Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother
Making Light has a post about Cory’s new book, promising to send advance reader copies to bloggers who talk about the book. All the copies are gone, of course, since we live on Internet time.
But I’ve been lucky enough to have read it at various stages of development over the last year. So I don’t need a copy. 🙂 Connections have their privileges!
And the bottom line is, go buy Little Brother when it goes on sale in twelve days. It’s aimed at teens. Don’t let that stop you. It’s not a space opera, a military SF novel, not a Singularity sort of thing, and there are no elves. Don’t let that stop you either. Because it’s urgent, and real, and you will learn something from it.
It’s a book about a kid whose town (San Francisco) gets attacked by terrorists, and who finds it then slipping into a sort of Homeland Security nightmare. A kid who fights back with the tech he has to hand — videogame consoles and ARGs and friend networks. And also a lot of guts.
It’s a story not only about paranoia and freedom, but also about security and insecurity. The hacks described are real; there’s an afterword with real-world resources.
I am looking forward to reading it again, between proper covers instead of on loose sheets of paper.
5 Responses to “Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother”
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Little Brother (Peque�o Hermano) es la nueva novela de Cory Doctorow, que va a ser publicada en breve. Trata de… bueno, yo no la he leido, �para que nos vamos a enga�ar?, as� que veamos que dicealguien que s� la ha leido: Est� dirigida a los j�venes. No dejes que eso te detenga. No es un space opera, ni una novela de ciencia-ficci�n militar, no es una cosa de esas de la Singularidad, y tampoco hay elfos. Tampoco dejes que eso te detenga. Porque es urgente, y real,
Wow, that looks really neat, and the glowing recommendation from Neil Gaiman has a lot of weight with me.
I shall need to pick this up indeed.
How factual is the information about Homeland Security and surveillance issues?
The afterword is by Bruce Schneier and examines the reality of the tech. The book features stuff like TOR (the onion router), for example. So it’s pretty grounded.
It’s still SF, though. 🙂
I just looked through my copy’s afterword and it says nothing about the reality of the technology; it’s more of a four-page manifesto on the nature of hacking and the ‘different world’ hackers inhabit.
I only have a manuscript copy, not the actual book, but does it not have the parts with links to stuff anymore?