Have you ever had the experience of remembering why you enjoyed something? Like reading? Where you sit back and get involved in the book? The characters? The action? And suddenly you find yourself fifty pages from where you started, and a couple of hours have mysteriously disappeared in what feels like a few minutes? Little Brother by Cory Doctrow brought back that original feeling to me.

Little Brother takes place in a post 9/11 future that may be just a tomorrow away. Little Brother is about Marcus Yallow, a seventeen year old San Francisco hacker, and his friends who happen to find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, a terrorist attack that fells San Francisco's Bay Bridge, killing 4000 people, and Marcus and his friends are rounded up by the Department of Homeland Security, DHS ( a title worthy of Joseph Goebbels) in the wake of the attack and detained in a makeshift prison on Treasure Island in the San Francisco harbor. The justification of their imprisonment is nothing more than the profile of being a teenager, which can be used to fit the description of any anti-social behavior. Marcus and friends are held incommunicado and subjected to interrogations and various humiliations designed to break them and reveal more terrorist plots. After a week Marcus and friends are released with the exception of one, Darryl. After their release the friends find San Francisco under everything but stated martial law under the auspices of the DHS, and the friends go their own ways. Marcus wants revenge on the system that abused him and becomes a reluctant revolutionary. Another drops out right away wanting only to return to a normal life, and a third helps Marcus set up an underground internet communications system for those who want to resist the DHS' authority and return civil liberties to San Francisco. Echoes of today's events buzz through the pages and I think future readers will find it relevant and as resonant as some of George Orwell's predictions in 1984. Little Brother is listed as YA (young adult) book but I wouldn't let that label deter an adult from reading it, I found it a very engrossing book and if it is truly a YA book it doesn't talk down to it's audience. If there are some critiques of the novel they're MINOR. Some of the information given is basic and repeated a couple of times in the beginning but that's hardly noticeable and probably of benefit to the YA audience the book is intended for. Some of the discussions of the through the rabbit hole world of hacking and cryptographic codes made my head swim a little, but things that close to math usually do. There's a bit of teenage wish fulfillment in it, bully retribution, teenagers are smarter than adults and are the last chance for freedom in America, but given the circumstances and parameters laid out in the book it is a perfectly plausible reaction to the events described in the book.

A "Modern Classic" is an encomium that's used all the readily in blurbs, and those books and authors have faded to obscurity, but I think Little Brother lives up to that sentiment and is a book that should be put into schools curriculum's and remain there for a long time to come. Hopefully in Little Brother the young people who read it will see a path they want to take this country.

How much you are likely to enjoy this book is going to depend on your political opinions, I should say. It is partly a story, partly a handbook of the internet featuring innovations that are not just up to the minute but sometimes well beyond, but above all it is a political tract. In the red revolutionary corner there are the votaries of free expression and confidentiality, in the blue conservative corner there are the forces wedded to the notion that no security can ever be tight enough. How much compromise might have been possible is something we are not told. For the Little Brother and his associates it is a battle for survival against totalitarianism, and I don't doubt that this is substantially the author's own outlook.

There is not much doubt which side the author is on. Several of his characters voice the standard arguments in favour of drastic security measures, and these arguments are quoted fairly (if unsympathetically), it seems to me, without being parodied or misrepresented. What the storyline is concerned with is what these theoretical perceptions are liable to mean in practice, and the starting point of the narrative is a terrorist outrage of the 9/11 variety, this time in San Francisco. The story is told by a 17-year-old boy who gets into trouble with the Department of Homeland Security for being in the wrong place when the incident happens and for subsequently showing an attitude the DHS does not like. He `wins' in the end, but not in the manner of some totally incredible David pitted against a governmental Goliath. He wins because a second governmental Goliath takes on the first one. The eagle of Washington has its wings clipped by the bear of Sacramento. Perhaps we can read into this outcome a parable of how better American instincts (as these are perceived by Doctorow and his Little Brother) prevail over worse. However we are only seeing one round in an ongoing battle, and it is quite possible to see this round as no more than an establishment turf war.

Setting politics aside, I myself feel that the book hangs together well. The geekish explanations of the capabilities, current and potential, of the internet are natural enough when the narrator is a geek. I actually found them rather interesting, but it is only necessary to skim-read those sequences to get anything out of them that makes any real difference to the plot. The personality of an American 17-year-old in the 3rd millennium seems convincing to me, although it is half a century since I was that age and although not myself American I know California well. It is also perfectly natural that the plot-line should take in his sexual initiation, and I thought that this 3-stage process was handled very well, with sensitivity but without either sensationalism or prurience or any unbalancing of the main narrative. The style of writing seems fine to me as well, appropriate to an articulate youngster and without artificiality, affectation or attempts to recall Holden Caulfield. Likewise I buy the character-portrayal in general, except perhaps that of the narrator's father. This is an action-yarn basically, not some in-depth psychological study. In any case the opposed poles of the political magnet constitute the main abstract `issue' in this novel, and Doctorow has more sense than to try to overload his narration.

How many readers of this story will be able to set politics aside when reading it I don't know, but if they are very many I suspect that Doctorow will be disappointed. He is quite explicitly `selling' one side of the argument, and his objective was presumably to have his side cheering, the other side either apoplectic with outrage or experiencing a Damascene conversion, and next to nobody uncommitted, at least by the time they have read the first hundred pages or so. It is, of course, fiction, and to some extent fantasy-fiction. How fantastic the fantasy may be is still a matter of argument, but you can probably settle that matter in your own mind according to what you believe to be justified, or even just simply to be true, about the camp at Guantanamo.

