Marcus is a hacker. He's adept at getting about the security systems and computer firewalls at his high school. When he and his friends sneak out to explore downtown San Francisco as part of a scavenger hunt, they are caught in the turmoil of a major terrorist attack. Arrested at the scene, Marcus is separated from his friends and harshly interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security. After days of terror and degradation, he's released - but one of his friends is not. As San Francisco becomes a police state, Marcus vows to fight for the country he loves in the best way he knows how: computers and the internet.

This was a fascinating book, and a quick read. It's terrifying because many of the events could happen: Patriot Act II, more rights surrendered, constant monitoring and possibility of detainment without legal rights. I loved how it mentioned places like LiveJournal and Fark, too. It made it feel all the more real.

There were two down points. Some of the info dumps were annoying and distracting. It's nice to know the science is real, but come on, I don't need several pages on how servers work and things like that, again and again. The message is also very preachy at times. However, it's a very thought-provoking book, and one that will remain pertinent for years to come. ( )

Fascinating look at the role technology and terror can play in everyday life. Doctorow does an amazing job of creating a compelling story that all teens should read -- whether in order to think more deeply about technology and privacy, or to become interested in finding out more about technology, cryptography, and privacy. Fast paced, and thought-provoking. ( )

Loved this.
Sent it to my dad. Recommending it to everyone. It's about how smart courageous kids deal with adults giving up on freedom after a terror attack.

Well written, fast paced, and filled with real characters - something the SF genre doesn't always get. This isn't far future fiction, this is about right now.
The technology is all homemade and usable. Heck, they even have DIY instructions up on instructables: http://www.instructables.com/member/w...
Get it, give it to a kid, and hope. ( )

In the near future, high school senior Marcus Yallow and his friends are caught near the scene of a terrorist attack in San Francisco and apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security. After some rough interrogation, Marcus is released, but there is no sign of his friend Darryl. In the aftermath of the attacks, numerous new security restrictions are imposed on San Francisco, and Marcus starts to resist them by setting up a secure Linux network that runs off of hacked XBox consoles, and using that network to spread ideas of ways to subvert the restrictions. He also learns that Darryl may still be alive and starts searching for ways to find out what happened to him.

This is an entertaining novel, but I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I agree with a lot of the ideas presented about the value of freedom, and those are especially important for the young adult audience this book is aimed at, and the various hacks that Marcus pulls off are interesting, but a lot of the information is given in the form of clunky infodumps which interrupt the story. Also, the views of anyone opposing Marcus are presented as fairly simplistic, straw man arguments. The government officials are just caricatures who don't even have a legitimate interest in the country's security, they just want to accumulate power. Despite, those flaws, it is still a novel worth reading that is very relevant to today's world. ( )

 Little Brother is derivative of many things, but it works well, and is written in a fun and engaging way. I have recommended this book to many teens at my library, in part because Doctorow is one of the few writers of teen fiction who really seems to understand how technology works in young people's lives. Aparat from an embarassingly awkward sex scene here and there (he could easily have been nominated for this year's Bad Sex Awards), this was a wonderfully entertaining book from the first page to the last. ( )

I read the book Little Brother by: Cory Doctorow. I was amazed at how Marcus, a 17-year-old kid, could crash the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS.) He is only four years older than I am. He must have a lot to carry on his shoulders, but he is only a child. His friend Van does not approve of this because he is only a kid and this a job for someone else. However, when he gets caught by the DHS he is tortured as if he was a grown man.



The reminds me of the Alex Rider series. When the M16 calls upon Alex for a mission he is a man. When Alex ask asks to make his own decisions, or for a weapon, he is a child.



Even though Marcus was set back by his age, he managed to overthrow the DHS. Despite Alex’s age, he still manages to complete every mission, obtain a weapon, and eventually leave the M16.



Winston, in the book 1984, is a grown man. The problems Winston faces are much like the ones Marcus faces except that he has no problems with his age. In the end of 1984, Big Brother manages to overcome Winston, and remains in charge of everyone. But, Marcus who is much younger than Winston, succeeds at overthrowing the DHS.



It definitely says something that Alex and Marcus who are teenagers are stronger than Winston. What this says is that Teens RULE!!!

