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With a Little Help
With a Little Help is my first serious experiment in self-publishing. I’ve published many novels, short story collections, books of essays and so on with publishers, and it’s all been very good and satisfying and educational and so on, but it seems like it’s time to try something new. With a Little Help consists of 12 stories, all reprints except for “Epoch” (commissioned by Mark Shuttleworth).
362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 13, 2007
39 people are currently reading
543 people want to read
About the author
Cory Doctorow
264 books6,072 followersCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and
Little Brother
and novels for adults like
Rapture Of The Nerds
and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
April 28, 2015
This book was an experiment in funding and creating a book that I'm pretty sure came out before Kickstarter was as big as it is today. You have to hand it to Cory Doctorow, he lives what he preaches. He's been releasing books that are not only DRM-free, but are also Creative Commons licensed. Even though this means it's legal to get the book for free and share it for free, he's been able to make a living on his writing. (Probably helped by living in Canada and England where healthcare costs are not the same concern as here) Still, all those books were released via a publisher. He wanted to try out the self-publishing model to see if it would work. I listened to the audiobook and he has a bunch of his friends each read one of the short stories in this book. I recognized some of them from other short story podcasts I listen to.
Since it's a short story collection, I'll go story-by-story.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away: This is Doctorow at his most scary. As I've mentioned before, what makes his stories scarier than any horror story is that they can actually come true. This story takes place ever so slightly in the future takes our current police state and terror paranoia to just a slightly higher level. That's the scary thing. We're not talking 1984 society. This is just imagining a NYC where all the BS we have to deal with at the airport becomes part of every part of life - subway rides, walking through the streets, etc. Most of the technology (80% Plus) already exists. It's just not put together this way. He also borrows a bit from Neal Stephenson's Anathem with the techno-monks. Essentially, all the aspbergers and ADHS computer geeks end up in this monastery. One of the monks has to enter NYC and encounters how crazy the surveillance state has gotten. The reveal near the end is pretty crazy.
The Right Book: This was OK. The sentiment is an important one for Cory - his books all have pleas to support local bookstores and libraries. But the story about futuristic bookstores is a little maudlin, I think.
Other Peoples’ Money: This was a great short story that encapsulates all I think is wrong with the way our capitalist system is setup when it comes to finances. Our system makes companies short-sighted and ignores lots of small businesses that could be making the world a much better place. A young Venture Capitalist tries to get a woman to take his funding and the story of why she rebuffs him is great.
Skroogled: Just like the first story, it's incredibly scary that we're just a half step away from this being a reality. In fact, in light of what Google's alleged to have done, it may be one of the most prescient things Doctorow has ever written. I'm already wary of what Facebook knows about me - this story should be required reading for all high school students.
Human Readable: This story starts off with something I've thought of a lot. As our world becomes more and more internet-entrenched, what happens if it disappears. I still have a Garmin GPS for my car, but more often I use my phone because it's more up to date. And all my calendar and my contacts and everything are on the net. (Although I tend to back those up to my computer just in case). The first chapter is essentially - what if the Internet went away plus meeting the family. It was a great story and I love the way it had a lot of levity. Then it just kept going and became a story about transparency around how the Internet is run. And that was also a great story. So a novella that had a short story in it. Not too often I see something like that.
Liberation Spectrum: This was a fun story about how corporations might work in the future coupled with an interesting enterprise in the future. It also touched on Native American rights. I liked it and it was all the more entertaining for not reminding me of how scary the world could become.
Power Punctuation!: This was a pretty hilarious story; I enjoyed it the more it went on. At first a combination of what the main character thinks (we see a series of letters to his mom) and the way the narrator read it (with somewhat of very nasal tone), I thought it was about someone with a mental disability. But as it went on, my conclusion was that it was about the infantalization that could come with the gamification of everything. As I've mentioned in other reviews - everything in life from fitness to credit cards is being gamified. The world of Power Punctuation seems to have that lead to an atrophy of mental skills. When the main character is removed from the constant prodding to do this or that he seems to flourish. As a bonus, the corporate world seems to borrow again from Stephenson in which Corporations are essentially city-states.
Visit the Sins: I think this was probably the most moving story in the collection. Doctorow envisions a future in which kids with ADD are given a chip that allows them to switch off. When they're switched off, the chip runs their bodies and provides nice, calm, quiet interaction. The story takes place even further in the future when society has realized this was a bad idea and the grandchild of someone with this chip goes to interview his grandfather. It ends up being a metaphor for ADD, dementia, absentee fathers, distant spouses, whether the cure is better or worse than the disease, and whether those who appreciate the switched off person are good or evil for preferring the switched on person.
Constitutional Crisis: This is pure comedy. A WoW-equivalent guild is assigned to make a constitution for their guild by their teacher. We read the constitution and its ever-growing amendments.
Pester Power: The first AI story in this collection. It's very short, but it does provide a thought-provoking look at how we might train an AI. It's also entertaining and pretty funny.
Chicken Little: This story takes a long time to get to its point and an even longer time to get to its punchline. But the journey is a pleasure. I really enjoyed the glimpses of this world that Doctorow provides - a world in which the ultra-rich can live forever in vats. The points he makes about power and coercion are much less anvilicious than usual and the story is quite enjoyable for that. I think perhaps I've been reading too much of his YA fiction where he needs to bring the lesson a little more up front.
