I have often thought of writing a book that spoke of the world I understand, in the words I understand about the future I foresee. I now find it has been done, and with such explosive impact that I would be foolish to even bother to try.

Cory Doctorow is at the hard edge of Science Fiction, writing from his own experiences, in a language that the net savvy will understand and the noobs will be imitating. OVERCLOCKED is his second book of short stories, following on from A PLACE SO FOREIGN AND EIGHT MORE. All of the stories are firmly based in the technology of now, coupled with the trends in digital rights management to craft a future that is immediate and disconcerting.

For an old sysadmin like me, you couldn't find a more familiar yet more frightening story like When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth. Imagine your pager going off in the middle of the night and in fighting off a major network attack you find it is only the first prong of a major conflict that leaves only well protected data centres unscathed. I can, and Cory makes it frighteningly easy to imagine.

If you are a lover of classic SF, you'll love some of the homages paid, like Ander's Game and I, Robot, both brilliantly crafted and accessible. But for sheer brilliance and heart-breaking realism, the final story in the collection did it for me. In reading After the Siege I was almost moved to tears in following Valentine through her travails in coping with a war that takes her father and renders her city almost unliveable; a war that was the result of greed and patent protection.

I can't recommend this book too highly. After hearing Cory speak at the Melbourne Writers' Festival I bought the book and got it signed by the author. I'm writing this less than 24 hours later, after devouring the book.