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Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
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Little Brother (edition 2008)

by Cory Doctorow

Series: Little Brother (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
5,5863961,827 (4.01)2 / 275
After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
Member:chlorine
Title:Little Brother
Authors:Cory Doctorow
Info:Tor Teen (2008), Hardcover, 384 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:ya

Work Information

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

  1. 271
    1984 by George Orwell (JFDR)
    JFDR: 1984's Big Brother is Little Brother's namesake.
  2. 100
    Feed by M. T. Anderson (kellyholmes)
  3. 70
    For the Win by Cory Doctorow (jshrop)
  4. 81
    The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling (persky)
    persky: The book that turned Doctorow on to the EFF and a real world account of various government agencies cracking down on teenage hackers.
  5. 51
    Makers by Cory Doctorow (SheReads)
  6. 30
    Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (PghDragonMan)
  7. 20
    The Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian (strande)
    strande: In chapter thirteen, Ange and Marcus call the media whores. "In fact, that's an insult to hardworking whores everywhere. They're, they're profiteers." Media Monopoly is a whole book about how the media turned into profiteers.
  8. 31
    Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow (ahstrick)
  9. 20
    Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (kaledrina)
  10. 20
    After by Francine Prose (meggyweg)
  11. 20
    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (whymaggiemay)
    whymaggiemay: Both about teens fighting back against the greater power using computers.
  12. 20
    Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age by Steven Levy (kraaivrouw)
  13. 10
    So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld (kellyholmes)
  14. 10
    The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian (JFDR)
  15. 54
    Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (JFDR)
  16. 10
    Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias (reconditereader)
    reconditereader: Both involve dystopias, resistance, oppression, technology, and interesting characters.
  17. 10
    Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho by Jon Katz (writecathy)
  18. 10
    Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller (MyriadBooks)
    MyriadBooks: For knowledge, the use and distribution, general purpose. Best for teens.
  19. 00
    Telluria by Vladimir Sorokin (Philosofiction)
  20. 00
    Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky (kaledrina)

(see all 31 recommendations)

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» See also 275 mentions

English (382)  Italian (3)  German (3)  Hungarian (2)  Indonesian (1)  Catalan (1)  Dutch (1)  French (1)  All languages (394)
Showing 1-5 of 382 (next | show all)
Well, I liked this book. It came part of a Humble Bundle I bought, so didn't specifically go out to read it. I realised once I started, it's definitely a young adult book. Nevertheless, an interesting read that's prompted some questioning thoughts. ( )
  Zehava42 | Jan 23, 2024 |
I grew up with a healthy distrust of the government. Little Brother was a great reminder why. Doctorow does a first-rate job in this book (especially after abysmal disappointment like Someone Comes to Town) with a well-thought-out story and sympathetic, believable main characters. If the villains seem a little cardboard, well that's because they don't let the main characters get close enough to see them as real people.
I've urged this book upon all my friends I've had occasion to discuss it with. Read it. Enjoy it. Learn from it. ( )
  Treebeard_404 | Jan 23, 2024 |
Very thrilling and very educative at the same time. Obviously a modern-day 1984 but much less depressing, since the main character fights his unjust government with passion. Great read, though I felt that the occasional "you" passages were a bit out of place. ( )
  adastra | Jan 15, 2024 |
Quick Word: Mixed feelings about this one. It’s not quite up my alley, despite being targeted at my age group. I didn't care for most (any) of the characters, but I loved the concepts explored and the situations investigated reached the rebellious youth in me. I applaud Mr. Doctorow for the sensible, concise way electronics were described, and the crisp pacing. With any other subject matter, the story would have fallen flat in my ears, yet the issues of youth being empowered/suppressed, the conflict between government and citizen- these subjects were brilliantly handled. ( )
  TashaBookStuff | Jan 13, 2024 |
Story: 7.0 / 10
Characters: 8
Setting: 8
Prose: 6.5 ( )
  MXMLLN | Jan 12, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 382 (next | show all)
Little Brother represents a great step forward in the burgeoning subgenre of dystopian young-adult SF. It brings a greater degree of political sophistication, geekiness and civil disobedience to a genre that was already serving up a milder dose of rebellion. After this, no YA novel will be able to get away with watering down its youthful revolution.
 
MY favorite thing about “Little Brother” is that every page is charged with an authentic sense of the personal and ethical need for a better relationship to information technology, a visceral sense that one’s continued dignity and independence depend on it: “My technology was working for me, serving me, protecting me. It wasn’t spying on me. This is why I loved technology: if you used it right, it could give you power and privacy.”

I can’t help being on this book’s side, even in its clunkiest moments. It’s a neat story and a cogently written, passionately felt argument.
 

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Cory Doctorowprimary authorall editionscalculated
Gutzschhahn, Uwe-MichaelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hayden, Patrick NielsenEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Heyborne, KirbyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hoteling, SpringDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Huang, AndrewAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lutjen, PeterCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schneier, BruceAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Shimizu, YukoCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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For Alice, who makes me whole
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I'm a senior at Cesar Chavez high in San Francisco's sunny Mission district, and that makes me one of the most surveilled people in the world.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (3)

After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

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Book description
The ultimate tale of teen rebellion -- one seventeen-year-old against the surveillance state. Big Brother is watching you. Who's watching back? Marcus is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works -- and how to work the system. Smart, fast and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school's intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison, where they're mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state, where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

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