Cory Doctorow sets up an intriguing premise in Homeland, the direct sequel to his book, Little Brother. Instead of combating unconstitutional surveillance from Carrie Johnstone and the DHS's California branch, Doctorow forces Marcus to either question his own politics--landing a job with independent candidate, Joe Noss, and his campaign--or figure out how to leak out the documents Masha gives him at the Burning Man festival. With the debate surrounding last year's leaked NSA documents 2010's Wikileaks story, Doctorow wasted no time writing and publishing Homeland to continue those discussions while continuing Marcus's hacking and encryption endeavors.

I loved this set up, and Marcus's time at Burning Man with Ange and some cameo appearances got me excited about how the conflict would play out. Unfortunately, the story began to drag itself out. At some parts, I was wondering when the narrative would kick itself back into full gear. The info-dumps on various encryption methods and mathematical theories, while necessary, took me out of the story. Even if Little Brother was guilty of the same issue, Doctorow weaved them into the story more cohesively and even easier for a reader, possibly unfamiliar with the nuances of hacking, to understand.

It goes without saying that Homeland's afterwords and bibliography serve as great resources regardless whether or not one reads the book.