When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth- Cory Doctorow

Posted on June 27th, 2007

I’ve been hooked on post-apocalyptic fiction ever since picking up a hardcover copy of Alas, Babylon many years ago. That tale of a small, sleepy, 1950s Florida town that survived a nuclear war has stuck with me better than many since. Characters in disaster scenarios forced into first coping, then leading, rebuilding, and eventually dealing with difficult moral decisions resonates through not only that tale, but through the genre at large.

Perhaps that is why Cory Doctorow’s short story When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth struck a chord. Felix, the main character, gets called away from his wife and newborn for a service call when the network goes down. After all, he’s the sysadmin. Disaster strikes as he’s working and the few survivors able with communications channels still working are other sysadmins across the globe. But Felix carries on, sometimes successful, sometimes not, but he carries on and that’s really the point.

You can find it FREE online at Baen’s Universe or the Rake. Or you can show Cory a little love and order the print version in the phenomenal Overclocked collection:

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