Little Brother

Written by Cory Doctorow

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” 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 that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 29, 2008
• ISBN: 9780739372869

Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, a Big Tech disassembly manual; Red Team Blues, a science fiction crime thriller; Chokepoint Capitalism, non-fiction about monopoly and creative labour markets; the Little Brother series for young adults; In Real Life, a graphic novel; and the picture book Poesy the Monster Slayer. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Reviews for Little Brother

[Laura Gail Grohe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Engaging, smart storytelling at its best! I've read this book twice, and it still pulls me into its (very similar) world.

[word.owl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A YA novel about Marcus Yallow, a 17-year-old hacker, and the movement he starts against the Department of Homeland Security after being an innocent bystander near a terrorist attack in San Francisco lands him and his friends in jail without due process. Oh yeah, and also they torture him. "Enhanced interrogation," anyone?

Overall, I liked the book. It had a heavy-handed message, but an important one—not to just roll over and let a tyrannical government step on you. I remember the days after 9-11... especially how the TSA got worse and worse over the years until the x-ray backscatter scanners came into the airports. I don't travel much, so I only had to go through one once, but it still felt like being violated. I wish I had requested a pat-down, but I was too scared. That is tyranny right there!

The book had too much info-dumping, but since I found most of the techie info interesting it wasn't too bad.

Stuff I liked:

-The paradox of the false positive (i.e. if a system isn't accurate enough to pinpoint the real percentage of actual positive results, such as whether a person is a terrorist, then it will return so many false positives as to be completely useless). Although not mentioned in the book, airport scanners are a case-in-point—they don't make anybody safer and they don't catch terrorists.

-The stress on the fact that brown people get arrested more than white people. It was an important point to see in a YA novel.

-The Declaration of Independence quote about people having the right to “alter or abolish” any government that ceases to derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Yes.

-This quote: “No one wants to look at a street kid, because if you meet his eye, he might ask you for some spare change. I'd walked around Oakland all afternoon and the only people who'd spoken to me were a Jehovah's Witness and a Scientologist, both trying to convert me. It felt gross, like being hit on by a pervert.” As a former-agnostic-turned Christian, this resonated with me. Yes. Sharing faith is not about trying to take over someone's mind. It's about how your faith affects you and helps you to be a better person who can form relationships with other people and care for them. If they like your faith too because of that, cool. If they don't like it, cool. It's not what your friendship is about.

-This quote: “I ate another bite. Actually, Domino's pizza sucked a little less when you got it for free.” Haha! Yes! It's always sucked! I wonder if he got sued by Domino's for writing that.

-And this one: “It was practically illegal just to think impure thoughts about the government.” Indeed—pretty funny!

Stuff I didn't like:

-The casual mention of underage drinking and drug use, although I can respect Marcus' taste in cocktails. I drank before I was 21, so I'd be a hypocrite if I picked on that too much. Still, not good to treat it so casually.

-The concert. Doctorow almost lost me there. Even as a teen, I never liked large loud gatherings. I've never smoked anything in my life or had drugs other than alcohol. Maybe I was already “over 25” mentally when I was still 17. So when I see quotes like this: “Some young kids were there, ten or twelve, and that made me feel better. No one would do anything too stupid with kids that little in the crowd.” followed later by these: the evening “reeked of perspiration and pot smoke,” and Marcus and Ange starting to get pretty hot and heavy right on the edge of the crowd, I'm not surprised that the DHS was able to get the newspapers to spin it into “a drunken, druggy orgy of kids who'd attacked the cops.” Sure, they didn't attack the cops; the cops attacked them. It still sounded kind of like a “druggy orgy” to me, though.

I thought the kids were being pretty dumb, but later Marcus realized that he should have trusted the adults around him earlier: “I need to solve the problem by telling what I know. I should have walked straight out of their custody and to Darryl's father's house and told him what I knew.” The ways in which Marcus grew over the course of the story made the earlier part a lot more palatable. Plus, let's face it—kids do stupid stuff. I did stupid stuff as a teen. In that way, the characters felt real to me.

