Little Brother (Cory Doctorow novel)
Encyclopedia
Little Brother is a novel by Cory Doctorow
, published by Tor Books
. It was released on April 29, 2008. The novel is about several teenagers in San Francisco who, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and BART
system, defend themselves against the Department of Homeland Security's attacks on the Bill of Rights
. The novel is also available free on the author's website under a Creative Commons
license.
The book debuted at No. 9 on the New York Times Bestseller List, children's chapter book section, in May 2008. As of July 2, it had spent a total of six weeks on the list, rising to the No. 8 spot. Little Brother has also won the 2009 White Pine Award
, the 2009 Prometheus Award
. and the 2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award
Little Brother was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel
.
, when a terrorist attack destroys San Francisco Bay Bridge. Air raid sirens sound, and everyone in the area begins swarming toward a fallout shelter. Darryl is stabbed by someone in the crowd and the others try to find help for him, but since they didn't go into the shelter as expected, the foursome are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and held as enemy combatants.
After five days of interrogation at the hands of a woman that Marcus refers to as "Severe Haircut Lady", he is forced to sign papers that claim he was held voluntarily, and is released along with Van and Jolu. Darryl, however, is still being held prisoner.
Marcus returns home and lies to his parents about where he was, stating that the DHS had kept him under quarantine because they suspected that he had been exposed to a superbug. Heading up to his room, he discovers that the DHS has installed a bug
on his laptop. Knowing that any attempt to disable or tamper with the bug will result in his arrest, he takes an Xbox
and a heavily-encrypted
version of the Linux
operating system, and creates Xnet, an online network that is undetectable by the DHS.
The next day he discovers that the DHS is slowly turning the city into a police state
, detaining and interrogating citizens on a whim. At school, he provides other students with the means to access Xnet. Those students begin spreading it to others, and it soon becomes an underground resistance movement opposing the DHS occupation of the city. Marcus, as its de facto leader, vows to use Xnet to bring the DHS to justice. Van and Jolu, fearing arrest, want no part in it. "Xnetters" as they are called, begin sabotaging the DHS's monitoring equipment, which causes embarrassment and mass confusion to the government organization.
However, while organizing resistance, he develops new friendships and a love interest, Ange (Angela Carvelli), that help support him during his doubts and fears over fighting the federal government. He helps develop a clandestine wireless network, Xnet, that avoids DHS monitoring using anonymity, encryption and peer-to-peer tactics. Using the Xnet as a secure communications medium, he organizes teenagers and twenty-somethings who are upset with the police state tactics imposed after the bombing. They develop innovative uses of existing technologies to foil DHS monitoring and cause mass confusion and embarrassment to law enforcement.
After learning that his best friend, Darryl, is not dead, but still being held in a secret prison on nearby Treasure Island Marcus starts a series of events that culminates in his final confrontation with the DHS. Starting with his confession, to his parents and Darryl's father, of what really happened the three days he was imprisoned, he gives all of his information to an investigative reporter friend. This leads to his being imprisoned and tortured (specifically with waterboarding) by the DHS, personified by the Severe Haircut Lady. He is rescued by the California Highway State Patrol (CHSP) after the governor of California acts on the information provided in the news article. He finds his friend Darryl alive, if severely traumatized by his treatment, as well as his girlfriend Ange in the Treasure Island secret prison.
The novel ends with Marcus' life going back to "normal" and the DHS's losing power even though no one from the DHS is actually punished despite video proof of DHS personnel torturing him. Marcus seems to be happy with his life and relationships with both his girlfriend and parents. However, he dedicates a lot of his time to campaigning against the established political party that let this happen to U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
edition of Little Brother is dedicated to a different bookstore: Bakka-Phoenix
, Amazon.com
, Borderlands Books
, Barnes & Noble
, Secret Headquarters, Powell's City of Books, Books of Wonder, Borders, Compass Books/Books Inc., Anderson's Bookshops, the university bookstore at the University of Washington
, Forbidden Planet
, Books-A-Million
, Mysterious Galaxy
, Chapters
/Indigo Books
, Booksmith
, Waterstone's
, Sophia Books, MIT Press
Bookshop, The Tattered Cover, Pages Books, and Hudson Booksellers
.
said that "Doctorow’s novel blurs the lines between current and potential technologies, and readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution. Obvious parallels to Orwellian warnings and post-9/11 policies, such as the Patriot Act, will provide opportunity for classroom discussion and raise questions about our enthusiasm for technology, who monitors our school library collections, and how we contribute to our own lack of privacy."