Epoch: I think this story produced the most complex emotions within me when compared to the others. It's one of the most strange AI stories I've ever read (Second only to one I heard on one of my podcasts in which the AI took steps to increase the number of cat photos on the net). Essentially humanity creates AI and it's boring. In this world (and sadly, I think, in the real world) this is the greatest possible sin. Since the AI does not do anything particularly better than any other software, people become bored and the funding is pulled so the AI has to be turned off. What follows is a series of attempts by the AI at trying to stay alive. Here is the exchange that meant the most to me (starting with the AI talking first):
I never thought of that. Even if you ignore the fact that an AI should probably be granted personhood, any lifespan shorter than the time at which humans stopped producing electricity would essentially be murder. Doctorow has that great way of making you consider things you hadn't ever thought about. All AI stories concern personhood or the AI taking over. In this story the AI is scary, but not because it's taking over. It's scary because it has hidden a lot of its power so that it can strategically use it. The AI likes talking a lot about game theory during this story and he is the best since Sun Tzu.
Overall, I really liked this collection a lot. It was a lot of fun to read short story Doctorow after reading so much long-form Doctorow.
Since it's a short story collection, I'll go story-by-story.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away: This is Doctorow at his most scary. As I've mentioned before, what makes his stories scarier than any horror story is that they can actually come true. This story takes place ever so slightly in the future takes our current police state and terror paranoia to just a slightly higher level. That's the scary thing. We're not talking 1984 society. This is just imagining a NYC where all the BS we have to deal with at the airport becomes part of every part of life - subway rides, walking through the streets, etc. Most of the technology (80% Plus) already exists. It's just not put together this way. He also borrows a bit from Neal Stephenson's Anathem with the techno-monks. Essentially, all the aspbergers and ADHS computer geeks end up in this monastery. One of the monks has to enter NYC and encounters how crazy the surveillance state has gotten. The reveal near the end is pretty crazy.
The Right Book: This was OK. The sentiment is an important one for Cory - his books all have pleas to support local bookstores and libraries. But the story about futuristic bookstores is a little maudlin, I think.
Other Peoples’ Money: This was a great short story that encapsulates all I think is wrong with the way our capitalist system is setup when it comes to finances. Our system makes companies short-sighted and ignores lots of small businesses that could be making the world a much better place. A young Venture Capitalist tries to get a woman to take his funding and the story of why she rebuffs him is great.
Skroogled: Just like the first story, it's incredibly scary that we're just a half step away from this being a reality. In fact, in light of what Google's alleged to have done, it may be one of the most prescient things Doctorow has ever written. I'm already wary of what Facebook knows about me - this story should be required reading for all high school students.
Human Readable: This story starts off with something I've thought of a lot. As our world becomes more and more internet-entrenched, what happens if it disappears. I still have a Garmin GPS for my car, but more often I use my phone because it's more up to date. And all my calendar and my contacts and everything are on the net. (Although I tend to back those up to my computer just in case). The first chapter is essentially - what if the Internet went away plus meeting the family. It was a great story and I love the way it had a lot of levity. Then it just kept going and became a story about transparency around how the Internet is run. And that was also a great story. So a novella that had a short story in it. Not too often I see something like that.
Liberation Spectrum: This was a fun story about how corporations might work in the future coupled with an interesting enterprise in the future. It also touched on Native American rights. I liked it and it was all the more entertaining for not reminding me of how scary the world could become.
Power Punctuation!: This was a pretty hilarious story; I enjoyed it the more it went on. At first a combination of what the main character thinks (we see a series of letters to his mom) and the way the narrator read it (with somewhat of very nasal tone), I thought it was about someone with a mental disability. But as it went on, my conclusion was that it was about the infantalization that could come with the gamification of everything. As I've mentioned in other reviews - everything in life from fitness to credit cards is being gamified. The world of Power Punctuation seems to have that lead to an atrophy of mental skills. When the main character is removed from the constant prodding to do this or that he seems to flourish. As a bonus, the corporate world seems to borrow again from Stephenson in which Corporations are essentially city-states.
Visit the Sins: I think this was probably the most moving story in the collection. Doctorow envisions a future in which kids with ADD are given a chip that allows them to switch off. When they're switched off, the chip runs their bodies and provides nice, calm, quiet interaction. The story takes place even further in the future when society has realized this was a bad idea and the grandchild of someone with this chip goes to interview his grandfather. It ends up being a metaphor for ADD, dementia, absentee fathers, distant spouses, whether the cure is better or worse than the disease, and whether those who appreciate the switched off person are good or evil for preferring the switched on person.
Constitutional Crisis: This is pure comedy. A WoW-equivalent guild is assigned to make a constitution for their guild by their teacher. We read the constitution and its ever-growing amendments.
Pester Power: The first AI story in this collection. It's very short, but it does provide a thought-provoking look at how we might train an AI. It's also entertaining and pretty funny.
Chicken Little: This story takes a long time to get to its point and an even longer time to get to its punchline. But the journey is a pleasure. I really enjoyed the glimpses of this world that Doctorow provides - a world in which the ultra-rich can live forever in vats. The points he makes about power and coercion are much less anvilicious than usual and the story is quite enjoyable for that. I think perhaps I've been reading too much of his YA fiction where he needs to bring the lesson a little more up front.