-I didn't understand everything about the video that Masha sent to Marcus. The quote from it didn't make it clear to me what was going on, then later it's referred to as the video “where the President's Chief of Staff gloated at the attacks on San Francisco and admitted that he knew when and where the next attacks would happen and that he wouldn't stop them because they'd help his man get reelected.” I went back and looked at the original section where it mentions the video's content, and still didn't catch on to the latter part of that. However, since the attack in the book reminded me of 9-11 (although 9-11 was a separate event in the book's world), this second quote about the video smacked a bit of 9-11 conspiracy-theory-type craziness. Ick.

-The worship of all things countercultural annoyed me. While I came away with a new, slight interest in reading Kerouac, I'm not a person who believes that just being anti-government and against “the man” or “the system” or whatever is going to save the world. We do need some kind of system in order to have a functioning society, a thought with which Doctorow would seem to agree in his theme but not as much in the way his characters idolize the hippie movement. There is some nuance lacking there. This is kind of part of the same reason why the concert annoyed me. It felt like "Be countercultural, because 'the man' is bad and drugs are harmless and awesome and if you join us you too can be anti-stuff."

I won't deny that groups of people can get a lot done—people do need to work together to accomplish change. Still, there is a danger in thinking or doing anything just because other similar people are thinking and doing it. Kids like Marcus are critical of the people around them who just go along with the authorities, but being anti-government or anarchist can become its own “thing” to belong to just as easily.

I am still sorting through in my own life how to choose what to stand up for, because yes, some things are important. As a librarian and a thinking person, though, I also think it's important to question everything and continually develop my opinions and beliefs—and not to identify with any kind of group unless I believe that the good that can come from doing that outweighs the harm. Individuals can be smart, but groups are often stupid.

[spoko_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read this with my son, and really enjoyed it. Doctorow does a good job laying out issues of intellectual freedom (and just basic freedom, really) without getting too deep into exposition & preaching. There are some moments of that, which can be a bit jarring, but for the most part they're worked into the story well enough. It was a valuable read, especially for its teenage target audience.

ETA: Just read it a second time (with my daughter, following 1984) and, wow, did the didactics and paternalism bother me a lot more this time. The story is interesting enough, but I really could have done without the lectures on everything from Linux to Scoville units to urban planning.

[nclithing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't put this book down. It was a one night read, and not because it was easy, but because the book was so real, so likely, that it scared me into the next page. Doctorow comes down hard on the liberal side of homeland security issues, and while that can no doubt throw some more conservative readers, you can't deny the skill with which Doctorow can construct situations. Instead of being completely character driven, like most YA novels, Doctorow constructs a political situation and then draws parallels between the events in his novels and those of the past--and maybe the future. A must read for this year.

[treebeard_404 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[adastra-390400 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[dabble58 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. For a book about a lot of computer technicalities, this one has heart, humour and even the littlest bit of sex (safe, of course). The topic is completely appropriate for today- there is a terrorist attack on San Francisco and the government uses it as an excuse to move in and remove civil rights. Everyone gets followed, everywhere, through the little electronic tags we are in actuality already carrying around. Menacing "Homeland Security" people move in; people start vanishing. But what is really going on? Who is behind the government aggression? How can anyone stop it?
A seventeen year old computer whiz kid who has memorized the Declaration of Independence has some ideas that he puts into action...
Excellent. I'm not a fan of fiction where all the techniques are explained (exhausting) but Cory Doctorow makes it interesting and easy to understand. Everyone in the US should read this book now, while you still can.

[zot79-720973 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an absolutely fantastic book. Yes, it's YA (whatever that is), but it doesn't talk down to its audience. Yes, it's sort of science fiction, but more like 10 minutes into the future than 10 centuries. What it mostly is about is fear and civil rights and personal responsibility. But for all of that, it's a very strong, personal story with plenty of action, adventure, and suspense.

