cory doctorow

July 17, 2022

Happy birthday to the pioneering Cory Doctorow

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Cory Doctorow by Jonathan Worth, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Influential blogger, journalist, and author Cory Doctorow contributes daily to Pluralistic, a monthly column for Locus, regularly to Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Deeplinks, and numerous other venues. He is a vocal advocate of the Creative Commons, having published a majority of his works under that license. Doctorow co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, and serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the Clarion Foundation, the Open Technology Fund and the Metabrainz Foundation.

His numerous acclaimed, award-winning works include Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003; winner of Locus Award for Best First Novel), A Place So Foreign and Eight More (2003; Sunburst Award), Little Brother (2008; John W. Campbell Memorial, Prometheus, Sunburst, and White Pine Award), Pirate Cinema (2012; Prometheus Award), Homeland (2013; Prometheus Award), and Walkaway (2017; Dragon Award). Additionally, Cory has won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and The Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Other works include Eastern Standard Tribe (2004), Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (2005), Little Brother (2008), Makers (2009), For the Win (2010), The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (2011), The Rapture of the Nerds (2012 with Charles Stross), In Real Life (2014 with Jen Wang), Poesy the Monster Slayer (2020; illustrated by Matt Rockefeller), and Attack Surface (2020).

Doctorow’s many non fiction books include The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction (2000 with Karl Schroeder), Essential Blogging (2002), CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE (2008), CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY (2011), Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free (2014), and How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism (2020).

Much of his short fiction has been collected in A Place So Foreign and Eight More (2003), Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present (2007), Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now (2008 in graphic format with James Anthony Kuhoric, Dara Naraghi, Dan Taylor, and J. C. Vaughn), With a Little Help (2009), Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present (2016), and Radicalized (2019). Alongside Holly Phillips, Doctorow co-edited Tesseracts Eleven: Amazing Canadian Speculative Fiction (2007).

All of us at Tachyon, wish the visionary Cory a happy birthday.

July 17, 2021

Happy birthday to the pioneering Cory Doctorow

Rick Klaw birthday, blog birthday, cory doctorow, how to destroy surveillance capitalism, poesy the monster slayer, radicalized

Photo by Jonathan Worth, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Other works include Eastern Standard Tribe (2004), Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (2005), Little Brother (2008), Makers (2009), For the Win (2010), The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (2011), The Rapture of the Nerds (2012 with Charles Stross), In Real Life (2014 with Jen Wang), and his first picture book Poesy the Monster Slayer (2020; illustrated by Matt Rockefeller).

Doctorow’s many non fiction books include The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction (2000 with Karl Schroeder), Essential blogging (2002), CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATI V ITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE (2008), CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY (2011), Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free (2014), and How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism (2020).

All of us at Tachyon, wish the visionary Cory a happy birthday.

April 20, 2021

Join pioneers Bruce Sterling and Cory Doctorow as they discuss Sterling’s new book ROBOT ARTISTS & BLACK SWANS

Rick Klaw blog, Events attack surface, book people, bruce sterling, cory doctorow, robot artists & black swans, virtual event

On Thursday, April 29 at 2PM CT, Book People hosts a virtual talk between the visionary Godfather of Cyberpunk Bruce Sterling, whose latest collection ROBOT ARTISTS & BLACK SWANS: THE ITALIAN FANTASCIENZA STORIES introduces the work of his Turinese alter ego Bruno Argento to American audiences, and Cory Doctorow, New York Times best selling author of Attack Surface.

February 10, 2021

The pioneering Cory Doctorow to keynote NISO Plus 2021

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Influential blogger, journalist, and author Cory Doctorow will be a keynote speaker at NISO Plus 2021. Doctorow’s keynote speech The day of the comet: what trustbusting means for digital manipulation happens on Monday, February 22 at 11AM EST. NISO Plus 2021 runs February 22-25.

The NISO Plus conference is a continuation of the NFAIS Annual Conference, but in a new and exciting form. We are taking the 60+ year history of the NFAIS Annual conference and expanding it to contain even more of the information professions. We want the NISO Plus Conference to be a place where publishers, vendors, librarians, archivists, product managers, metadata specialists, electronic resource managers, and much more come together to both solve existing problems and more importantly have conversations that prevent future problems from ever occurring.
Niso Plus 2021

February 2, 2021

Tachyon well represented at Boskone 58

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Marie Brennan, Ellen Datlow, Julie Dillon, Cory Doctorow, James Patrick Kelly, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Stemple, Michael Swanwick, Carrie Vaughn, and Jane Yolen will all be attending the virtual online convention Boskone 58, February 12-14.

Brought to you by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA), Boskone is an annual science fiction convention, the oldest in New England. NESFA is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation and both NESFA and Boskone are run and put on entirely by fan volunteers.
What is Boskone?

