Little Brother

Hardcover, 384 pages

English language

Published April 29, 2008 by Tor Teen.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-1985-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
176972381

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (177 reviews)

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 hackiing to set things right.

30 editions

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars


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 …

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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 …

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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 …

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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!

Review of 'Little brother' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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 …

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.

Review of 'Little Brother' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I wish I had read this earlier. It's been sitting on my "To Read" pile for a couple of years. I suspect there aren't many other young adult novels that place the Department of Homeland Security as the villain. There probably should be more. Plus some other three letter agencies. I would have liked to see more character development of Marcus's parents especially his father. Some place for them in the denouement would have been good along with the reporter. Charles as the foil was a little flat to my taste and too easily defeated. I think I need to go pick up the sequel.

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Subjects

  • General
  • Juvenile Fiction / General
  • Juvenile Fiction
  • Children's Books/All Ages
  • Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)

Places

  • San Francisco (Calif.)

Lists