The Little Brother of the title is Marcus Yallow, a high-school senior in San Francisco who's more into all of his techno-life and gaming and friends than worrying about girls or his ultimate future. He's already masterminding how to get around the surveillance techniques set up at his school and the city in the wake of 9/11, which are more than we've actually seen so far but are really just one step further than that. Then another terrorist attack strikes his city and he's caught up in the heavy-handed search for the perpetrators and winds up on the wrong side of the law. Now he must use all of his tech skills and learn some new ones to remain free while fighting back against what he sees as tyrannical oppression.

There are a few spots where the author, in the voice of first-person narrator Marcus, decides to explain the technology and it went on a bit longer than I found necessary. For others, these passages will be either a welcome clarification or completely skippable. Other than that, I can't recommend this book too highly as a timely commentary on a subject that affects everyone.

[endolith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kind of amateurish writing (though I guess it's being written by a teenager), and unrealistic characters and plot.

"I danced until I was so tired I couldn't dance another step. Ange danced alongside of me. Technically, we were rubbing our sweaty bodies against each other for several hours, but believe it or not, I totally wasn't being a horn-dog about it."

"Every night since the party, I'd gone to bed thinking of two things: the sight of the crowd charging the police lines and the feeling of the side of her breast under her shirt as we leaned against the pillar. She was amazing. I'd never been with a girl as...aggressive as her before. It had always been me putting the moves on and them pushing me away. I got the feeling that Ange was as much of a horn-dog as I was. It was a tantalizing notion."

"Ange nuzzled me a little and I kissed her and we necked. Something about the danger and the pact to go together -- it made me forget the awkwardness of having sex, made me freaking horny as hell."

Lots of cryptonerd free software worship stuff, which is annoying. Every Linux fanatic's silly fantasy.

I felt a bit choked up and/or defiant at parts, like the rescue scene, so that's good, at least.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have just started to read Cory Doctorow's books. This book made it onto the CBC 100 Young Adult Books That Make me Proud to be Canadian list so I figured it was one I needed to read. I am still woefully deficient in my YA reads probably because I thought they wouldn't be as challenging for an adult reader. This book proves that I was certainly wrong about that.

Four high school students, Marcus, Darryl, Vanessa (Van), and Jose Luis (JoLu), meet up in downtown San Francisco to play an alternate reality game that involves finding clues before other teams find them. Just as they are about to start they hear loud explosions resulting from a terrorist attack on a bridge and the subway system. The Department of Home Security quickly rolls into action and the foursome are detained on suspicion of terrorism. Darryl was wounded while the group escaped during a melee in the BART system and he was taken to a separate holding system. Marcus initially refused to provide the password for his cell phone incurring the wrath of the DHS investigators. It was five days before Marcus, Van and JoLu were released. They agreed they would not tell their parents they had been held for questioning; instead they told them they had been on the other side of the Bay and had to stay in a makeshift refugee camp for that period. Marcus is determined to find out what happened to Darryl but the DHS is running surveillance on communications and traffic and almost every public location. Even the classrooms in schools are fitted with cameras. Marcus devises an alternate internet system using X-boxes (which I don't pretend to understand) and cryptography which is almost immune to the DHS spying. He spreads this out to friends and gamers that he feels are trustworthy but there are still risks he will be caught. And now there are rumours that people charged with terrorism will be sent overseas to some place like Syria and never heard from again. Marcus and his buddies are certainly playing a high stakes game. Life is not all covert operations though; Marcus has attracted a like-minded girlfriend, Ange, and there are some sweet moments of teenage love and lust.

When this book came out in 2008 it was criticized as having serious themes that weren't appropriate for young adult audiences. A high school principal in Florida pulled the book from the curriculum in 2014 because it presented questioning authority as a good thing. Perhaps in response Doctorow has kept the book on his website as open source, meaning it can be read for free by anyone (or at least anyone with internet access). High school seems to me like a very appropriate time to challenge students with the question of when is it appropriate to question authority. It's a conundrum people face often as they head out into the workforce.

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Terrific book, try it out you can download it for free from his site.

[fulner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book a lot, but I am not sure how good it is, if that makes much sense. There is a lot of explaining about how free software and cryptography works intertangled with techno-libertarian propaganda mixed in with the dystopian tale. Most of that was old hat for me. I would want one of my non-technical friends to read it and let me know wether that stuff was informative or boring or something else.

