Little Brother

I loved it. Personally I would have preferred slightly less of the technology explanations and history lessons but maybe that's just because most of it was not new to me. That's really the only reason I didn't give it five stars. Moving on to Homeland straight away. ( )

Sentence description: Teen hacker is abused by the Department of Homeland Security in a near future San Francisco, and proceeds to fights back against the suppression of freedom and government-generated fear that follows a devastating terrorist attack on the city.

I am glad I read (actually, listened to) this book. I am not sure I would say I enjoyed it, completely, but I don't think I was meant to. I did find it frightening. I would find myself going to look at the news and half-expecting to see accounts of the crazy stuff going on in SF. It felt real to me, and believable.

And also, quite often very funny, and informative. I'm a geeky person and a gamer myself so I loved the asides into the games (even LARP!) and technology (especially cause it pretty much all really exists out there!) and gaming and geek culture. I laughed out loud when the main characters used the phrase "a maze of twisty passages, all alike" at one point and loved that one of the critical climactic scenes involved hundreds of people dressing up as vampires and playing a giant vampire game in the middle of the city.

The DHS is portrayed as being pretty much caricatures of evil bullies getting off on power, and there's no time for exploration of any other reason why they might be doing what they are doing. I would have liked to have seen that delved into further, but I admit it's probably outside the scope of this book. I did appreciate, however, the range of reactions we see in the main character's father and friends and schoolmates. Some embrace the curtailment of freedom in the hope it will bring safety, others just look away, still others want to fight but just can't do it.

I have to add a note on the audio-version here: I found the reading a bit odd and stilted in places -- perhaps this is a function of the abundance of IMs and emails and technotalk in the book.

So to sum up, this isn't a light gentle books to entertain, and I suspect it's best for more mature readers due to the amount of "adult content", but for the right reader, this is a book that will linger for a long time.

I was in high school when 9/11 happened, and this book resonated with me in a very personal way. I remember, like the protagonist, being horrified at what was happening to the country, and feeling alone in that sentiment.

And of course, being a Cory Doctorow novel, this book is full of kickass heroes and references to cool real things. ( )

RGG: Amazingly believable story of a teenager who, using technology, organizes a populist rebellion against a homeland security organization who removes personal liberties after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Scary, exciting, fascinating. Reading Level: YA.

RGG: Amazingly believable story of a teenager who, using technology, organizes a populist rebellion against a homeland security organization who removes personal liberties after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Scary, exciting, fascinating. Reading Level: YA.