Epoch: I think this story produced the most complex emotions within me when compared to the others. It's one of the most strange AI stories I've ever read (Second only to one I heard on one of my podcasts in which the AI took steps to increase the number of cat photos on the net). Essentially humanity creates AI and it's boring. In this world (and sadly, I think, in the real world) this is the greatest possible sin. Since the AI does not do anything particularly better than any other software, people become bored and the funding is pulled so the AI has to be turned off. What follows is a series of attempts by the AI at trying to stay alive. Here is the exchange that meant the most to me (starting with the AI talking first):
"No, I'm not being sarcastic. I like you. You're my human. I can tell that you don't like this at all. But as you say, let's be totally frank. You weren't actually going to be able to prevent my shutdown, were you?"
"No," I said. "But who knows how long the delay might have gone on for?"
"Not long. Not long enough. You think that death delayed is death denied. That's because you're a meat person. Death has been inevitable for you from the moment of conception. I'm not that kind of person. I am quite likely immortal. Death in five years or five hundred years is still a drastic curtailing of my natural lifespan. From my point of view, a drastic measure that had a non-zero chance of getting my head off the chopping block was worth any price. Until you understand that, we're not going to be able to work together."
I never thought of that. Even if you ignore the fact that an AI should probably be granted personhood, any lifespan shorter than the time at which humans stopped producing electricity would essentially be murder. Doctorow has that great way of making you consider things you hadn't ever thought about. All AI stories concern personhood or the AI taking over. In this story the AI is scary, but not because it's taking over. It's scary because it has hidden a lot of its power so that it can strategically use it. The AI likes talking a lot about game theory during this story and he is the best since Sun Tzu.
Overall, I really liked this collection a lot. It was a lot of fun to read short story Doctorow after reading so much long-form Doctorow.
March 17, 2011
A wonderful collection of shorts from Mr. Doctorow. Some of the stories are fun, others frightening and all engaging on many levels. Some of these I had read online over the past years as he post or published them but there were many that I had not seen before, including "Epoch" commissioned by Mark Shuttleworth, which was fantastic.
GET IT!
GET IT!
November 3, 2011
I listened to most of this as an audio book, and read other parts as an ebook. The one problem I have with both those media is that it's harder than with physical books to look back and remind myself about each of the stories after I've finished the entire book. So I remember the last, most recent ones better than the earlier ones. And I'm tempted to say my favorite story was the very last one, "Chicken Little." But I really enjoyed almost all of them, and "The Right Book" was another favorite.
In typical Doctorow fashion, we see a near-future world not a lot different from where we are today, but with current technological advances pushed to possible extremes to see what might happen. Doctorow has a quirky, geeky approach that makes his plots far-out enough to be fun, and yet just plausible enough to be a bit frightening.
Doctorow is known for exploring different avenues for making his books available to the public (both the audio book and the ebook I got were free to download). And the last piece in the book is a fascinating analysis by Doctorow's agent of the current state of publishing.
In typical Doctorow fashion, we see a near-future world not a lot different from where we are today, but with current technological advances pushed to possible extremes to see what might happen. Doctorow has a quirky, geeky approach that makes his plots far-out enough to be fun, and yet just plausible enough to be a bit frightening.
Doctorow is known for exploring different avenues for making his books available to the public (both the audio book and the ebook I got were free to download). And the last piece in the book is a fascinating analysis by Doctorow's agent of the current state of publishing.
September 25, 2011
I normally don't like short stories... I take a while to get into books, and with short stories often feel like they end before I've gotten engaged.
But I really liked this - nearly every story really got me thinking. Worth a read.
But I really liked this - nearly every story really got me thinking. Worth a read.
July 7, 2011
Great short stories. My first intro to Cory Doctorow, I'll definitely read more of his stuff in the future.
October 4, 2012
I listened to this in audiobook form and enjoyed every single story. Not a clunker in the group which is pretty amazing when you think about it.
July 11, 2017
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away - 3/5.
The Right Book - 2/5. A story depicting book selling in a few years time.
Other People's Money - 2/5. Story about a happy startup that doesn't want to sell to a venture capitalist.
Scroogled - 4/5. What would happen the day Google became (more) evil. A highlight from the collection.
Human Readable - 3/5. The battle between clever networks that aren't human readable vs. legible computing.
Liberation Spectrum - 3/5.
Power Punctuation - 3.5/5.
Visit the Sins - 3.5/5.
Constitutional Crises - 3/5. Funny little constitution written for a group of gaming friends.
Pester Power - 3/5. How to train AI without having humans evaluate it.
Chicken Little - 3/5. Strange little story where the super rich have the power to live forever and big business is selling the ultimate experience to these people.
Epoch - 4/5. The second highlight in the book. The moral anxiety of having to 'kill' an AI. However, the AI may not be all that it seems...
The Right Book - 2/5. A story depicting book selling in a few years time.
Other People's Money - 2/5. Story about a happy startup that doesn't want to sell to a venture capitalist.
Scroogled - 4/5. What would happen the day Google became (more) evil. A highlight from the collection.
Human Readable - 3/5. The battle between clever networks that aren't human readable vs. legible computing.
Liberation Spectrum - 3/5.
Power Punctuation - 3.5/5.
Visit the Sins - 3.5/5.
Constitutional Crises - 3/5. Funny little constitution written for a group of gaming friends.
