Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present

By Cory Doctorow

“Cory Doctorow straps on his miner’s helmet and takes you deep into the caverns and underground rivers of pop culture, here filtered through SF-colored glasses. Enjoy.”—Neil Gaiman

New York Times bestselling author 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 live through a bioweapon attack or 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 mind-bending sci-fi tales that explore the possibilities of information technology—and its various uses—run amok.

“Anda’s Game” is a spin on the bizarre new phenomenon of “cyber sweatshops,” in which people are paid very low wages to play online games all day in order to generate in-game wealth, which can be converted into actual money. Another tale tells of the heroic exploits of “sysadmins”—systems administrators—as they defend the cyberworld, and hence the world at large, from worms and bioweapons. And yes, there’s a story about zombies, too.

“He sparkles! He fizzes! He does backflips and breaks the furniture! Science fiction needs Cory Doctorow.” —Bruce Sterling, award-winning author of Schismatrix Plus and The Difference Engine

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
• Release date: Oct 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504757621

Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. His latest book is THE LOST CAUSE, a solarpunk science fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His most recent nonfiction book is THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATION, a Big Tech disassembly manual. Last April, he published RED TEAM BLUES, a technothriller about finance crime. He is the author of the international young adult LITTLE BROTHER series. He is also the author of CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM (with Rebecca Giblin), about creative labor markets and monopoly; HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about conspiracies and monopolies; and of RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults, a YA graphic novel called IN REAL LIFE; and other young adult novels like PIRATE CINEMA. His first picture book was POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER (Aug 2020). His next novel is THE BEZZLE (February 2024). He maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 2022, he earned the Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Awardee for lifetime achievement. York University (Canada) made him an Honourary Doctor of Laws; and the Open University (UK) made him an Honourary Doctor of Computer Science.

Reviews for Overclocked

[troyka-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Short stories that you probably wanted to be longer. I'm a big fan of C D

[jpwickwire · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I bought "Overclocked" mainly because I had read Cory Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" in another anthology. I thought that short story was brilliant, well-written and it stuck with me for a while.Unfortunately, the other stories in this book just don't compare to "Sysadmins". I read the whole thing cover to cover, and I enjoyed it, but it didn't live up to what I'd hoped. Granted, I really liked the *concepts* behind the stories, but the stories themselves didn't seem quite finished. They weren't quite polished.Like I said, I liked it enough to read all of the stories, I just wish there had been *more*.

[brookeashley-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I run hot and cold on Doctorow, sometimes he's really entertaining, and sometimes he doesn't do enough storytelling to cover up the fact that his books serve as a soapbox for him to share his opinions on technology. This short-story collection contains 5 stories, and each star in my rating corresponds with each of the stories I liked. There were two I could have done without: "When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth" was too self-indulgent for my tastes, almost like it was fantasy wish-fulfillment for someone who takes arguing on the Internets way, way too seriously. "I Row-Boat" reminded me a lot of Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, except Down and Out was actually well-written.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I spent a lot of time today, once I wandered over there somehow, on Cory Doctorow's site, looking at his opinions and downloading his books and thinking about it all. I decided I'd read Overclocked, since it's short stories and I didn't feel like reading anything long and drawn out. Of course, the short stories added up to more or less the same amount of reading time, but oh well.

There's six of them. I liked the first one, which is more or less microfiction -- I liked the end, anyway, and the concept. I'd have wound it tighter, hit harder, but I like the idea.

When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth made me laugh in places. I felt like it was a little dry in places where it could have been heart-rending, and skipped where it could have been interesting and got drawn out where it wasn't. Probably my least favourite of the six.

Anda's Game was quite interesting. The extra detail of Anda's life seemed a little dry, at times: it didn't live in my head, I couldn't really sympathise. I wish I had, it could have been awesome.

Next up, I, Robot. I liked this one a lot: it was a world I could get interested in and characters I could get somewhat invested in. I'd have liked more of it.

I, Rowboat made me laugh a good bit, at the start. I like the references to Asimov and the use of the three laws of robotics here. I also liked the introduction: "If I return to this theme, it will be with a story about uplifted cheese sandwiches, called “I, Rarebit”."

And After The Siege... I possibly liked the best. The version I downloaded was badly edited -- I don't know about all versions ever -- and there was some confusing name switching for some reason. But I liked the ideas, although again I felt like some of the emotional life of the story fell flat.

Definitely interesting, and worth spending the time with, but I probably won't revisit it. It feels very focused on the points Cory Doctorow's trying to get across, rather than the lives of his characters, but his ideas are interesting nonetheless. I did like that it's accessible speculative fiction -- no impenetrable technobabble.

[systemicplural · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I was younger I didn't appreciate short story collections very much - I like character development. I don't know what's changed, but I appreciate them more now. This is my favourite to date. A nice collection of near future sci-fi from Doctorow.

[danconsiglio · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I worry about how well Doctorow's sci/fi will hold up to future generations. His stories are full of cultural and temporal markers and that can make sci/fi dated very quickly. Not that that should effect what I think of the stories now. This is a very solid short story collection. The first and last stories are the best. Doctorow's blurbs are always amusing and often political. Not for the conservative audience!

[japag_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cory Doctorow is an interesting writer. He has wonderful ideas (check out his Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom for Whuffies and the Bitchun society! :)), but his writing and style is not always top of the line.The same applies here. We have very interesting ideas (piracy by printing objects, apocalypse seen through the eyes of a system admin, pitching MMORPG girls and gold miner slaves against one another, 1984-like society with artificial intelligences, uplifted rowboats and sea creatures, and near-future war seen through the eyes of a small girl), but with most of the stories, his style just does not "click". He also seems to be a bit of a one-trick pony in that all the stories seem somehow to be about the freedom of information. He also gets a bit preachy every now and then. :)But that small blemish aside, the ideas in the stories carry the collection well. Especially when he ponders about machine intelligences in I Robot and I, Row-Boat, he gives the reader a lot to think about us as humans. These two stories have a very interesting and humorous take on Asimov's three laws of robotics as well. :)A very entertaining read.

[tyroeternal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Doctorow's writing is fun and easy to follow along with. His ability to weave a tantalizing futuristic story had me reading further than I typically intended every time. Short stories are typically not my cup of tea, but I greatly enjoyed this collection.

[ifool_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fine collection of short stories of various lengths. I particularly enjoyed reading the introductions at the beginning of each story on the author's inspirations for each story. The common theme among the stories appear to be the conflict between scientific inventions and moral.