• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 February #2
  *Starred Review* Doctorow (Walkaway, 2017) presents four different pictures of the present and the near future that meet at the intersection between technology and political or social change. In Unauthorized Bread, the already disenfranchised are forced to use restrictive technology, such as toasters that toast only brand-loyal bread, and one woman's attempts to provide her and her neighbors with some measure of freedom. The similarly near-future Radicalized chronicles one man who, during his wife's battle with cancer, becomes a member of a darknet grieving forum that soon becomes the birthplace of a violent uprising against the uncaring U.S. health care system. The Masque of the Red Death follows a distinctly unsympathetic survivalist and his followers as they attempt to weather a societal collapse that doesn't go quite as they'd planned. Rounding out the collection is Model Minority, in which a Superman analogue finds himself way out of his depth when confronting the racist justice system. Doctorow's combination of cutting edge speculation and deep interest in the social and political possibilities of the future makes this collection a must-read for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson or of any sf in which the future is always part of an engaged and passionate dialogue with the present. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

CORY DOCTOROW is a coeditor of Boing Boing, a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an MIT Media Lab Research Associate and a visiting professor of Computer Science at the Open University. His award-winning novel Little Brother and its sequel Homeland were a New York Times bestsellers. Born and raised in Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.