Little Brother

In [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312041581s/954674.jpg|939584] [a:Cory Doctorow|12581|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1212526024p2/12581.jpg] paints a not-so-pleasant picture of a future. Where fear from terrorism has disfigured security systems in society.
The role of government is to secure for citizens the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In that order. It's like a filter. If the government wants to do something that makes us a little unhappy, or takes away some of our liberty, it's OK, providing they're doing it to save our lives.
But in the end who do they really control? Ordinary people or terrorists? When is sacrificing liberty to preserve life just too much?
These are just some of the questions that will cross your mind as you read this book.
I have not read the book that more inspired me to think in a couple of years. It forces you to look, really look world around you: cameras beside roads to catch people who ride too quickly, chips implanted into our personal IDs and drivers licences... And ask: are we already on the way? ( )

I just read this entire book online, because Doctorow is doing a very cool Creative Commons license publishing strategy.

Anyway, I'd never read an entire novel online before but it was a good experience, in part because the book was gripping, funny, and smartly political. Also, Doctorow has loaded the book with practical information on escaping state surveillance. Talk about the Dangerous Book for Whoever!

A note to my friends: I was turned off in the first few pages by the narrator's glib and fetishy descriptions of "tranny hookers" in the Tenderloin, but persevered and came to see the narrator as a sheltered white middle class teen, and the fetishy language as indicative of that. I think what turned it around for me was a pretty well-handled scene when the narrator (whose handle is "M1k3y," ha) is confronted about his white privilege by one of his hacker friends. ( )

I do believe this is a book with a message, or at least a political point that requires the reader to be on one side of the purported issue or the other. You can't be more black and white than the slogan "You can't trust anyone over 25." You're either with it or not. So right from the get go, the author challenges you, and not dispassionately, but emotionally, from deep hurts and irreconcilable differences. Doctorow, whose [b:Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|29587|Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316635583s/29587.jpg|1413] was delightful, elevates the emotional level by depicting his main protagonist going through a harrowing experience. This experience turns him into a YA version of the Vigilante. And the reader must buy this foundation in order to benefit from the rest of the story. But I was looking for something more. A desire for the very science fiction-al matching intellectual intensity and extrapolation. And I did not find it. The emotionally-charged scenes that lead to the main character's transformation seem single-sided; the author seems to be playing chess against himself, deliberately making bad moves on one side of the board in order to make his side win gloriously. The effect is that the scenes and characters seem contrived, one-dimensional. Afternote: Perhaps the book's depiction is really the way the youth view the older generation, that everything the seniors say and do is a direct affront to their liberty and desires. Being on the far side of 25, I can't say I remember being of this temperament and bull-headedness. All I do know is that you can't stay teen-age forever. Before you realize it, the years catch up with you, then you're looking from the other side. ( )

I loved this book. Hackers & crypto & dystopian recent-future setting- it's like Doctorow wrote it with me in mind. There's plenty of Heinleinian preaching about freedom and responsibility, which is always a plus. The story is all too believable, the characters brighter than average. The parents, as usual in the books I've read lately, are plenty dim, but one overlooks this. The San Francisco setting worked well on a lot of levels, as did the weaving in of civil rights, hippie and Yippie history. Highly recommended. ( )

I had to give it 5 stars. When you're compelled read 200 pages in one night that bumps it to 5 star land. That said, Doctorow has some annoying writing habits, like explaining a concept 2 pages after he first introduced it and some clunky flashbacks that could be streamlined. That being said, what a great and disturbing story about where we could be heading. ( )