Cory Doctorow: Little brother (AudiobookFormat, 2008, Random House/Listening Library)
[sound recording] /, 72 pages
English language
Published July 10, 2008 by Random House/Listening Library.
After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
Interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on San Francisco, 17-year-old Marcus is released into what is now a police state and decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.
I liked how the topics of surveillance, cryptography, civil liberties got at least as much attention as the plot. Strong choice to not cover the terrorists at all.
It feels of its time, not in a bad way though. But Xbox, burning CDs, and the post 9/11 surveillance state. A little depressing when you consider how much more digital surveillance exists now.
The most scary thing is the fact we already live in a society that uses terrorism and other boogeymen to tighten the control of communication and movement of the citizens.
IT security is well explained. Even if this book is for youth, I realized I didn't fully understand some security concepts (public-private key) until now.
I liked computer explanations as well as the main plot btw
Very easy read, great tale. Empowering book, would especially recommend it to young people and teenagers
First Cory Doctorow book I read, just amazing!
Cory Doctorow is een bekende figuur in de wereld van internet en Silicon Valley. Hij is een activist die strijdt voor het liberaliseren van copyright wetten, is tegen DRM en een voorstander van de Creative Commons organisatie. Geen van zijn boeken zijn dan ook voorzien van DRM of een watermerk. In het voorwoord van dit boek en hier legt hij zijn standpunten hierover uit.
Spannend
Little Brother is een spannend jeugdverhaal volgens het bekende David-Goliath thema. Veel fantasy en sci-fi boeken volgen dit thema, zeker het YA deel ervan. Dit boek is niet anders, alleen speelt het rebellenverhaal van Little brother tegen Big brother bijna in onze eigen tijd af.
Er zijn slechts enkele afwijkingen, waarvan je je zou kunnen afvragen of die afwijkingen in een paar jaar realiteit zijn. Big Brother gaat natuurlijk over surveillance, controle, bewaking en het monitoren van mensen. Gezichtsherkenning, volgen van kentekens, is nu al …
Cory Doctorow is een bekende figuur in de wereld van internet en Silicon Valley. Hij is een activist die strijdt voor het liberaliseren van copyright wetten, is tegen DRM en een voorstander van de Creative Commons organisatie. Geen van zijn boeken zijn dan ook voorzien van DRM of een watermerk. In het voorwoord van dit boek en hier legt hij zijn standpunten hierover uit.
Little Brother is een spannend jeugdverhaal volgens het bekende David-Goliath thema. Veel fantasy en sci-fi boeken volgen dit thema, zeker het YA deel ervan. Dit boek is niet anders, alleen speelt het rebellenverhaal van Little brother tegen Big brother bijna in onze eigen tijd af.
Er zijn slechts enkele afwijkingen, waarvan je je zou kunnen afvragen of die afwijkingen in een paar jaar realiteit zijn. Big Brother gaat natuurlijk over surveillance, controle, bewaking en het monitoren van mensen. Gezichtsherkenning, volgen van kentekens, is nu al aan de orde. Het centraal digitaal volgen van alles wat je met pasjes doet: wat je koopt, waar je het koopt, waar je reist is al bijna realiteit. Het volgen van mensen via camera's en het analyseren van de loop door de gangen van je school: snel, haastig of zenuwachtig, kunnen je verdacht maken en er voor zorgen dat er bewakers op je af komen gerend. Een akelige en verstikkende wereld wordt er in dit boek beschreven, en de manieren waarop mensen erop reageren. De kracht van veel jeugdigen is, dat zij niet in de pas willen lopen en nieuwe dingen willen proberen. Die jeugdige benadering geeft onze maatschappij de energie om te veranderen. Dit boek beschrijft deze kracht van een tegencultuur op een hoopvolle en positieve manier.
Marcus is een gewone scholier in Los Angeles, die het leuk vindt om samen met zijn vrienden computergames te spelen. Hij gaat graag naar school en accepteert gewoon de controle van de school op haar leerlingen. Hij vindt het een sport om wegen te vinden om toch te kunnen spijbelen of de onschuldige dingen te doen die kinderen doen, ook al zijn ze niet geoorloofd. Dat verandert na een terroristische aanslag op een brug waar hij toevallig in de buurt is. In de paniek wordt zijn beste vriend Darryl gewond door een messteek, en omdat Marcus en zijn vrienden hulp voor Darryl zoeken houden ze een voertuig aan. Dit voertuig is echter van de nationale inlichtingendienst, en de vrienden worden door hun plaats en gedrag als verdacht gezien, opgesloten en op een keiharde manier dagenlang op een afgelegen plek apart ondervraagd. Dit incident zet onze held in een rollercoaster van gebeurtenissen. Zijn vriend is verdwenen, hij kan niet leven met de onrechtvaardigheid van wat er is gebeurd. Hij gaat op zoek naar zijn vriend en naar wraak en rechtvaardigheid tegen het grote systeem dat zijn land en de generaties voor hem terwille van de veiligheid heeft opgebouwd. Hij ziet dat dit systeem is doorgeschoten en juist de veiligheid van burgers in gevaar brengt.