Holy cats, y'all. I enjoyed this book far more than I had any right to. Especially because I'm over 25. ( )

Holy cats, y'all. I enjoyed this book far more than I had any right to. Especially because I'm over 25. ( )

Holy cats, y'all. I enjoyed this book far more than I had any right to. Especially because I'm over 25. ( )

In some ways, this is not the kind of book I usually read--phrases like "techno-geek" on the cover don't tend to appeal to me. But I picked this one up because both my brother and sister really liked it, and I'm glad I did. Doctorow raises a lot of difficult questions about the trade-offs between security and privacy, and tells a gripping story too.

Marcus is a high-school student in the not-too-distant future, at a time when surveillance is increasing and school-issued notebooks record every keystroke a student makes. Being concerned with privacy and good with computers, Marcus has hacked his notebook to get around the surveillance features and takes other measures like putting gravel in his shoes to outsmart the gait-recognition devices in the school hallways. He's not really a bad guy, though, more concerned with getting out of school to play games with his friends than with using his abilities for any greater, malicious purpose.

Unfortunately, after a terrorist attack in San Francisco, the authorities don't see Marcus' behaviour in such an innocent light. He's grabbed off the street almost arbitrarily by the Department of Homeland Security and accused of being a terrorist. When he isn't immediately willing to give up all his privacy and insists, for example, on seeing a lawyer, the situation only worsens. He's subjected to mild forms of torture until he yields completely, and is eventually released with instructions to tell no one about what happened and a warning that his every move will be watched from then on.

Rather than giving in, though, Marcus decides to fight back against the Department of Homeland Security. As more and more citizens' rights are taken away in the name of safety, Marcus develops an underground network devoted to preserving privacy and freedom. Nothing here is completely black-and-white, though, and many of Marcus' friends and family members oppose his actions. The result is a thought-provoking examination of how far you should go in standing up for your beliefs.

As a side note, the author of this book strongly opposes DRM and has released all his books in free, unprotected electronic formats at the same time as the print releases. This makes him a good guy in my books. ( )

Recommended by Sarah S.

Little Brother, by Cory Doctrow, is one of those rare Young Adult titles that may be enjoyed by adults as well as teens. The plot for this book, the Department of Homeland Security imposes Martial Law on San Francisco after a terrorist attack, is so adult enough, that if the main protagonist of this story were not modeled after a high school kid, this could just as easily been a Tom Clancy type spy thriller.

The opening pages are used to quickly introduce most of the main characters. Doctrow does an excellent job taking non-teens into the world a gaming and the use of technology used by gamers and kids in general. We know this story is set in the future by some of the surveillance technology used in schools, but we also know this is a not too distant future, maybe only a year or so from our now, 2009 almost 2010, because there is nothing really unfamiliar about the technology introduced, only the uses the technology is put to.

I also applaud Doctrow for giving us a group of buddies that is mixed in terms of race, eating choices and other preferences. Younger readers may not pick up on the message that different is good and this older reader hopes that this message may not even be noticed by younger readers because kids groups these days seem to becoming more diverse. The author also makes a point that the law is not always enforced equally when one of the characters speaks about who the DHS will prosecute more than others, a point that Doctrow reinforces when he describes the length of imprisonment for various people picked up by the DHS in this novel.

The book also makes a strong political statement for questioning authority and, under certain circumstances, supporting civil disobedience. Some of this is backed up with a history lesson of what the Free Speech Movement of the ‘60’s was all about and a reminder that if you don’t speak up for what you believe in, you may find you right to speak up taken away. Because of these underlying political messages, this book will no doubt be controversial in some circles.

Perhaps I am over analyzing the content of the book too much. Even if you ignore the political side of the story, it’s a great buddy story, it is a teen romance novel, it is a great hacker story and it is a great adventure story. In short, this is one great book, no matter how you approach it. The only weakly developed characters in the book are the parents, but the parents are not necessarily weak characters.

I’m giving this a full five stars. It appealed to my revolutionary side, I loved the geek appeal and I found the basic premise very realistic and possible. Some people may have problems with the politics of the story, but others will love it. ( )

Near-future sf about the consequences of a terrorist attack on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, as Homeland Security moves into the city to "protect" everyone by turning them all into suspected terrorists and watching their every move. Scary and all too realistic. ( )

Cory Doctorow is one of my favorite authors and a major activist in the world of online rights and freedoms. "Little Brother"is one of his best books yet. While it has a teenage protagonist and is marketed as a YA book, it is intelligently written and easily accessible to adults. It would make an excellent short read for anyone.

