Little Brother by Cory Doctorow / Phillip Stephens
Let’s get the gushing out of the way first — Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother is a slice of delicious badassery, culling together a variety of genres and emerging as a hybrid of cyberpunk, techno-thriller, and young adult novel. These are three pretty engaging literary modes on their own, if occasionally lacking depth, but at their confluence Doctorow finds a tone that’s downright giddy, resulting in a gripping, fascinating, and absurdly enjoyable little read that never condescends to unschooled technophobes nor panders to connoisseurs. And not only this, but the book has a damn relevant treatise on the contemporary War on Terror and civil liberties.
Marcus Yallow is a ridiculously tech-savvy 17-year-old in San Francisco madly in love with the Information Age of digital media, programming, and communications. He lives the majority of his life a corpora, using a variety of internet aliases to hack whatever information or material he wants; the kid can basically do anything he pleases. Doctorow presents us with a vague, unspecified near-future, in which technology and media have naturally made leaps and bounds, but everything is based on extant material almost all of us are familiar with. Marcus jockeys his interest in friends, tech, and gaming with the casual effervescence of youth, hinting in the early pages that Little Brother will be a breezy little novel of adolescent adventure - enjoyable, but cursory.
And then, just two chapters in, the cozy little universe we’ve just gotten attached to is leveled. San Francisco is rocked by a terrorist attack even greater than 9/11 — the Bay Bridge is destroyed, and Marcus and several of his friends are mistakenly gobbled up by the Department of Homeland Security in the midst of the calamity. Whisked away, bound, gagged, isolated, and mercilessly interrogated in a faux Guantanamo, the kids are all but tortured into divulging away their technological privacy, and then falsely denounced as suspects. Humiliated and horrified by the brutal disregard of his rights, Marcus becomes a devout enemy of the state. After being released, he wages as underground hacker’s war on the DHS and the increasingly Orwellian measures introduced under the guise of protecting America from terrorism.
Obviously Doctorow, a bleeding heart civil liberties advocate, is giving a black eye to the Bush Administration and the trans-legal finagling of the PATRIOT Act, but his homily never becomes patronizing. Marcus becomes a fiery advocate for civil rights; but in fighting the system so viciously, often not minding the hordes of innocent people caught up in his crusade of sabotage, he reveals himself to be something of a terrorist also, whether or not he’s on the side of “good.”
Doctorow peppers his narrative with frequent information dumps, explaining in rigid detail the mechanics of programming, encryption, and mathematical formulas (this isn’t as horrifying as it sounds) involved in the plot. These sessions often grind the story to a halt, but they’re necessary for Doctorow to maintain a relationship with reality. Much of “hacker fiction,” from the early days of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling to The Matrix and that retarded Angelina Jolie movie, has been about style rather than substance, of the fantasy of techno-media instead of the reality. Doctorow finds both in spades with Little Brother; his connoisseur’s passion for technology is contagious, and all the more compelling for its proximity to the real world. Better yet, and in a show of ideological fealty to his subject, Doctorow has made this awesome, lovable book available for free online.
Phillip Stephens is the lead critic and book editor for Pajiba. He lives in Fayetteville, AR, and wastes his twenties in grad school(s).
DVD Releases 05/21/08 | | Roman de Gare
Comments
Is it ok to complain here how every other Boing Boing post mentions Little Brother?
Posted by: Esher Fern Gamble at May 21, 2008 12:34 PM
Not sure this is a book that I would be invested in enough to finish, but it's worth a shot. I need books for the beach. Nice review Phillip.
Posted by: Julie at May 21, 2008 12:41 PM
Esher- I have the same complaint! When I saw the book cover here on Pajiba, I thought I'd clicked on BoingBoing by mistake.... love Cory's stuff, tho.
Posted by: nancy at May 21, 2008 1:02 PM
sounds interesting, may have to give it a read
Posted by: Bethy at May 21, 2008 3:48 PM
Hey,
If you are accusing William Gibson of having more style then substance, you and I have read different books.
Nice review, but missed that one.
And just to plug it, read Cryptonomicon!
Grtz
M
Posted by: magiel at May 22, 2008 7:11 AM
I've read to page thirty-seven, and this seems like a really kick-ass version of Manna. Of course, being a kick-ass version of a shitty shitty shitty story isn't saying much. Jesus, did this guy just read Slashdot for three months and then crap this out? Here is an actual excerpt from the book:
[i]
And I was like, "Hey man, I wanna be free."
And then he was like, "I'm evil government! Rahhhhhh! I take away your rights! Rahhhhh!"
And then I was like, "Man, I'll get all my l31t(sic) h4xor friends to like come down on your ass."[/i]
I shit you not, that was actually in there...fuck, I broke my space bar.
Suffice to say, Cory Doctorow and Phillip Stephens should have been aborted.
Hahaha, dude rite after writing that i just tot queefed!
Posted by: pissant at May 30, 2008 4:55 PM
OK, ten more pages and this is totally a shitty version of Manna. Following are the lamest and most laughable lines in Manna.
Manna,by Marshall Brain - various chapters
"Shit." That's all I could think to say.
"Holy shit." I said.
"Holy shit. What about touch?" I asked.
Oh, and what do we see in Little Brother?
Little Brother - page 47
I put my face in my hands. "Dammit," I said, finally.
Absolute and utter shit...why can't I stop reading it?
Suffice to say, Cory Doctorow and Phillip Stephens should have been aborted.
Posted by: pissant at May 30, 2008 5:51 PM
Wow. Finished it.
That was horrible. I mean, I know the protagonist is supposed to be seventeen, but I didn't realize the author is as well. Cory Doctorow(born in 1971) looks and writes like a tool. His "first time" sex scene comes off as completely non-autobiographical. Juvenile, juvenile, juvenile...
his homily never becomes patronizing...His homily never becomes patronizing? Maybe to someone who has never(ever) had one of these thoughts. This would be good if I were sixteen, you know, like Juno. Instead, it comes off as juvenile pseudo-cool, you know, like Juno. The only difference here being that I would totally bang Ellen Page.
Better yet, and in a show of ideological fealty to his subject, Doctorow has made this awesome, lovable book available for free online.
Yeah, I'm handing out bags of my shit on the corner tomorrow...there was a reason this one was free people...
Ugh. F for eFfort.
Suffice to say, Cory Doctorow and Phillip Stephens should have been aborted.
LOL I"M STIL QU333FING! t00000t!!
Posted by: pissant at June 3, 2008 4:06 PM
Wow. Finished it.
That was horrible. I mean, I know the protagonist is supposed to be seventeen, but I didn't realize the author is as well. Cory Doctorow(born in 1971) looks and writes like a tool. His "first time" sex scene comes off as completely non-autobiographical. Juvenile, juvenile, juvenile...
his homily never becomes patronizing...His homily never becomes patronizing? Maybe to someone who has never(ever) had one of these thoughts. This would be good if I were sixteen, you know, like Juno. Instead, it comes off as juvenile pseudo-cool, you know, like Juno. The only difference here being that I would totally bang Ellen Page.
Better yet, and in a show of ideological fealty to his subject, Doctorow has made this awesome, lovable book available for free online.
Yeah, I'm handing out bags of my shit on the corner tomorrow...there was a reason this one was free people...
Ugh. F for eFfort.
Suffice to say, Cory Doctorow and Phillip Stephens should have been aborted.
Posted by: pissant at June 3, 2008 4:09 PM