Goodreads | Little Brother

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Does A Camera Really Capture Your Soul?	4	31	06/21/2008 11:16AM

Krystyn rated it:

06/28/08

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Just finished reading the free .pdf version of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.

The writing is not the tightest I have ever read, nor does it even begin to exude elegance, but it does a decent job of keeping you reading.

I was incredibly put off by the chapter-start bookstore dedications. It felt like a weird meta sort of pandering. This is what you do when you are relentlessly self-promotional. You tell people you like them, and tell everyone in the world their name and where they "live.&...more Just finished reading the free .pdf version of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.

The writing is not the tightest I have ever read, nor does it even begin to exude elegance, but it does a decent job of keeping you reading.

I was incredibly put off by the chapter-start bookstore dedications. It felt like a weird meta sort of pandering. This is what you do when you are relentlessly self-promotional. You tell people you like them, and tell everyone in the world their name and where they "live." The obligation to the return the favor feels like less of an obligation, so now Doctorow's cultivated a network of bookshops who are probably going to be more amenable to keeping his stuff in stock, perhaps waiting for the day he strolls in (to the brick and mortar businesses, anyway) to sign whatever they've got of his on-hand. I was never allowed to read the book purely for the first several chapters, as I was worried that I might be missing some plot-related element if I skipped the bookstore plugs. After a few chapters, it became obvious that I did not need to read them at all, and became pretty adept at skipping the italicized bits before reading on. The narrative also started to become more relaxed, so it felt easier to read once the main pin of the plot started to act as its hinge.

This novel is pretty heavy-handed. I was cool with the concepts of security theatre and freedoms being slowly, subtly, and needlessly stripped from citizens volunteering them up in the name of 'Freedom,' but I was absolutely NOT down with the 2-dimensional and laughable caricatures painting Rooney and Perfect Haircut and Charles. I don't actually care how 'real' those depictions might actually be, weirdly enough. It was a cheap narrative element, and drew me out of the story so much that I actually began to resent the narrator and the hubris layered over him by the author like thick, crusty calcium deposits. The martyrdom of Marcus is all well and good as a plot device, but other than the concert event and the flash mob, there was never any real sense of the scope of what was happening in the world of the book. It isn't until much later that you actually get some mortality numbers from the book's pivotal event, and honestly, that would've been good to know much, much earlier. It's as if none of this actually occurred to Marcus until he was forced to look at it. He was clueless about the DHS people he encountered, and it only took a few minutes of television-watching to clue him in. It was also frustrating to have him be so careful about getting off the grid when the vans came by, and to make such a huge point of it, but then, when it mattered the most (after he escaped from Masha in the moving truck), when he was keeping the evidence he most needed alive and accessible (Masha's phone), he didn't seem to care much at all about being detected.

I dunno. It's a decent read, but it felt sort of hacked together, more than a little holier-than-thou. Appropriating the "Don't trust anyone over 30" slogan and re-tooling it to "25" thoroughly pissed me off, for obvious reasons. I am not the enemy, and I do not come from a generation that defines the habit of voluntarily giving up one's freedoms. I became a teenager during the Cold War, and I remember what it was like to constantly fear nuclear fallout from an attack, of Ronnie accidentally pushing the wrong button. Maybe that's something Doctorow felt necessary to put into a Young Adult book, but as a teenager, I would've found that a little insulting, especially since Marcus shows plenty of trust in his History teacher and later on, the journalist. It's ridiculous that they are painted as the exception to the rule. What a grim message to send to teenagers, who already might feel disenfranchised by simply being teenagers.

Anyway, I read it. It was intriguing initially because the kids were playing a game they called an ARG (I would have liked to have heard even more about it, but whatever), but the rest of it was, strangely enough, a lot of fear mongering, grandstanding, and a coupla sex scenes. Oh, and I was pretty irritated that Darryl became a footnote, collateral damage, unexplored. What happened to him was pretty interesting, and would have given much more gravitas to the themes of the book, but it was more important to have Marcus and Ange close out the book by sweatily groping each other in a little tiny office with their shiny new hip revolution. Sigh....less

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Logan rated it:

07/06/08

bookshelves: dystopic-fiction, essential-books-for-a-library, scifi-fantasy, young_adults

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: EVERYONE

One of the things that I love most about science fiction is its ability to look at trends in contemporary society, extrapolate them to their most extreme ends, and then use those extremes to reveal a fantastic analysis of our world and the directions that we are heading down. Good science fiction is the type that makes you step back when you finish and take a closer look at our own lives. With Little Brother, Cory Doctorow has crafted just such a novel. The fact that this is a book wh...more One of the things that I love most about science fiction is its ability to look at trends in contemporary society, extrapolate them to their most extreme ends, and then use those extremes to reveal a fantastic analysis of our world and the directions that we are heading down. Good science fiction is the type that makes you step back when you finish and take a closer look at our own lives. With Little Brother, Cory Doctorow has crafted just such a novel. The fact that this is a book whose intended audience is young adults makes it all the more powerful.

