Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow (RSS/Atom feed) 6 months ago

Pluralistic: The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice (18 Jun 2025) Today's links The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice: Anarchists, cryptids and haints (oh my). Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2010, 2015, 2020, 2024 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I've been. Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em. Colophon: All the rest. The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice (permalink) Margaret Killjoy writes fantasy stories of relentless tension, boundless wonder, thrilling adventure…and completely radical, unflinching anarchist politics. Her 2024 YA novel "The Sapling Cage" is a queer coming-of-age epic that motors with all the narrative energy of a genderbent Conan epic:

Pluralistic: Margaret Killjoy’s “The Sapling Cage” (24 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Today, Strangers In a Tangled Wilderness Press publishes The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice, a collection of three linked short stories set in Killjoy's celebrated Danielle Cain series, which Alan Moore called "ideal reading for a post-truth world":

Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness

The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice — Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness

This listing is for a paperback copy of The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice. The novella is about 97 pages with a 5”×8” trim. The Ebook ver...

Danielle Cain is a freight-train-hopping, anarcho-queer hero whose adventures are shared by solidaristic crews of spellcasting, cryptid-battling crustypunk freaks and street-fighters. In Immortal Choir, the action opens with Danielle and a motley band around a campfire in a dark Idaho woods, surrounded by the night-screams of some distant demonic presence. It's Samhain, and the veil between the realm of the living and the dead is as thin as it gets. Bad things are stalking the night. To save themselves, they must court their own dead, welcoming them to their circle. They pile a camp-plate high with food for the dead to eat, build the fire up, and begin the tell the stories of their dead comrades, summoning them as a defense against the monstrous forces that stalk the All Saints night. This is the setup for the three linked short stories that make up this short book. This is a great setup: a group of endangered comrades, huddled together against the darkness without, telling tales to buoy up their bravery. It's the framing device that makes The Decameron an enduring classic after 800 years and counting. In Killjoy's hands, it sings. The first story is "The Troll King's Court," a ghost story about a Norwegian troll cult that came to America in a failed Manhattan-Adjacent Project to create a mystical superweapon with which to win WWII. It's ultimately a story about how the competent people who have their shit together in our lives are just as broken as the rest of us, and about the many ways that release, fulfillment and actualization can take place. It's spooky as fuck. The middle story is "The Fairies of the Spring," which summons up the old, mean roots of the Fair Folk, the cruelty behind their beauty and merry laughter. Pratchett did one of these (Lords and Ladies), and so have many others – but no one's done it where the resistance comes from a motley band of queer punk club-owners in a rural town, who team up with local shitkickers to hunt the elves and banish them to their realm. The final tale is "The Battle of Miami," a story about a streetfighting anti-globalist battle. It's a tale of Black Bloc tactics and true queer love, that lights up with joy. Killjoy's really onto something with this series. She's tapping into the deep roots of fantasy – maybe the socialist parables woven into William Morris's stories. She's also connecting with the roots of urban fantasy (I was delighted to see a reference to Terri Windling's superb, absolutely amazing Borderland series). These three tales stand alone, so there's no need to read the previous volumes before diving into this one. But you should read the other two, because they're great: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (2017):

Reactor

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion - Reactor

Utopian anarchists face off against rogue demon deer in this dropkick-in-the-mouth punk fantasy that Alan Moore calls "scary and energetic."

The Barrow Will Send What It May: (2018):

Reactor

The Barrow Will Send What It May - Reactor

Margaret Killjoy’s Danielle Cain series is a dropkick-in-the-mouth anarcho-punk fantasy that pits traveling anarchist Danielle Cain against etern...

Hey look at this (permalink) Chubby Cable

Chubbycable

Chubby Cable Collection: Durable & Fast Charging Solutions

Discover the Chubby Cable Collection, your ultimate destination for durable and fast charging cables designed for a modern lifestyle. Our cables ar...

Why I Became a Crypto Shill Russian edition of "Attack Surface"

Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)

Attached: 1 image In September, Popcorn Books - a LGBTQ-positive publisher whose staff have been harassed and jailed by Putin - will publish the R...

Object permanence (permalink) #15yrsago Canadian copyright astroturf site gives marching orders to its users

Michael Geist

astroturf site mandatory letter

#10yrsago Corbis will cheerfully charge you up the wazoo for public domain images

PCMAG

Stock Photos Will Drive Photoshop Use Into the Ground

Adobe's stock photos effort is not the right way to get more customers to buy Photoshop.

#10yrsago Privacy activists mass-quit U.S. government committee on facial recognition privacy

The Intercept

Privacy Advocates Walk Out in Protest Over U.S. Facial Recognition Code of Conduct

They are protesting the extent to which industry lobbyists have hijacked the Commerce Department's emerging code of conduct for facial recogni...

