” is a reimagining and updating of the real-life struggles of the author’s Russian grandmother during the siege of Leningrad, though I’m guessing zombies weren’t as big a problem back then. It’s a bleak, powerful story where the horrors of war become fodder for a documentary crew’s infotainment.
• “The Man Who Sold the Moon,” a heartfelt riff on Heinlein’s 1950-51 novella of the same name, is updated for the age of Burning Man, where geeks and Burners ultimately come together to put a solar-powered 3D printing robot on the moon to convert sand into habitable structures. This one won the 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction.
• “Petard” features a young, personable hacktivist who fights shortsighted school administrators and corrupt corporations in an effort to return power to the people.
Bravo! Whether you’re a geek or not, prepare to be entertained and let Internet freedom ring with “Overclocked.”
Some of these stories are vintage, dating back to 2005-2007 when the Web was still a gangly teenager, while other tales are more recent, but all take on a special resonance in today’s grim, chaotic online environment.
With the death last week of John Perry Barlow, the role of Internet freedom torchbearer has been passed to Doctorow, who mines the intersection of cyberspace and the physical world not through provocative manifestos but with stories of loss, dislocation and occasional redemption.
Sci-fi fans will recognize the knowing tributes to the genre’s masters, including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Orson Scott Card (can you tell which ones by the titles?).
• “Printcrime” gives us a snappy takedown of the copyright cartel’s sometimes thuggish behavior. Are 3-D printers mankind’s last best hope to democratize technology?
• In “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth,” you’ll find IRC chat rooms, Usenet newsgroups, Trojan bots, zombie computers, and blogs teeming with “millions of posts from scared survivors huddling together for electronic warmth” after an unnamed enemy unleashes a bioweapon pathogen that sends civilization reeling. While surviving techno-geeks debate whether to shut down the Internet or keep it running, Felix, our protagonist, doesn’t want to rebuild the old world. He wants a new one.
• “Anda’s Game” offers a take on cyber sweatshops where the schoolgirl Anda and other low-wage online gamers are exploited to generate in-game and real-world wealth.
• “I, Robot” transports us to a techno-totalitarian era when robots are at war and only one mega-corporation is allowed to produce anything and wields the power of the state, including a police officer sent to arrest anyone who pirates copyrighted goods. His daughter, a rebellious teen, takes up the cyberpunk mantle. Bad things happen.
• “I, Rowboat” takes a more fanciful approach, featuring a sentient rowboat with free will that heads out and disturbs a self-aware coral reef. The story explores the question: What is the nature of consciousness when all the people are gone?
• “After the Siege” is a reimagining and updating of the real-life struggles of the author’s Russian grandmother during the siege of Leningrad, though I’m guessing zombies weren’t as big a problem back then. It’s a bleak, powerful story where the horrors of war become fodder for a documentary crew’s infotainment.
• “The Man Who Sold the Moon,” a heartfelt riff on Heinlein’s 1950-51 novella of the same name, is updated for the age of Burning Man, where geeks and Burners ultimately come together to put a solar-powered 3D printing robot on the moon to convert sand into habitable structures. This one won the 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction.
• “Petard” features a young, personable hacktivist who fights shortsighted school administrators and corrupt corporations in an effort to return power to the people.
Bravo! Whether you’re a geek or not, prepare to be entertained and let Internet freedom ring with “Overclocked.”
March 28, 2018
Cory Doctorow has this thing he does. Reading a number of his stories in a collection together makes it more obvious than reading one here and another there, with long gaps between, so let's see if I can articulate what that thing is.
Firstly, he takes a big, unlikely premise based on exaggerating present technopolitical conflicts.
Then he pushes it all the way over the top, and takes it to an unrealistically dystopian place with no apparent way out.
Meanwhile, he distracts you with fireworks: bold characters being awesome (actually, his characters are all pretty much the same character, and I suspect that character is an idealized version of himself); big ideas that other writers might build a whole story around, thrown about like confetti as offhand mentions and background; highly condensed technopolitical arguments that sound convincing, but are so compressed, and so full of references, that you'd need to be deeply immersed in the same ideas and conversations as Doctorow himself in order to fully understand them, let alone engage with them.
And finally, he takes that unrealistically dystopian story and (madly gesticulating and setting off geek-culture flares to distract the reader from the improbability of everything) turns it around, ending with a clear note of hope and techno-optimism.
He does this with great verve, relentless pace, and usually not much in the way of actual plot. (There's always a lot going on, it's just that not a lot of it is plot-relevant in any traditional sense.)