The book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, is a very well written book. Basically Marcus the main character is a very technological person aka a nerd. His and his close group of friends are into this game where you go around town looking for clues based on clues found. They are in downtown Sanfransisco when terrorists blow up a nearby bridge which kills thousands. After the attack they try to get out of the downtown area, but are taken by the government as "persons of interest". While being questioned one of Marcus's close friends is killed to try and get him to admit that he is a terrorist and had something to do with the blown up bridge. He eventually is released from the secret prision seeks to revenge the death of Daryll, and the governments new privacy laws, that make it so where the government can see each and every thing you do. Marcus starts a rebellion, and thousands of people follow him and his cause. After all Marcus has the "dirty" government people arrested, the innocent people being held in secret prision camps freed, the new privacy laws destroyed, and finds his thought to be dead friend alive. I really thought this book was really easy to read. It had many suspensefull parts where you never knew what was going to happen. I couldn't put the book down, which is very rare for me. I would reccomend this book for anyone to read.

Little brother is an important book. I hope that people, especially young people, give it a read. The story in and of itself is OK, but the point is that this is not abstract fiction. It's a political book. It's a technical book. It's a techno-political book. There is so much stuff these day's that's tempting to overlook: inconvenient truth about our governments, the complicated and confusing technology that has more and more role in the day to day. However, there comes a point at which ignorance becomes the greater evil.

I grew up in the former Soviet Union, where people were also patriotic, where politics and technology were just as inconvenient and where the people who governed, lied, and tortured in the name of communism and other fine ideals were just as "multi-dimensional" as the people in the US department of homeland security. Don't say that "people just aren't like that". They are. What happened in the USSR and East Germany can happen in the US. The human dynamics are the same. I've read russian novels about repression like Children of the Arbat that have many of the same vibes as "Little Brother". George Orwell also wrote about the squishing of the human spirit by the state. Good for Doctorow to contributing and updating the proud literary tradition of stories of people struggling against state power.

Cory Doctorow's declared aim in writing "Little Brother" is "to arm [a new] generation [of youngsters] with the cognitive and technical tools to resist encroachment on their privacy and reclaim the personal liberty that is theirs by birthright". A noble aim indeed. Sadly, I am not convinced that he goes very far towards achieving it.

The story starts well enough but for me felt to come off the rails quite quickly, particularly in portraying "the system" (against which the book's teenage hero is pitted) as not only cumbersome in its responsiveness to attack (which is true enough) but also unbelievably stupid at the technical and strategic levels. While the latter may hold true for large chunks of it, any strategy for defeating it which replies on that premise is doomed to failure in the long run. Indeed, if one examines the story carefully enough, it becomes clear that the final outcome has less to do with any actions of the hero and the younger generation that he has motivated into rebellion, and much more to do with the somewhat simplistic triumph of the more right-minded sector of adult society who finally save the day.

I am also not sure that the book will appeal much to Doctorow's intended audience. The writing frequently descends into unnecessary levels of techno-geek, much of it pitched I would say, at a level that seems more likely appeal to yesterday's teenagers (and is filled with their in-jokes) rather than any future ones, for most I think will consider much of what is portrayed here as already dated--how many teens would bother to use email to communicate with their friends, for instance? Many will also, I suspect, quickly tire of the endless technical explanations (for all that they are well done and easy to follow) which interfere with the flow of the story and make the book feel more like a school lesson than an exciting tale of rebellion.

The central issues are undoubtedly important and all credit must go to Cory Doctorow for doing what he can to raise an awareness of them in the rising generation but I think raising some awareness is about as much as he can hope this book to achieve.

This book was all kinds of awesome... and for so many reasons. The basic premise is that Marcus and his friends ditch school and head to downtown San Francisco to play an alternate reality game. In the midst of the game, terrorists attack the city, and Marcus and friends are picked up by the Department of Homeland Security as suspects. After being interrogated and tortured, the teens are released, and Marcus decides to take on the DHS.

This story pays homage to one of my favorite books, 1984. What makes it so much more creepy is that its easy to see this plot happening in the world right now - from the methods DHS uses to monitor citizens to the false sense of security Marcus's dad feels to the ease with which the teens break the system. It also using LARPing and even makes it look cool, which is nigh-impossible.

Several of the quotes on the cover encourage people to make this book required reading - and I agree. I love a book where I end up learning about and enjoying something I would never voluntarily read about. This book is chock full of history lessons about the U.S., political movements, and technologies ranging from cryptography to RFIDs to the xBox. Doctorow takes the time to explain the tech his characters use to break the system, showing that nothing is hack-proof and that we need to be aware of it. I wonder, though, if someone who has no experience with tech would get all of these explanations - I know I felt a little lost with the tunneling bit. However, if you're feeling out of sorts with the Xnet and jamming and gait-recognition, you'll still understand the sense of outrage and desperation that Marcus feels as he watches the Bay Area become a police state where teens and minorities are always suspects.

BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE

This book occupied more of my waking hours than it should have, inluding those I spent in class. I recommend it to anyone who likes what Doctorow or Charles Stross writes.

Although some may see it as a commentary on the modern state of privacy, I read it as a guide to how technology can fit a purpose. This book would be great reading for the computer geek, CS major, or IT security consultant in your life.

I am completely won over. The man in the cape can have all my internetz.

Little Brother is the fourth published novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow, the co-editor of the popular blog BoingBoing. As hinted by the name, the novel is inspired by Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, but also serves as SF's second great take on cryptology and online security, the first naturally being Stephenson's classic Cryptonomicon.

