Little Brother

Austin Grossman

An entertaining thriller…Little Brother is also a practical handbook of digital self-defense. Marcus's guided tour through RFID cloners, cryptography and Bayesian math is one of the book's principal delights…Little Brother is a terrific read, but it also claims a place in the tradition of polemical science-fiction novels like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451 (with a dash of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"). It owes a more immediate debt to Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's comic book series DMZ, about the adventures of a photojournalist in the midst of a new American civil war.
—The New York Times

Mary Quattlebaum

This novel brims with new and evolving technology, which may fascinate some readers and bog down others. But the well-integrated explanations, plot twists, humor and romance between Marcus and a "h4wt" (translation: "hot") geeky babe will keep this thriller humming along even for techno-duhs. Cory Doctorow tackles timely issues, including the erosion of civil liberties in the name of national security. Hopefully, teens will pass this cautionary tale on to parents, teachers and government officials.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

SF author Doctorow (Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom), coeditor of the influential blog BoingBoing, tells a believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco, victimized first by terrorists and then by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security determined to turn the city into a virtual police state. Innocent of any wrongdoing beyond cutting school, high school student and techno-geek Marcus is arrested, illegally interrogated and humiliated by overzealous DHS personnel who also "disappear" his best friend, Darryl, along with hundreds of other U.S. citizens. Moved in part by a desire for revenge and in part by a passionate belief in the Bill of Rights, Marcus vows to drive the DHS out of his beloved city. Using the Internet and other technologies, he plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse, disrupting the government's attempts to create virtually universal electronic surveillance while recruiting other young people to his guerilla movement. Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras, arphids (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices, this work makes its admittedly didactic point within a tautly crafted fictional framework. Ages 13-up. (May)

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VOYA

AGERANGE: Ages 12 to 18.

In a tale set in San Francisco in the near future, seventeen-year-old technophile Marcus Yallow and his three friends ditch school to participate in a combination online/real-life "best game ever made," Harajuku Fun Madness. Victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, they are seized and vigorously interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security following a horrific terrorist attack. Eventually released, Marcus returns to find a paranoid society willing to forgo personal freedoms for a sense of artificial security. Outraged he uses his hacker skills and problem-solving abilities to set into motion a chain of events that initiate a series of unintended consequences. Consequently, Marcus, aka M1k3y, finds himself in the role of the reluctant leader of a hard-to-control rebellion as he struggles with broken friendships, conflicted parents, a strong-willed girlfriend, and a most uncertain future. Through the voice of his young protagonist, the author manages to explain naturally the necessary technical tools and scientific concepts in this fast-paced and well-written story. (Who would ever think that the "paradox of the false positive" could be so understandable and interesting?) The reader is privy to Marcus's gut-wrenching angst, frustration, and terror, thankfully offset by his self-awareness and humorous observations. As with "Big Brother" in George Orwell's 1984, this book will motivate the reader to contemplate free speech, due process, and political activism with new insights. Reviewer: Lynne Farrell Stover
April 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 1)

Children's Literature

Marcus believes it is another typical day in his life as a student at Cesar Chavez High School in San Francisco: outsmarting the school's computer systems; stumping the gait-recognition security cameras; evading the class bully by corrupting his cell phone with thousands of spam text messages; and escaping the confines of his classes to play Harajuku Fun Madness, an Alternate Reality Game. The game turns deadly when Marcus and his friends are caught up in the chaos of a terrorist attack, taken prisoner by the Department of Homeland Security, and interrogated for days. When he is finally released, he finds his city has been taken over by security, with everyone being monitored for suspicious activity. Determined to hold on to his civil liberties and fight back against the DHS, Marcus develops an underground Internet, and soon XNetters everywhere are uniting to protest the government's invasive spying on anyone whose ideology differs from theirs. What freedoms are people willing to sacrifice in exchange for the elusive feeling of "being safe"? While this futuristic techno-thriller explores timely and critically important themes such as privacy, the Bill of Rights, the role of government, and the imperfect nature of security systems, at its heart it is a classic adventure story about the power of the people to challenge authority and one teen's refusal to give up his rights without a fight. A sure hit with technophiles and politically-aware teens as well as those who question authority (which means almost all teens), this smartly written novel has the potential to launch powerful classroom discussions and change the way young people think about government. It should motivate all readersto take a more active role in voting and governmental accountability, while also seriously analyzing their own views about civil liberties. Reviewer: Keri Collins Lewis