The story focuses on Marcus Yallow, a technically gifted teenager who, in between rounds of an alternate reality game he plays, finds new and interesting ways of harnessing technology to his needs. At the start of the book this is mostly by getting around the surveillance that his high school has in place for tracking students, ostensibly for their safety. All that changes once terrorists destroy the Bay Bridge and Marcus finds himself captive of the Department of Homeland Security. Tortured and interrogated for the small infraction of demanding a lawyer, Marcus is eventually released and sent home.

The home he returns to bares little resemblance to the one he had initially left. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is busy installing more and more RFID sensors, monitoring the internet, and surveilling everyone that falls outside their very thin definition of normal behavior. Outraged at his treatment at the hands of DHS, Marcus begins throwing monkey wrenches into the system in an attempt to point out to all the ludicrous nature of the surveillance state and its complete ineptness at tracking or catching any real terrorists.

The writing is clear and simple, particularly in the sections where Doctorow is explaining the technical ins and outs of a particular tool that Marcus is using. He offers up some of the most easily understandable descriptions of cryptography and Linux operating systems that I have come across, and does so in a way that makes what could be a dreadfully boring description very interesting and informative.

What really pushed this book over the cusp, for me, is that all of the applications that Marcus and the DHS use in their war against one another already exist. Anyone with some basic knowledge and tools could build a hidden camera locater. Anyone who wanted to could download and install the Linux build that Marcus employs throughout the book. Doctorow makes it even easier by including a Further Reading section at the end of the book where he points readers toward resources they could use to delve further into the worlds opened up in the book.

This is a book with everything. A fun and fast-paced story, realistic teenage characters, technology that piques the reader's interest, and a political message that desperately needs to be imparted to younger generations. The state of American democracy is in their hands and depends very strongly on the lessons that they receive. Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether schools are as dedicated as they should be toward creating free thinking pupils who value the intent of the Constitution over blind dedication to the flag and whoever the current occupant of the White House may be.

Finally, best of all for me, Doctorow is a proponent of Creative Commons copyright. This form of copyrighting has allowed him to make available the text of this book on his website so that anyone who wishes to may download it to read, alter or remix it. So, if you're leery of putting down the cold hard cash for the hardcover edition, you can download it from Doctorow's website to see if it's something you think you may want to read. You can find the link to the download here:
http://craphound.com/littlebro...

Do yourself a favor and read this book post haste....less

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Sarah rated it:

05/26/08

bookshelves: commies, young-activists, young-adult

recommends it for: everyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

okay. so this book rocked pretty hard. if i could write a blurb for the back of the book it would say "cory doctorow: i didn't finish your book because i was too pumped up and freaked out to keep reading so i went out and overthrew the government and incited mass rebellion in the middle of the night."

of course i did finish the book though. it was awesome in a lot of ways. read this book. then give it to everyone you know. i haven't quite worked out how to give it to everyone at the...more okay. so this book rocked pretty hard. if i could write a blurb for the back of the book it would say "cory doctorow: i didn't finish your book because i was too pumped up and freaked out to keep reading so i went out and overthrew the government and incited mass rebellion in the middle of the night."

of course i did finish the book though. it was awesome in a lot of ways. read this book. then give it to everyone you know. i haven't quite worked out how to give it to everyone at the same time yet, but Cory Doctorow has it for free download on his website so that should help.

here's the thing though. the book fails the bechdel test abysmally. (for those that don't know, the Bechdel Test measures how women are treated in a particular piece of media. it deliberately sets a really low bar in order for the work to pass the test. all that's necessary is for the work to have 1. two female characters with names 2. who talk to each other 3. about something other than a man. Easy, right? The horrifying thing is that most movies/books/etc fail the Bechdel test. Not only do they fail, they also pass the anti-Bechdel test with flying colors. That means that the proportion of books/movies/whatever that feature men talking to each other about things other than women is WAY out of proportion to the number of books that feature women talking about things other than men). So the book sends awesome messages about not sacrificing your personal freedoms for the sake of security, not letting the government cease to represent you, and defending yourself by refusing to be silent. However, it sends this message in a vehicle that ultimately recreates the same power structures that oppress people who struggle against the same sort of tyrannical governmental policies.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!