San Franciso in the near future. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for a terrorist attack that destroys the Bay Bridge and kills over four thousand people. A group of high school students playing an alternate-reality web game are caught up in the resulting chaos and are interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security. Denied access to legal representation and threatened with torture and even execution should they reveal what has happened to them, they are released just before the seven-day limit, after which the police would being actively investigating any outstanding missing persons reports following the attack. One of the students, Marcus Yallow, becomes determined to expose the DHS' fascist tactics and sets up an online network - dubbed Xnet as it uses X-Boxes rather than easier-to-trace PCs to communicate - to undermine their security efforts and expose their attempts to subvert the law to pry into the lives of innocent citizens rather than actually doing anything that would prevent another terrorist attack. Pretty soon his online persona is public enemy number one for the DHS and they begin closing the net around him and his friends.

Little Brother is an angry book. Doctorow is clearly pissed off about the USA's reaction to the War on Terror and how the hard-won civil liberties of the country, and even its Constitution and Bill of Rights, are being treated as optional in the name of defending people from terrorist attack, even though the actual chances of being caught up in a terrorist incident are miniscule whilst the chances of having their freedoms infringed by repressive laws are overwhelming. In effect, in the book the DHS is spreading the very fear and terror that al-Qaeda wants to achieve. This is quite effective, and whilst critics of the book complain that the treatment of American citizens is unrealistic, the existence of Guantanmo Bay basically proves otherwise. It's also worth noting that the DHS in the book is being motivated by another terrorist attack on a scale greater than that of 9-11, which puts a slightly different spin on things.

Little Brother may be angry, but it's also hugely readable. Like Cryptonomicon before it, Doctorow goes to some trouble to lace explanations of cryptology and internet security into the text whilst keeping the story flowing, and pulls this off well. Characterisation is pretty good, and what happens to Marcus is so outrageous you find yourself cheering him on even if he does come over as being fairly unlikeable through large chunks of the narrative (particularly when he completely forgets to inform the parents of one of his friends still being held by the DHS that their son is still alive). The methods he and his friends develop to outwit the DHS are fairly smart and amusing as well. The pages fly past and the pace and tension ramp up admirably, but for such a cynical book, the ending does come a little out of the blue and feels more than slightly cheesily upbeat. Also, those non-Americans who don't quite get how the relationship in power between the individual states and the federal government in Washington works may find the ending a bit mystifying as well, but it tracks.

Little Brother (****) is an angry, polemical book which I suspect will provoke both admiration and outrage depending on what side of the civil liberties in the face of terrorism debate you fall on. It's also a smart and clever book with a deep sense of cynicism which is slightly undermined by the happy-ish ending, but the journey remains entertaining. The book is available now in the UK from Voyager and in the USA by Tor.

Little Brother is one of those books that can make you an evangelist. You start recommending it to everyone you know. Then to people you barely know. Then you start walking up to random strangers... Okay, not quite. But this is a book that I really think SHOULD be read be every informed citizen. Let me tell you what it's about, and hopefully you'll see why.

As the book opens, Marcus coerces three close friends into ditching high school so that their team can play their favorite online/real world clue hunting game. They're out and about in San Francisco when they hear and feel a massive explosion. Suddenly, there is chaos everywhere, and one of Marcus's friends is hurt. Being kids, they look to authority to help in a time of crisis. They try to flag down either the cops or an ambulance, but who they actually get to stop are some military guys. From there, things start happening fast. Marcus and his friends are detained on U.S. soil for six days and treated like terrorists, simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eventually, three of the four kids are released and severely threatened not to tell what happened to them. They don't even know what became of their injured friend. The ordeal affects the three in different ways. As they get back into "normal life," they discover that life is anything but normal. Homeland Security has taken over San Francisco. Being San Francisco, the city protests. The louder the protests, the tighter Homeland Security grips down on the city. This causes even more extreme forms of protest, and suddenly it's like a vicious circle between the rights of the people and the control of the government--for our "protection." Marcus and his friends are intimately caught up in the events that follow an act of terror they had nothing to do with.

This is being marketed as a young adult novel only because the protagonists are teenagers, but I am a 39-year-old woman, and let me tell you--this book is freakin' scary! Not in a Stephen King sort of way, but in a so realistic I can see this stuff already happening in the world around me sort of way. I AM a San Franciscan, so I can smile at the entirely realistic way the reactions of this city's inhabitants was portrayed. Setting the story here was brilliant, because, yeah, San Francisco does not sit idly by. But you don't have to be radical in the least to be worried by what Doctorow has eerily predicted in this novel. And once you've read it, you'll look at a lot of things happening in the world today with new eyes. And then you too many become an evangelist.

When I began reading this book I disliked it. I felt that it was really talking down to its audience. I lost that feeling after a while, but I never did feel that Marcus rang true as a 17-year-old boy. Ange even less so as a 17-year-old girl. I did enjoy the geekiness of the book, but when Doctorow gave Alan Turing all the credit for breaking Enigma, I began to trust the accuracy of that information less. Intellectual giant that Turing was, he was not the person who broke Enigma. (If you are interested in this, I highly recommend Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two (Foreign Intelligence Book Series).) The Privacy Manifesto aspect of the book seemed extremely heavy-handed. The plot moved well but was implausible. The sex seemed even more implausible than the plot. In the end, I guess the question is: would I recommend this book to a teenager as a readable primer on privacy issues? The answer is a reluctant "no."