I don't think anyone else could do it. William Gibson lacks the optimism, and Bruce Sterling the panache; Neal Stephenson lacks the pacing, and Rudy Rucker the discipline. Charles Stross perhaps comes closest to the blend of gonzo imagination and storytelling chops, but his work seems more considered and less showy, and his overall tone less hopeful.
It's an entertaining show to watch, even if I'm not always in the mood for it and can find plenty in it to criticize. For example, the bold flip where the (former) US is a dystopian society governed by Orwellian "social harmony" laws, and the (former) China is a techno-utopia, without crime, in which everyone is free to fulfill their potential. ("Social harmony" is a phrase used by the repressive Chinese government, in the real world, to control the populace.)
I did skip a couple of stories in this book; one, based on the Siege of Leningrad, because the introduction seemed to be warning of a darker story than I wanted to read, and one, "The Man Who Sold the Moon," because I'd read it before, relatively recently, and didn't love it so much that I wanted to read it again. It has what I sometimes describe as "not a lot of plot per thousand words".
Firstly, he takes a big, unlikely premise based on exaggerating present technopolitical conflicts.
Then he pushes it all the way over the top, and takes it to an unrealistically dystopian place with no apparent way out.
Meanwhile, he distracts you with fireworks: bold characters being awesome (actually, his characters are all pretty much the same character, and I suspect that character is an idealized version of himself); big ideas that other writers might build a whole story around, thrown about like confetti as offhand mentions and background; highly condensed technopolitical arguments that sound convincing, but are so compressed, and so full of references, that you'd need to be deeply immersed in the same ideas and conversations as Doctorow himself in order to fully understand them, let alone engage with them.
And finally, he takes that unrealistically dystopian story and (madly gesticulating and setting off geek-culture flares to distract the reader from the improbability of everything) turns it around, ending with a clear note of hope and techno-optimism.
He does this with great verve, relentless pace, and usually not much in the way of actual plot. (There's always a lot going on, it's just that not a lot of it is plot-relevant in any traditional sense.)
I don't think anyone else could do it. William Gibson lacks the optimism, and Bruce Sterling the panache; Neal Stephenson lacks the pacing, and Rudy Rucker the discipline. Charles Stross perhaps comes closest to the blend of gonzo imagination and storytelling chops, but his work seems more considered and less showy, and his overall tone less hopeful.
It's an entertaining show to watch, even if I'm not always in the mood for it and can find plenty in it to criticize. For example, the bold flip where the (former) US is a dystopian society governed by Orwellian "social harmony" laws, and the (former) China is a techno-utopia, without crime, in which everyone is free to fulfill their potential. ("Social harmony" is a phrase used by the repressive Chinese government, in the real world, to control the populace.)
I did skip a couple of stories in this book; one, based on the Siege of Leningrad, because the introduction seemed to be warning of a darker story than I wanted to read, and one, "The Man Who Sold the Moon," because I'd read it before, relatively recently, and didn't love it so much that I wanted to read it again. It has what I sometimes describe as "not a lot of plot per thousand words".
July 12, 2019
I’ve read a couple of Doctorow’s novels and liked them, so thought I would also be enlightened by his short story collection. As with most such collections, some stories were hits and some were misses. I judge these by the story, and since we’re talking sci fi, by the worlds conjectured. Some of the stories seemed too weird to represent a future state, but were written to make a statement. I’m specifically thinking about “I, Row-Boat”. Not my favorite. I did enjoy “After the Siege” for its gritty take on future techno-enabled city siege warfare. I enjoyed “Anda’s Game” for the cute “turning on the head” of online work, which I suspect is pretty close to reality. And I got a bit of a thrill about “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” because I recognize the personality-type and can not imagine a whole bunch in the same place (it's kinda scary). I also appreciated “The Man Who Sold the Moon” as being one of those examples of how an organization can change the future, and how that organization can be driven by a few people with a vision. Kind of a Horatio Alger story, but instead of “rags to riches” we get “interesting idea to world-changing enterprise”. I’ll be reading more. I listened to the audio version with different narrators for each story. I found this a little uneven, needing to slow the playback on one story to maintain my understanding. YMMV.