Guest of Honor: Joe Abercrombie
Official Artist: Julie Dillon
Special Guest: Sheree Renée Thomas
Musical Guest: Marc Gunn
NESFA Press Guest: Ursula Vernon
Hal Clement Science Speaker: Mike Brotherton
Hal Clement Science Speaker: Christian Ready

Boskone offers a massive selection of readings and panels. To find any of these authors, check out the entire schedule.

February 1, 2021

Join the pioneering Cory Doctorow and the enigmatic whistle blower Edward Snowden in conversation

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Via Copperfield’s Books, Edward Snowden discusses Permanent Record: How One Man Exposed the Truth about Government Spying and Digital Security with Cory Doctorow on Tuesday, February 9 at 7:00pm PT.

If you were convinced it was the right thing to do, how far would you go to inform your country, your fellow citizens? Would you follow your conscience? And what would you be willing to give up?

Join us for the ONLY virtual visit in the US for the new Young Readers Edition of Edward Snowden’s book, Permanent Record! Snowden will be discussing his book with Cory Doctorow followed by a short Q&A.

In 2013, Edward Snowden shocked the world when he revealed that the United States government was secretly building a system of mass surveillance with the ability to gaze into the private lives of every person on earth. Phone calls, text messages, emails—nothing was safe from prying eyes. Now the man who risked everything to expose the truth about government spying describes for a new generation how he helped build that system, what motivated him to try to bring it down, and how young people can strive to protect their privacy in the digital age.

This adaptation of Snowden’s crucial, eye-opening adapted memoir is perfect for a rising generation that is driven toward enacting real change and embracing digital security and privacy tools; it will inform and inspire future coders, bureaucrats, tech moguls, and users of every kind of digital product and service.

Questions for Cory Doctorow and Edward Snowden can be submitted through Eventbrite during ticket purchase and they will select some to answer during the event if time allows. We will not be taking live questions.
Copperfield’s Books

December 15, 2020

The best-selling ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL is Daniel Pinkwater at his best, most charming and delightful

Rick Klaw blog adventures of a dwergish girl, cory doctorow, daniel pinkwater, deborah j ross, do the m@th, ethan iverson, oblong books & music, pluralistic, review 0

OBLONG BOOKS & MUSIC includes Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL among their best-selling titles. (This along with all the rest of the 2020 titles, is currently 20% off with free media mail shipping on the Tachyon site)

Cover by Aaron Renier
Design by Elizabeth Story

Deborah J. Ross, on her eponymous blog, loves the book.

Daniel Pinkwater is at his best, most charming and delightful in this tale of a girl from the Dwerg people – you know, the “little men” responsible for Rip Van Winkle sleeping for twenty years? The ones you can never find, no matter how hard you look? The ones who mine gold in the Catskills, can run unbelievably fast, practice domesticity on a level capable of boring any young person to tears? Such is Molly Van Dwerg’s world until she decides to leave home, armed with a couple of Dwergish gold coins and irrepressible self-confidence.

For DO THE M@TH, Ethan Iverson recommends this new classic.

Kids still read! On the YA tip, the great Daniel Pinkwater has a new book out, ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL. It’s classic Pinkwater, one of his best. Yes! God bless Daniel Pinkwater. When I was a kid, I treated Alan Mendelsohn, Boy From Mars and Lizard Music as manuals of style. I will always owe Pinkwater a great debt.

Cory Doctorow, at PLURALISTIC, revisits the title in his All the books I reviewed in 2020.

Like every Pinkwater novel, it defies description, it is brilliant, and it is his best to date. Ghosts, Revolutionary War fleshbots, papaya juice, and supernatural beings from the Catskills!

November 5, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Nancy Kress, Kameron Hurley, Cory Doctorow, Brandon Sanderson, Andrew Fox, and Kate Elliott

Rick Klaw blog andrew fox, Apolitical Cocktail Party: 2020 Handbook, brandon sanderson, context: further selected essays on productivity creativity parenting and politics in the 21st century, cory doctorow, fantasy literature, hex, jana nyman, kameron hurley, kate elliott, lamplighter, meet me in the future, Nancy Kress, review, sea change, smashwords, the curious sff reader, the emperor's soul, the man who would be kong, tor.com, with a little help, you tube 0

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

At FANTASY LITERATURE, Jana Nyman praises Nancy Kress’ SEA CHANGE.

Ever read a book and immediately wish that you’d been able to read it in school, rather than [insert inaccessible book of choice]? For me, Nancy Kress’s 2020 novella SEA CHANGE, with its gutsy-yet-conflicted heroine and all-too-real near-future global catastrophes, is exactly the kind of book I wish I’d been handed way back when.

