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sizrobe's review against another edition
5.0
Classic Cory Doctorow. My favorite of the bunch is Craphound, which is about a guy who buys crap at yard sales and thrift stores to resell at auction, who just happens to have an alien colleague. I can see why he titled his personal blog after it.
Other highlights include The Super Man and the Bugout, which is about a Jewish superhero named Hershie who is obsoleted by peacekeeping aliens, and two others set in the same post-alien future.
There's a neat little biohacking story by the unfortunate name "0wnz0red" that is almost ruined by a liberal peppering of leetspeak. Almost.
Really I think the titular story, A Place So Foreign, was the weakest of the bunch. It's a time-travelling story where technology keeps bleeding backwards into the past. I'm not a huge fan of time travel stories, but it wasn't horrible.
Other highlights include The Super Man and the Bugout, which is about a Jewish superhero named Hershie who is obsoleted by peacekeeping aliens, and two others set in the same post-alien future.
There's a neat little biohacking story by the unfortunate name "0wnz0red" that is almost ruined by a liberal peppering of leetspeak. Almost.
Really I think the titular story, A Place So Foreign, was the weakest of the bunch. It's a time-travelling story where technology keeps bleeding backwards into the past. I'm not a huge fan of time travel stories, but it wasn't horrible.
nakedsteve's review
4.0
This is a reasonably high quality set of Doctorow's short fiction; I do tend to find his stuff enjoyable to read since the ideas he comes up with do seem quite innovative.
And short fiction is fun, since I can parsel out the stories as I have time to read them, without having to worry to remember them.
4 of 5 stars.
And short fiction is fun, since I can parsel out the stories as I have time to read them, without having to worry to remember them.
4 of 5 stars.
trin's review
2.0
A collection of quirkly sci-fi stories, pretty much all of which had interesting concepts, but very little in the way of characters. (Also virtually no female characters, I realized once I was done. Like, I think a couple times someone's mom shows up, but that's it. Wow.) I think I read for characters more than ideas (though obviously, a marriage of both is what's best) so there really wasn't much for me here. YMMV, of course, but these stories really did leave me feeling stranded, like a foreigner.
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