Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Dec 8, 2021 36 tweets 21 min read Read on X
This is more-or-less my last blogging day of 2021 (I may sneak a post or two in before the New Year, but I might not), so it's time for my annual roundup of my book reviews from the year gone by.

1/ A vast library.
I've sorted this year's books by genre (sf/f, other novels, graphic novels, YA, nonfic) a

nd summarized the reviews with links to the full review.

2/
As ever, casting my eye over the year's reading fills me with delight (at how much I enjoyed these books) and shame (at all the excellent books I was sent or recommended that I did *not* get a chance to read). 2021 was a hard year for all of us and I'm no exception.

3/
I ended up whiffing on *so many* astonishingly great and highly desirable books this year and I feel awful about it, to be honest.

4/
I know what it's like to launch a book in a pandemic (I had *four* books out in 2020, ugh), and I so want to get those writers' and publishers' books into your hands. I might actually start an aspirational "books I wish I was reading" monthly or quarterly list for 2022.

5/
On the subject of book publishing a pandemic: last year saw the publication of the paperback of my novel *Attack Surface*, the third Little Brother book:

craphound.com/homeland/2021/…

6/
There's still signed stock at @darkdel, and depending on the postal service, it's possible that if you order one (or the other signed books of mine they have on hand) that you'll get it in time for the Christmas break.

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co…

7/
And speaking of 2022, I'll be publishing the first of *seven* planned books for 2022/3/4 in September: "Culture Heist: The Rise of Chokepoint Capitalism and How Workers Can Defeat It," comes out from @BeaconPressBks in September.

8/
It's a book on monopoly and creative labor exploitation that I co-wrote with @rgibli and it's *excellent*.

Now, onto the reviews!

* Science fiction/fantasy novels

9/
I. Situation Normal, by @leonardr

Richardson's second novel is a droll, weird, fast-moving space-opera with a gigantic cast, myriad subplots, and fascinating premises – a novel so brilliantly conceived that it runs like precision clockwork.

pluralistic.net/2020/12/14/sit…

10/
II. Rabbits, by @tkmiles

Mile's debut novel is a taut, conspiratorial thriller with overtones of PK Dick by way of Qanon and Dark City, a supernatural tale that illuminates the thrill and terror of ARG-like groups.

pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leo…

11/
III. The City We Became, by @NKJemisin

A magic realist novel of New York City that is both a fantastic contemporary fantasy novel and a scorching commentary on the infantile nature of the racist dogma of HP Lovecraft and his ilk.

pluralistic.net/2021/01/09/the…

12/ The cover of The City We Became
IV. When the Sparrow Falls, by @unshavedmouse

A tense dystopia about the unraveling of a paranoid hermit kingdom established as a final redoubt against humanity's ascent to the cloud. A claustrophobic nightmare of authoritarian antitranshumanism.

pluralistic.net/2021/07/01/bas…

13/ The cover of When the Sparrow Falls
V. King Bullet, by @Richard_Kadrey

The final #SandmanSlim novel - more than a decade in the making, and a triumphant capstone to a supernatural noir series that transcended the tropes of noir and the supernatural with a tale of transformation, redemption, revenge and sacrifice.
VI. Hench, by @NatalieZed

This debut novel is fantastic, funny, furious and fucking amazing. It is a profound and moving story about justice wrapped up in a gag about superheroes, sneaky and sharp.

pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/fai…

15/
VII. The Every, by Dave Eggers

The sequel to Eggers' 2013 techno-dystopian satire "The Circle," and it's a deeply discomfiting, darkly hilarious, keen-edged tale of paternalism and its discontents.

pluralistic.net/2021/10/05/mas…

16/ The cover of The Every
* Novels (not sf/f)

I. Scholars of the Night, by John M Ford

The first in a long-awaited, storied and fraught reissues of the works of the brilliant and versatile Mike Ford, a cold war thirller without match.

pluralistic.net/2021/09/26/mik…

17/ The cover of Scholars of the Night
II. This Thing Between Us, by @Uhhgus

Gus Moreno's debut novel, "This Thing Between Us," is a genuinely creepy supernatural horror novel, a book that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and got me to turn on the nightlight at bedtime.

pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-…

18/ The cover of This Thing Between Us
III. LaserWriter II, by Tamara Shopson

Tamara Shopsin's fictionalized history of Tekserve, NYC's legendary Apple repair store: a vivid, loving portrait of an heroic wea when computers transformed lives and captured hearts.

pluralistic.net/2021/10/29/nor…

19/ The cover of LaserWriter II
* Graphic Novels

I. Streamliner, by Fane

The story of a secret outlaw jalopy hotrod race that plays out with so much fucking noir it's practically vantablack,. It's clear why STREAMLINER and its creator Fane are giants of the French comics scene.

pluralistic.net/2021/03/15/fre…

20/ The cover of Streamliner
II. Cyclopedia Exotica, by @aminder_d

An alternate world shared with cylcopes (one eye/one breast). Told as a series of lighthearted gags that made me cry with laughter - an admirably sneaky and profound story about race, gender and class.

pluralistic.net/2021/05/11/uni…

21/ The cover of Cyclopedia Exotica
III. Bubble, by @Jordan_Morris et al

Comedy/sf story about outposts on a hostile planet where human colonists live under armored domes, protection against overpowered alien critters. An improbable artifact that turns podcasting into a visual medium.

pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/pod…

22/ The cover of Bubble
* YA

I. Permanent Record, by @Snowden

Snowden's sprightly prose, deep tech, superb explanations of complex matters, and ability to articulate principled action come together in a book that is, if anything, better than the adult version.

pluralistic.net/2021/02/09/per…

23/ The cover of Permanent Record
II. The Halloween Moon, by @PlanetofFinks

Welcome to Nightvale co-creator Joseph Fink brings his superb, unmatchable gift for balancing the weird and the real to a spooky middle-grades novel that echoes such classics as @NeilHimself's Coraline.

pluralistic.net/2021/09/23/rem…

24/ The cover of Halloween Moon
III. Victories Greater Than Death, by @CharlieJane

An exciting, engrossing tale with all that's great about YA tropes while deftly subverting the their problems. Full of majesty and sweep, good and evil, bravery and sacrifice, treachery and danger.

pluralistic.net/2021/11/08/tin…

25/ The cover of Victories Greater Than Death
* Nonfiction

I. The Data Detective, by @TimHarford

Could have been called HOW TO TRUTH WITH STATISTICS. Journey beyond debunking bad stats and learn how stats can be part of how we discover truth.

pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how…

26/ The cover of The Data Detective
II. Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air, by @sarahbridle

Clear, nonthreatening, technical language, brilliant data visualizations, and examples grounded in our daily experience make a powerful read.

pluralistic.net/2021/01/06/met…

27/ The cover of Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air
III. Competition is Killing Us, by @MichMeagher

A smart, fast-moving history of the neutering of monopoly law, by the Chicago School of neoliberal economists. The Chicago School put competition enforcement in chains. Meagher shatters them.

pluralistic.net/2021/01/08/com…

28/ The cover of Competition is Killing Us
IV. Monopolized, by @DDayen

Unpicks knots of bullshit and laying them straight to reveal them for the turds they are; showing how we're all drowning in crap. Pharma, aviation, newspapers, Big Tech, Big Funeral, all the scams that pick our pockets.

pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fra…

29/ The cover of Monopolized
V. Broad Band, by @TheUniverse

More than a celebration of the hidden woman heroes of the computing revolution – an epitaph for all the people whose talent, aptitude, dreams and contributions were squandered.

pluralistic.net/2021/02/13/dat…

30/
VI. Prisoners' Inventions, by Angelo

A carceral version of neo-neolithic Youtubers who bootstrap tools from raw materials. Prisoners treat the environment as a challenge, to be reconfigured, overcoming user-hostile designs and armed enforcers.

pluralistic.net/2021/06/09/kin…

31/
VII. Jackpot, by @MichaelMechanic

A pitiless, empathic look at the lives of the super-rich: the transactional relationships, the paranoia and greed, the pingponging between homes, the ruined offspring, the constant preoccuptation with accumulation…

pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/pub…

32/
VIII. Mutual Aid, by Peter Kropotkin, @DavidGraeber, and others

Debunking the fraud of "social Darwinism," the idea that hierarchy and exploitation are evolutionarily baked into our genes. A gorgeous illustrated edition with an intro by Graeber.