[…]

I enjoyed SEA CHANGE tremendously, not only for the strength of Kress’s character work but for the ways in which she tackles difficult subjects like environmental collapse, the fraught legal status of people living on reservations in America, grief and the different ways people cope with loss, and the often-surprising ways people express their hope for a better future. SEA CHANGE is a short novel with a powerful impact, and I highly recommend it.

THE CURIOUS SFF READER enjoys Kameron Hurley’s MEET ME IN THE FUTURE.

Before reading this anthology, I had only read one of Hurley’s novels The Stars are Legion and one of her short stories, The Red Secretary (included in this short collection but first published in Uncanny Magazine). I didn’t have the best experience with the former, however, I really enjoyed the latter, which is why I decided to give MEET ME IN THE FUTURE a try. And I’m glad I did because it’s an amazing collection!

Hurley’s stories are bloody, complex and deal with hard issues so, if dark fiction isn’t your thing, I don’t think you will enjoy this one. However, if you want to read from the perspectives of morally grey characters who don’t take shit from anybody, I would definitely recommend this anthology.

Cover by Carl Sutton
Design by Elizabeth Story

If you enjoy dark and unsettling reads exploring fascinating themes, MEET ME IN THE FUTURE is a must. The collection doesn’t contain a single bad story and they were varied enough that I didn’t feel burn-out by the end.

Four stars.

The “reading list” included in the appendix of the Apolitical Cocktail Party: 2020 Handbook contains Cory Doctorow’s CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY and With A Little Help.

Cover art by Alexander Nanitchkov
Design by Elizabeth Story

Brandon Sanderson answers Where Should I Start With Your Books?

SMASHWORDS offers a free read of Andrew Fox’s “The Man Who Would Be Kong.”

An elderly man, Max Strauss, retired in Miami Beach, visits an entrepreneur who is about to open a King Kong-themed restaurant. Max claims to have portrayed the giant gorilla in the 1933 classic film. But everyone knows that King Kong was actually an 18″ tall animated model, don’t they? So is Max an attention-seeking fraud? Or is he something far greater?

TOR.COM announces Kate Elliot’s a new two fantasy novella series comprised of Lamplighter in early 2022 and Hex in 2023.

Fellion is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines.

Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.

But Fellian has more than just her lamplighting skills up her sleeve…

October 30, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Daniel Pinkwater, Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, Jill Roberts, David G. Hartwell, Jacob Weisman, Cory Doctorow, and Joe R. Lansdale

Rick Klaw blog adam stemple, adventures of a dwergish girl, budapest, cory doctorow, daniel pinkwater, David G. Hartwell, hungary, jacob weisman, Jane Yolen, jill roberts, Joe R. Lansdale, Publishers Weekly, r/fantasy, reddit, review, Sándor Bródy Library, tachyon publications channel, the drive-in, the last tsar's dragons, the new york times, the sword & sorcery anthology, tina jordan, tor.com, youtube 0

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Publishers Weekly praises Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL.

The comically absurd ending is an enjoyable wrap-up to this fast-paced, unexpected adventure that combines history, folklore, and nonsensical fun.

The Sándor Bródy Library (Budapest, Hungary) includes THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple among the October e-book recommendations.

Cover art by Anabelle Gerardy
Design by Elizabeth Story

On the Tachyon Publications Channel, meet Tachyon Managing Editor Jill Roberts.

At REDDIT r/Fantasy in the conversation Looking for Sword and Sorcery Short Story Anthology recommendations, snowlock27 suggests THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY.

THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY, edited by David G Hartwell and Jacob Weisman. Has the classics by Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock, and CL Moore, as well as newer writers, like Caitlyn Kiernan, George RR Martin, and Gene Wolfe.

Cover by Jean-Sebastien Rossbach
Design by Elizabeth Story

For TOR.COM, Cory Doctorow pens Beyond Cyberpunk: The Intersection of Technology and Science Fiction.

People with established careers are terrible sources of advice on how to break into their chosen field. When I was a baby writer, I attended numerous panels about getting established, where writers a generation or two older than me explained how to charm John W Campbell into buying a story for Astounding Stories. This was not useful advice. Not only had Campbell died six days before I was born, but he was also a fascist.

I have two careers, one in tech and the other in SF, a peanut-butter-and-chocolate combo that’s got a long history in the field, and I am often asked how to break into both fields. I know an awful lot about how to sell a story to Gardner Dozois, who stopped editing Asimov’s sixteen years ago and died two years ago, but I know nothing about pitching contemporary SF editors.

Likewise: I know an awful lot about breaking into the tech industry circa 1990: first, be born in 1971. Next, be raised in a house with a succession of primitive computers and modems. Enter the field in the midst of a massive investment bubble that creates jobs faster than they can be filled, when credentials are irrelevant.