In one sense this is a great book for students as it encourages critical thinking and discussion. It's a reminder that while the popular-media is selling ennui YOU are way, way more creative than that.

In another sense, this book is a timely reminder to adults in America that they've bought into the give-up brand more than the kids. This book is a HOWL: Wake up; Gitmo's coming for you next sucka.

Doctorow has never written such a cohesive narrative with characters that really feel alive and absolutely current. Which is funny since he wrote Little Brother in only 8 weeks. Perhaps that's what adds to the Kerouac undercurrent in the book which actually mix wonderfully with the 1984/Mission Impossible action. The less you know the more you'll enjoy it. Peace.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down from the moment I started reading. It was the kind of book that had heart-racing moments, genuinely emotional moments and times where I laughed out loud. I read another review indicating that the villains could have used some fleshing out. While there is some truth to that, I don't feel it detracted from the story for me. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the spirit of rebellion with a liberal dose of current pop-culture thrown in.

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.

(Edited from my response to another review)

I like the book's continuous current of technical ideas. It reminds me of the plonking technical asides in Larry Niven novels, only, well, it's continuous, unrepentant. You're inside the mind and problems of a teenage geek instead of a conventionalized hero.

It's also a refusal to fudge technical detail (as movies and TV shows often so lamely do) in situations where details matter. The issues of security, good and bad, are both vital and sorely misunderstood by the general public these days. Doctorow plows right in there and uses the plot as a series of opportunities to survey real security, from the important basics to both the current state of the art and the current state of travesty with its frightening effects. Geeks care enough about technicalities to know when the experts are wrong.

So, the book has an underlying support of geekitude, but it's about how life doesn't allow geekiness to be enough. The plot is a little melodramatic or simplified, like a political thriller as understood by a teenager who starts out with a simplistic political point of view. But, Marcus runs into the larger ramifications of the things he does, that can't be dealt with by mere hacking, and has to decide to take responsibility for them, which he does, first by higher forms of hacking, but finally by choices that have more to do with responsibility and other people than hacking.

One of the themes of the book is the place of individual heroism in a world where many different people have to be involved for significant change to happen. Can you foresee what the effects of your actions will be? If not, are you still responsible for them? Since you can't do it all yourself, is it worth the effort? Who's going to help? If you don't know, then how can you get people involved? If you get people started, will you be happy with the directions they go? What if your friends let you down? What if you let them down? Marcus and his friends are in the teeth of these kinds of questions throughout the book.

This book is not only insightful, important, and educational, it's also entertaining. I got it at about 3PM and by 8PM I had finished it. I had planned for it to last me several weeks.

More importantly, get copies of this book into the hands of your younger siblings, your children, your young friends, and anyone else you know who has yet to be crushed into conformity by the pressures of corporate life, family, and years of kneeling before The Man. You might just save them, and the world.

What started out as an enjoyable book about a group of "hackers" took an extreme left turn.

The city in which this book takes place, San Francisco, is already filled with anti-war and anti-government and it is not a far stretched idea that the events in this could only happen there.

The author does a good job in portraying the student and teacher who are in favor of government, essentially not liberal; seem unintelligent, timid and unable to discuss opinions in a calm manner. A student in Marcus' class, who deems what DHS is doing is for their protection, is made to be an anger filled child who is unable to express himself without interrupting others and shouting.

A reporter from Fox News is shown as hateful and is described as acting superior to others. Fox News as a whole is portrayed as "evil". I should not be surprised that a book dripping with liberal bias and spin is being marketed to children but I find that I am. This book takes place in a world where NONE of the events would EVER or could EVER happen but it is reviewed as a very real and very possible future for the U.S.

I feel sorry that liberal books like this are being passed off as real literature. I would NEVER recommend this book to ANYBODY for it does nothing more than to reinforce the stereotypes that are being spouted by the left.
The fact that an author would write a book about undermining the United States government and in sense acting like terrorists because you're being tracked or photographed is disturbing to say the least.

One character in Little Brother refers to America as "Gulag America" and this did nothing more than to enforce that the author has no shame. To compare the U.S to a Gulag is despicable.

In short the book has such a liberal spin, by the time you finish it you'll be dizzy.

What started out as an enjoyable book about a group of "hacker" took an extreme left turn.

The city in which this book takes place, San Francisco, is already filled with anti-war and anti-government and it is not a far stretched idea that the events in this could only happen there.

The author does a good job in portraying the student and teacher who are in favor of government, essentially not liberal; seem unintelligent, timid and unable to discuss opinions in a calm manner. The character Charles, who is a student in Marcus' class, deems what DHS, is doing is for their protection and is made to be an anger filled child who is unable to express himself without interrupting others and shouting.

The fact that an author would write a book about undermining the United States government and in sense acting like a terrorist because your being tracked or photographed is disturbing to say the least.

One character in Little Brother refers to America as Gulag America and this did nothing more than to enforce that the author has no shame.
In short the book has such a liberal spin, by the time you finish it you'll be dizzy.

There's no question that terrorists (of various stripes) pose a threat to free societies. The real question is whether the anti-terrorist measures work. This book explores how a young man and his friends run headfirst into that question.

While I am one who believes that much of what we've done in the US has made us less free as a people, I would hope that those who disagree with me will have read through a book like this to test their own conclusions. (Don't get me wrong--I'm not pro-terrorist, and I'm all for *smart* security measures.)

Buy it for yourself. Buy it for the neighbor's kids. Buy it for your local library. Buy it as an act of protest, an act of patriotism, an act of loyal dissent. Heck, just buy it because it's a book you won't want to put down.

