Picks and Shovels

Reviews / Votes

'Picks and Shovels, Cory Doctorow's reconstruction of the rise of Silicon Valley, is note perfect. I love Marty and Art and all the main characters. I love the hope and the thrill that marks the opening section. But I love too the thesis that San Francisco always has failed and always will fail her suitors. Even in the sunlight of that time the shadows are lengthening... the seeds of enshittification are all there. Despite cultural entropy, corruption, greed and all the betrayals there's a core of hope and honour in the story too... And some damned good recipes that I have tucked away.' -- Stephen Fry 'What could be better than a Martin Hench thriller set in 1980s San Francisco that mixes punk rock romance with Lotus spreadsheets, dot matrix printers and religious orders? You'll eat this up -- I sure did.' -- Tim Wu, Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy, author of 'The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires' 'Wonderful...evokes the hacker spirit of the early personal computer era-and shows how the battle for software freedom is eternal.' -- Steven Levy, author of 'Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution' and 'Facebook: The Inside Story' 'Captures the look and feel of the PC Era. Cory Doctorow draws a portrait of a Silicon Valley and San Francisco before the tech bros showed up - a startup world driven as much by open source ideals as venture capital gold.' -- John Markoff, Pulitzer-winning tech columnist for the New York Times and author of 'What the Doormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry' 'A crackling, page-turning tumble into an unexpected underworld of queer coders, Mission burritos, and hacker nuns. You will fall in love with the righteous underdogs of Computing Freedom-and feel right at home in the holy place Doctorow has built for them far from Silicon Valley's grabby, greedy hands.' -- Claire Evans, editor of 'Motherboard Future', author of 'Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet.' 'Cory Doctorow is one of our most important science fiction writers' -- Kim Stanley Robinson on WALKAWAY 'Cory Doctorow writes as few authors do, with tech world savvy and real world moral clarity. A true storyteller for our times.' -- John Scalzi, author of 'Old Man's War' 'You won't put this book down - it's too much fun. I was there when it all began. Doctorow's characters and their story are *real*.' -- Dan'l Lewin, CEO and President of the Computer History Museum A classic thriller setup: the little guys vs corporate skulduggery * Daily Telegraph * Excellent... a technical thriller that entertains and educates from first page to last * GeekDad * Reads like a 1980s Silicon Valley startup myth meets spy thriller... This is an origin story for the lead character but you don't need to have read the whole series. You'll race through it * Shortlist * Will appeal to many things readers are looking for, from serious thoughts to sheer comedy, from finding out obscure facts to agreeing with succinct summarisations, and from nostalgia to helpful advice about living in today's world. Above all, 'Picks & Shovels' entertains * SF Crowsnest * The word that most comes to mind is charming: there is something very likeable about Doctorow's story of decent people trying to do good things * Morning Star *