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In his introduction to this collection Bruce Sterling suggests that, "we should all hope and trust that our culture has the guts and moxie to follow this guy. He's got a lot to us." Doctorow is certainly fresh, original and topical.

The stories here, including his best-known and first sale, 'Craphound', are an entertaining mix of parody, warning and curiosity. His manages to capture elements of the ideology of popular society and culture, to give them an amusing fantastical twist and to also step beyond the every day into 'what if's.

What helps is that these twists and what ifs, these subversions of reality, are presented so matter-of-factly that it is fairly easily to see such scenarios happening in our society in the not too distant future.

In both 'Craphound' and 'To Market, To Market: The Rebranding of Billy Bailey', Doctorow gives as a unique take on consumerism. 'Craphound' is an alien, part of a race who buy our rubbish and second-hand goods, trading them for their superior technology.

However, the story is not based around the fact that Craphound is an alien. This is not new or unusual in this world. It is what he collects, buys and sells that is for interest to the other characters and why.

As they travel around Canada (Doctorow's home country) sniffing out bargains, his friend Jerry finally comes to the conclusion that it is the novelty of the so-called crap what makes Craphound and his kind want it. It is the excitement of the search - consumerism in its most basic form and the story behind that search and discovery. It is a fun and amusing tale, almost whimsical.

'To Market, To Market: The Rebranding of Billy Bailey' is Doctorow's vision of a world gone consumer-mad. Here everyone is sponsored by someone, everybody has a particular image and brand. To go against your image or even to appear without a brand, as Billy Bailey eventually does, is unthinkable.

Parents depend on their children's sponsorship, they all have agents and every part of a person's image is tied into his or her branding. It is not so difficult to see this happening some day as merchandising, labelling and branding increase and to be seen without a label or with the wrong one, could be social suicide. Billy Bailey is a 'heel', the top class trouble-maker.

Until another heel falsely accuses him of blowing up the school toilets and threatens his reputation. If he tells who the real culprit is, he will be less of a heel but if he admits to the crime he will be expelled. Billy needs to stay on top so he finally decides he needs to create a new image. He will be a 'dissenter'.

His agent is immediately on the case and Billy is next seen at school starting a new trend in home-made, label-less T-shirts and underground music. Billy soon realises that his no-brand clothes and music are actually a new brand of its own. He knows he will still be popular and successful because he got there first. Specially-made 'home-made' clothes and CDs are passed around, a roaring trade begins, a new trend becomes popular and it seems that everyone always has some kind of branding. This is an entertaining and very realistic view of a possible future, with a slight chilling edge to it as well as you realise just how realistic it could be.

The title story, 'A Place so Foreign' enters the classic Science Fiction realm of time-travel. A young boy suddenly finds transported from 1798 to 1975 when his father becomes an ambassador to the future. In this futuristic version of the past, he is not the only kid to come from another time and soon begins to enjoy all the technological advantages to living in the 1970s - robot butlers, interactive newspapers, jet-packs and teleporters. The trouble arises when James' father disappears and he and his mother have to return to 1798.

It is his home but no longer feels that way and James' trips and later escape attempt back into the 1970s become a clever metaphor for belonging and identity. 1798 is his home but also becomes a place so foreign and strange that he can't stay there. The place that should be strange, the future, is the one place which seems safe and familiar. On one level, this is an adventure story set in a futuristic society. On the other, an interesting comment on how we each need to find our place in the world.

'OwnzOred' is another intriguing comment on today's society and on where technological development and dependence could take us. It is the story of a hacker who, on the point of death, is given the chance to be part of an experiment to develop the human body as if it was a computer. Having nothing to lose he agrees and soon enjoys the experience of being able to control his body as a machine, stop pain, tiredness and control fear. He escapes from the scientists who are running the experiment and decides to set up on his own, going to his best friend for help - who is shocked to see the friend he thought dead looking better than ever.

As a user 'ownz' his computer, they are now the 'ownzers' of their bodies. All functions are under their mental control. But the government, added by the scientists, catches up with them, escape seemingly impossible now that their bodies are 'OwnzOred' by the government. This is a technologically coherent, thought-provoking piece, quite chilling in its depiction of what dependence on technology might lead to and very cleverly written.

Aliens return in a trilogy of stories featuring Doctorow's own brand of extra-terrestrial called 'bugouts'. When their spaceship lands in Canada, everyone wants to welcome them and claim membership to the Galactic Federation. Heading up the representatives of Earth are the leaders of a new-age cult-type group called Process. In the first tale, the son of the leader of Process is left behind on Earth while his parents visit the Bugouts and soon joins a rebellion group of squatters and anti-Processors.

As the nation awaits a decision, the rebellion grows and is welcomed but when the Bugouts return with an announcement things are not so easy. So Maxes decides on a last act of revenge on his father. The second story tells of those groups of people who are not accepted by the Bugouts and of one boy's life growing up in a 'centre' much like a housing project and of his unique way of finding escape from reality. Doctorow's final part of the trilogy combines the SF area of aliens with the fantasy world of the super-hero.

Yet this world is also very much twenty-first-century Canada. Imagine if Superman was Jewish, a socialist and lived in Canada. 'The Super Man and the Bugouts' is the tale of how the Superman, otherwise known as Hershie, tries to do his best to help those who need in a age where the Bugouts rule, his best friend wants his to lead the revolution and he has trouble collecting his war-hero pension. This is an entertaining, original and very funny story, with just a touch of sadness around the edge as you feel for Hershie's confusion of a changing world, and is probably the most engaging of the three Bugout tales.

Finally, I have to say that being a new-comer to Doctorow's work I was hooked from the first page. This is an extremely entertaining, rich, clever, engaging and well-written collection and the stories cover a mixture of topics and characters. In addition is an interesting introduction to each story from Doctorow himself so you can see where he gets his ideas from and how he works. I personally look forward to more from Cory Doctorow and would recommend him to anyone who would like to read something fresh, original, and just that little bit different.

Laura Kayne