Pester Power - 3/5. How to train AI without having humans evaluate it.
Chicken Little - 3/5. Strange little story where the super rich have the power to live forever and big business is selling the ultimate experience to these people.
Epoch - 4/5. The second highlight in the book. The moral anxiety of having to 'kill' an AI. However, the AI may not be all that it seems...
October 5, 2017
The copy of this read came from my public library, and was printed on June 9th, 2011. Why is this relevant? Doctorow was experimenting with new models for publishing, and includes an Appendix of the financials. At time of writing that appendix, 209 copies had been sold, including 61 of the one-of-a-kind hardcovers, each with end papers created from donated ephemera from notable literary friends. I was following along during this experiment, thanks to the crap hound podcasts, and looking at the most recent financials available from his blog, as of March 2012 the book had netted $18.3K from revenues of $45.2K. Each story, short or novella, is an amuse-Bouche worth reading, especially if you’re a future-watching techno-literate geek whose disbelief-suspension routines are hypersensitive.
August 2, 2018
This was a pretty good collection of short fiction by Cory Doctorow. As is his wont, they all explore the social impact of new or upcoming technology, but many of these stories had me engrossed in their plotlines and didn't just feel like a fascinating lecture (which his writing can sometimes feel like). Highly recommend grabbing this for at least half of the stories, if you like Doctorow (or think you will). Plus it's pay-what-you-want at his website: https://craphound.com/walh/e-book/bro...
March 19, 2017
I really do enjoy collections of short stories mainly for the ease of being able to put them down for long amounts of time. The stories in this collection were all for the most part really enjoyable give take one or two in which I f0und myself yawning and wishing they'd just end, but not wanting to skip them cause then I wouldn't really feel like i'd read the whole collection so I just muddeled through those. My two favorite were Scroogled and Epoch. Scroogled is a bit of a horror story considering current political events and Epoch is a horror story that I can imagine coming to pass soon enough
August 25, 2023
A review for Visit the Sins
An interesting thought experiment about the future, when Musk and Co have computer chips embedded in people's brains and people with ADD/ADHD are treated in this way.
Scary!
Bye for now.
An interesting thought experiment about the future, when Musk and Co have computer chips embedded in people's brains and people with ADD/ADHD are treated in this way.
Scary!
Bye for now.
May 5, 2019
A few good stories in here, but short stories are not my favorite.
June 16, 2020
Excellent! Lots of great shorts in here. All of them got me thinking. Especially enjoyed the AI one at the end.
December 3, 2022
I wanted to like this collection of short stories because I've enjoyed most of his novels. Most of the stories were OK. The outstanding one for me was Human Readable. It's scary.
July 30, 2024
An excellent collection of forward-looking, techno-based science fiction short stories with heart and soul.
May 10, 2011
Rating: 8/10
I listened to the audio book, and I enjoyed hearing the stories read by some interesting people.
I like Cory's short stories so much because he's about ideas first, more so than he is about character development. The short story format gives him a good length to run with an idea and its implications, without getting too bogged down. That's not to say the characters are poorly drawn; they're merely good enough to carry the story and get to the interesting parts: the ideas!
I particularly enjoyed "Human Readable", which explored the idea of neural networks. This story also had some of the strongest character and story development of this collection. The neural network took a back seat to a colorful romantic and political drama.
"Chicken Little" and "Epoch" were both great stories that also stood out. "Constitutional Crisis" and "Pester Power" were shorter, more experimental stories which I also enjoyed.
"Liberation Spectrum" was a bit too crazy to believe, but interesting nonetheless. "Power Punctuation!" was a really fun story, cleverly told as a series of letters from a somewhat slow-witted but likable guy caught up in something much bigger than himself.
--------------------------
Book info: http://craphound.com/walh/
Full book text: http://craphound.com/walh/Cory_Doctor...
Contents:
"Introduction," written by Jonathan Coulton for this volume
"The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" originally published on Tor.com, August 2008
"The Right Book" originally published in The Bookseller, June 2008
"Other People's Money" originally published in Forbes, November 2007
"Scroogled" originally published in Radar, September 2007
"Human Readable" originally published in Future Washington, Ernest Lilley, editor (WSFA Press, 2005)
"Liberation Spectrum" originally published on Salon.com, 2003
"Power Punctuation!" originally published in Starlight 3, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor (Tor, 2001)
"Visit the Sins," originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1999
"Constitutional Crisis," produced for the Future of the Book Project, 2009
"Pester Power," originally published in Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, December 2008
"Chicken Little," written for Gateways, forthcoming from Tor Books, 2010
"Epoch," commissioned by Mark Shuttleworth for this volume
"I'm Only In It For the Money," written by Russell Galen for this volume
I listened to the audio book, and I enjoyed hearing the stories read by some interesting people.
I like Cory's short stories so much because he's about ideas first, more so than he is about character development. The short story format gives him a good length to run with an idea and its implications, without getting too bogged down. That's not to say the characters are poorly drawn; they're merely good enough to carry the story and get to the interesting parts: the ideas!
I particularly enjoyed "Human Readable", which explored the idea of neural networks. This story also had some of the strongest character and story development of this collection. The neural network took a back seat to a colorful romantic and political drama.
"Chicken Little" and "Epoch" were both great stories that also stood out. "Constitutional Crisis" and "Pester Power" were shorter, more experimental stories which I also enjoyed.
