OVERCLOCKED Stories of the Future Present

This audiobook is a strange beast to tackle. The stories offer a curious hybrid of future technology and present cultural idiosyncrasies, so it requires a certain breed of narrator to do it justice: by turns brooding and tongue-in-cheek, but always able to present the present-futuristic plots believably. Some of the performers achieve this; the others aren't unskilled, just not as consistently nuanced or energetic. One problem is that Doctorow includes a brief introduction to each story, and some narrators don't make it clear where the preface ends and the story begins. Lloyd James, Fiona Hardingham, Jeffrey Kafer, and Emily Woo Zeller stand out as particularly enjoyable performers. N.J.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2015]