Cory Doctorow
Overclocked
Reviewed by: Rick Kleffel © 2007

Thunder's Mouth Press / Avalon Publishing
US First Edition Trade Paperback
ISBN 1-560-25981-7
285 Pages; $15.95
Publication Date: 01-11-2007
Date Reviewed: 02-11-2007

Index: Science Fiction  General Fiction  Horror

We live in a present that is essentially unknowable. Every day brings changes on such a scale, at such a speed that no single human can possibly hope to keep track of them. We're thirty years past 'Future Shock'. We live in a constant state of present shock. We're so overloaded that many of us have trouble keeping up with the past. Technologies and modes of living are outdated before we've even thoroughly learned about them or were able to deploy them. Think of all the houses that were being wired at great expense even as network technology was going wireless. It's a hidden world that might even confuse the next family to buy the house. What are those things doing in the walls?

Given our inability to understand the present, it's much easier to understand why Cory Doctorow calls 'Overclocked' "Stories of the future present". Yes, all of these stories are set in one future or another. But they were all written in the very recent past. Doctorow's explorations of imagined futures in the recent past prove to be very reliable predictors of the present in which the readers will experience the stories. If that sounds a bit convoluted then welcome to the future's past. A present so damn complicated it overwhelms you.

'Overclocked' includes six stories that are widely available elsewhere not least on Doctorow's own website. Exclusivity is not the object here. The object is to collect in handy print form six stories that you can take anywhere and enjoy without the aid of any additional technology all while plunging into technological visions of the past, present and future. 'Printcrime', which appeared originally as the final page of an issue of Nature magazine, is a both a poignantly written tale of loss and a clever bit of mathematical fiction that observes a future where 3-D printers -- that's what we're now calling the "replicators" of Star Trek -- are both common and criminal. Note that here, not for the first time and not for the last time, Doctorow writes from the point of view of a pre-adolescent girl. It gives the tale a sense of innocence, emotion and the sort of surly rebellion that just begins round this age. That's an effective mechanism for creating a believable future.

'When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth' is no less than a post-apocalyptic vision of network engineers in hardened data centers surviving an biowarfare attack that decimates the rest of the world. I was a sysadmin for many years, and can attest that Doctorow has the grimy-eyed, caffeinated feel of those late-night emergency sessions down pat. His vision of the future is eerie and emotionally affecting. Decisions made in a split second of safety cut deeply.

"Anda's Game" contemplates the gold rush for virtual dollars in online environments such as Second Life and World of Warcraft. Doctorow is again smart enough to meld net veracity with emotional authenticity. It makes for the sort of story that gets slotted into Michael Chabon's 'Best American Short Stories of 2005'. It also begins a series of mashed-pastiches (sort of) the Doctorow is writing which riff off of famous SF titles. "Anda's Game" versus 'Ender's Game', geddit? In this vein we get the Hugo nominated 'I, Robot' and 'I, Rowboat', wherein Asimov, Orwell and Australian vacation tours get mix-mastered by a master. All fun, but Doctorow makes sure to give each story a fairly powerful emotional understory.

The collection concludes with the longest, most cinematic and powerful work, "After the Siege". Doctorow explains in the preface that his grandmother was in the siege of Leningrad. Having read Graham Joyce's hair-raising novella for PS Publishing 'Leningrad Nights', I did have some idea what was implied by this story before I started. That said, Doctorow really outdoes himself in another tale told by a young girl set in a post 3-d printer world with a heavy emphasis on current and past copyright laws. And zombies, which I have to say, are the rotting flesh icing on a very complicated cake.

Doctorow's collection of stories is a fascinating print object for those of us who desire such materials. Despite the fact that every story is available elsewhere and online, the first printing is sold out as of this review. Buy now or pay more later. It only goes to prove that the old saw that short story collections don’t sell is a lie. They'll sell if you give 'em a chance. If they’re smart, perceptive, emotionally powerful and yet still funny in an offbeat manner. 'Overclocked' is a reminder that we can't hope to keep up and shouldn’t bother. But we do need to keep alert, to keep ourselves caffeinated, to run as fast as we can — if we hope to stay in the same place. Getting ahead? That's, alas, a thing of the past.