The story is of a young man who gets caught up in a terrorist attack in San Francisco. He and several friends are taken in for questioning, and one of them never returns. The city turns into a police state over the next few months, with the government tracking people's movements and activities and clamping down on protests. Rather than meekly accepting the situation, though, the teen and his friends fight back, using their technological know-how to show just how useless much of the security is against anyone but innocent citizens and exposing the government's own misdeeds.

The plot does seem a bit dated now that a new administration is in place, and at times the book does get a little heavy-handed about promoting freedom over false security. However, it still serves as a warning against the dangers of 'security theater' and the possible abuses that universal surveillance and blind patriotism can bring. In many ways, it's a virtual how-to manual for subverting the system to expose these dangers. ( )

I had been wanting to read this book ever since Scott Westerfeld mentioned it on his blog which was at least a year ago.

Anyway, I finally finished it, and I enjoyed it... but I did find that all the techie speak that was in it was over my head and I could have cared less for it. Overall I really enjoyed it, but if anyone is the least bit offended by politically charged books - you may want to take a sneak peak into it while at the bookstore or library before heading in completely.

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. ( )

1984, without the doomsaying and hopelessness. ( )

Reviewed by Jonathan Hunt (The Horn Book, July/Aug. 2008, Vol. 84, No. 4)

Reviewed by Austin Grossman (The New York Times Book Review, Sept. 14, 2008, Vol 113, No. 37)

Reviewed by April Spisak (Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, No. 2008, Vol 62, No. 3)

Reviewed by Chris Shoemaker (School Library Journal, May 2008, Vol. 54, No. 5)
'Raising pertinent questions and fostering; discussion, this techno-thriller is an out-standing first purchase.'

Reviewed by Cindy Dobrez (Booklist, Apr. 1, 2008, Vol 104, No. 15)

http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.login.ez...

Lots of action, way to close to what could be our ( at least the American's)reality given the unprecedented power given to Homeland Security in terms of detaining suspects...a good read for people into technology or those who would like a glimpse into technology's dark side...

I'm reading this in installments through DailyLit though I got the hardback free at ALA. I loved Doctorow's program, but this book is not doing it for me. The kids aren't believable teenagers and the amount of stop and explain what something means is killing me. I would have assumed that the main audience of this book would not have needed most of these explanations and they come off clunky and false. I still love him and what he's trying to do/say, but I think I'll stick to his non-fiction.eta - I gave up about a third of the way in. Too painful. ( )

Guess it's aimed at late-teeangers. An enjoyable read, but fails to fully satisfy. ( )

A great read about technology, the internal and contemporary issues. The reality of a police stat as the corruption in government. A wonderful story about abuse of revenge along with romance and a vibrant reality. AHS/LM

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. A great book that plays on the readers inner paranoia. When I finished this book I was so paranoid. I encrypted y computer and my flash drive with like five different programs and to access each program you needed to know a 50 digit password and each one had a different password. All really important things like passwords and such, I wrote it all on the tissue paper that quickly dissolves in water and I wrote it in invisible ink and always kept it on my person. Yes I went psychotic but that just shows the skill of the writer, Great for anyone regardless of your feelings towards our government. ( )

More than five stars. All young potential ACLU card-holders need to read this book. People who've dismissed the ACLU need to read it (people like me whose memberships have expired may need to get out the checkbook again). What happens when even more of our civil liberties are revoked under another PATRIOT Act plan (note the capitals, PATRIOT is an acronym, not a name)? What happens when Homeland Security imprisons US citizens? What happens when investigative journalism is halted for infotainment to air? What is it like to get your news about America from foreign sources because you want to hear an objective story (been there, done that)? What happens when an author believes so passionately about his books and about freedom of speech that he posts the entire book online in multiple download formats? Answer: a book that the adult book clubs need to read as much as the young adults for whom it was written. Learn about tech, learn about other "teen" scenes, speculate on the definition of a terrorist. Read it and think. Added benefit for the liberals: the president's advisor's initials are KR. ( )

This is a wonderful book and I would reccomend it to almost anyone! ( )