|  | Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tor Teen
List Price: $17.95
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Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 11806
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0765319853
EAN: 9780765319852
ASIN: 0765319853
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 6-10 of 142
 It went on and on. And on. October 6, 2009
Miss Print (NYC)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I don't know what I was expecting when I opened Little Brother (2008) by Cory Doctorow. What I do know is that those expectations were largely colored by Doctorow's appearances in various web-comic-strips on XKCD as a red cape wearing blogger who flies around in a hot air balloon.
Anyway, Marcus Yallow is a senior in San Francisco in the near future. He goes to Cesar Chavez High School which makes him one of the most surveilled people in the world. There's a terrorist attack, he's held captive in a Guantanamo Bay-esque prison, he's released and then he decides to use his hacker skillz to get even and reclaim his city from the sinister clutches of Homeland Security.
And as action-packed as that sounds, the book never became more than a mildly interesting bit of tedious reading for me.
I'm fairly tech savvy, and I do worry about privacy and the like, but after finishing Little Brother the only piece of tech-related advice I retained from the story was that crypto is really awesome. Doctorow tries to embed useful information into the story, but it is either too basic to be interesting or too specialized and esoteric to make sense.
I'm not a teenager and I come from a liberal household and I was living in Greenwich Village during 9/11. I found it irritating that Doctorow's character's seemed to operate in a very binary way. Young people (for the most part) opposed the Department of Homeland Security while older people (for the most part) blithely accepted martial law. Really?
Finally, the real reason I disliked this book is that it just was not well put together. With all due respect to the importance of this novel's subject matter, the writing was far from impressing. The descriptions of technology were almost always too long (and often too technical) to be seamlessly integrated into a novel.
The novel's continuity verged on non-existent. For instance, Marcus makes a point of mentioning in the early pages that he is wearing boots for easy removal at metal detectors. Yet when he is released he receives his sneakers back with clean clothes. The core of the story--about Marcus' missing friend--is left hanging for vast spans of the plot. Doctorow is at pains to create a core group for Marcus only to have them all removed from the story by the halfway point and then haphazardly mentioned in a rushed ending.
Marcus was also a bit annoying as a narrator--particularly when in the company of his girlfriend. Realistic depictions of teens aside, I was hoping for a bit more from characters (teen or otherwise) in a novel which is grounded in such extraordinary circumstances.
Black and White versus the Continuum September 2, 2009
Walt Eddy (Layton, Utah)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Making Expression Less Taxing: A Freelancer's Tax ResourceIf you haven't read Cory Doctorow's novel, LITTLE BROTHER, you should. It's fast-paced, entertaining --- as in, gauged for those with mild to serious attention deficit disorder --- and it tries to address at least one serious topic: the right to privacy in the United States. As far as a good read over against a good watch, it reminds me of an episode --- perhaps several episodes --- of the television series 24 with Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). It has that verve, that sense of impending disaster, and that sense of this is right and that is wrong.
On the other hand, it doesn't seem to have much gray matter (double entendre intended), including the necessity to negotiate or compromise very much of anything or to see issues along continuums. Of course, to do so would slow things down and make them more cumbersome to read. You would really have to think then, to sort things out as you read along. As it stands, you have to do that after you complete the book, which is okay, but....
The book seems... immature, like both its protagonist, Marcus Yallow, a seventeen-year-old who wants to be a man, but he is never more than halfway there, and its antagonist, the Division of Homeland Security, which Doctorow has acting like a two-year-old most of the time. The setting is the California Bay Area --- mostly San Francisco and the East Bay. The time period is contemporary and into the immediate future, in the aftermath of 9/11 and after President George W. Bush and his cohorts, especially Dick Cheney, have established fear as an element of public policy through Congress's enactment of the Patriot Act. Marcus is a nerd of the first class order, living out his dream as the hero in gaming communities and in all things digital, especially in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, the kind that pisses himself in a crisis and chooses a girlfriend for sex rather than good judgment and brains. A lot like some teenagers, but not all.
Did I enjoy the read? I did. Will I read more Doctorow? Probably. What would I hope for in something new? A little more depth, a little more exploration, a little more analysis of the complexities of issues rather than some icky black and white nonsense. On the other hand, that might slow things and make for a less intense experience. Oh well. Like Umberto Echo says, the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.
It could happen! August 29, 2009
J. McIntyre (Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An excellent book, very timely setting, scary as heck, because most of it could happen, and some probably has. Anyone interested in the manipulation of computers, the inner workings of bureaucracy, and the "secret life of teenagers".
A young adult book, but very readable for grown ups.
 Ayn Rand's style, remixed for fourteen year olds August 20, 2009
A. Marks (East Coast, United States)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Before discussing this book, one thing must be established up front: it is polemic, not literary. That being said, polemic fiction must justify itself as fiction, and this book does not. It is simply neither compelling nor believable with shallow, annoying characters. The "good" characters are at best two dimensional and do not talk; they preach. Constantly. As far as the "bad" characters go, one can cut to the point by saying they are caricatures, not characters. In fact, the only character with any gray in him at all is Cory's father, who makes a few cameos to act as an everyman. Unfortunately, his responses are so exaggerated and extreme that they don't come close to passing the laugh test.
As bad as the characters are, the plot is where the book really fails to shine. It reads like a techno-libertarian spin off of Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Just mix one part over-the-top, exaggerated plot with two parts pretension, and you've got this book down. If this sounds too harsh, consider the book's premise: A terrorist attack in San Fransisco, creates a panic in which a teenage boy is stabbed, and when his friends try to waive down a passing army vehicle, they're all arrested and thrown in an Abu Ghraib on Alcatraz, only to be released when the protagonist yields the codes to his phone. The protagonist then organizes an underground to use technology to overcome the evils of Homeland Security. Here's the punchline: this all happened to him because he didn't unlock his phone when the government agents first asked, and they want to show him who's boss. Combine all of this with ridiculously over-the-top characterizations of Homeland Security agents taking unbelievable measures, and you'll have the measure of this book. All in all, this reduces to the Randian proof-by-hyperbole. It didn't work for her, and I don't see why it should work now.
Now take all of the above, mix in a little teen aged angst (which he actually writes fairly well), and you'll have Little Brother.
Sadly Disappointed August 8, 2009
N. Loufas (San Francisco, CA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a naitive of San Fran I was excited to read this book. But very disappointed by the inaccuracy of some neighborhood stereotypes. I felt like the author was just spewing personal resentment towards the city in explaining the dynamics of various city neighborhoods - most of which I've personally lived in. I also felt that the characters did not embody the neighborhoods they lived in. If you are going to brow-beat a description of a place, at least have the characters represent their hoods properly.
Aside from that....the story was very interseting too bad the writing itself was mediocre. The under development of characters, the lack of appeal to Marcus was a great disappointment. You want to like the kid, you want to see him win but the author gave you no real reason to care. *SPOILER* When the kids are released from Gitmo-by-the-bay they casually share a meal at a curbside restaurant in North Beach??? WTF? Marcus talks about getting even right from the jump, then acts completely paranoid when faced with the chance to do so. Plus the "torture" really wasn't anything to keep you up at night. Any 4 year old can tell you that pissing your pants isn't really that big a deal. I wish the author was a bit more creative with the events that took place during the imprisonment.
As another review mentioned, the story is very black and white and you can see the plot coming from a mile away. I often wondered how this guy was even published. He must have an awesome web of trust that knows some people that know some people. Making the hip reporter from the Guardian didn't hurt either.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 142
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