KLIATT

Marcus, age 17, and his hacker friends pick the wrong day to cut school. They get caught up in the chaos following a major terrorist attack on San Francisco and are taken away by the Department of Homeland Security for heavy-handed interrogation. When Marcus is finally released, he's infuriated at how his civil rights were ignored, and even angrier to find that in the wake of the attack the DHS has turned the city into a police state, installing all kinds of invasive security devices and treating everyone as possible suspects. "No price was too high for security," the President has declared, but Marcus disagrees, and he sets out to take down the DHS, using all the subversive online tactics he and his clever friends can dream up. Suspenseful, fast-moving and crammed full of techno-talk, this tale of rebellious, freedom-loving geeks vs. repressive authority is all too believable. Doctorow is a well-known tech journalist and novelist, and Afterwords by a security technologist and an Xbox hacker from MIT reinforce the message about the importance of standing up for freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution. This updated version of 1984 will have great appeal to all the techno-types in your community. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick

School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up- When he ditches school one Friday morning, 17-year-old Marcus is hoping to get a head start on the Harajuku Fun Madness clue. But after a terrorist attack in San Francisco, he and his friends are swept up in the extralegal world of the Department of Homeland Security. After questioning that includes physical torture and psychological stress, Marcus is released, a marked man in a much darker San Francisco: a city of constant surveillance and civil-liberty forfeiture. Encouraging hackers from around the city, Marcus fights against the system while falling for one hacker in particular. Doctorow rapidly confronts issues, from civil liberties to cryptology to social justice. While his political bias is obvious, he does try to depict opposing viewpoints fairly. Those who have embraced the legislative developments since 9/11 may be horrified by his harsh take on Homeland Security, Guantánamo Bay, and the PATRIOT Act. Politics aside, Marcus is a wonderfully developed character: hyperaware of his surroundings, trying to redress past wrongs, and rebelling against authority. Teen espionage fans will appreciate the numerous gadgets made from everyday materials. One afterword by a noted cryptologist and another from an infamous hacker further reflect Doctorow's principles, and a bibliography has resources for teens interested in intellectual freedom, information access, and technology enhancements. Curious readers will also be able to visit BoingBoing, an eclectic group blog that Doctorow coedits. Raising pertinent questions and fostering discussion, this techno-thriller is an outstanding first purchase.-Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library

Kirkus Reviews

In this unapologetically didactic tribute to 1984, Marcus-known online as w1n5t0n (pronounced "Winston")-takes on the Department of Homeland Security. It's only a few years in the future, and surveillance software is everywhere. Monitored laptops track students' computer use; transit passes and automated toll systems track travel; credit-card networks track consumer purchasing. A terrorist attack on San Francisco is all the excuse the DHS needs for a crackdown, and Marcus is swept up in the random post-bombing sweeps. But where arrest and torture break 1984's Winston, they energize w1n5t0n. Released from humiliating imprisonment and determined to fight those who say that the innocent have nothing to hide, Marcus becomes the driving force behind a network of teenagers fighting the surveillance state. Long passages of beloved tech-guru Doctorow's novel are unabashedly educational, detailing the history of computing, how to use anti-surveillance software and anarchist philosophies. Yet in the midst of all this overt indoctrination, Marcus exists as a fully formed character, whose adolescent loves and political intrigues are compelling for more than just propagandistic reasons. Terrifying glimpse of the future-or the present. (Fiction. 13+)