Another advantage we had in the 1990s tech industry: cyberpunk. Cyberpunk, a literary genre that ruled sf for about two decades, was primarily written by people who knew very little about the inner workings of computers, and who were often barely able to use them.

In THE NEW YORK TIMES, Tina Jordan’s Texas selection in “50 States, 50 Scares” comes unsurprisingly from Joe R. Lansdale.

Ah, October — crisp nights, apple-picking, leaf-peeping, Halloween. To celebrate the spookiest season, we’ve made a list of the scariest novel set in every state.

[…]

Texas

Joe R. Lansdale, “The Drive-In”

A crowded drive-in movie marathon turns into a B-movie horror-fest all its own, splattering the patrons in a blood-and-gore nightmare.

October 21, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Daniel Pinkwater, Peter S. Beagle, Nalo Hopkinson, Brandon Sanderson, Charlie Jane Anders, Michael Swanwick, and Cory Doctorow

Rick Klaw blog adventures of a dwergish girl, all the birds in the sky, brandon sanderson, brown girl in the ring, Charlie Jane Anders, cory doctorow, daniel pinkwater, interview, kids bookbuzz, michael swanwick, mistborn, mythaxis review, nalo hopkinson, peter s beagle, review, tais teng, the 100 best fantasy books of all time, the last unicorn, time, torforge, youtube 0

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

At KIDS BOOKBUZZ, Zara – Age 11 enjoys Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL.

I think that people ages from seven to one hundred and one could read ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL. It is a great book for everybody! Also, if you like fun adventure books, along with some humor and fun facts! I would definitely recommend this book, so go buy it!!

TIME’s The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time includes Peter S. Beagle, Nalo Hopkinson, Brandon Sanderson, and Charlie Jane Anders.

With a panel of leading fantasy authors—N.K. Jemisin, Neil Gaiman, Sabaa Tahir, Tomi Adeyemi, Diana Gabaldon, George R.R. Martin, Cassandra Clare and Marlon James—TIME presents the most engaging, inventive and influential works of fantasy fiction, in chronological order beginning in the 9th century

The book’s charm lies in the ways it defies fantasy convention. In this cult classic, written in lyrical prose and rife with both whimsical humor and philosophical ruminations on what it means to be human, Beagle spins a quasi-medieval fairy tale that remains timeless. —*Megan McCluskey*

A hybrid of sci-fi, fantasy, eye-popping horror and Afro-Caribbean lore, the eloquent *Brown Girl in the Ring* is a true original—and the savior at its center is a beacon of strength in the body of a young single mother. —*Judy Berman*

The detail with which Sanderson explores the hows and whys of allomancy in the novel, setting up a crescendo of action and adventure by its end, is a solid illustration of his own “First Law of Magics,” which posits that a writer’s capacity to resolve a story’s conflict using magic is directly correlated with readers’ understanding of how that magic works. —*Cate Matthews*

The burgeoning romance brims with eccentricities, but the true fun of Charlie Jane Anders’ Nebula Award-winning novel is its blend of the fantasy and science fiction genres. Anders reveals an intersection full of possibilities. —*Annabel Gutterman*

Tais Teng for MYTHAXIS REVIEW interviews Michael Swanwick.

TT: Some blockbuster fantasy writers are clearly paladins of Tolkien. I get the impression that you belong to a quite different tribe, harkening back to a time when each fantasy novel was one of a kind. Hope-in-the-Mist (which I read recently thanks to your glowing recommendation), The Night Lands, Gormenghast, A Voyage to Arcturus and The Gods of Pegana come to mind.

What are the novels and authors that inspired you when you just had started writing? Or better, when you yearned to become a writer but hadn’t sold a word yet?

MS: As a boy, I was determined to be a scientist. Nothing could be surer. Then, at age sixteen, Tolkien turned me into a writer. I read The Fellowship of the Ring over one long, sleepless night and that was it, I knew what I was going to be. This was before commercial fantasy was a genre, so I had to hunt out fantasy works, which were few and far between. So I read everything from E. R. Eddison’s Mistress of Mistresses to John Jakes’ Brak the Barbarian (very highly not recommended), the books you mention most definitely included. This imprinted on me the idea that great fantasy must necessarily be different from everything else and written in imitation of nobody.

I’ve never gotten over this conviction.

Also, back in the 1980s, I was on the Nebula Award Jury, which was, for reasons that made sense at the time, tasked with adding a single worthy but neglected work to every category on the final award ballot. We made a valiant but futile attempt to read everything published in genre that year and in so doing I read so much fantasy written in lockstep with the common expectation of what it should be that I developed a revulsion for it.

To sum it all up, I love fantasy the way you love your firstborn. You have such high expectations for it that any failure to live up to them is a disappointment. If it’s not astonishingly good, I’m not going to much like it.

For TORFORGE via YOUTUBE, Cory Doctorow discusses writing.

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