November 16, 2018
A great collection of science fiction stories. Eight different stories of possible (I must say fascinating but improbable) futures on a variety of themes "ripped from the headlines" but inspired by previous works of science fiction. The prologues to the stories give their inspiration (and add to the enjoyment). Then they're extrapolated into the future, sometimes dystopian, sometimes optimistic. The results are all entertaining and thought-provoking. "Printcrime" deals with the future of 3-D printing (think of Drexler's nanotechnology assemblers) and trademarked/patented goods. "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" will be appreciated by Systems Administrators as the world suffers from global terror attacks and they hold it together. "Anda's Game" was a twist on "Ender's Game", with a very unlikely heroine, and is perhaps my favorite. "I, Robot" takes place in a world with competing robot manufacturers, each striving to become dominant. The Three Laws are invoked so you can guess Asimov was the inspiration, but it's a very different result from Asimov's vision. "I, Rowboat" takes place in the further future, when humans have instantiated themselves in the cloud, and only robots inhabit the Earth. Robbie is an AI that controls a rowboat for tourists who instantiate into "human shells" and want to scuba dive. Then a reef they are visiting becomes sentient, and things get very interesting. "After the Siege" was the saddest, dystopian vision of the future. "The Man Who Sold the Moon" was the most optimistic story, and had some very interesting characters. Imagine launching 3-D printers to the Moon to print panels from moon dust that would be assembled by future settlers! "Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts" has some of the most obtuse dialogue I've read in a long time. It's a tale of individuals joining together to "Fight the Powers". I'm still not sure if the ending was pessimistic or optimistic-will Lucas continue to work for the "little guy" or will he join the Powers?
November 5, 2017
You can summarize his writing as "anything he does not like, or does not benefit from, becomes a villain". The author comes across as so aggressively & blindly opposed to ideas such as capitalism, equal opportunity (he's only interested in equality of results, apparently), and America, that it's clear no dialogue with him would be worthwhile. In fact, I bet everyone but his hippy, tree-hugging, bleeding-heart, vegan friends would place him clearly in the "ahole" category.
Oh, and I would be remiss to neglect to mention the hypocrisy that he rails against capitalism, but *sold* all his stories originally. Then he packaged them together into a book and *sold* them all again.
Don't bother reading.
Oh, and I would be remiss to neglect to mention the hypocrisy that he rails against capitalism, but *sold* all his stories originally. Then he packaged them together into a book and *sold* them all again.
Don't bother reading.
May 3, 2018
This book is a collection of short stories. Similar to most other books of that type, some of them are good, others, well... In general I really like Cory Doctorow's work. Most of the stories really hit on all eight cylinders and I enjoyed them a lot. The unfortunate thing is that the last story in the book kind of fizzled out at the end. It had an interesting premise, but I would have put it as one of the earlier stories so as not to end on a bad note. Anyhow, if your a fan of techie sci-fi, it's a good read.
March 26, 2019
Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present. By Cory Doctorow
The tit!e only suggests the diverse range of the themes found in thes " stories". They are brillantly selected group that collectively build an unusual frame work to open and rearrange your thinking and assumptions.
The tit!e only suggests the diverse range of the themes found in thes " stories". They are brillantly selected group that collectively build an unusual frame work to open and rearrange your thinking and assumptions.
June 12, 2021
A collection of short stories by Cory Doctorow. Very much in line with the feel of his novels. Less heavy on the the tech talk and more focused on the stories. Solid sci-fi dystopias.
January 28, 2021
What we have in “Overclocked” is a passionate, smart collection of shorts and novellas that ply the territory of speculative sci-fi with an absurdist, cyberpunk edge. It reminds one of the Netflix series “Black Mirror,” a sci-fi anthology that explores a twisted high-tech near future—except in “Overclocked” a ray of hope often pierces the darkness.
Some of these stories are vintage, dating back to 2005-2007 when the Web was still a gangly teenager, while other tales are more recent, but all take on a special resonance in today’s grim, chaotic online environment.
With the death of John Perry Barlow, the role of Internet freedom torchbearer has been passed to Doctorow, who mines the intersection of cyberspace and the physical world not through provocative manifestos but with stories of loss, dislocation and occasional redemption.
Sci-fi fans will recognise the knowing tributes to the genre’s masters, including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Orson Scott Card (can you tell which ones by the titles?).
• “Printcrime” gives us a snappy take down of the copyright cartel’s sometimes thuggish behaviour. Are 3-D printers mankind’s last best hope to democratise technology?
• In “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth,” you’ll find IRC chat rooms, Usenet newsgroups, Trojan bots, zombie computers, and blogs teeming with “millions of posts from scared survivors huddling together for electronic warmth” after an unnamed enemy unleashes a bioweapon pathogen that sends civilisation reeling. While surviving techno-geeks debate whether to shut down the Internet or keep it running, Felix, our protagonist, doesn’t want to rebuild the old world. He wants a new one.
• “Anda’s Game” offers a take on cyber sweatshops where the schoolgirl Anda and other low-wage online gamers are exploited to generate in-game and real-world wealth.
