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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Overclocked

Cory Doctorow has a new collection of short stories - Overclocked - and I think it's his best yet. You can go grab the stories at Cory's web site or get it from some place like Amazon (I prefer a book myself).

Cory is at his best in the short story format - indeed, I got the feeling that his first blockbuster was, despite its creative brilliance, actually a short story extended beyond its means. Everything on 'Overclocked' works fine, however. Anda's Game (yes, the SF references are legion) is both a great story and a great prediction of the present, embracing gaming, world development and feminism all in one neat story. His homage to Azimov in I, Robot and I, Row-Boat is insightful and delicious.

The dystopia of After the Siege is unsettling in its references extending the patent pressures of today into "info-war". When SysAdmins Ruled the Earth was less effective although still full of flashes of knowing brilliance, and only the shortest story, Printcrime, was ultimately unsatisfying.

All in all, if you like Cory's earlier works, or Azimov, or enjoy futuristic fiction generally, this is the first essential read of 2007.

Labels: Books

posted at 7:45 PM (UK) | |