Little Brother

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

Based on a recommendation from a friend, I took the opportunity to read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. While this is technically categorized as a "young adult" novel, it completely and totally transcends age boundaries. This should be required reading when it comes to thinking about what our "terrorism-adverse" society is coming to. Of course, the government would probably prefer you just ignored the book and trusted them to look out for you.

Marcus Yallow is a teenager who is much more comfortable in front of a computer than in trying to obey the rules of society. He resorts to a few techno-tricks to throw off the school's monitoring system so he and a friend can head off to play a popular online game involving tracking clues and solving puzzles in real life. While he and his three friends are tracking down the latest hint, a bomb explodes on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco (where the novel takes place). Marcus flags down a military vehicle to get help for his injured friend, but this simple act throws him into a Department of Homeland Security Gitmo-like prison where he is grilled as a possible terrorist involved in the bombing. He's eventually let go after four days (with threats of harm should he tell anyone), but his injured friend has completely disappeared. With each passing day, more and more "security measures" are put in place to track all the citizens and find patterns that would indicate criminal activities. While some consider this government action necessary for public safety (like Marcus's parents), Marcus sees this as a complete destruction of the rights he is supposed to have as an American citizen. He helps organize a large encrypted network called Xnet to spread the truth and counter the government and media distortions. But as the DHS continues to crack down on all sorts of freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism, his anonymity and safety becomes even more tenuous than it already is, and he's in a fight for his life and the lives of his closest friends. He has to figure out whether the fight for truth is worth dying for, or whether he should just acknowledge the fact that he can't fight an entire government and change things.

The action in Little Brother takes place at a time not too much in the future from where we are now. In fact, the time could be here and now, as the technology used in the book is nearly all functional and available. It's utterly impossible to read this book without drawing references and parallels to what America has experienced and implemented since 9/11. Doctorow weaves a story that paints media and government in a very bad light when it comes to motives and truth, but you'd have to be totally naive to think that much of what happens in Little Brother isn't possible (or in some cases isn't already happening). The stated "young adult" audience will identify with the characters, while being forced to think about their rights and freedoms that are increasingly being destroyed. Adults, especially ones with a techno-bent, will have to question some foundational beliefs in the integrity and the role of government that no longer hold true.

Doctorow also has a very different view on copyright material, and his beliefs make this book available to anyone at no cost. You can go to his website and download the book in various electronic formats for no charge. He practices what he preaches when it comes to the Creative Commons license structure. I read Little Brother as a combination of text emails from a service called DailyLit, as well as from the PDF when I wanted to read some longer passages. It made for a unique reading experience, and one that was seemingly appropriate given the subject matter.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned about where we are going as a society. And if you're not concerned, then you need to read this book even more...

This book turned out to be a lot better than I expected. I feel like I have rare perspective on this book. I have worked in the security industry. I have worked in the computer industry. I have been in the free-speech and defense of the bill of rights movement. I lived near the locations of this book for several years. I have had friends arrested as Hackers in my high-school and I have had friends arrested by the DHS as terrorist suspects (torching Humvee's but subsequently acquitted). I have seen concerts that were called riots by the police. I have seen the news fail to report things I have seen with my own eyes. Finally, as a science and math teacher and tutor I work with teens everyday.

This book rings true. I almost feel like some parts of this book were assembled from the lives of my friends and acquaintances and even to a small extent my own. I disagree with many reviews here that claim that the villains are one dimensional. From the perspective of a person who has been through things a little like this, this is really what these people seem like from the perspective of their victims. Maybe they are kind compassionate people who love their country when they are not doing their jobs, but believe me, these people act like thugs with hearts of stone when they are doing their jobs. I have tried to talk to them reasonably and their brutal arrogance is often superhuman. This is in fact normal human behavior (see the Stanford prison experiment and the book "The Lucifer Effect") If you don't believe me.

Further, as a person that knows computers, science and hacking I was impressed by this book. The author really did his homework. Even as a person that has been in the legitimate and shady part of of the computer world, I learned a few things. I actually went ahead and googled several topics while reading this book and found out that they were real. I think this is a book that can certainly get teens interested in several aspects of computer science and mathematics. There is no actual information though that allows or encourages teenagers to participate in hacks that are dangerous or immoral. Just stuff on maintaining your privacy and secuirty and even that stuff would require the teen to learn a lot about, science, math and computers.

Finally, as a patriot and teacher I think this book is an intelligent two sided debate on freedom and security. Yes, it does take the perspective that abuse of power is the bigger threat than terrorism, but I feel that both sides are presented intelligently and it made it clear to me why some people chose fear over freedom.

A couple of words of caution. This is a morally complex book and I would not recommend it for immature teenagers. There are references to defying authority figures, lying to and hiding things from adults, the slogan "don't trust anyone over 25" appears several times in the book, there are, some neutral/casual references to drug use, and some mildly favorable references to teen sexuality though nothing pornographic. I would not give this book to a teenager already prone to antisocial behavior or one that cannot handle ambiguity or appreciate the consequences of rash actions. Nevertheless I think this book will be exciting, provocative and very educational for most teens 15+ My 15 year old is reading it currently. I intend to discuss it with him to make sure he understands the context.

Fast paced, up to date, and shockingly real. If more people, especially young people, read this, than we would live in a more just and free society. I also recommend buying this book to support Cory Doctorow and the publishers that allow him to put so much of his work online for free.

A fine start for any emerging civil libertarians, though older readers may find some elements a tad oversimplified and unbelievable.