Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment
by Cory Doctorow
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From New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow, Radicalized is four urgent SF novellas of America's present and future within one book
Told through one of the most on-pulse genre voices of our generation, Radicalized is a timely collection consisting of four SF novellas connected by social, technological, and economic visions of today and what America could be in the near, near future.
Unauthorized Bread is a tale of immigration, the toxicity of economic and technological stratification, and the young and downtrodden fighting against all odds to survive and prosper.
In Model Minority, a Superman-like figure attempts to rectifiy the corruption of the police forces he long erroneously thought protected the defenseless...only to find his efforts adversely affecting their victims.
Radicalized is a story of a darkweb-enforced violent uprising against insurance companies told from the perspective of a man desperate to secure funding for an experimental drug that could cure his wife's terminal cancer.
The fourth story, Masque of the Red Death, harkens back to Doctorow's Walkaway, taking on issues of survivalism versus community.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9781250229250
- Binding
- Paperback
- Authors
- Cory Doctorow
- Publisher
- Tor Books
- Published Date
- March 3, 2020
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 304
- Physical Info
- 7.9 in L x 5.2 in W (0.55 lb)
Love the humor! He nails life today.
Loved the book until the end when I was really thrown off that it is missing pages 281 through 294. Frustrating!
If you enjoy fiction that treats its readers like imbeciles, this book is for you! Lots of bad guys who are not fond of universal healthcare, for example, and good guys who earnestly desire free healthcare, food, housing, etc. -- oh and these good guys also murder people, but hey, gotta break a few eggs and all that. This isn't fiction, it's a left-wing polemic -- it isn't subtle or interesting, it's flat-out, in-your-face, insult-your-intelligence agitprop. My margins are littered with LOL, UGH and ???. And the writing is drab and pedestrian. So many books, so little time -- save your money, save your time. This book is rubbish.
Córy Doctorow is the technological prophet of the age. In touch and talented, Doctorow makes you think and consider the impacts and limits of our progress. Highly recommended.
Three of the four novellas are great. All lean a little heavily into sermonizing, but most of them are worth it. I was a bit displeased to see the author's own bigotry peeping through, as when (minor spoiler? No details) he made four of the domestic terrorists, the ones whose home areas were named, all be from the rural South. Gross, dude. Not helping. Other than that, quite readable. UPDATE: it's several weeks later and I just randomly remembered a specific scene from the first story, Illegal Bread. Things popping into my brain like that = generally a sign of good, memorable writing! Went back to read it again, can now say that Illegal Bread alone is worth the entire book. Bumped my review up to four stars instead of three.