BrownBetty hit it right on when she said that Marcus's success depends on his access to upperclass white privilege. There are few women or people of color in the book. Doctorow clearly has good intentions, but it is not enough to simply have a strong female main character (Ange), it's not enough to have an of-color sidekick who helps critically (Jolu). Imagine the power of a book like this which, instead of being written about a white upperclass boy, was written about a couple of chicana lesbians, or a group of workingclass black people.

Doctorow sort of addresses this issue with Jolu. He says "I hate to say it, but you're white. I'm not. ...White people see cops on the street and feel safer. Brown people see cops on the street and wonder if they're about to get searched. They way the DHS is treating you? The law in this county has always been like that for us" (160). Maybe that's the point. To say to the upperclasswhiteboy, hey this can happen to you too. Not just to brown people who have the "wrong" religion or the wrong "ethnic" name. But the portrayal of women (or rather lack thereof) still makes me uneasy. For a book that's all about challenging authority and social norms, it could push a little harder in challenging the norms in the way it's written.

Maybe this book will have wider appeal because it's protagonist is your typical whiteuppermiddleclassmale. Maybe people wouldn't read the same book if it was about a group of girls, or gay people, or people of color. Am i willing to overlook that for the sake of the overall theme/message of the book? i'm not sure. MLK Jr said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," I'm not sure that I want to sacrifice some of my views to help spread other of my values. I don't think we really want to get into playing a game of whose issue is "more important."

Damnnit Cory Doctorow. Help me out a little here. Your book rocks hard, really it does, but THINK BIGGER!...less

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Angela rated it:

05/01/08

Read in April, 2008

The other day, editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden posted up on Making Light that he had several dozen ARCs of Cory Doctorow's forthcoming novel Little Brother to hand out to any readers of the blog willing to immediately read it and talk about it. He announced a specific email address you could contact to ask for one of the books, and all you had to do was provide an address to which they could send it.

I was one of thos...more The other day, editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden posted up on Making Light that he had several dozen ARCs of Cory Doctorow's forthcoming novel Little Brother to hand out to any readers of the blog willing to immediately read it and talk about it. He announced a specific email address you could contact to ask for one of the books, and all you had to do was provide an address to which they could send it.

I was one of those fortunate enough to get in an email before they ran out of copies, and mine arrived in the mail yesterday. Pretty nifty; I've never gotten an ARC before. And this was a hell of a novel to get in such a form. I feel privileged to have gotten an advance look at it.

Little Brother is simultaneously profoundly depressing and vitalizing. It's depressing because it paints an all-too-real picture of what could happen if another terrorist strike ever happens on American soil, and the terrifying part comes in not just with the thousands who die in San Francisco in the story, but also with the transformation of the city into a police state. And it's vitalizing, because it challenges the reader with the concept that if you feel that what your government is doing is wrong, you don't have to take it lying down. You can take steps to make it right again. You can act.

Marcus, a.k.a. w1n5t0n, a.k.a. M1k3y, is a seventeen-year-old high school student caught in the wrong place at the wrong time during the attack on the city. He and his friends are detained by the Department of Homeland Security and questioned for days; one of them isn't even released. The whole experience moves Marcus to found the XNet, through which he and thousands of other young people across the city begin to fight back against the brutal surveillance tactics imposed upon their city in the name of fighting terrorism.

There's some deeply disturbing scenes of a crowd of young protestors being gassed, and some even more disturbing ones later where Marcus is interrogated and, yes, tortured. Most disturbing of all is the ultimate government reaction to the entire crisis, furious attempts to sweep everything under the rug. But even then, Marcus and those who come to believe in his actions, both of his own generation and older, don't let it lie. The book does end on a note of hope.

Keep that thought of hope in mind as you read this book. Because you should read it, especially if you fall into the same generation as Marcus and his compatriots; the story's talking directly to you. For everyone else, if you happen to agree with its politics, it may depress the hell out of you for the realism of the story it tells. If you don't agree with its politics, you may wind up wanting to throw the book across the room. But it's a story that needs reading, and arguing about, and acting upon--as do each and every one of the points its story raises.