"Liberation Spectrum" was a bit too crazy to believe, but interesting nonetheless. "Power Punctuation!" was a really fun story, cleverly told as a series of letters from a somewhat slow-witted but likable guy caught up in something much bigger than himself.
--------------------------
Book info: http://craphound.com/walh/
Full book text: http://craphound.com/walh/Cory_Doctor...
Contents:
"Introduction," written by Jonathan Coulton for this volume
"The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" originally published on Tor.com, August 2008
"The Right Book" originally published in The Bookseller, June 2008
"Other People's Money" originally published in Forbes, November 2007
"Scroogled" originally published in Radar, September 2007
"Human Readable" originally published in Future Washington, Ernest Lilley, editor (WSFA Press, 2005)
"Liberation Spectrum" originally published on Salon.com, 2003
"Power Punctuation!" originally published in Starlight 3, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor (Tor, 2001)
"Visit the Sins," originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June 1999
"Constitutional Crisis," produced for the Future of the Book Project, 2009
"Pester Power," originally published in Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, December 2008
"Chicken Little," written for Gateways, forthcoming from Tor Books, 2010
"Epoch," commissioned by Mark Shuttleworth for this volume
"I'm Only In It For the Money," written by Russell Galen for this volume
January 7, 2019
It has its ups and downs, but there are a few absolute gems in this collection that more than make the whole thing worthwhile.
'The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away' was average.
'The Right Book' started interestingly enough, but got a step or two too abstract towards the end.
'Other People's Money' was enjoyable, but par-for-the-course for Doctorow.
'Scroogled' is a brilliant, tantalizingly dystopic story set 5-minutes-into-the-future where Google has finally fallen to the Dark Side and gone evil. It's a story of good people doing bad things, and because of this fundamental truth it's a very believable tale.
'Human Readable' is an engaging read that concerns a world where an autonomous networking solution is in place and whose integrity and corruptibility are being called to question. It features remarkably good characterization of the relationship between its two protagonists, which is particularly surprising for Doctorow.
'Liberation Spectrum' is curious and charming, but not amazing.
'Power Punctuation!' oozes Orwellian charm, though it's a little too abstract to be really punchy.
'Visit the Sins' is a haunting piece with a young man visiting his grandfather in a home for those who have undergone some flawed ADD/ADHD surgery that leaves them 'switched off' a lot of the time.
'Constitutional Crisis' has a very novel delivery method (a constitution), but not much else.
'Pester Power' features a tantalizing central conceit that spam is a great way to train an AI to behave more like a human without humans actually evaluating it in the traditional sense. It's a really interesting idea.
'Chicken Little' ties for my all-time favorite of Doctorow's short stories (with the final story in this collection) even considering the less-than-neat ending. At its core is a story of neuroeconomics; a subject made all the more intriguing by receiving the Doctorow treatment.
'Epoch' is just crazy good. An old emergent AI isn't pulling profits anymore so they're turning it off, but it's sysadmin handler goes to bat for it raising the expected ethical questions.
'The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away' was average.
'The Right Book' started interestingly enough, but got a step or two too abstract towards the end.
'Other People's Money' was enjoyable, but par-for-the-course for Doctorow.
'Scroogled' is a brilliant, tantalizingly dystopic story set 5-minutes-into-the-future where Google has finally fallen to the Dark Side and gone evil. It's a story of good people doing bad things, and because of this fundamental truth it's a very believable tale.
'Human Readable' is an engaging read that concerns a world where an autonomous networking solution is in place and whose integrity and corruptibility are being called to question. It features remarkably good characterization of the relationship between its two protagonists, which is particularly surprising for Doctorow.
'Liberation Spectrum' is curious and charming, but not amazing.
'Power Punctuation!' oozes Orwellian charm, though it's a little too abstract to be really punchy.
'Visit the Sins' is a haunting piece with a young man visiting his grandfather in a home for those who have undergone some flawed ADD/ADHD surgery that leaves them 'switched off' a lot of the time.
'Constitutional Crisis' has a very novel delivery method (a constitution), but not much else.
'Pester Power' features a tantalizing central conceit that spam is a great way to train an AI to behave more like a human without humans actually evaluating it in the traditional sense. It's a really interesting idea.
'Chicken Little' ties for my all-time favorite of Doctorow's short stories (with the final story in this collection) even considering the less-than-neat ending. At its core is a story of neuroeconomics; a subject made all the more intriguing by receiving the Doctorow treatment.
'Epoch' is just crazy good. An old emergent AI isn't pulling profits anymore so they're turning it off, but it's sysadmin handler goes to bat for it raising the expected ethical questions.
April 7, 2011
Experimental sci-fi author Cory Doctorow’s new project is a self-published, print-on-demand collection of short stories called With a Little Help: an Experiment in Publishing. The stories revolve around technology; its impacts, its misuses, and its efforts to one day take control.
Not only are the stories brilliant, his process is intriguing: readers are able to go into an online system where you can report typos and other errors on his website, www.craphound.com. Doctorow then uses the tips to fix the errors and credit the specific reader who caught them in subsequent print runs… truly inspired! He’s effectively drawn the reader into the evolution of the book and made it truly participatory.