Plot wise a group of teenage LARPers get stuck in a terrorist attack and then DHS takes then into custody. It was dirty and scary. The story mixed in adventure, freedom, and high school romance. If that sounds good go for it.

[jayeless-698797 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So this is a pretty interesting book, but it's one of those "political argument in novel form" books that I always hold to a higher standard.

The annoying thing about this book is that Marcus never actually does anything productive. Everything he does is defensive, which is valid to a certain extent, but you're never going to change the world by adamantly insisting it stay as it is. Throughout most of the book, he had no strategy to end the DHS's reign of terror. He just had strategies to hold them back for a while, and then they'd crack his defenses, and push him back. This, relentlessly. His "victory" at the end was far too neat and tidy. And the "moral of the story" that people should just get out and vote? Barf. The leaks over the last couple of months have proved that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans on this front. What is voting going to do?! Nothing, absent a huge struggle that seriously affects the economy.

As a novel it was a good read, though. And I can't fault it on actually understanding modern technology, which sets out apart from many other novels! So I mean, it was alright (especially since you can get it for free), but not really, REALLY good.

[vokram-944968 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Although this book was written in 2008, it is still very relevant. Perhaps even more so with the current rise of authoritarianism around the world. Little Brother follows the story of a young man caught in a terrorist explosion in San Francisco in the near future. The story has aged okay, though there were a few things that haven't. For instance, Amazon is mentioned as the bookstore of the future, which it has been, but with its current monopolistic tendencies, I'm not sure Mr. Doctorow would be singing its praises quite so hard in today's world. In the book, a group of high schoolers rebels against governmental overreach in sanfran in the aftermath of the bombing. They use a variety of creative hacks to subvert harsh security measures that are instituted in the name of safety.
There is a lot of action and decent characterization and the story flows mostly smoothly. There are slight stutters when the author stops to explain innumerable security concepts, most of which are fascinating but also necessary to understand the actions of the characters. There is a slight feeling of a primer on op-sec to the whole story, more of which most Americans could use.
A couple of other notes on this particular edition- each chapter is preceded by an ode to various bookshops Mr. Doctorow has visited (and maybe a couple he worked at?) and it's quite sad to see that several of them have gone out of business or are in the process of doing so. Also, there is an interesting prologue in which he discusses piracy as it relates to books (and to a lesser extent other media, primarily music) in which he states that for most authors the main problem isn't the number of readers that are pirating a book, but that for most authors even getting the book into readers hands is a difficult proposition. Book pirates are, in the end, readers, and isn't that what matters? He likens it to making a mix tape or loaning a book to a friend or going to the library (there's revenue associated with this one, but you know what I mean). I'm not advocating one way or another, but I sure wish you could get an electronic copy of hardback books that you purchase. Additionally, there are two appendices from security professionals where a lot of the novels' points are succinctly advocated for. One of them is Bruce Schneier who is a security god and I recommend that you read him if you want to up your personal security game.
Upon re-reading this novel, I find that it still stands up to the test of time and recommend it to anyone looking for an action-packed YA novel, or anyone interested in seeing civil disobedience writ large.

[amandabock-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because his mom is referred to as both Louise and Lillian on the same page. And his hair kept changing lengths. But other than that, I thought it was FANTASTIC. Make me never want to buy anything with a credit card ever again. Especially my T pass.

[slmr4242 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A little heavy handed with the ideals and education at times, but a great read nonetheless.

[malexmave · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Whew. I only wanted to take a peek into the book, then put it away until the evening. Now, some eight hours later, I have read through the whole book and, what can I say, it was well worth the time.

The story is easy and interesting to read, while still being scary as hell. When contrasting what I was reading in the book with our situation today, I'd say that, if we are not careful, we may reach that level of pervasiveness of surveillance within five years, if we haven't done so already.