Dit verhaal beschrijft daarmee een aantal problemen waarmee onze moderne maatschappij worstelt. Bijvoorbeeld de “profilering” door onze wetshandhavers: het verdacht verklaren van mensen louter omdat ze aan bepaalde kenmerken voldoen. Of het drama van de “false positives”: negenennegentig procent betrouwbaarheid van een controletest betekent wel één procent van zeventien miljoen, dus 170.000 onterechte beschuldigingen. We weten na de toeslagenaffaire wat één onterechte beschuldiging al voor de mensen in de praktijk betekent.
Maar ook technische mogelijkheden worden op een natuurlijke manier verteld. Bijvoorbeeld het versleutelen van berichten, en het kunnen vertrouwen op de identiteit van de afzender zonder certificaat dat door een centrale “trusted” organisatie is afgeleverd, maar door een netwerk van vrienden, een “web of trust”. Het komt allemaal aan de orde en wordt goed uitgelegd in de context van een spannend verhaal. Deze context maakt ook dat je de zin van al deze op het eerste gezicht moeilijke concepten gemakkelijk kunt plaatsen.
Het boek is vooral een spannend verhaal, met heel veel leermomenten. Een echte aanrader. Zeker omdat dit boek gratis is!
Great read. Suspense, technology and politics.
A few nits to pick on a great book:
•That “Syria” is the place where the US sends its undesirables to get tortured more than at home dates this. With the things going on there in recent years.
•For about half the technologies, i knew how they worked, so the exposition was too long. Unavoidable, too. You can’t not explain important stuff like that.
•In a few spots, this doesn’t work too well as an audiobook. There is a bit where the steps of setting up a connection with an e-mail server is written out, that gets tedious read out aloud.
A fun read.
The best book on why normal people should care about digital privacy, bar none. The fact that it manages to be a very compelling novel is simply amazing.
My favourite Cory Doctorow novel yet. As always he is sharp and right on top of technology to make a cutting point about current events. In this case, it's a Young Adult novel written not long afer 9/11 and imagining a version of the world only slightly in the future where a 9/11 style terrorist attack happens in San Francisco. Marcus Yallow and three of his friends are skipping school to play an augmented reality video game, and happen to be close to the event when it happens. As the others try to get help for Darryl, who's been injured in the panic, the whole group of them get labeled suspicious by Homeland Security and whisked off to holding cells where they're denied their rights, denied a lawyer, and subjected to extremely questionable levels of interrogation.
When three of them are finally released, not knowing if Darryl is dead or …
My favourite Cory Doctorow novel yet. As always he is sharp and right on top of technology to make a cutting point about current events. In this case, it's a Young Adult novel written not long afer 9/11 and imagining a version of the world only slightly in the future where a 9/11 style terrorist attack happens in San Francisco. Marcus Yallow and three of his friends are skipping school to play an augmented reality video game, and happen to be close to the event when it happens. As the others try to get help for Darryl, who's been injured in the panic, the whole group of them get labeled suspicious by Homeland Security and whisked off to holding cells where they're denied their rights, denied a lawyer, and subjected to extremely questionable levels of interrogation.
When three of them are finally released, not knowing if Darryl is dead or alive or still being held captive, they emerge to find a world where their freedom is being taken away in exchange for promises of safety they don't believe, and where Homeland Security is causing more terror than the terrorists themselves. As Marcus tries to find out what happened to Darryl, the story turns into a conflict between youth and authority very much modeled on the protests of San Francisco in the '70s mixed with just a little bit of 1984. Doctorow does a great job explaining encryption technology and privacy issues in an accessible way, while addressing very real questions about where the line is between freedom and safety.
The book is aimed at teens and would be a great book to give your friendly local teen, but I enjoyed it as an adult also. I completely coincidentally started reading this on 9/11 and when I woke up at 3am on 9/12 unable to go back to sleep, figured I'd read a couple chapters until I felt sleepy again ... and then discovered myself finishing the book at 6am. A thought provoking read with a happier ending than I suspect the US is actually going to get. Apparently there's a sequel, which I'm definitely going to pick up!