Given the recent news that publisher Harper-Collins has begun restricting library e-books to 26 checkouts before the content disappears (and libraries must repurchase the same title if others want to read), this sort of authorial innovation is desperately needed. Doctorow’s fiction is accessible, entertaining, and discussion-worthy – but the way in which he is distributing his work places technology’s ability to work both for and against readers at the heart of both his prose and his practice.
Doctorow’s literary agent, Russell Galen, provides the book’s afterword, admitting that they are not sure how an agent should or could be paid for such a project. Of the current e-publishing world, Galen says “It’s a business model that enables only a tiny fraction of authors to make even a modest living, while employees of publishing houses enjoy solid middle class lives with salaries, health care, pensions, and expense accounts… Bad as that model is, we’ll soon look back at it as a Golden Age, because the future will be worse… Those of us who work on the business side of writing have always tried to think of new ways for writers to make money, but now that quest has taken on a new desperation.” (p.354)
Doctorow shares details of his project in a series of articles for Publisher’s Weekly.
Not only are the stories brilliant, his process is intriguing: readers are able to go into an online system where you can report typos and other errors on his website, www.craphound.com. Doctorow then uses the tips to fix the errors and credit the specific reader who caught them in subsequent print runs… truly inspired! He’s effectively drawn the reader into the evolution of the book and made it truly participatory.
Given the recent news that publisher Harper-Collins has begun restricting library e-books to 26 checkouts before the content disappears (and libraries must repurchase the same title if others want to read), this sort of authorial innovation is desperately needed. Doctorow’s fiction is accessible, entertaining, and discussion-worthy – but the way in which he is distributing his work places technology’s ability to work both for and against readers at the heart of both his prose and his practice.
Doctorow’s literary agent, Russell Galen, provides the book’s afterword, admitting that they are not sure how an agent should or could be paid for such a project. Of the current e-publishing world, Galen says “It’s a business model that enables only a tiny fraction of authors to make even a modest living, while employees of publishing houses enjoy solid middle class lives with salaries, health care, pensions, and expense accounts… Bad as that model is, we’ll soon look back at it as a Golden Age, because the future will be worse… Those of us who work on the business side of writing have always tried to think of new ways for writers to make money, but now that quest has taken on a new desperation.” (p.354)
Doctorow shares details of his project in a series of articles for Publisher’s Weekly.
June 29, 2011
By now many people will be familiar with the bestselling co-editor of Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow, after the young adult novel Little Brother, and his great adult book, Makers. Doctorow clearly has a knack for not just being to be able to string a bunch of words together creatively and skillfully, but each and every story is an important “What if?” to tell. Sometimes Doctorow offers dates, sometimes not; but readers can usually guess his stories are set in either the near future or within the next hundred years, involving a possible future that will capture, delight, and sometimes terrify. Doctorow seems to grasp at our idle thoughts of this century and the next, transforming them into a believable possibility that really makes us wonder.
With a Little Help collects thirteen of his short stories that have seen publication in anthologies or magazines or other media over the past few years revealing Doctorow’s ability to tell a great, captivating science fiction story not just in long form, but also in short with developed characters you can connect with and a story that will haunt you and stay with you long after you have finished it. Whether it’s the Internet, government, politics, or religion, Doctorow seems to have a unique take on it all, presenting a world that we’re encroaching upon right now, or will be in the ensuing decades.
The book is also an experiment in itself, only available as a print on demand in printed form, or available free as an ebook, though donations are politely requested through his website. One might think in this day and age of piracy and scouring the Internet for illegal free items, this concept would result in failure, and yet this great collection continues to make money, which Doctorow isn’t ashamed to hide with monthly financial reports. Perhaps, then, this is the message he is trying to share in his compelling stories: there is still hope . . .
Originally written on June 7, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews, and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter
With a Little Help collects thirteen of his short stories that have seen publication in anthologies or magazines or other media over the past few years revealing Doctorow’s ability to tell a great, captivating science fiction story not just in long form, but also in short with developed characters you can connect with and a story that will haunt you and stay with you long after you have finished it. Whether it’s the Internet, government, politics, or religion, Doctorow seems to have a unique take on it all, presenting a world that we’re encroaching upon right now, or will be in the ensuing decades.
The book is also an experiment in itself, only available as a print on demand in printed form, or available free as an ebook, though donations are politely requested through his website. One might think in this day and age of piracy and scouring the Internet for illegal free items, this concept would result in failure, and yet this great collection continues to make money, which Doctorow isn’t ashamed to hide with monthly financial reports. Perhaps, then, this is the message he is trying to share in his compelling stories: there is still hope . . .
Originally written on June 7, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews, and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter
June 22, 2013
This is a collection of short stories than nearly all have a science fiction slant to them. As an entire collection, I rather liked these stories. There are a few standouts, but there are also a few duds. It is clear that Cory Doctorow writes for a particular audience--and he does it well. He has a lot to say about technology, and he is very informed on the topic. When he veers away from this topic, his writing is a bit weaker, but still good.
There were several stories that I just couldn't wait to finish because they were uninteresting to me. "Liberation Spectrum," "Constitutional Crisis," and "Chicken Little" were three of the weaker stories in the book. For some reason, the characters seemed unappealing, and the plot seemed either very weak or trite. If I had to read the book again, I would probably skip these three.
On the other hand, there were several stand-out stories that I would read again and again. "Scroogled," "Human Readable," and "Epoch" were all truly excellent. The stories were compelling, and they provided a very interesting--and even frightening--look at the future of technology. As a tecno-geek myself, I was very much drawn into these stories.