I had already downloaded and read the free ebook version of the book and found it so good, so filled with ideas (techy, political, social...) that I had to buy the dead-tree version just so I could lend it to people that would benefit from the knowledge therein. So far, all have enjoyed it.
Just go on and get it, I guarantee you'll be entertained... at the very least you'll come out a little wiser

A very timely, and realistic portrayal of how our civil liberties are on their death bed - a 'what if' story that predicts, believably, what would happen after another 9/11 style attack, in a manner that should strike home with its readers. Our country doesn't have a problem with torture and secret prisons, this we have learned - what comes next?
Very like some of Scott Westerfeld's books, in theme, pacing and writing style.
The book started out like gangbusters - a 5(6!), but the pace slowed for me considerably. I felt that some repetition seemed sloppy.
I was distracted by whether or not the characters were trustworthy, not an inappropriate train of thought for the story - but one that didn't ultimately satisfy in my reading. Some of the characters didn't seem very dimensional.
These things not withstanding, the importance of this subject at this time in our nation's history is paramount - and I sincerely hope that many people are reading it and taking it to heart. Our future freedoms may well depend on it.

Little Brother is the '1984' and 'It Can't Happen Here' for the current generation. I'm 25, and juuust on the brink of "trustworthy," in that I still have hope that we can change the system to avoid this scary near-future. But I'm also just old enough to be terrified of what could happen to me if that near-future happens and someone finds this review and traces it back to me.

You see, Little Brother is a fun read, but it's also a chilling look at what can happen when a society blithely turns over its rights to privacy out of fear - fear of terrorists, fear of change, fear of losing our way of life.

The terrible irony of giving up your rights in the name of security is that you're not secure without those rights. Marcus Yallow discovered that, given the right circumstances, his own government, his own *family* was willing to give up freedom of speech, privacy, and due process, and that fear made those who should be his strongest allies into his most dangerous enemies.

But he fought back, and so should we all.

We don't have to blindly accept the canned truth that terrorists are going to get us, that the only way to stop them is to spy on our own population and hope to catch one of the "bad guys" saying something incriminating. We can look for better ways. We can use the technology available to us to not only devise better methods to protect ourselves from the things we fear, but also to protect ourselves from the (allegedly) well-intentioned snooping of our government. Marcus used technology as a tool - hacking his XBOX to run a fully-encrypted version of Linux, working with friends to keep those using that Linux distro safe from prying eyes, devising simple ways to detect and foil privacy intrusions and display to the world just how ineffectual Bayesian math can be when misapplied, starting a "web of trust" with double-encryption, and using media outlets to get the message out.

In the end, Marcus and those close to him go through hell to protect their freedom, and if that isn't patriotism, what is?

This book is important, timely, interesting, and exciting to read. Highly recommended for any teenaged, young adult, aging hippie, or veteran citizen.

wow, a tutorial on modern digital life wrapped in a good story and an object lesson on the dangers of allowing the government to pull the bait and switch of protecting us from terrorism in the name of increasing their own power while stifling dissent. what's not to love? also, there are some really important technical ideas and concepts explained in this book in a really accessible way. An important book for kids finding their way in the world and adults trying to keep up. Plus, a revealing answer to the question of, if you have nothing to hide, why you should care about your privacy.

A worthy "little brother" to Orwell's Big Brother (as seen in his novel 1984 or, if you prefer, in your daily newspaper), Cory Doctorow's book is must reading for any teenager (and adult) who cares about the Constitution and individual freedoms. In fact, it'd make perfect summer reading leading to first-week-of-school discussions in either English OR social studies classes. It's that important.

LITTLE BROTHER's premise is a terrorist attack on San Francisco that takes down the Bay Bridge and the underwater section of the BART. Marcus and his friends Vanessa, Jolu, and Darryl find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and are swept up by a dragnet of DHS (Department of Homeland Security) officers. The rest, alas, is straight out of truth-is-stranger-than-Gitmo as they're hauled to Treasure Island in San Francisco bay and held illegally in the name of security.

With his escape, Marcus vows revenge. He is a computer geek, you see, and a hacker who is friends with many other young hackers. In this novel, the technology that teens are often vilified for (because they spend too much time on it) becomes their redeeming grace as they use technology, anger, and concern for the Constitution to do battle with the Feds. And although Doctorow occasionally explains too much about this hack or that, you don't have to be a computer geek to enjoy the book. In fact, the plot will carry you along quite nicely, as you see Marcus and friends try to outwit an enemy that has its share of computer network infiltrators, too.

Yes, you could argue that the writing is not stellar and has its share of cliches, but this book is not pretending to be something it isn't. It's fun reading with an engaging plot that seems fail safe for Grades 9 and up (alas, the mild sex scenes will keep it out of many middle school libraries). Just as good as the plot are the themes: what is legitimate in the name of national security? where do our civil rights begin and end in times of "national crisis"? who gets to define patriotism? do state's rights trump the Feds' if abuses take place? LITTLE BROTHER even treats us to a DHS-leading cameo by Kurt Rooney -- the President's special assistant with a name reminiscent of Karl Rove (with an echo of "Loony").

For a YA book, this is serious stuff packaged in fun circuitry. There's something to be learned for everyone -- curious Luddites, students of the Constitution, hacker wannabes, privacy advocates-in-training, journalists and media watchdogs, and even fans of the XBox and Internet (there -- THAT pads the numbers quite a bit). Recommended not only to read, but to discuss.

