Review, Final Draft

But first, FUN FACT!! Putting two spaces between sentences is grammatically incorrect. That convention is a relic from the typewriter age of monospaced type.

Now on to the review...

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother takes place in a slightly-futuristic, slightly-dystopian San Francisco; it's a setting that is similar enough to our current reality to make the implications of a total surveillance culture all the more terrifying. A terrorist attack blows up the Bay Bridge in the first few pages of the novel, creating the permissive atmosphere required for a whole lot of very invasive security procedures, all conceived and carried out by the villainous Department of Homeland Security.

If this sounds like a familiar narrative, it's no accident: Doctorow's political agenda is apparent from the moment that 17-year-old Marcus, our protagonist, is abducted by Homeland Security and imprisoned under suspicion of terrorism. Is Marcus a terrorist? Hardly. He's an ace at hacking through his school's secure internet and evading their gait-recognition cameras. But the post-attack environment is such that everyone, it seems, is a suspect. And that's exactly what Marcus and I take issue with: under the guise of keeping us safe, our country is making criminals of us all.

He faces formidable obstacles in his quest to defend our Bill of Rights. Among them: his own father, who was spooked enough by Marcus's presumed death after the attack to find even the most Draconian measures appropriate. And Marcus does question himself along the way, particularly after he gains a huge online following and his worshipers are at risk of retribution for their "treasonous" acts. But his passion for his cause is infectious, and my reaction, as a liberal twenty-something in a discouraging political climate, is that this world could use way more Marcuses.

Little Brother is classified as a young adult novel. So how's the writing? There is a touch of that adult condescension, a not-quite grasp of kid slang that made me cringe from time to time. There is also a tendency to over-elaborate when it comes to the finer technological details of Marcus's war against his oppressors. The characters are strong for the most part, with a slight tendency toward caricature. Marcus's friends are an array of quirky young geniuses, and his girlfriend is intelligent, funny, and fiercely supportive. It's nice to get female characters that are more than peripheral admirers or untouchable beauties.

The book itself is easy to access online at no cost whatsoever. This, too, is part of Doctorow's philosophy. We learn from his impassioned introduction that he believes unfettered access to books is not only a good thing but is now simply a reality that publishers and distributors need to embrace. Sharing something that you have purchased legally - something that by every reasonable definition is now your property - is still seen by many as a criminal act, and this ties into his central theme: a society that makes criminals of all its citizens is undeniably a dysfunctional one. It's up to us to follow Marcus's example, and use our collective ingenuity to protect our freedoms and preserve common sense.