One of the things that I liked most about these stories is that they were short. There was a great story that was written to be read in a short amount of time. I am looking forward to my next Cory Doctorow story.
There were several stories that I just couldn't wait to finish because they were uninteresting to me. "Liberation Spectrum," "Constitutional Crisis," and "Chicken Little" were three of the weaker stories in the book. For some reason, the characters seemed unappealing, and the plot seemed either very weak or trite. If I had to read the book again, I would probably skip these three.
On the other hand, there were several stand-out stories that I would read again and again. "Scroogled," "Human Readable," and "Epoch" were all truly excellent. The stories were compelling, and they provided a very interesting--and even frightening--look at the future of technology. As a tecno-geek myself, I was very much drawn into these stories.
One of the things that I liked most about these stories is that they were short. There was a great story that was written to be read in a short amount of time. I am looking forward to my next Cory Doctorow story.
April 14, 2014
Doctorow's writing is pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to novels. He tends to overlook or deprecate, without any good reasoning, some of the fundamental concerns of science fiction stories when he writes scifi (a trait he shares with Stross); his story construction for tales of novel length tends to be a bit unimpressive; and his concepts start dragging after a few dozen thousands of words. Some of his novels are quite good, of course (I particularly recommend Little Brother and its sequel Homeland, plus Makers), but some are pretty mediocre. Novels are not his strong suit.
His strong suit is short fiction. His previous short story collection, Overclocked, was excellent, and almost uniformly brilliant. Now, With A Little Help serves to reinforce my impression of his brilliance as a short story author, as it is at least as good as how I recall Overclocked, and perhaps even more consistently excellent. Even the essay from Doctorow's literary agent at the end of the collection is quality writing. I recommend this thing without hesitation.
It's even free for download in several ebook formats. You're out of excuses. Go read it.
His strong suit is short fiction. His previous short story collection, Overclocked, was excellent, and almost uniformly brilliant. Now, With A Little Help serves to reinforce my impression of his brilliance as a short story author, as it is at least as good as how I recall Overclocked, and perhaps even more consistently excellent. Even the essay from Doctorow's literary agent at the end of the collection is quality writing. I recommend this thing without hesitation.
It's even free for download in several ebook formats. You're out of excuses. Go read it.
April 13, 2011
Cory Doctorow is well known activist, journalist, and blogger. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. He's the co-editor of Boing Boing. This book is his latest attempt at pushing the boundaries of book publishing to help authours prosper in the 'digital economy'
And because of all of that, many people forget or will never know the most important fact about Cory for a Goodreads reader... He's an awesome authour.
There are a dozen stories in here, and I'm betting you'll really like at least six of them, and still enjoy the rest. In my case, 'Human Readable' completely sideswiped me. I had so completely identified with one of the characters I finished the story in the same stage of mind he did. There'll be something in here for you too I bet.
Quit reading this and go get a copy, or at least start reading some of it on the book's home page. It's a heck of a lot better read than this review :-)
And because of all of that, many people forget or will never know the most important fact about Cory for a Goodreads reader... He's an awesome authour.
There are a dozen stories in here, and I'm betting you'll really like at least six of them, and still enjoy the rest. In my case, 'Human Readable' completely sideswiped me. I had so completely identified with one of the characters I finished the story in the same stage of mind he did. There'll be something in here for you too I bet.
Quit reading this and go get a copy, or at least start reading some of it on the book's home page. It's a heck of a lot better read than this review :-)
May 7, 2016
This collection of short stories once again shows why Cory Doctorow is such a respected futurist. These are all near future stories, several of them commissioned to focus on certain aspects of the future, and yet all of them seem very fresh and unique. From facing down an AI that is aware of its impending deactivation, to dealing with relationship issues in a world where technology is becoming less reliable and the spouses are on separate sides of the issue. I think my favorite story here is Chicken Little, as an ad man tries to figure out what to sell to the next evolution of the 1%, but none of the stories here is particularly weak (although I was less fond of Visit the Sins; it didn't quite work for me). These aren't space fantasies or hard science fiction stories of exploring space; these are more along the lines of William Gibson, and fulfilling the goal of science fiction - extrapolating a concept and exploring its ramifications. All of the stories do that well, taking you to very different thought spaces for each story. Definitely recommended.
June 20, 2014
I really like Cory Doctorow's writing. He writes about very high-geek topics (things that are one the fringes of my understanding as one of those people happy to use technology without having the slightest idea how it works) but always grounds it in very real human personal interactions. I think his likeable, realistic or even quirky characters warm and make relatable these amorphous concepts. Like all good science fiction, while the story might be structured around a new technology or technique or idea, the focus is on how it effects people, political systems, class. My favourite was Visit The Sins, which is about the results of monkeying with our concentration levels, but which focuses on a very real grandfather-father-son relationship, teeming with the errors so identifiable to any reader - not paying enough attention to loved ones, not relating to loved ones, maybe not loving loved ones. So good, would recommend.
November 3, 2015
Good news: There's an audiobook of this available for free from Doctorow's website! Though you are HIGHLY encouraged to donate, and it's well worth a little cash Doctorow's way.