Kirkus Reviews
described it as an "unapologetically didactic tribute to 1984
", and that it was a "terrifying glimpse of the future--or the present."
Publishers Weekly
said that it was "filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras
, RFID's (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices, this work makes its admittedly didactic point within a tautly crafted fictional framework."
The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "The book tackles many themes, including civil liberties and social activism".
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...
, published by Tor Books
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
. It was released on April 29, 2008. The novel is about several teenagers in San Francisco who, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
system, defend themselves against the Department of Homeland Security's attacks on the Bill of Rights
United States Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and property. They guarantee a number of personal freedoms, limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and...
. The novel is also available free on the author's website under a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
license.
The book debuted at No. 9 on the New York Times Bestseller List, children's chapter book section, in May 2008. As of July 2, it had spent a total of six weeks on the list, rising to the No. 8 spot. Little Brother has also won the 2009 White Pine Award
White Pine Award
The White Pine Award is an annual literature award sponsored by the Ontario Library Association that has awarded Canadian young adult books since 2002...
, the 2009 Prometheus Award
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
. and the 2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award
Campbell award (best novel)
The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for best science fiction novel was created in 1973 by writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss to honor Campbell's name...
Little Brother was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
.
Plot summary
Seventeen-year-old San Francisco native Marcus Yallow and his friends Darryl Glover, Vanessa "Van" Pak and Jose Louis "Jolu" Torrez are truant from school and playing an alternate reality gameAlternate reality game
An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
, when a terrorist attack destroys San Francisco Bay Bridge. Air raid sirens sound, and everyone in the area begins swarming toward a fallout shelter. Darryl is stabbed by someone in the crowd and the others try to find help for him, but since they didn't go into the shelter as expected, the foursome are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and held as enemy combatants.
After five days of interrogation at the hands of a woman that Marcus refers to as "Severe Haircut Lady", he is forced to sign papers that claim he was held voluntarily, and is released along with Van and Jolu. Darryl, however, is still being held prisoner.
Marcus returns home and lies to his parents about where he was, stating that the DHS had kept him under quarantine because they suspected that he had been exposed to a superbug. Heading up to his room, he discovers that the DHS has installed a bug
Covert listening device
A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and in police investigations.A bug does not have to be a device...
on his laptop. Knowing that any attempt to disable or tamper with the bug will result in his arrest, he takes an Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and a heavily-encrypted
Encryption software
Encryption software is software whose main task is encryption and decryption of data, usually in the form of files on hard drives and removable media, email messages, or in the form of packets sent over computer networks.-Security:...
version of the Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating system, and creates Xnet, an online network that is undetectable by the DHS.
The next day he discovers that the DHS is slowly turning the city into a police state
Police state
A police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...
, detaining and interrogating citizens on a whim. At school, he provides other students with the means to access Xnet. Those students begin spreading it to others, and it soon becomes an underground resistance movement opposing the DHS occupation of the city. Marcus, as its de facto leader, vows to use Xnet to bring the DHS to justice. Van and Jolu, fearing arrest, want no part in it. "Xnetters" as they are called, begin sabotaging the DHS's monitoring equipment, which causes embarrassment and mass confusion to the government organization.
However, while organizing resistance, he develops new friendships and a love interest, Ange (Angela Carvelli), that help support him during his doubts and fears over fighting the federal government. He helps develop a clandestine wireless network, Xnet, that avoids DHS monitoring using anonymity, encryption and peer-to-peer tactics. Using the Xnet as a secure communications medium, he organizes teenagers and twenty-somethings who are upset with the police state tactics imposed after the bombing. They develop innovative uses of existing technologies to foil DHS monitoring and cause mass confusion and embarrassment to law enforcement.
After learning that his best friend, Darryl, is not dead, but still being held in a secret prison on nearby Treasure Island Marcus starts a series of events that culminates in his final confrontation with the DHS. Starting with his confession, to his parents and Darryl's father, of what really happened the three days he was imprisoned, he gives all of his information to an investigative reporter friend. This leads to his being imprisoned and tortured (specifically with waterboarding) by the DHS, personified by the Severe Haircut Lady. He is rescued by the California Highway State Patrol (CHSP) after the governor of California acts on the information provided in the news article. He finds his friend Darryl alive, if severely traumatized by his treatment, as well as his girlfriend Ange in the Treasure Island secret prison.
