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Overclocked: Stories Of The Future Present by Cory Doctorow
01/07/2007 . Source: Laura Kayne 
Pub: Thunder's Mouth Press. 285 page enlarged paperback. Price: $15.95 (US). ISBN: 978-1-56025-981-7. Buy Overclocked: Stories Of The Future Present in the USA - or Buy Overclocked: Stories Of The Future Present in the UK  check out website: www.avalonpub.com and www.thundersmouth.com
With his latest short story collection, Doctorow once again takes us one step into the future, considering the possible results if technology and society continue down the paths being set in the present. A mixture of social commentary, Science Fiction and cyberpunk, 'Overclocked' is an interesting and entertaining read, full of intriguing characters and philosophical and ethical issues.
Doctorow focuses several of the tales in this collection on robotics and artificial intelligence as well as networks and computer systems. In a rather cynical treatise on Asimov's Laws of Robotics entitled 'I Robot', he explores what happens when it is actually useful for robots not to follow the three laws and a police detective discovers that things are not always as simple as they seem on the surface. This story has a companion in 'I Row-boat'. In this Asimovism becomes a religion and all manner of beings can achieve sentience or at least existence in cyberspace. Here is a light-hearted character exploration with some darker and more philosophical undertones on exactly what is means to be alive - a mind, body, soul, faith or pure self-preservation?
'Anda's Game' explores the world of on-line gaming and the existence of 'cyber sweatshops' where gamers pay other gamers slave wages to generate online wealth for them. This story is a glimpse into a future where this activity has been taken to extremes. Similarly, 'After The Seige' is set in a futuristic eastern European state which is being held hostage by western society's desire for royalties on technological and commercial products. As quickly as the foreign technology and commercialisation changes their society, it changes back again when removed. This is an interesting mixture of post-war survival, social commentary and futuristic fantasy, complete with vivid descriptions of new technology and the wonder they bring against a backdrop of struggle, poverty, death and desperation.
'When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth' is a humorous yet rather tragic tale of the importance placed on the Internet in society and on those who know how to manipulate the system. When Earth is on brink of disaster, it is the system administrators who are the last hope of humanity as they set about saving cyberspace and therefore the world. It emphasises both the importance of networks (including the Internet) and those who can understand their workings and how heavily dependant and obsessed we are by them.
In all these tales, Doctorow is original and fresh, thought-provoking, clever and ironic, giving a look into the future which is disturbingly vibrant and near. He prologues each story in the collection with an individual introduction, explaining how it came to be written and his thought processes and influences behind each one. As Doctorow mentions himself, the best way to write futuristic Science Fiction is to predict the present day. The lines blur and imagination takes over where fact leaves off. The subtitle of 'Overclocked' is 'Stories Of The Future Present', which sums this collection up perfectly. His vision of the future is clear, sometimes terrifying and often compelling. These are not rose-coloured glasses but I dare you to try to look away...
Laura Kayne
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