I read “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow today while enjoying the welcome arrival of summer – my sunburn should serve as a testament to just how hard it was for me to put this book down.
I really have to recommend it – Political without being too heavy and geeky without being too technical, his grasp of modern technology and it’s implications is like no other author I’ve ever read.
Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
I’m a dead tree kinda guy (I spend enough of my day in front of a screen), but if your not you can even grab it for free from Cory’s website, and while your check out “Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present” – A fantastic collection of shorts.
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