Cory Doctorow came through with a good book. It was a little slow at times, but usually picked up the pace again rather quickly. He did a good job turning the technical details into lay-terms so they were easy to understand and didn't hijack the storyline. His ideas were certainly plausible, which makes the whole story of Little Brother pretty frightening if you think about it. Good job Cory!

Think all the government surveilance is for your security and betterment?
Think being detained without "Constitutional" rights doesn't affect you because you're not a terrorist or violence prone?
Provocative reading, helps you grasp our new "State". (Of affairs and of mind) Chilling..

Excellent book for young or old. Well written, I could not put it down. On second reading now and its just as enjoyable. If you are a geek, this is for you; also if you enjoy your freedoms you should read this.

I will just echo what so many others have said. This is an excellent book for the "older young adult" (mid teens perhaps?) who is looking for a good read. It's a coming of age story, set in the near future (perhaps even current day) with a message that is important. Blind obedience to government is not a good thing, among other lessons.

As a parent, I would be more than comfortable to give it to my children when they are old enough (13 or 14 and up).

i ordered this book for my son for his birthday it was so good he read it in one day.

Pretty darn amazing if I do say so myself! Unlike it's "Big Brother", pardon the pun, Little Brother is written in a thoroughly interesting and provocative way that challenges the way anyone thinks. It tells of a frightening future, one the country may in fact be heading towards, and a geeky rebellion that proves that kids have the power, too. Marcus, aka m1k3y, is no ordinary teenager, as he has the guts to not only stand up for what he believes in, but to take action no ordinary kid has would. He is what everyone should strive to be, unafraid to believe and act. It all starts and ends because of a simple game, but by the end, there's no game left, and it's all for real, as this 17 year old hacker takes on the Department of Homeland Security itself.
I suppose my one real complaint is that we never got a clear resolution on the Darryl/Van/Marcus triangle, but, you know, the book's bigger than that :) Marcus's dad was irritating, and I was highly glad to see that he did change at the end of the book (which does give me some hope for the future).
The parallels to the world we live in today are so...non-subtle, but at the same time, hidden. Scary and amazing at the same time.
I can only hope that if the time should ever come, we realize that we have the power to act, no matter how young we may be. Don't Trust Anyone Over 25, and bite bite bite bite bite!

Little Brother fits in perfectly with the rest of Doctorow's body of work: intriguing plots marred by two-dimensional characters who don't actually interact with one another so much as they preach at each other. This tendency isn't quite the narrative buzzkill as it is elsewhere, but it doesn't make the book any more fun to read.

His characters are leaden caricatures without a hint of subtlety. The government henchfolk are Evil with a capital-E, the supporters of the new regime are mindless drones who seem to forget each frustration and lesson as soon as they've happened, and our hero's friends are all good but apparently weak willed. Meanwhile, Marcus, while no paragon of virtue, is simply too good to be true. In fact so many of his beliefs and interests are ported from Doctorow's posts at BoingBoing that I began to feel that Marcus was even less of a character and more of a surrogate for Doctorow's wish fulfillment: an anti-establishment "hacker" who speaks 1337, has a host of neat au courant interests, loves cutting edge bands, believes in the boilerplate of the EFF and the ACLU and gets the girl too!

Not that he doesn't have doubts and fears, but at no point did I ever think that he'd change his ways. No sooner does he worry that he might be going to far but something comes up to prove him right. Over and over again: Will our hero persevere? Of course! Why worry? Especially after the fourth crisis of faith.

Is it an informative read? Yeah. There's a lot of talk about civil liberties and networks and internet privacy that's worth reading. Is it a fun read? Not even close. Between the seemingly constant preaching and the completely unsatisfying conclusion, I finished the book simply to say I was done with it. And I am: I'm done with this book and, unless someone convinces me otherwise, I am done with Doctorow's work.

I believe that Doctorow has an excellent foundation in his premise. However, I must agree with several other reviews in that his characters (both good and evil) are one-dimensional and completely unrealistic. I like his ideas and respect what seems to be his beliefs, however I feel that a potentially good story has been sacrificed at the expense of the author attempting to push his political opinions on the world at large. The entire work is convoluted with dialogue about the authors opinions.

Our world would be better if every teen read this book. Pushes the reader to think about patriotism, the constitution and the purpose of government. Emphasizes that an individual can make a difference.

Speaks clearly to the abuses of authority we have lived with since 911. More over, the author truly groks the hacker ethos and captures it well.

Incidentally, I downloaded it for free from the author's web-site and read it on-line.
Creative Commons license.

It's ironic that Marcus, the main character of this novel, is so painfully aware of his own l'esprit de l'escalier (literally, "stairway wit" -- the witty comeback you think of after it's too late to use it). "Little Brother" is one big example of Doctorow's own l'esprit de l'escalier. If only we lived in a world where the people who work for the Department of Homeland Security were transparently one-dimensional and evil, if only DHS were massively more invasive into every facet of our lives instead of just having useless airport security checks, and if only Doctorow were a hacker who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time during a terrorist attack. If only all of those would come true, then Doctorow would save the day. By the time you reach the conclusion, wherein Marcus somehow ends up as a blogger on a site not entirely unlike Doctorow's own BoingBoing, the sense of l'esprit de l'escalier is so palpable that you could cut it with a knife. Unsurprising, since you've been wading through it for the past 350 pages.

