Cory Doctorow. Chicken Little. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 28th Annual Collection)

Part of the ‘Gateways’ anthology published in 2010, a collection of stories inspired by/in tribute to Frederik Pohl.

It’s online on the Tor.com website here.

It’s a much longer, more serious piece of writing than is usual with Doctorow’s short SF – inasfar as my reading of Doctorow’s short SF leads me to believe. He brings together a number of near future possibilities, technical and societal, to create a believable scenario – an ad agency specialising in pitching product to the super-rich, super-long-lived, super-humans (super in that they have largely transcended the standard human form, to be vat-contained and wired up to a wide range of tech and IT).

Not content with a wealth of technological projection, Doctorow populates his story with some well drawn characters, office politics, and observations left, right and centre. There are a couple of mysteries which are revealed at the end, as moral choices, and ethics become the crux of the story. A lengthy and rewarding read.