Review:

SFRevu

In this collection of stories by SF author, technopundit, uber-geek, and now college professor Cory Doctorow, you’ll find a half dozen award worthy stories about the “future present”, with brilliant extrapolations “ripped from the headlines” and recast as tales of tomorrow. This is what SF has always done, though rarely with the self awareness Cory brings to the stage. Each short story is an idea bomb with a candy coating of human drama, wrapped in shiny tech tropes and ready to blow your mind. Overclocked is SF info-warfare ammunition of the highest caliber, so load up, move out, and take no prisoners…let Asimov sort em out.

Overclocked, which you probably recognize as a computer term for running a processor faster than the clock rate it’s rated for, generally courting some sort of meltdown, is a fantastic collection of stories about people living with technology for better or worse and you should feel free to stop reading here and just go buy the book. At least if there’s a drop of geekazoid blood anywhere in your veins, which there is or you wouldn’t be here…

The hard part of all this is that every one of these stories deserves consideration for a Hugo and I’d hate to see him split his own vote as a result. Not that it matters. What matters is that this is a collection really worth reading, sharing, downloading and generally infecting others with. Overclocked is SF info-warfare ammunition of the highest caliber. Load up, move out, and remember, take no prisoners…let Asimov sort em out.

Review:

Kirkus Reviews

Five substantial stories plus one short-short, all previously published, all computer-related and
bulging with knowing SF references… The appealing characters, snappy
writing and swift pace will surely tempt the younger and/or geekier sections of the SF audience.

/ / News

SFRevu magazine has just published a wide-ranging interview with me and a great review of my forthcoming short story collection Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present.


SFRevu: Will ebooks ever get traction? Do you read electronically? How does that experience differ from reading on a full size display and print?

Cory: People already read “ebooks” — that is to say, the majority of readers presently spend the majority of their reading time reading on screens. They don’t read longer form works that way (by and large) and it’s likely they never will. The computer screen has its own affordances that will drive new forms of creativity.

This isn’t just about resolution or form-factor. The point of a computer is that it is multi-purpose, networked, and social. It does lots of things, and it wants your attention to wander around its infinite depths. Long linear narratives just don’t work well in that medium.

I’ll channel a little Eric Flint here. Reading novels has always been a minority pass-time, and the people who read novels fetishize the form factor the way that, say, a classic car hobbyist loves his tailfins. I recently wrote an op-ed for Forbes where I described these people as “pervy for paper” (I count myself among them). For us, the paper codex has value that has nothing to do with its technical merit.

Link to interview,

Link to review