This is exactly the kind of book I needed. I read it in a couple of days and loved every part of it.
I got the book for free from Cory Doctorow's website, but now I'm going to go set up a recurring donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Cory Doctorow clearly knows what he's talking about. This is one of the first instances of fiction using technology that hasn't made me cringe or smile awkwardly in I can't remember how long (I'm looking at you, Mr. Robot).
The reason is probably because he's also preaching. My only gripe with the book is that it preaches quite a bit, and in the process verges on one sidedness some times. I did feel that it did a pretty good effort to present counter arguments to its main arguments, but because it doesn't really believe in them, it inadvertently presents them in a somewhat defeated manner. It really does the best it can, though, and I applaud it for it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I mostly agree with the book's view. I just had a slight, nasty flashback of Atlas Shrugged (which, on the contrary, was disgustingly one sided, unlike …
Cory Doctorow clearly knows what he's talking about. This is one of the first instances of fiction using technology that hasn't made me cringe or smile awkwardly in I can't remember how long (I'm looking at you, Mr. Robot).
The reason is probably because he's also preaching. My only gripe with the book is that it preaches quite a bit, and in the process verges on one sidedness some times. I did feel that it did a pretty good effort to present counter arguments to its main arguments, but because it doesn't really believe in them, it inadvertently presents them in a somewhat defeated manner. It really does the best it can, though, and I applaud it for it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I mostly agree with the book's view. I just had a slight, nasty flashback of Atlas Shrugged (which, on the contrary, was disgustingly one sided, unlike this book), even though I agree with the message that was (much more reasonably) being pushed on me.
Part of this is the fact that the book (ie the author) knows a lot about crypto and tech, and teaches the reader many useful things in very accessible ways, which is cool.
Other than that, the writing itself in terms of beauty and feeling wasn't that rich, because a) it didn't have to be, it was describing things from the point of view of a teenager, and b) the best part is the plot twists, along with the associated ideas.
All in all, very cool.
Little Brother is a global economics lesson dressed up as a YA novel. In places, that shines through too much for some readers; personally, I find it compelling precisely because it cuts through the market babble and presents a no-nonsense view of what's actually going on. If that view is at times slightly simplified, that barely matters from an educational point of view, because understanding basics is the prerequisite for a more refined discussion. I cannot fault the book for that.
As for the (majority) part that's a YA novel, I have rarely read more compelling and believable characters than presented here. Their lives are at times a tough read - because every detail is so believable.
In sum, I consider this book to be something of a masterpiece: entertaining, touching, and educational all in one. I hope my kids will read it!
I absolutely loved this book, despite being 20-25 years above the target YA age range. I've been a fan of Doctorow for some years, following his work with EFF, ORG, and his writing in general. This book in particular struck a chord because of its Orwellian theme, the use of modern technology to overcome unreasonable obstacles, its relevance to today's post-9/11 world (and its lack of regard for Ben Franklin's quote about liberty and security), and its exhortation from beginning to end that looking inside the box to understand what makes it tick is okay -- not something to be legislated against or feared. Hackers make the world go around.
I wish books like this existed when I was a young adult. But I suppose they did for their time: 1984, The Death of Grass, Flowers for Algernon, Brave New World, and so forth. I'd put this book on the …
I absolutely loved this book, despite being 20-25 years above the target YA age range. I've been a fan of Doctorow for some years, following his work with EFF, ORG, and his writing in general. This book in particular struck a chord because of its Orwellian theme, the use of modern technology to overcome unreasonable obstacles, its relevance to today's post-9/11 world (and its lack of regard for Ben Franklin's quote about liberty and security), and its exhortation from beginning to end that looking inside the box to understand what makes it tick is okay -- not something to be legislated against or feared. Hackers make the world go around.
I wish books like this existed when I was a young adult. But I suppose they did for their time: 1984, The Death of Grass, Flowers for Algernon, Brave New World, and so forth. I'd put this book on the same shelf. Must read.
This is my new favorite fiction novel. This book felt realistic to me. I found it more engaging than 1984.
Looking over other reviews I see people noted that the antagonist was a straw man, the techno-slang was distracting, and the romance was cliche. I found Charles less ridiculous than Draco Malfoy and the slang much less distracting than Neuromancer. The romance was cliche, but it was teenage. I occasionally questioned some of the technical specifics, but I didn't get hung up on any plot holes.
