Scan barcode
A review by amber_lea84
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
4.0
The book is four short stories.
Unauthorized Bread is about people who are forced to jailbreak their appliances (toasters, fridges, washers, etc) after the companies go out of business and they can no longer use them and they discover a world in which they don't have to deal with microtransactions to live their lives. I'd probably give this one 4/5. It's a helpful thought experiment, but it's all about jailbreaking appliances. Take away the message and the story feels pretty weak. I think it would have been better as an article about what ifs rather than an actual work of fiction. But it's definitely a useful term. Like HP and their stupid ink is "unauthorized bread." (In the story toasters only accept authorized bread.)
Model Minority is basically about superman deciding he suddenly cares about racism and I absolutely hated this story. It's so cringy and heavy handed and I could say so much about how stupid I found this but I just don't have the energy. I feel like this COULD have been an interesting story but it's just awful. Negative all the stars. I almost want to give the whole book three stars because I hate this one so much.
Radicalized is about people who have nothing to lose bombing insurance companies who deny life saving care. It's actually pretty great. It felt pretty cathartic because we're basically slaves to health insurers who don't have to help us when the time comes. 5/5 stars
The Masque of the Red Death is the reason I know this book exists. I believe it's based on that Doomsday Prep for the Super Rich article in The New Yorker about Steve Huffman. And given that context and all the drama over the last few months this story is pretty hilarious. It's about a billionaire (totally Steve Huffman) doomsday prepping and building this community (where he's the leader) to survive the collapse of society and how that might realistically go. 4/5 stars.
This book was a bit of a mixed bag overall. Each story is very much about it's theme, and I feel like only Radicalized felt truly well-done in the sense that I forgot I was reading a story about an idea. Unauthorized Bread very much feels like it's about corporate greed first and foremost and The Masque of the Red Death feels like it's about how billionaire preppers are morons. But Radicalized felt a little more like it was about the human beings in the story. The other stories get part way there but they never let you forget the real point. And Model Minority was just painfully bad.
Unauthorized Bread is about people who are forced to jailbreak their appliances (toasters, fridges, washers, etc) after the companies go out of business and they can no longer use them and they discover a world in which they don't have to deal with microtransactions to live their lives. I'd probably give this one 4/5. It's a helpful thought experiment, but it's all about jailbreaking appliances. Take away the message and the story feels pretty weak. I think it would have been better as an article about what ifs rather than an actual work of fiction. But it's definitely a useful term. Like HP and their stupid ink is "unauthorized bread." (In the story toasters only accept authorized bread.)
Model Minority is basically about superman deciding he suddenly cares about racism and I absolutely hated this story. It's so cringy and heavy handed and I could say so much about how stupid I found this but I just don't have the energy. I feel like this COULD have been an interesting story but it's just awful. Negative all the stars. I almost want to give the whole book three stars because I hate this one so much.
Radicalized is about people who have nothing to lose bombing insurance companies who deny life saving care. It's actually pretty great. It felt pretty cathartic because we're basically slaves to health insurers who don't have to help us when the time comes. 5/5 stars
The Masque of the Red Death is the reason I know this book exists. I believe it's based on that Doomsday Prep for the Super Rich article in The New Yorker about Steve Huffman. And given that context and all the drama over the last few months this story is pretty hilarious. It's about a billionaire (totally Steve Huffman) doomsday prepping and building this community (where he's the leader) to survive the collapse of society and how that might realistically go. 4/5 stars.
This book was a bit of a mixed bag overall. Each story is very much about it's theme, and I feel like only Radicalized felt truly well-done in the sense that I forgot I was reading a story about an idea. Unauthorized Bread very much feels like it's about corporate greed first and foremost and The Masque of the Red Death feels like it's about how billionaire preppers are morons. But Radicalized felt a little more like it was about the human beings in the story. The other stories get part way there but they never let you forget the real point. And Model Minority was just painfully bad.