Little Brother's formal release date is this Tuesday, April 29th. I encourage you all to check it out. It'll probably be available for free download on Doctorow's site by then, as is his custom for his works; check it out that way if you wish. If you find though that this book does speak to you, buy a copy.

For what will undoubtedly be the most challenging thing I'll have read this entire year, five stars....less

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Brownbetty rated it:

05/08/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Brownbetty by: Vassilissa

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Here is a book that is clever without being smug, and cynical while standing for something, both of which are all too rare.

Marcus is a smart-alec kid who is slightly too smart for his own good. He casually exploits the system and its loopholes, confident that his ability to do so is all the justification he needs. However, he's basically a decent kid, so this is not too aggravating to read about.

This book actually does believe in things, like the power of citizenry, and human rights, a...more Here is a book that is clever without being smug, and cynical while standing for something, both of which are all too rare.

Marcus is a smart-alec kid who is slightly too smart for his own good. He casually exploits the system and its loopholes, confident that his ability to do so is all the justification he needs. However, he's basically a decent kid, so this is not too aggravating to read about.

This book actually does believe in things, like the power of citizenry, and human rights, and, because it's written by Doctorow, open source, and the magic of things that have an on-switch.

One thing I appreciated was that this book knows how the internet works. It knows how social networking works, and how it doesn't, and at one point annoying lj quiz-memes are actually a critical plot-point. I assume anyone reading this review will be in a position to appreciate that in a book.

I am not sure how geeky one has to be to read this book. I definitely found myself geeky enough, but I'm wondering at what point all the unfamiliar references would start to become so much chaff to be winnowed through. On the other hand, I suppose if you don't know how to do an md5checksum, it's essentially a magic incantation and can be treated as such for the purposes of the plot, an approach with which SF readers are very familiar.

If you have a certain baseline level of knowledge, though, you will find the book quite educational; it's not too lecture-ful, but it does set out to teach one things, much like a Heinlein juvenile. I would like to point out that the rfid neutralization method in the book is needlessly high-tech, and leaves traces of tampering: instead, hit it with a hammer.

If you enjoy books about clever people who get in trouble, and then get out of it again by being clever, this is definitely for you. If you don't enjoy those books, though, you may still want to give this a try: this is one of those books which really could only have been written by a white man. It has that touching faith in the adequacy of cleverness and nerve to meet any situation, and that casual acceptance of the recognition of his peers. However, and here is why it may be worth giving it a shot even if you find that tremendously aggravating, this book knows that it could only have been written by a white man.

Marcus doesn't have an easy time of it, but the book does acknowledge that it could be so much worse-- without his parents connections, without their money, without being white while mouthing off to cops, this book would be about a kid who is sentenced to jail and never gets out because he can't quite make himself shut up.

One thing which detracted from my enjoyment of the book: SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER STOP READING NOW.

In the end, it turned out that ninety percent of the things that Marcus did to defeat the department of homeland security were immaterial, and the solution lay in, you guessed it, privilege: contacts of his parents, a certain amount of credibility, and a deus ex cellphone.
...less

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Michael rated it:

08/28/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008, science-fiction

Read in August, 2008

In an attempt to win over a new generation of sci-fi readers, Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is marketed as a young adult book. However, adult readers shouldn't worry that Doctorow's book will leave them behind or have them feeling juvenile for reading it.

"Little Brother" is a mature, contemporary novel that looks at the issue of security in a near-future that doesn't seem too far from today. When San Francisco is attacked by terrorists, seventeen-year-old hacker Marc...more In an attempt to win over a new generation of sci-fi readers, Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is marketed as a young adult book. However, adult readers shouldn't worry that Doctorow's book will leave them behind or have them feeling juvenile for reading it.

"Little Brother" is a mature, contemporary novel that looks at the issue of security in a near-future that doesn't seem too far from today. When San Francisco is attacked by terrorists, seventeen-year-old hacker Marcus and his friends are out playing the latest mission of the most popular game of the day. Because of their proximity to the attack and their background as hackers, Marcus and his friends are detained and questioned by the Department of Homeland Security. Stripped of his rights, Marcus is eventually set free, but finds that new restrictions placed on the Internet and the world under the banner of making his country more safe are having the opposite effect. Marcus sets out to restore his true freedom and take out the oppressive regime of the Homeland Security Officers.

"Little Brother" doesn't shy away from the big questions. While this novel is set in a non-defined near future, Doctorow is clearly commenting on the ways and means used today to keep our country and world "safe" from the next attack. At one point does it go from keeping us safe to denying us our freedoms and is that tradeoff worth it in the long run? Doctorow's story of Marcus and his fight against the larger Big Brother is fascinating and terrifying all at the same time. As you read the story, you may realize just how much of our basic, assumed freedoms have been abridged all in the name of security and safety.