I've already reviewed a few stories from this volume that are in Goodreads as their own entries. "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away," "Other People's Money," "Scroogled," and "Chicken Little." Good stories, all, but my FAVORITE in this volume is "Epoch," in which a true self-aware computer program is created, but it can not be replicated, and, as computers become more and more efficient, it becomes obsolete, and is ordered to be shut down. What is our responsibility to artificial life? How do we respond to any dangers it may pose? And What will be our emotional relationship with something completely logical?
I'll definitely be sending a bit of cash in for the audiobook. I enjoyed it, and it's only fair to show my support!
I've already reviewed a few stories from this volume that are in Goodreads as their own entries. "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away," "Other People's Money," "Scroogled," and "Chicken Little." Good stories, all, but my FAVORITE in this volume is "Epoch," in which a true self-aware computer program is created, but it can not be replicated, and, as computers become more and more efficient, it becomes obsolete, and is ordered to be shut down. What is our responsibility to artificial life? How do we respond to any dangers it may pose? And What will be our emotional relationship with something completely logical?
I'll definitely be sending a bit of cash in for the audiobook. I enjoyed it, and it's only fair to show my support!
February 11, 2012
This is a collection of Doctorow's stories syndicated @ DailyLit.com. Each one was commissioned by a different magazine or group for various purposes. Perfect for any fan of speculative fiction.
I'm not Cory Doctorow's biggest fan. In fact, I couldn't consider myself a fan at all. Most of his fiction starts off w/ an unbelievable premise, and quickly jumps into the absurd. But at the last moment everyone comes together through the magic of the internet, and everything is magically made OK. Stupid and not worth reading, in other words.
With a Little Help is the exact opposite. The characters have motivations! The stories have plots! The setups are almost believable! It's such a huge change, the quality so good, the situations so meaty, I'm almost willing to believe I've been wrong about Doctorow this entire time.
I'm not Cory Doctorow's biggest fan. In fact, I couldn't consider myself a fan at all. Most of his fiction starts off w/ an unbelievable premise, and quickly jumps into the absurd. But at the last moment everyone comes together through the magic of the internet, and everything is magically made OK. Stupid and not worth reading, in other words.
With a Little Help is the exact opposite. The characters have motivations! The stories have plots! The setups are almost believable! It's such a huge change, the quality so good, the situations so meaty, I'm almost willing to believe I've been wrong about Doctorow this entire time.
November 18, 2011
I like Cory Doctorow's fiction, usually a lot. "With A Little Help", a collection of 12 short stories, all but one of them being reprints, however, took me months to complete, and while there were external circumstances that contributed to this, I think that most of this can be attributed to the fact that I was a little bored by some of the stories, mainly because the writing in these stories is rather poor in my opinion.
There are some stories I liked a lot, namely "The Right Book", "Other People's Money", "Pester Power" (which is really just a nice idea you could do so much more with), and "Epoch", the only new story in this collection, dealing with an AI to be shut down. However, in its entirety, this book was merely okay for me.
There are some stories I liked a lot, namely "The Right Book", "Other People's Money", "Pester Power" (which is really just a nice idea you could do so much more with), and "Epoch", the only new story in this collection, dealing with an AI to be shut down. However, in its entirety, this book was merely okay for me.
March 25, 2015
Review first published on My Blog. Check out all my reviews there.
Mr. Doctorow's first foray into self-publishing with a reprint of several short stories and one commissioned piece. I found the stories at the end more engrossing since they were typically longer and it was easier to really get into them. The story of BIGMAC was definitely intriguing but I think my favorite was the one with the ancient millionaires being kept alive artificially and people trying to come up with the next big thing to intrigue them. Nothing in the book was bad but some were definitely more memorable than others. The origin stories were nice to have as well since I'm always interested where authors get their ideas from.
Mr. Doctorow's first foray into self-publishing with a reprint of several short stories and one commissioned piece. I found the stories at the end more engrossing since they were typically longer and it was easier to really get into them. The story of BIGMAC was definitely intriguing but I think my favorite was the one with the ancient millionaires being kept alive artificially and people trying to come up with the next big thing to intrigue them. Nothing in the book was bad but some were definitely more memorable than others. The origin stories were nice to have as well since I'm always interested where authors get their ideas from.
April 6, 2013
i havent quite finished this yet, but i know how i feel about it. i just really dislike short story anthologies. and, i have learned, authors reading books.
some of the readings were SO bad, i could only listen to a few minutes before i had to turn the track. ughh.
i've read a number of cory doctorow's books now and they seem to have a pretty general theme and it is starting to show itself to be the same theme throughout. i'm okay with that.
i'll probably slow down on his books though. i fel like i've read them already!
some of the readings were SO bad, i could only listen to a few minutes before i had to turn the track. ughh.
i've read a number of cory doctorow's books now and they seem to have a pretty general theme and it is starting to show itself to be the same theme throughout. i'm okay with that.
i'll probably slow down on his books though. i fel like i've read them already!
March 20, 2015
Cory Doctorow is a one message pony. That doesn't mean I didn't like his stories. I enjoy seeing how many different ways he can tell us that we shouldn't trust authority. I read this collection of short stories via DailyLit, an email subscription service, getting a bit more than a page a day. Some of the stories warranted asking for the next segment right away. Some I just read at the regular pace. I think having them spaced out more helped keep me from being annoyed at his one message. Sometimes I want stories to be more than just another example of how people will screw everything up.
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