pluralistic.net/2021/09/22/kro…

33/ The cover of Mutual Aid
IX. Savage Love A-Z, by @FakeDanSavage

Come for graphic sexual content, stay for thoughtful and philosophy. Savage's latest is an illustrated, alphabetical tour through the concepts of his decades-long corpus of wisdom, humor and learning.

pluralistic.net/2021/10/04/avo…

eof/ The cover of Savage Love A-Z
ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/12/08/req…

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More from @doctorow

Mar 15
Even by Amazon standards, this is extraordinarily sleazy: starting March 28, each Amazon Echo device will cease processing audio on-device and instead upload all the audio it captures to Amazon's cloud for processing.

1/ A cylindrical black Alexa speaker on a coffee table; it is wearing a Darth Vader helmet.  Image: Stock Catalog/https://www.quotecatalog.com (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexa_%2840770465691%29.jpg  Sam Howzit (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SWC_6_-_Darth_Vader_Costume_(7865106344).jpg  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/alt…

2/
This will happen even if you have previously opted out of cloud-based processing:



3/arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/0…
Read 48 tweets
Mar 13
My theory of the "shitty technology adoption curve" holds that you can predict the future impact of abusive technologies on you by observing the way these are deployed against people who have less social power than you:



1/ pluralistic.net/2023/06/11/the…A magnified image of the inside of an automated backup tape library, with gleaming racks of silver tape drives receding into the distance. In the foreground is a pile of dirt being shoveled by three figures in prisoner's stripes. Two of the figures' heads have been replaced with cliche hacker-in-hoodie heads, from which shine yellow, inverted Amazon 'smile' logos, such that the smile is a frown. The remaining figure's head has been replaced with a horse's head. Behind the figure is an impatiently poised man in a sharp business suit, glaring at his watch. His head has been replaced with the ...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/13/ele…

2/
When you have a new, abusive technology, you can't just aim it at rich, powerful people, because when *they* complain, they get results.

3/
Read 71 tweets
Mar 12
Let me tell you how I became a proud science denier, and how it saved my life.

1/ A cross-section of the head of a man who is wide-eyed and screaming. The head is elongated and is being sucked into a black hole.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/12/epi…

2/
It was about 15 years ago. I was living in London, and my wife's job came with a private health insurance buff that let us use private doctors instead of the NHS.

3/
Read 58 tweets
Mar 10
Inflation has many complex causes and dynamics, but this much should be obvious: when prices go up, and the *profits* go up, the price rise - the "inflation" is in part the result of greed - it's greedflation.

1/ A 'stonks' meme, featuring a 3d modeled head atop the body of a man in a business suit, arms folded, standing before a stylized stock-chart with an orange arrow pointing up and to the right. The word 'stonks' has been replaced with 'eggs.' A cartoon drawing of a shattered, crying Humpty Dumpty is in the bottom left corner.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/dem…

2/
Orthodox economists insist that greedflation is impossible. Sure, companies would *prefer* to jack up prices, but if they do, other companies would rush inn to sell more cheaply.

3/
Read 53 tweets
Mar 5
You guys, I don't want to bum you out or anything, but I think there's a good chance than some self-described capitalists *aren't really into capitalism*.

Sorry.

1/ A giant, complicated, mechanical printing press. Looming over it is an 18th-century demon from the Compendium Rarissimum Totius Artis Magicae; it is a eating severed human leg, and waving another leg in the air. In the background rise dark red flames. The printer has a Brother logo.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/05/pri…

2/
Take incentives: Charlie Munger, capitalism's quippiest pitchman, famously said, "Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome."

3/
Read 50 tweets
Mar 3
I get a special pleasure from citing Milton Friedman. I like to imagine that as I do, he groans around the red-hot spit protruding from his jaws, prompting howls of laughter from the demons who pelt him with molten faeces for all eternity.

1/ Oil derricks superimposed against a 'code waterfall' as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. In the foreground is Trump's hair.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/fri…

2/
If you're lucky enough not to know about Friedman, here's the short version. Friedman was a kind of court sorcerer to Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Augusto Pinochet, and other assorted authoritarian, hard-right leaders who set us on the path to the hellscape we inhabit today.

3/
Read 56 tweets

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