Doctorow also takes this opportunity to provide readers an education of security systems and computer programming. In what easily could have been some of the driest portions of the novel, Doctorow is able to give the reader some insight and knowledge, which may leave you curious to pursue more information on the inventors and security methods.

Doctorow is something of an Internet celebrity, having revolutionized the marketing of his novels through taking advantage of on-line distribution. He's grown as a writer since his debut in "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and with "Little Brother," while he's writing for a young adult audience, he's found a new level of mature and assured writing that makes "Little Brother" one of the more remarkable and haunting books I've read this year. ...less

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Sandi rated it:

06/23/08

bookshelves: 2008, books-my-son-liked, sharing-with-my-son

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: Every American over 14 (does contain some graphic material)

There is a reason why totalitarian governments ban books. The reason is that books can change the world. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Frederick Douglass' autobiography opened people's eyes to the evils of slavery; Anne Frank's Diary taught us that genocide kills innocent young girls; "To Kill a Mockingbird" showed us that justice isn't always just and that people should be judged by their character rather than the color of their skin; "The Grapes of Wrath" opened our e...more There is a reason why totalitarian governments ban books. The reason is that books can change the world. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Frederick Douglass' autobiography opened people's eyes to the evils of slavery; Anne Frank's Diary taught us that genocide kills innocent young girls; "To Kill a Mockingbird" showed us that justice isn't always just and that people should be judged by their character rather than the color of their skin; "The Grapes of Wrath" opened our eyes to the plight of migrant farm workers; "1984" warned us about the perils of a nanny state. Now, in 2008, a new book of power has emerged. "Little Brother" is "1984" for the 21st century, but with more impact.

I don't recall that the book ever states what the year is. It really doesn't matter. It takes place post 9/11. Terrorists blow up San Francisco's Bay Bridge and everyone's constitutional rights get trampled in the aftermath. This book is aimed at teens, but every American adult should read it too. Parents should read it with their teens and discuss it with them. (There are a few scenes of teenage drinking and sex, but the overwhelming message of this book is so strong that even this conservative mother is willing to overlook it.)

My daughter was 18 on 9/11. My son is only 4 years away from being the same age as the protagonist. I remember how idealistic I was a teen. I read this book with all that in my experience. I read it as a mother; I read it as an idealistic teen; and I read it as a true believer in our rights as American citizens. I read thI didn't is book with tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. At 47, I thought I was past the age when a book would have the power to move me and change me as profoundly as "Little Brother." I've read thousands of books in my lifetime. I have very fond memories of so many of them. But, when it comes to real power, "Little Brother" is right up there next to "To Kill a Mockingbird." I'd give it 6 stars if I could. It is that good.

____________________________________________

I do have to add that I gave this to my son to read before I read it. He is almost 13. He loved this book. He wants to read more books like it. I'm going to have to tell him that it's just a unique book. And, he did ask me why I didn't tell him it had "adult situations." I had to tell him that I didn't know. I really recommend that you let your teens read it before you do. They'll be less embarrassed that way. You can use the "adult situations" as a tool to talk about those touchy subjects of sex, drugs and alcohol....less

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Patadave rated it:

07/19/08

What do you do when the system is broken? What do you do when your government acts like the security of the state is more important than the liberty of its people? What do you do when the measures that are supposed to protect people, actually turn innocent people into criminals?

If you’re Marcus Yallow, the juvenile hero of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, you fight back. You fight against a sometimes corrupt, sometimes incompetent, and sometimes well-intentioned, but misguided system using ...more What do you do when the system is broken? What do you do when your government acts like the security of the state is more important than the liberty of its people? What do you do when the measures that are supposed to protect people, actually turn innocent people into criminals?

If you’re Marcus Yallow, the juvenile hero of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, you fight back. You fight against a sometimes corrupt, sometimes incompetent, and sometimes well-intentioned, but misguided system using the tools you know best; computers, software, and the internet.

Doctorow’s Little Brother opens with major terrorist attack on US soil. It is the sequel to 9/11, this time in San Francisco. Marcus Yallow, a high school student, too smart for his own good and already inclined to resist authority, ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time after the attacks and is rounded up by the DHS and shipped off to holding cell while the government investigates the attack.

