Saturday, October 4, 2008

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - ESSENTIAL


Doctorow, Cory Little Brother, 365 p. TOR, 2008.

Language: R (90+ swears, no "f"); Violence: PG-13; Sexual Content: PG-13.

HS - ESSENTIAL

San Franciscan Marcus and his friends have skipped school to get a jump on a clue-following game they play. Instead of having fun, however, they find themselves in the midst of a terrorist attack and then are swept up with hundreds of others by the local police. Marcus and his friends are treated harshly during detainment and are sworn to secrecy upon their release. Now however, the group decides to fight all of the new Department of Homeland Security restrictions using the Xnet to spread their goals. For every coup the group makes, the government pushes back, until Marcus decides its time to tell someone the truth of what happened on Treasure Island and get so help to expose the DHS tactics once and for all.

This book is absolutely fabulous. It's full of action, tension and really great computer work. Sometimes the information was a bit over my head and sometimes the author went a little far back to explain something in the narrative, but none of that stopped me from having a great time reading. Doctorow addresses the issue of national security vs personal freedom in a no-holds-barred, in-your-face story that needs to be read by everyone you know right now. Someone get this guy on The Daily Show right now!

Cindy: Library-Teacher.

1 comment:

Greg Cerveny said...

Would love to hear your comments on specific sections of Little Brother over on our Urban Monarch book club.

Check it out here:

http://www.urbanmonarch.com/category/media/book-club/