• “I, Robot” transports us to a techno-totalitarian era when robots are at war and only one mega-corporation is allowed to produce anything and wields the power of the state, including a police officer sent to arrest anyone who pirates copyrighted goods. His daughter, a rebellious teen, takes up the cyberpunk mantle. Bad things happen.
• “I, Rowboat” takes a more fanciful approach, featuring a sentient rowboat with free will that heads out and disturbs a self-aware coral reef. The story explores the question: What is the nature of consciousness when all the people are gone?
• “After the Siege” is a reimagining and updating of the real-life struggles of the author’s Russian grandmother during the siege of Leningrad, though I’m guessing zombies weren’t as big a problem back then. It’s a bleak, powerful story where the horrors of war become fodder for a documentary crew's infotainment.
• “The Man Who Sold the Moon,” a heartfelt riff on Heinlein’s 1950-51 novella of the same name, is updated for the age of Burning Man, where geeks and Burners ultimately come together to put a solar-powered 3D printing robot on the moon to convert sand into habitable structures. This one won the 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction.
• “Petard” features a young, personable hacktivist who fights shortsighted school administrators and corrupt corporations in an effort to return power to the people.
Bravo! Whether you’re a geek or not, prepare to be entertained and let Internet freedom ring with “Overclocked.”
Some of these stories are vintage, dating back to 2005-2007 when the Web was still a gangly teenager, while other tales are more recent, but all take on a special resonance in today’s grim, chaotic online environment.
With the death of John Perry Barlow, the role of Internet freedom torchbearer has been passed to Doctorow, who mines the intersection of cyberspace and the physical world not through provocative manifestos but with stories of loss, dislocation and occasional redemption.
Sci-fi fans will recognise the knowing tributes to the genre’s masters, including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Orson Scott Card (can you tell which ones by the titles?).
• “Printcrime” gives us a snappy take down of the copyright cartel’s sometimes thuggish behaviour. Are 3-D printers mankind’s last best hope to democratise technology?
• In “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth,” you’ll find IRC chat rooms, Usenet newsgroups, Trojan bots, zombie computers, and blogs teeming with “millions of posts from scared survivors huddling together for electronic warmth” after an unnamed enemy unleashes a bioweapon pathogen that sends civilisation reeling. While surviving techno-geeks debate whether to shut down the Internet or keep it running, Felix, our protagonist, doesn’t want to rebuild the old world. He wants a new one.
• “Anda’s Game” offers a take on cyber sweatshops where the schoolgirl Anda and other low-wage online gamers are exploited to generate in-game and real-world wealth.
• “I, Robot” transports us to a techno-totalitarian era when robots are at war and only one mega-corporation is allowed to produce anything and wields the power of the state, including a police officer sent to arrest anyone who pirates copyrighted goods. His daughter, a rebellious teen, takes up the cyberpunk mantle. Bad things happen.
• “I, Rowboat” takes a more fanciful approach, featuring a sentient rowboat with free will that heads out and disturbs a self-aware coral reef. The story explores the question: What is the nature of consciousness when all the people are gone?
• “After the Siege” is a reimagining and updating of the real-life struggles of the author’s Russian grandmother during the siege of Leningrad, though I’m guessing zombies weren’t as big a problem back then. It’s a bleak, powerful story where the horrors of war become fodder for a documentary crew's infotainment.
• “The Man Who Sold the Moon,” a heartfelt riff on Heinlein’s 1950-51 novella of the same name, is updated for the age of Burning Man, where geeks and Burners ultimately come together to put a solar-powered 3D printing robot on the moon to convert sand into habitable structures. This one won the 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction.
• “Petard” features a young, personable hacktivist who fights shortsighted school administrators and corrupt corporations in an effort to return power to the people.
Bravo! Whether you’re a geek or not, prepare to be entertained and let Internet freedom ring with “Overclocked.”
September 12, 2020
I bought this book because I love the show Black Mirror, am fascinated by it, and these short stories fit right in, each one could be an episode.
Printcrime: ****
When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth: ***
Anda's Game: *****
I Robot: *****
I Rowboat: *****
This is one of the best short stories I have ever read. Humans have uploaded their consciousness and no longer inhabit the earth. A sentient rowboat takes human shells on daily excursions to keep them in shape, until one day an actual human being jumps into one of the shells in his charge.
After The Siege: ****
A future world war, where food, clothes, and drugs can be printed and zombieism is curable.
The Man Who Sold The Moon: ****
Petard: ****
The book is long, the stories are long, and they are all awesome.