Yallow’s naïve innocence is shattered while he is held prisoner by his government and accused of crimes he’s never even considered. Eventually he is released and threatened that if he reveals what happened to him while incarcerated there will be serious consequences to him and his family. Once out Yallow learns that one of his best friends never returned. Everyone thinks he was killed in the attack, but Yallow knows that he was also rounded up by the feds and kept prisoner. Yallow vows to free his friend, or at least learn what happened to him. And since he can’t tell anyone about the false imprisonment he’s on his own.

Along the way Marcus fights against his school, his parents, his friends, and his government. He also begins a revolution of sorts and falls in love, all while unmasking the banality of bureaucratic evil.

If you’re familiar with Doctorow’s work on the blog Boing Boing none of what happens in Little Brother will be a surprise. Little Brother is about the power of the internet, the role of security theater in reducing liberty, the fun of software hacking, and the thrill of Yippie-style political pranksterism.

While this is Doctorow’s best-written book yet, and he’s developing a knack for characterization that eludes most science-fiction writers, this work at times is overly didactic. Doctorow has too much he wants to share and sometimes falls into the role of teacher rather than story-teller. That said, I would have loved this book when I was thirteen, and enjoined it quite a bit even at middle age....less

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Emily rated it:

05/04/08

Read in May, 2008

17-year-old hacker, tinkerer, and gamer Marcus finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when he skips school and gets caught in the worst incident of terrorism in the U.S. He gets separated from his friends, detained by Homeland Security.

As the government starts encroaching more and more on civil liberties, Marcus is determined to get back at DHS, stop the questioning and detainment of innocent civilians, and generally take back the government from the law-and-order-at-all-costs br...more 17-year-old hacker, tinkerer, and gamer Marcus finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when he skips school and gets caught in the worst incident of terrorism in the U.S. He gets separated from his friends, detained by Homeland Security.

As the government starts encroaching more and more on civil liberties, Marcus is determined to get back at DHS, stop the questioning and detainment of innocent civilians, and generally take back the government from the law-and-order-at-all-costs brigade. Tall order for a junior in high school.

This is not a far-future dystopia. It is about the world now. (Based on Marcus having a Sega Dreamcast when he was seven, and discussions of the upcoming midterm elections, I'd put the date at 2010. I'm not sure if the technology is there yet, but certainly Doctorow would know more about that than I would!) It is, specifically, about the situation in the U.S. in the present day, not some handwavy analogy of a dystopia. It is also a manual to do exactly what Marcus does. Mind you, it's not filled with lines of code and technical detail. (You can look up all that stuff on Wikipedia). It's just enough to make you go, "Oh, cool!" - or else, "Oh, no!"... and to inspire you to take a few pages from Marcus's playbook.

Which makes it a really important book.

But it's something else again that makes it a whole lot of fun. Doctorow - well, he named his daughter Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus. That just about says it all. It's a fast-paced technothriller packed with offhand nifty ideas and references and in-jokes. If you're at all familiar with Scrotumgate from last year, you'll know why this was my favorite:

"Did she use the scrotum line on you? I hate it when she does that. She just loves the word 'scrotum,' you know. It's nothing personal."

I'm thrilled when I read a boy book that's filled with information and technology and the things that guys will voluntarily read about if they won't voluntarily read about things like feelings, and is also plenty good on its own literary merits. It's icing on the cake when that book is also politically conscious, socially relevant, and smart as all get-out. (Of course, that's not to say that girls shouldn't read it too!)

In short: it's made of awesome. ...less

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Lacy rated it:

09/05/08

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: Catherine Denial

If you don't read the blog boingboing.net, you should. And if you like what you see, then you should definitely read Little Brother.

Written by Cory Doctorow, one of the editors of the delightfully subversive, fascinating and informative blog Boing Boing, Little Brother doesn't disappoint in any measure. It's a quick read, with lots of action, strong characters with good voices, and a quick-moving plot.

Like another of my recent reads, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks,...more If you don't read the blog boingboing.net, you should. And if you like what you see, then you should definitely read Little Brother.

Written by Cory Doctorow, one of the editors of the delightfully subversive, fascinating and informative blog Boing Boing, Little Brother doesn't disappoint in any measure. It's a quick read, with lots of action, strong characters with good voices, and a quick-moving plot.

Like another of my recent reads, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks, this book is a pseudo-issues book, tackling the issue of individual freedoms versus national safety.