I entered into this book as an entirely sympathetic audience. Several of the authors who offered up enthusiastic reviews are ones whose work I admire and whose recommendations are usually spot-on. I've donated to both the ACLU and the EFF; I even own packing tape with the Fourth Amendment printed on it that I use on my checked luggage when I fly. I believe that the so-called security that we see at the airport is nothing more than a waste of time, money, and energy for all involved. I like my civil liberties, and seeing them eroded sparks a letter-writing campaign to my representatives. Oh, yes, and I'm a geek. I cracked open this book fully expecting to love every single word on the page, expecting to identify with the characters and the story.

It took me until page 20 to realise that I hated it. The pages upon pages of useless exposition on everything from Mission-style burritos to a rather flawed discussion of network tunneling bog the book down. Worse, so does the propaganda that Marcus spews at every opportunity about liberty and freedom. I agree with pretty much all of the politics expressed herein, but reading it like this made me want to backhand Marcus and tell him to just move on already.

Even worse is the painfully simplistic storyline. For all that Marcus claims to be a hacker, he doesn't actually accomplish any hacks (and certainly not by coding). His single biggest hack is that he copies a particularly secure Linux distribution, burns CDs, and hands them out to people. If burning CDs makes one a hacker, then my mom just earned her 1337 merit badge. Burning CDs and blogging is apparently enough to bring down the DHS. Of course, the DHS here is portrayed as single-minded, one-dimensional, and singularly evil; and anyone who in the days after a terrorist attack is freaked out and thus supportive of additional security is also mindless and evil. So bringing down the DHS with an alternate Internet and poorly-written privacy rants on a blog isn't actually a big deal. My mom, hacker extraordinaire that she now apparently is, could've done it.

It's not that I disagree with any of the ideas put forth in this novel. For the most part, I strongly agree with them. It's that the package in which they are wrapped is poorly considered, poorly argued, and poorly written. The ideas herein are important and absolutely must be discussed, but the execution of those ideas is so heavyhanded as to make the book near-unreadable.

Hats off to Cory. This is a fascinating, thought-provoking book. Read it. Think about it (on all levels), share it with people you know and discuss it with them.

Although I disagree with 70-80% of this book's philosophy, sociology and technological suppositions, I think it is a wonderful and timely piece--well worth reading by pretty much everyone. The writing is suspenseful, accessible and thought provoking. There are some great historical anecdotes and an interesting look at how `movements' are started and maintained. I also think Cory did a commendable job in capturing adolescent thought processes, world-views and relationships. Although I have not read all of his work, this is by far the best I have read. I especially commend the way he portrays functional (if sometimes conflicted) parent child relationships and shows a loving, supportive family in a way most coming-of-age/teen rebellion books fail to do.

On the downside, many elements of the story are exaggerated and or poorly thought out. First, the social cost of creating anarchy in a modern city is greatly underplayed. The actions taken by the protagonist cause untold pain and suffering to tens of thousands of innocent people and are utterly reprehensible...the ends simply do not justify the means. Not a good role model. The role, motives, means and methods of police forces are greatly misrepresented as are the motives and critical thinking abilities of individuals who constitute police forces. And while less damaging, the abilities, talent and ultimate motivations of script-kiddies are exaggerated and greatly overplayed.

That said, Little Brother takes a hard, if somewhat exaggerated, look at current anti-terrorism laws and tactics, presenting a current societal dilemma in an engaging even engrossing novel. These topics are well worth thinking about, researching and discussing with people you respect and this book is a great introduction into the debate.

Because it is well done, timely and goes into depth on important social issues I give this a 5.

It's great to see Doctorow writing so well again after his last two somewhat disappointing novels. This is easily his best novel-length work since "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and it deserves all the praise it's received from other reviewers. Little Brother is the possible, perhaps likely, near-term future for the USA and the West in general if the sheep don't look up and start realising the "War on Terror" is more a war on democracy and their civil rights than something that will make them safe from terrorists. It's about being seen to be doing something rather than actually doing much of anything useful about the problem. It's about lining the pockets of multinational IT, security tech and private army corporations with rivers of public money rather than protecting the populace. It's about stopping dissent and democracy via an endless phoney "war" that no one is allowed to question. It's about the danger of sacrificing one's freedoms for the false promise of security.

This is a passionate YA novel about freedom and the right to live your life as you wish that everyone should read, even those over 25.

As with most teens on summer vacation, pleasure reading for me wasn't exactly priority numero uno. From digging through the piles of "recommended reading" from friends and family to "not-so-optional" reading from school, there wasn't much time for perusing the shelves for new releases and "me" books. Luckily for me, I managed to squeeze in "Little Brother" before Breaking Dawn came out and the summer-assignment-procrastination guilt started to kick in.
Let me tell you, it was worth my while.
Reminiscent of Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" or "Midnighters" series, this book hooks you from page one and doesn't let you down. The copious technophile references and fast-paced banter of the main characters will make you forget about the friend requests piling up on your Facebook, and the plentiful action will tide you over until you can make it to the theater to see Hancock. It caters to today's ADD generation by speeding along and not bogging one down with bothersome morals or literary allusions. Another plus, it's tell-all descriptive without being stretched-out boring, which will satisfy Harry Potter fans (with a tech-head streak) and (the ever-elusive) book-ophobic teen guys.
Suggestion: before buying make sure you like the style. It's distinctively sci-fi and reads like a tech-blog, and if that's not your thing, don't bother. If you know you're into the genre, definitely go for it. You'll love every page.

Little Brother shows us a possible near-future in which San Francisco has been hit with a terrorist attack, and the aftermath in which the Department of Homeland Security cracks down on dissent and free-speech. It's topical, interesting, intelligent and gripping, even creepy at times.

