Book Review, Cory Doctorow, Fiction, Little Brother, SephiPiderWitch

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

downloadI got this book as a present from my son who felt I would enjoy it given our similar feelings on the over reaching of the government and NSA encroachments.  I have to admit that I was very much hesitant to read this book given that the last time my son told me about one of the best books he had ever read, it was Crooked Little Vein.  I am sure he is still snickering about luring me into reading that one.  Thankfully, this book is in a totally different realm, so I shan’t need nearly as much therapy to get over it. Little Brother is an excellent book about what happens when the government gets out of hand and dismisses the people’s bill of rights.  Not too far removed from so very much of what we see happening in the world right now with the NSA and other government agencies that have been allowed to sidestep personal privacy and encroach on people’s lives. The story is told through the eyes of a group of high school kids who are playing a game and are in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bomb blows up the Bay Bridge.  They wind up in the hands of Homeland Security on Treasure Island where they are interrogated for days with methods that are barbaric and criminal.  When they are finally release, they are given threats of what will happen to them if they speak to anyone of what happened to them. Through Marcus’ eyes, you watch the transformation in the adults in his life as they find ways to accept and cope with the loss of freedom  they are subjected to as their city becomes a police state run by Homeland Security.  Marcus and his friends decide to wage an electronic war with the government and it becomes a cat and mouse game throughout. Its a good story and one that needs to be told and needs even more to be read.  The biggest problem I have with it is that it is written to the young gamers and computer geeks.  Though he does try at times to explain the geek speak in many of the areas, it takes up a very large chunk of the novel and will cost him the readership of many people that don’t share the vocabulary and interest in such things as role playing games and such.  If his goal is just for the crowd that understands this, then it is fine.  Because maybe he is plying to them to spur them into action to change the things he sees happening in the world. If that is his intent, then he has done an excellent job.  But, if he wanted to reach a wider audience, he would need to cut some of the geekdom out of the book.  The problem is that it is hard to tell which of the two he wants because at one turn he seems to be speaking to the young adult readership and then a few pages along, he seems to be addressing the rest of the readership. My son tells me that the second book is even better than this one and has also sent that to me.  So, when I get to it, I will see if he has made up his mind what his readership is in it.  I will hope that it is the more general readership as he has a story to tell that I think needs to be told.  He is a very good writer and I did enjoy the book.  Particularly, the knowledge that much of what he refers to in the book is actual technology that we currently have.  For those that think that people are being paranoid and our privacy is not being encroached upon at an unreasonable level, they really need to read this book.  For those that he calls to action in the jacket of the book, I hope they take heed and take up the challenge.
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