In the near future, Marcus and some friends ditch school to participate in the scavenger hunt portion of an online game, and are therefore in the wrong place at the worst possible time when a terrorist attack blows up the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Arrested and held by the Department of Homeland Security, Marcus and his friends quickly learn what personal freedoms really mean, and when the DHS takes over the city, detaining, questioning, and wrongly imprisoning hundreds of innocent civilians in the pursuit of terrorists, the teens decide to fight back.

Part of the fascination of this book is its plausibility. Doctorow takes his plot to logical extremes, and all of the digital subversion the teens participate in is based in real technology and theory.

As with The Disreputable History, I was impressed with the way the author's argument was presented. While it's clear where Doctorow and his main characters stand on the issues, he presents the arguments of the other side and allows his characters to argue smartly, even eloquently for their side. We sometimes see the opposing characters as bumbling or moronic because they are seen through Marcus' eyes, but Doctorow doesn't take any shortcuts explaining his side of the argument.

It's also a great example of another trend I've been seeing in YA lately — authors giving their intended audience a great deal of credit. These books treat their teen audience as near-adults who think and decide for themselves, which is as it should be.

I've no doubt Little Brother will be challenged and banned widely — for a lot of reasons. So pin your "I read banned books" button proudly to your lapel and download it for free from the author's website if you can't get your hands on a copy anywhere else....less

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Jessica rated it:

05/20/08

bookshelves: ya

Read in May, 2008

Set in San Francisco in the year 2015, Little Brother follows 17 year old Marcus, an intelligent, techie teen. While skipping school, he's thrown into the middle of a terrorist attack and picked up by the Department of Homeland Security under suspicion of being involved. After his eventual release, Marcus vows to take down the DHS and fight against the newly established police state.

This book was awesome and definitely worth finishing in a day. Although written for a YA audience, this...more

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Bryan rated it:

06/22/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: anyone young adult or older

Little Brother is a book concerning privacy and the importance of maintaining that right regardless of what is happening in the country. This book starts off introducing the main character Marcus and his group of friends who happen to cut out of school early on the day that the Bay Bridge is blown up by terrorists in San Fransisco. He and his friends are rounded up and held for days during which they are questioned and treated as if they were the terrorists. After this experience Marcus comes...more Little Brother is a book concerning privacy and the importance of maintaining that right regardless of what is happening in the country. This book starts off introducing the main character Marcus and his group of friends who happen to cut out of school early on the day that the Bay Bridge is blown up by terrorists in San Fransisco. He and his friends are rounded up and held for days during which they are questioned and treated as if they were the terrorists. After this experience Marcus comes to realize the purpose of terrorism is to make us afraid, he also realizes that because the Department of Homeland Security is picking up innocent people and treating them like terrorist that the DHS is causing the fear the terrorists are after.

Marcus strongly believes in the statement from the Declaration of Independence, "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." He feels that the government is no longer protecting the rights of its citizens and worse that it is actively negating those rights in the name of increased security that Marcus knows will only result in catching the innocent.

This book examines the security that is put into place after such an attack and how it works. With Marcus's perspective we are shown the holes in that system and why personal privacy is a right that should be constantly protected.

This was a tremendous read and would work very well paired with 1984 as some of the themes explored are similar. Not only is this a great story but it does a good job explaining some current technology and security measures that are available for everyone to protect their privacy on the net such as TOR servers and cryptography.

Lastly, I was able to read this story as an ebook for free and anyone who is interested in the story should do a google search for Little Brother Cory Doctorow and check it out. I think this book is full of very important ideas and concerns for today's voting public and should be a must read.
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Lee rated it:

06/29/08

bookshelves: kids

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: people with a good critique

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I am totally fascinated by this book. It's lots of fun to read - it reminded me a lot of Daniel Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars when I was reading it (Daniel Pinkwater - one of my favorites when I was a kid), and sure enough he gives Pinkwater a shout out in the acknowledgements at the end. It has the same kind of rebel attitude, where the kids know right from wrong and know what's esthetically acceptable, and have a good sense of humor, while the adults are clueless, and the kids just have to f...more I am totally fascinated by this book. It's lots of fun to read - it reminded me a lot of Daniel Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars when I was reading it (Daniel Pinkwater - one of my favorites when I was a kid), and sure enough he gives Pinkwater a shout out in the acknowledgements at the end. It has the same kind of rebel attitude, where the kids know right from wrong and know what's esthetically acceptable, and have a good sense of humor, while the adults are clueless, and the kids just have to find a way to get around the adults and do what has to be done.