#10yrsago FCC fines AT&T $100M for throttling “unlimited” customers https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/06/17/att-just-got-hit-with-a-100-million-fine-after-slowing-down-its-unlimited-data/?utm_content=buffere69ad&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer #10yrsago Seattle’s tent cities

Grist

Tent cities: Seattle's unique approach to homelessness

To hold back a rising tide, Seattle has embraced an approach that other cities have outlawed.

#5yrsago This is the EU's interoperability moment

Pluralistic: 18 Jun 2020 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

#5yrsago Sterilizer company vs Right to Repair

Pluralistic: 18 Jun 2020 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

#1yrago It's been twenty years since my Microsoft DRM talk

Pluralistic: It’s been twenty years since my Microsoft DRM talk (18 Jun 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances (permalink) PDX: Teardown 2025, Jun 20-22

Teardown 2025 | Crowd Supply

PDX: Picks and Shovels with bunnie Huang at Barnes and Noble, Jun 20

Author Signing with Cory Doctorow & Andrew "Bunnie" Huang

Join us for an in-store event, Author Signing with Cory Doctorow & Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, on Friday, June 20, 2025.

Tualatin Public Library, Jun 22: https://www.tualatinoregon.gov/library/author-talk-cory-doctorow London: How To Academy with Riley Quinn, Jul 1

How To Academy

1st July | Cory Doctorow – the Fight Against the Big Tech Oligarchy

Blogger, author, and activist Cory Doctorow is the most provocative, original, and widely admired thinker on the politics of Big Tech in the world ...

Manchester: Picks and Shovels at Blackwell's Bookshop, Jul 2

Eventbrite

An Evening With Cory Doctorow

The author will discuss his latest novel, Picks And Shovels, and the 'enshittification' of our modern digital age

Manchester: Co-operatives UK Co-op Congress keynote, Jul 4 https://www.uk.coop/events-and-training/events-calendar/co-op-congress-2025-book-your-place Virtual: ORG at 20: in conversation with Maria Farrell, Jul 16

Open Rights Group

ORG at 20: Cory Doctorow in conversation with Maria Farrell

As well as being a renowned author, activist and journalist, Cory Doctorow was a founding member of Open Rights Group!

DC: Enshittification at Politics and Prose, Oct 10

Politics and Prose Bookstore

Cory Doctorow — Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do about It - with Rohit Chopra — at The Wharf

New Orleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025

CONtraflow XI

San Francisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20

Passage - Your event. Your fans. Your mobile box office.

Booksmith presents: Cory Doctorow with Jenny Odell / Enshittification | Passage - Your event. Your fans. Your mobile box office.

ADVANCED TICKETS HAVE CLOSED. THERE WILL BE STANDING ROOM SPACE AT THE DOOR ON THE NIGHT OF THE EVENT FOR $15. PLEASE BRING YOUR ID (21+) AND ARRIV...

Recent appearances (permalink) FediForum Keynote Science Fiction is EXPOSING Scams and AI Dystopia (Bad Faith) The Rideshare Guy Latest books (permalink) Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (

Macmillan Publishers

Picks and Shovels

New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues to bring us the origin story of Martin Hench and the most po...

). The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/). "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/) "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (

The Internet Con | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

). Signed copies at Book Soup (

IndieCommerce

The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation

A USA TODAY BESTSELLERWinner of the 2024 Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity"An essential read for anyone tha...

). "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books

The Red Team Blues tour: Burbank, SF, PDX, Berkeley, YVR, Calgary, Gaithersburg, DC, Toronto, Hay, Oxford, Nottingham, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Berlin | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK):

Red Team Blues (Signed Edition Hardcover) by Cory Doctorow published by Head of Zeus @ ForbiddenPlanet.com - UK and Worldwide Cult Entertainment Megastore

. "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution.

Medium

How to Destroy ‘Surveillance Capitalism’

Surveillance capitalism is just capitalism — with surveillance. Here’s how to beat it.

) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html) "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden:

Macmillan Publishers

Little Brother & Homeland

Cory Doctorow’s two New York Times-bestselling novels of youthful rebellion against the torture-and-surveillance state – now available in a sof...

; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here:

Macmillan Publishers

Poesy the Monster Slayer

New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow and illustrator Matt Rockefeller present a sweetly scary picture book about a girl whose monster-ca...

. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/. Upcoming books (permalink) Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025

Macmillan Publishers

Enshittification

Enshittification: It’s not just you—the internet sucks now. It’s been enshittified. That was no accident, and it’s not gonna fix itself. He...

Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026 Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026 The Memex Method, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: second pass edit underway (readaloud) A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

Deed - Attribution 4.0 International - Creative Commons

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

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Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)

96K Posts, 960 Following, 72K Followers · By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow@mamot.fr. Archived at pluralistic.net I post ...

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X (formerly Twitter)

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK (@doctorow) on X

New book: ENSHITTIFICATION https://t.co/xKBuEgsT31 @pluralistic@mamot.fr

Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic "When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer. ISSN: 3066-764X

Pluralistic: The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice (18 Jun 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow