Near-future fic with bite, and not so much

I've been out of it. Trying to find a used car before it snows to replace my truck that liked to slide around and fishtail even with 200 lbs of sand in the back, and just finally found something affordable yet decently kept up. The GF's son is getting married. Much planning and shopping and stressing.

I've mostly kept up with audio magazines and podcasts because they're hands- and eyes-free on the lightrail and at the gym.

But now I see there was a creepy near-future science fiction story in the New Yorker recently. It was timely, as a friend just succumbed to getting her daughter an American Girl and my niece had an American Girl party. Parents pulling their hair out all around me. Well, the mothers, anyway. Both fathers keep their heads shaved because with daughters, what else can you do...

Here's the link: . There's an interesting interview of the author up there too.

I've had this idea in my head for a story that's vaguely similar, and have been doing lots of reading about globalization and such to try and crack the nut that makes it not work very well. This story inspired me to try harder.

Another similar story that's very effective is Joanna Sinisalo's "Babydoll," which was nominated for a Nebula in 2009 and appeared in the Hartwell Cramer Best Of SF anthology for that year. This is the stuff I'd like to see more of in SF, stories that get at the socio-cultural-economic walls that the media-military-industrial complex has us up against. I like hyphens...

I just started Cory Doctorow's new YA release, Pirate Cinema. So far it's interesting but the main character is not very appealing and the corporate-government constant surveillance and domination premise even more overstated than Little Brother.

Teen boy protags whining about how oppressed they are while their mom fights the state for her disability benefits and dad tries to keep up at work to pay for the internet service teen boy throws in the toilet so he can make fanfic videos he won't even acknowledge making in ten years... they do not hook me from the get-go.

And as usual smart, tech *and* social-savvy teen girls are just the love interest backdrop and sexual objects, however hard the narrative works to give them more credit than usual for brains and strategic skills.  Why they want to service the protags with loyalty, sexual favors, and affection is generally unclear to me, but then, I'm biased.

(Momentary rant, likely somewhat unfair- These novels appreciate the presence of women, but don't really need them for the narrative to unfold, except as booty gained in the game. And look, a juiced-up Frankenbox just lands in your lap when you run away from home and lose your laptop on your first day of freedom. Oh, that's right, you did do some work on sll those sweatshop- produced parts...  And somehow you never have to consider selling your body or worry about rape while living on the streets and in squats deep in druglord territories. So oppressed, when Disney Inc. is the only real threat...)

But Pirate Cinema does have the usual tech and econ infodrops that make up for all that.  I will keep reading.  For the Win was less parochial and sheltered than the LB books and this one, as much as diversity is inserted here and there.  Sad it got less hype.

Of course,  Wired loves it.  Can ID more with the love letters to hacking chic...