But this book is culturally and politically a really odd blend of left and right wing. It's pretty much a guided tour of libertarian fantasies and paranoias around surveillance and information technology, but set in the San Francisco of Critical Mass bike rides, generator punk shows in the park and old-school leftist muckraking journalists (the Bay Guardian saves the hero's butt by publishing an investigative expose at a crucial moment). The book takes advantage of all these touchstones, and updates them to fill out its fantasy info-rebel underground, but the politics the characters champion is open-mouthed reverence for the Bill of Rights and the Founding Fathers.

When the book ends and the monsters from the Department of Homeland Security are sent back to DC where they came from, the happy ending is that the USA is back to the good old days JUST BEFORE HOMELAND SECURITY TOOK OVER SAN FRANCISCO. Not even before the Patriot Act was passed!

He's appropriating our culture of resistance, which city dwellers have created and defended over many years by making sacrifices and spending plenty of time in jail, to give credibility to his fantasy of digital political resistance, without giving back where it's needed - to the real project of solidarity with the people who were already getting screwed even before 9/11, to housing for homeless people, resistance to male privilege, freedom not only to say what you want on the internet but also to live near your loved ones and see a doctor when you're sick, etc.

Like most online activists, Doctorow needs to know more about the history he's in the middle of....less

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Katrina rated it:

08/07/08

bookshelves: teen

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone Over the Age of 14

This book was amazing. It is a must read for teens right now.

Good science fiction is the type that makes you step back when you finish and take a closer look at our own lives. Doctorow’s most salient point is that 300 million people should not be put on terrorist surveillance. If the government was catching terrorist left and right because of these policies (wiretapping, video surveillance, Patriot Act, LIBRARY PATRON’S CHECKOUTS!), but they aren’t!

Another Goodreads member said ...more This book was amazing. It is a must read for teens right now.

Good science fiction is the type that makes you step back when you finish and take a closer look at our own lives. Doctorow’s most salient point is that 300 million people should not be put on terrorist surveillance. If the government was catching terrorist left and right because of these policies (wiretapping, video surveillance, Patriot Act, LIBRARY PATRON’S CHECKOUTS!), but they aren’t!

Another Goodreads member said it best, “What really pushed this book over the cusp, for me, is that all of the applications that Marcus and the DHS use in their war against one another already exist. Anyone with some basic knowledge and tools could build a hidden camera locater. Anyone who wanted to could download and install the Linux build that Marcus employs throughout the book. Doctorow makes it even easier by including a Further Reading section at the end of the book where he points readers toward resources they could use to delve further into the worlds opened up in the book.”

I must admit that the technical ins and outs were a little lost on me. Having said this, I still feel that Doctorow offers up some of the most easily understandable descriptions of cryptography and Linux operating systems that I have come across, and does so in a way that makes what could be a dreadfully boring description very interesting and informative.

This is a book with everything. A fun and fast-paced story, realistic teenage characters, technology that piques the reader's interest, and a political message that desperately needs to be imparted to younger generations. The state of American democracy is in their hands and depends very strongly on the lessons that they receive.

Doctorow is a proponent of Creative Commons copyright. This form of copyrighting has allowed him to make available the text of this book on his website so that anyone who wishes to may download it to read, alter or remix it. You can find the link to the download here:
http://craphound.com/littlebro...

I truly can’t praise this book enough....less

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Not rated it:

06/12/08

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

SPOILER ALERT (in case the little checkbox I clicked below is not adequate warning that this review contains spoilers).

After all the hype, I expected more, so maybe I'm grading somewhat harshly. Still, a nicely put together primer on security and security theatre, although I suspect very few of the explanations Cory includes about how things work are needed on my friendslist (not entirely true: I did not, for instance, know how to make a hidden-camera detector out of a toilet paper roll and...more

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Joel rated it:

06/11/08

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Joel by: Cory Doctorow
recommends it for: everyone.

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is getting a lot of press at the moment, and for good reason - it is a book every teenager should read, as well as more than a few adults.

The novel centers on the adventures of a very bright high school student who, along with three of his friends, is detained by the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist bombing of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Once released, our protagonist and his friends realize that one of their number has been disappeared by t...more

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Becky rated it:

06/14/08

Doctorow, Cory. 2008. Little Brother.

I'm not sure I can adequately cover this one. Wow. Really wow. Then again with Neil Gaiman saying things like, "I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year" and "It made me want to be thirteen again right now and reading it for the first time"... I'm not sure my input is needed at all. It's also got, for the record, Scott Westerfeld calling it a, "Rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion--as necessary and

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