The creepy part about this book is that everything is plausible. These things could actually happen in the near future, and at times are already happening now. This is a book that makes you think and question the world we are living in, about what we are doing and what we could become if another attack happened. It shows that technology can be used for good or ill, depending on the user, and that knowledge and intelligence are good things, tools with which to fight back at those who would take away our liberties.

Little Brother is a book for everybody, not just young adults, although they will probably best relate to the seventeen-year old protagonist. It's a book everybody should read and donate to their local school libraries and friends so that people everywhere can have the chance to read this book and understand that what is happening in the world today affects them, that there are things they can do to change it before the world gets as bad as it is in Little Brother.

I not only think that every teen should read it, but I think every parent should read it too. Then, the parents and the teens should sit down and discuss it. I have to tell you, a lot of what Doctorow talks about in this book is stuff we discussed when I was a teen in the Seventies. We were concerned that the FBI had files on individuals based on stupid things like magazine subscriptions or the political organizations one belonged to. We were worried about the invasion of our privacy and government stripping away our rights. We all read "1984" and knew what governmental intrusion could lead to. But, I think many of my generation forgot about those worries. Now, it's scarier the technology is there to keep us all under observation. We're so wired and everything is out there for just about anyone to grab. And, in the aftermath of 9/11, our rights really are being stripped from us.

Cory Doctorow's book is science fiction only in the way that "1984" is science fiction. It's a cautionary tale about what can happen if we turn a blind eye to government intrusion into our private lives and the tearing down of the Bill of Rights. The story is gripping and my heart was pounding and my throat was tight long after it was over. I had my almost-13 year old son read it before I did and he couldn't put it down. He wants to read more books like this, but after reading it, I realized that there probably aren't more books like this. It's seriously the most powerful book written since "To Kill a Mockingbird." It might be even more powerful.

I started reading this on a Friday and couldn't put it down until I'd finished it that weekend. It's a great read, and while it is geared towards the young adult crowd (mostly due to the voice of the main character, a 17-year old hacker) it still holds up as a serious piece of fiction. Especially for fans of hacking, crypto, spoofing, jamming, flashmobbing, LARPing, modding...

A great book!

Give it to all your friends, and all your friends' kids

I read Little Brother yesterday. It was so good I couldn't put it down. In the freely-available digital versions, Cory says that the enemy of artists (I'm paraphrasing) is obscurity. This was my first Doctorow novel, and I can say that he is no longer obscure in my house.

You can see plot summaries in other reviews, so I'm not going to rehash it. Although the police-state may be extreme, it's at least plausible. The tracking through RFID and data mining done with them is totally believable. Read this book. If it does nothing else, it will make you think. That's more than most other books.

However, I'm not entirely convinced it belongs in the young adult section. Just because the protagonist is 17 doesn't mean this is a YA book.

Just finished reading Cory Doctorow's amazing new science fiction novel "Little Brother," and it is an absolutely devastating critique of the Bush Administration's use of 9/11 to expand the surveillance state, a detailed handbook on civil liberties and technology, and a can't-put-it-down story that will have you reading way past your bedtime. This is ostensibly a young adult book, but don't be put off -- like the best of Robert Heinlein's juveniles, Doctorow writes a sophisticated tale that never talks down to the reader and which is just as enjoyable and engaging for adults. The hero just happens to be a high school kid.

A 17-year-old hacker named Marcus Yallow (or W1n5t0n, his online identity) and his friends are caught up in a DHS dragnet following a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Shocked and angered by a government response that seems both cruelly cynical and hopelessly inept, Marcus and his friends respond by creating an online-driven counterculture. Along the way, Marcus has to deal with both the challenges of being a teenager (like standing up for the Bill of Rights in social studies class) and staying paranoid enough to remain free.

It's a feast for geeks: you'll learn about ARGs, encryption, RFIDs, gait recognition, and (my favorite) hacking DNS to distribute video. It's a primer on civil liberties, with deep texture and nuanced debate worthy of a lawyer from the EFF or ACLU. But it's also embedded in a gripping, edge-of-your-seat narrative that will literally have you finishing the book in a sitting. (Okay, it took me a week, but it was a busy week at work, so I was reading when I could on my iPhone.)

Oh yeah. It's free. As in speech, but also as in beer. You can pop over to Doctorow's site and download it in any of a dozen (all DRM-free) formats. Like all Doctorow's work, it's Creative Commons licensed. But don't let that fool you. The hardcover is published by Tor Books, arguably sf's most prestigious imprint. The dead tree version is well worth the money for maximum browsability, and you can grab it right here on Amazon.

I liked this book, and everything it stands for. I bought it even though I had read it elsewhere. I had to have my own copy so I could help inform my loved ones that ALL of this and more can happen in the near future, if not today. Cory Doctorow and Tor have a new fan.

Cory Doctrow does an excellent job or creating a real character. Having worked in the public school system, i hated when marcus walked out the room with his hands raised in triumph for having been called to the office. It was a stupid high school thing to do. Which what makes the character so compelling. He is niether the smartest nor toughest character in the book. Hes simply the most passionet.
One beef i have with the book is how it blankets ever one who isn't 100% in agreement with the character as one 'them'. The book is a fairly open statement the Bush presidency has been a mess. It takes the stance that The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was designed to traple out civil liberties. And that anyone who disagrees is the enemy. Never trust anyone over 25. Well, i'm 28. I happen to be a conservative christian. And I think the Bush years have been a disaster. (mostl