Taken on its own, the story would be a 4.5-Star for me. It is interesting, funny, scary, and gripping, all at the same time. The final 0.5 stars come from the ebook being released under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY-NC-SA), meaning it is free (as in beer, and speech) to download and read. Also, the Introduction, Afterwords, and Bibliography are great as well, and I greatly respect the author (hey, no one said I was being objective in rating this book).

If I had to leave you with a single sentence about this book, it would be "read it!". I'm going to buy a few copies, keep one and give the others away. This book, while not as openly depressing as 1984, is something everyone should have read at least once.

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this one on my palm - which was kind of annoying. I should've just gotten the book from the library! Anyway, it was an entertaining YA adventure created to expound on the author's interests - right to privacy vs. government abuses and some hacking. The characters were a little flat, but the story was fun and interesting.

[andrlik · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I get that this book is being treated well because it is so topical, and I love the kinds of thinking it's presenting.

That being said, the book fails to build any tension and reads like Cory Doctorow is lecturing you the whole time. If you're somewhat tech savvy, that means he's lecturing you on stuff you already know. However, this book is meant for adolescents, and I guess that makes sense. Hopefully it will move kids to be more interested in privacy and liberty, which in this day in age means understanding how technology works and making it work for you.

One layout thing: it is cool that he dedicates each chapter to a different bookstore, but his dedications are at length, so it takes you completely out of the story.

[zoewashburne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After finishing this book I was convinced that I could and should be a hacker. Technobabble = Awesome. Too bad almost all of the characters were straight boring.

[themjrawr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book. THIS BOOK, YOU GUYS! So awesome. Also a bit of an uneasy and unsettling read. Hits close to home, and easy to see how things could go that way. But it's fantastic, I could not tear through it quickly enough.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slow to start. I read the first two chapters very haltingly - pick it up, put it down, stare at it for a few days. Try again. About halfway through the book I decided it was a trainwreck - terrible...but fascinating at the same time. It wasn't until the end where I genuinely liked it and was intrigued and cared about how it ended.

[scolgo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A quick & easy read. A bit heavy-handed with the anti-government rhetoric - but that's easily forgiven as it is the point of the story. The characters, while not strongly rendered, are fun to follow on their (mis)adventures and the technical jargon is not too overwhelming. Truthfully, I'm a computer person so the explanations of things like cryptography and coding were familiar ground. Anyone not versed in these things might find those sections boring or confusing, although I think the breakdowns were straight-forward enough for anyone to understand - if perhaps somewhat unnecessary to the storyline.

Though rather clumsily handled at times, I did enjoy Doctorow's use of Socratic style conversations between characters to argue both sides of the issues presented in the book. Marcus' father was a fun foil that helped bring out both sides of the public safety vs. privacy intrusions issue. On the other hand, Marcus's classmate Charles, was just too hiss-able of an adversary to be believable. Still, the sheer geekiness of the tale was fun to experience.

[jmkemp-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've been following Cory Doctorow for a while, and this has been sitting on my shelves waiting to make it to the top of the list. I'm very happy that it finally made it to the top of the reading pile as it was a quick and easy read that I enjoyed.

The premise is that the terrorists have won, because the securuty state that they have spawned has stolen away all our freedoms. This tale is told through the eyes of a tech savvy 17 year old who works the system to get out of school and play a game with his friends. However they end up in the wrong place when there is a real terrorist attack, and in trying to help their injured friend against the flow of the emergency responders they end up in the Department of Homeland Security's dragnet.

The story plays out how the powers can ruin people's lives, simply because they are in the wrong place, and they refuse to conform because they are strong in their belief in their own innocence and the ideals of freedom. It is written for a young adult audience, and some of this plays out in the plotting. The teenagers eventually prevail over The Man, although there is some very subtle assistance from a veteran investigative journalist (which are themselves very rare these days).

It was interesting mostly because as well as being a story it is also the kernel of a howto protect yourself from internet surveillance. It is only a little out of date, but all the techniques mentioned would still work today.

Well worth reading.

[troyka-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Im not the target demographic for this book but i loved it and recomend it to Young people i wortk with. A great boot for YA and you.