For anyone who liked both this book and the show Black Mirror I recommend Children Of The New World by Alexander Weinstein.
Printcrime: ****
When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth: ***
Anda's Game: *****
I Robot: *****
I Rowboat: *****
This is one of the best short stories I have ever read. Humans have uploaded their consciousness and no longer inhabit the earth. A sentient rowboat takes human shells on daily excursions to keep them in shape, until one day an actual human being jumps into one of the shells in his charge.
After The Siege: ****
A future world war, where food, clothes, and drugs can be printed and zombieism is curable.
The Man Who Sold The Moon: ****
Petard: ****
The book is long, the stories are long, and they are all awesome.
For anyone who liked both this book and the show Black Mirror I recommend Children Of The New World by Alexander Weinstein.
April 26, 2020
Loved this!
If you like the way Cory Doctorow thinks about the world we live in, you'll love this book. Doctorow takes on so many ideas - ideas that would be a whole story for some writers are just a little bit of extra for him.
If you like the way Cory Doctorow thinks about the world we live in, you'll love this book. Doctorow takes on so many ideas - ideas that would be a whole story for some writers are just a little bit of extra for him.
May 12, 2020
Subtract the dull I, Rowboat and perhaps Printcrime (or don't, it's short enough that it doesn't matter, but like every other story here hits the same themes deeper and better) and this is a thoroughly enjoyable collection
July 24, 2021
This collection is a landmark in Mr. Doctorow's evolution as a writer - from journeyman to master of the craft. Highly recommended.
December 28, 2021
Well-written, entertaining, suspenseful - and very grim. Made a good audio book for road trip. I liked that unlike so many short stories, Doctorow's had a beginning, middle, and satisfying end.
January 13, 2023
Very thought provoking. Two of the longer stories were too long. But all were worth reading.
March 2, 2018
A good collection of short stories and novellas loosely based off of spoofed titles of classic sci-fi novels, inspired by current events, and/or generally set in the present or near future with highly plausible (or already-existing) technology. There's the same preachy anti-copyright/information-wants-to-be-free message throughout, and some general anti-business Internet utopianism, but overall it was pretty good. I particularly liked the idea behind "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth", although I'd read it before this collection. If you're new to Doctorow, this collection is better than starting with a novel.
September 22, 2016
Well I really wanted to reread the SysAdmins story good thing I did because apparently I completely misunderstood it the first time :). Anda's Game was interesting but I didn't like the ending. Narrators were awesome made the stories lot more engaging.
But 3 stars, because I really wanted something like the "internet will kill us" type story I guess.
Maybe one his other books are about the evils of the internet though I doubt it, sounds like Mr. Doctorow loves the web as much as he hates trademarks!
But 3 stars, because I really wanted something like the "internet will kill us" type story I guess.
Maybe one his other books are about the evils of the internet though I doubt it, sounds like Mr. Doctorow loves the web as much as he hates trademarks!
March 9, 2019
Stories With Real World Inspirations
All the stories in this collection of the author's short fiction have real world inspirations that are explained in the introductions. My personal favorite is a story centered around gold farming which is the practice of having others grind for in game currency in massively online role playing games.
All the stories in this collection of the author's short fiction have real world inspirations that are explained in the introductions. My personal favorite is a story centered around gold farming which is the practice of having others grind for in game currency in massively online role playing games.
January 7, 2019
This collection is so-so. I would only strongly recommend 'When Sysadmins Rules the World', which is one hell of an original sort of post-apocalyptic narrative, and 'I, Rowboat', in which Doctorow drags Asimov's old precepts forward into modern sci-fi and makes them feel fresh and insightful again.
February 24, 2018
I'm not a fan of short stories but I enjoyed this collection. Great writer with good imaginative stories. If you like short stories you'll love these. If you like great science fiction you'll enjoy them.
September 25, 2018
Some nice short stories.
Liked the 'I, Robot' version. sort of like Asimov + Orwell.
The last story 'Petard' seemed like it ended abruptly. There is a great monologue on the nature of business (the story might be worth it just for that).
Liked the 'I, Robot' version. sort of like Asimov + Orwell.
The last story 'Petard' seemed like it ended abruptly. There is a great monologue on the nature of business (the story might be worth it just for that).
June 14, 2019
Some of the best science fiction that I have read in a long while. Doctorow's
tales are strange and familiar at the same time. Seldom does his story end wherever you think it is leading, starting at the Burn but ending in the moon.
tales are strange and familiar at the same time. Seldom does his story end wherever you think it is leading, starting at the Burn but ending in the moon.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews