"Doctorow's combination of cutting edge speculation and deep interest in the social and political possibilities of the future make this collection a must-read."—Booklist (starred review)
"Doctorow captures the mix of hope, fear, and uncertainty felt by those in precarious situations, set against the backdrop of intriguing futuristic landscapes."—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Walkaway
“Is Doctorow’s fictional utopia bravely idealistic or bitterly ironic? The answer is in our own hands. A dystopian future is in no way inevitable; Walkaway reminds us that the world we choose to build is the one we’ll inhabit. Technology empowers both the powerful and the powerless, and if we want a world with more liberty and less control, we’re going to have to fight for it.”—Edward Snowden
“The darker the hour, the better the moment for a rigorously-imagined utopian fiction. Walkaway is now the best contemporary example I know of, its utopia glimpsed after fascinatingly-extrapolated revolutionary struggle. A wonderful novel: everything we’ve come to expect from Cory Doctorow and more.”—William Gibson
“The Bhagavad Gita of hacker/maker/burner/open source/git/gnu/wiki/99%/adjunctfaculty/Anonymous/shareware/thingiverse/cypherpunk/LGTBQIA*/squatter/upcycling culture...zipped it down into a pretty damned tight techno-thriller with a lot of sex in it.”—Neal Stephenson
“Cory Doctorow is one of our most important science fiction writers, because he’s also a public intellectual in the old style: he brings the news and explains it, making clearer the confusions of our wild current moment. His fiction is always the heart of his work, and this is his best book yet, describing vividly the revolutionary beginnings of a new way of being. In a world full of easy dystopias, he writes the hard utopia, and what do you know, his utopia is both more thought-provoking and more fun.”—Kim Stanley Robinson
"Thrilling and unexpected....A truly visionary techno-thriller that not only depicts how we might live tomorrow, but asks why we don’t already." Kirkus (starred review)
"Doctorow has envisioned a fascinating world...This intriguing take on a future that might be right around the corner is bound to please." —Library Journal
"Memorable and engaging. ...Ultimately suffused with hope." —Booklist
Cory Doctorow’s four futuristic novellas are aided by four well-chosen narrators who each capture the essence of their given story. The works reflect today’s issues and come to life through Doctorow’s usual insightful and critical lens. Each novella offers something interesting— from Poe’s classic story reimagined as a tale of a modern apocalypse (“Masque of the Red Death”) to a story of homegrown terrorism as a result of inadequate health insurance (“Radicalized”), a story of the racial politics of a superhuman alien on earth (“Model Minority”), and another on corporate exploitation of the poor through automation and product placement (“Unauthorized Bread”). Stefan Rudnicki, Wil Wheaton, and Mirron Willis give their usual stellar performances, but Lameece Issaq’s performance of “Unauthorized Bread” is the standout because of how she balances its mixture of characters and draws out its tension. L.E. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Cory Doctorow’s four futuristic novellas are aided by four well-chosen narrators who each capture the essence of their given story. The works reflect today’s issues and come to life through Doctorow’s usual insightful and critical lens. Each novella offers something interesting— from Poe’s classic story reimagined as a tale of a modern apocalypse (“Masque of the Red Death”) to a story of homegrown terrorism as a result of inadequate health insurance (“Radicalized”), a story of the racial politics of a superhuman alien on earth (“Model Minority”), and another on corporate exploitation of the poor through automation and product placement (“Unauthorized Bread”). Stefan Rudnicki, Wil Wheaton, and Mirron Willis give their usual stellar performances, but Lameece Issaq’s performance of “Unauthorized Bread” is the standout because of how she balances its mixture of characters and draws out its tension. L.E. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