[ethanlu121 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An wonderful warning of what could happen should the government disregard privacy.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had never heard of this book before reading it for the coursera SF and F class--so I was shocked to find it my favorite book of the class.

It's YA, but this is high school YA, not middle school.

Fascinating, and I wish I could get my high schooler to read it. After the Bay Bridge is bombed, the DHS goes into SF and begins instituting "surveillance to catch terrorists". Really, they are catching anyone they can and accusing them of being terrorists. High school hackers work to undermine and then expose their methods, lies, and their secret prison on Treasure Island.

Would also be a great book for classroom discussion.

[aviskase · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My personal rating is 2 / 5. But this book has certain qualities that for other readers will be important, so overall is 4 / 5.

I have several problems with this book. First, it has too much tech explanation. For those who are acquainted with this tech -- it's rather boring reading. I would prefer smoother narration with footnotes or appendices.
Second problem is too much localisation on San Francisco. It was great to read about this city -- I've never been to the USA -- but it was getting in the way of the main idea. The main idea, as I see it, is like freedom manifesto. To show people that government are ruthless is terrifying their own people. To show that people can struggle and organise themselves with tech. And in my view, this idea should not be localised, because this struggle is universal and international. Maybe I'm not right, maybe it was the idea to show how great and political San Francisco is. But I doubt it.

Thus, I see this book as three separate and not very well fitted together: Freedom manifesto, tech manual, and book about San Francisco. Nevertheless, the idea is great and it will be awesome if more non-tech people will read it.

[rosa.mill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book did what all good dystopias should do. It scared the crap out of me. Everything the author wrote about just sounded so completely plausible and doable with modern day technology. Especially considering the bill that is making it's way through congress right now that would allow companies to basically monitor our internet. Marcus is a smart tech savy kid who knows his way around electronics. A combination of being able to do things with a computer that a lot of adults aren't capable of much less wrap their head around and being in the wrong place at the wrong time gets Marcus and his friends picked up and kept by the Department of Homeland Security the day of a terrorist attack. His experiences make him decide to fight back. Sometimes the things Marcus does exacerbate the problem, and you can definitely feel his frustration when things he says, does and sets up are misinterpreted and/or go wrong.

The reason this book is so good and so frightening is that unlike other dystopia's I've read, this doesn't take place in the future, it takes place right now. A lot of the technology that the government uses to turn San Francisco into a police state is similar to tech that we use, available and being used in innocuous ways now. The whole thing just sounds so feasible, like it would be so easy for the government to pull of now. Granted I'm not super tech savy so I could be totally wrong, but still the book makes me think which is really the point. This is one of those books I think everyone should read, even if only to get a different perspective on things and to learn to be more aware of what's going on.

[jimrgill · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Whether intentionally or not (and I suspect that it was intentional), the title of Doctorow’s novel calls to mind the unseen but omnipresent governmental hawkeye of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. This is, of course, quite a bold allusion for an author to make, and while Little Brother tells the tale of a hacker teenager from San Francisco named Marcus and his unwarranted imprisonment and subsequent torture at the hands of a government agency that oversteps its power, the book falls short of approaching the pervasive sense of paranoia and social horror that Orwell’s novel evokes to this day.

As a Young Adult novel, Little Brother fits the niche—Marcus is an adolescent protagonist facing many of the challenges of urban teenagers. He deals with authoritative school administrators, a school bully, problematic friends, the uncertainty of teenage romance, and the numerous other rites of passage encountered in many YA novels. What makes this story unique is Marcus’ techno-battle with the Department of Homeland Security, which despotically treats Marcus—and many other innocent citizens, including his friends—as a suspected terrorist after an attack on the Oakland Bay Bridge.

I suspect, however, that many young adults will grow tired of the sometimes lengthy and detailed explanations of Internet technology and security systems that are peppered throughout the narrative. These disquisitions on the nuts and bolts of technology are sometimes clunky, despite Doctorow’s best efforts, and they sometimes bring the narrative action to a standstill. For this reason, the novel may appeal only to the small subculture of adolescent techies who are excited by hacking (which Doctorow goes to great lengths to advocate as a way to ensure freedom and safety).