From the Publisher

“A wonderful, important book…I’d recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I’ve read this year, and I’d want to get it into the hands of as many smart thirteen-year-olds, male and female, as I can. Because I think it’ll change lives. Because some kids, maybe just a few, won’t be the same after they’ve read it. Maybe they’ll change politically, maybe technologically. Maybe it’ll just be the first book they loved or that spoke to their inner geek. Maybe they’ll want to argue about it and disagree with it. Maybe they’ll want to open their computer and see what’s in there. I don’t know. It made me want to be thirteen again right now, and reading it for the first time.” —Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman and American Gods on Little Brother

“A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion.” --Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, on Little Brother

“A worthy younger sibling to Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary.” --Brian K. Vaughan, author of the graphic novel Y: The Last Man on Little Brother

“A tale of struggle familiar to any teenager, about those moments when you choose what your life is going to mean.” —Steven Gould, author of Jumper, on Little Brother

“A believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco … Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions… within a tautly crafted fictional framework.” -Publishers Weekly starred review on Little Brother (Featured in PW Children’s e-newsletter)

“Readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution … Buy multiple copies; this book will be h4wt (that’s ‘hot,’ for the nonhackers).” -Booklist starred review on Little Brother (Selected as a Booklist “Review of the Day”)

“Marcus is a wonderfully developed character: hyperaware of his surroundings, trying to redress past wrongs, and rebelling against authority … Raising pertinent questions and fostering discussion, this techno-thriller is an outstanding first purchase.” -School Library Journal starred review on Little Brother

"Little Brother is generally awesome in the more vernacular sense: It's pretty freaking cool ... a fluid, instantly ingratiating fiction writer ... he's also terrific at finding the human aura shimmering around technology." -The Los Angeles Times on Little Brother

"Scarily realistic…Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile's civil protest." --Andrew “bunnie” Huang, author of Hacking the Xbox, on Little Brother

"The right book at the right time from the right author--and, not entirely coincidentally, Cory Doctorow's best novel yet." --John Scalzi, bestselling author of Old Man’s War, on Little Brother

“I was completely hooked in the first few minutes. Great work.” --Mitch Kapor, inventor of Lotus 1-2-3 and co-founder of the EFF, on Little Brother

“Little Brother is a brilliant novel with a bold argument: hackers and gamers might just be our country's best hope for the future.” --Jane McGonigal, designer of the alternate-reality game I Love Bees on Little Brother

“Little Brother sounds an optimistic warning. It extrapolates from current events to remind us of the ever-growing threats to liberty. But it also notes that liberty ultimately resides in our individual attitudes and actions. In our increasingly authoritarian world, I especially hope that teenagers and young adults will read it—and then persuade their peers, parents and teachers to follow suit.” —Dan Gillmor, technology journalist, author of We the Media on Little Brother

“It’s about growing up in the near future where things have kept going on the way they’ve been going, and it’s about hacking as a habit of mind, but mostly it’s about growing up and changing and looking at the world and asking what you can do about that. The teenage voice is pitch-perfect. I couldn’t put it down, and I loved it.” —Jo Walton, author of Farthing on Little Brother

“Read this book. You’ll learn a great deal about computer security, surveillance and how to counter it, and the risk of trading off freedom for ‘security.’ And you’ll have fun doing it.” —Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media on Little Brother

“I know many science fiction writers engaged in the cyber-world, but Cory Doctorow is a native…We should all hope and trust that our culture has the guts and moxie to follow this guy. He’s got a lot to tell us.” --Bruce Sterling

“Cory Doctorow doesn't just write about the future--I think he lives there.” --Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen

“Doctorow throws off cool ideas the way champagne generates bubbles...[he] definitely has the goods.” --San Francisco Chronicle

“Doctorow is one of sci-fi's most exciting young writers.” --Cargo Magazine