this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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They’re pretty good. He has a very clear, very technically detailed style. Good solid mystery writing. Kind of like a poor man’s William Gibson. After reading a two page segment of red team blues where Doctorow explains keypair encryption I described him to my wife as “Tom Clancy level detail for computers and the internet” not that Clancy is good, but his stuff is that detailed.
So should I read William Gibson instead?
I can't tell you if you should read William Gibson instead, but I can definitely tell you that you should read William Gibson
I would advise anyone who likes sci-fi to read both of these authors.
Count Zero and Neuromancer are fundamental books for the cyberpunk ethos.
William Gibson wrote Neuromancer, and it had an incredible cultural impact. But everything else he wrote hasn't come close. I've read the Bigend trilogy. Can't really remember anything that happened in those books.
On the other hand, Cory Doctorow is the writer I wish I was. He does high tech thrillers the way they're supposed to be. Attack Surface is excellent, a master class in a flawed but sympathetic main character. Just read Red Team Blues. Doctorow reveals how interesting forensic accounting really is.
His "Burning chrome" short story collection is great too. It has "Johnny Mnemonic" in it, an amazing short story turned into a terrible movie. Just having more Molly is worth the ride.
You know, I'm a developer on an open-source tabletop RPG that is meant to be to solarpunk what D&D is to fantasy. We're nearly done, but if you like writing stories in this kind of genre, I think it might interest you, either as a player or contributor to the game modules.
Solarpunk?
Edit: Nevermind, just looked it up. Interesting.
I can't speak for all of Doctorow's work, but of the stuff I've read, I think that's the genre he's writing in.
Do you have a link or something? I'd like to check it out.
Sure. The website is https://fullyautomatedrpg.com. You can see the whole thing there. We discuss development on a Discord server (linked from the website), although we also have an early Lemmy community: !fullyautomatedrpg.slrpnk.net.