The novel ends with Marcus' life going back to "normal" and the DHS's losing power even though no one from the DHS is actually punished despite video proof of DHS personnel torturing him. Marcus seems to be happy with his life and relationships with both his girlfriend and parents. However, he dedicates a lot of his time to campaigning against the established political party that let this happen to U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
Characters
- Marcus Yallow - Main protagonist, a 17-year old high schoolHigh schoolHigh school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
student who enjoys understanding technology and building his own custom devices. He is the leader of his foursome of friends. - Darryl Glover - Marcus' best friend who attends the same high school as Marcus and is the details man of the group. He has had a crush on Van for years.
- Vanessa Pak (Van) - 17 year old North Korean girl who attends a nearby all girls' Catholic schoolCatholic schools in the United StatesCatholic schools in the United States are accredited by independent and/or state agencies, and teachers are generally certified. Catholic schools are supported through tuition payments and fund raising.-Operation:...
, she is the "ideas" person of the group. She has had a thing for Marcus for a long time, but doesn't admit it until the end of the book. Her parents managed to escape from North Korea. - Jose Luis Torrez (Jolu) - A brilliant high school student at a nearby Catholic school, he is the technical member of the group. Even though everyone in the group is very tech savvy, he is the most technology-oriented, doing his own programming, and working for a local ISP. He is somewhat vain and seems to work at being cool.
- Charles Walker - Also a student at the same high school as Marcus and Darryl, he is the antithesis of Marcus. He is a bully, a brown noser and a narc for the authorities. He and Marcus have a long standing feud and detest each other.
- Carrie Johnstone - Main antagonist and in charge of the DHS that is monitoring San Francisco. She is a cold sadistic woman to whom the ends always justify the means and enjoys abusing her power. She is mainly known as "Severe Haircut Lady" throughout most of the novel.
- Fred Benson - One of the vice-principalVice-principalIn larger school systems, a principal is often assisted by someone known as a vice-principal or assistant principal. Unlike the principal, the vice-principal does not have quite the decision-making authority that the principal carries...
s at Cesar ChavezCésar ChávezCésar Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
High School. He is an authority figure, clueless about technology, who has had it in for Marcus for years. He seems to be one of the primary reason for Marcus' distrust of authority figures. - Angela Carvelli (Ange) - She attends the same high school as Van and develops into Marcus' love interest, when she first meets him at a party. She is an active member of the Xnet and is very strong-willed, independent, and sexual. She's known to use pepper spray as a condiment.
- Ms. Galvez - A social studies teacher at Cesar Chavez High School, she is seen as a dedicated teacher and an independent thinker. She seems to be the only teacher that Marcus respects at his school. She tends to agree with Marcus on topics of security and Marcus helps her with contacting her brother, who's an overseas soldier, via internet.
- Barbara Stratford - Investigative reporter for the Bay Guardian, who helps Marcus expose what the DHS has been doing.
- Lillian Yallow - Marcus' mother, British ex-national, who helps newly immigrated BritonsBritish peopleThe British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
integrate into American life. She and Marcus have a strong bond and seem to think alike. She is a strong woman and helps mediate Marcus and his father's fights. - Masha - A small Asian girl, she is a DHS operative and attempts to help Marcus escape the city. Marcus meets her briefly in the beginning of the novel when she threatens to expose him for skipping school while ARGing.
- Zeb - A former detainee of DHS’s “Gitmo-by-the-Bay”, he manages to escape and attempts to disappear after contacting Marcus about Darryl and the current status of the prison.
- Drew Yallow - Marcus' father who has a stormy relationship with Marcus through most of the book. He was so scared by the thought of Marcus having died during the bombing, because Marcus was missing for three days, that he supports the tactics DHS employs. This leads to many arguments with Marcus despite his former mindset that was similar to Marcus'.
Dedications
Each chapter of the e-bookE-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
edition of Little Brother is dedicated to a different bookstore: Bakka-Phoenix
Bakka-Phoenix
Bakka-Phoenix Science Fiction Bookstore is a small independent bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, which specializes in science fiction and fantasy literature....
, Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Borderlands Books
Borderlands Books
Borderlands Books is a San Francisco independent bookstore specializing exclusively in science fiction, fantasy and horror.- History :In 1997 Alan Beatts opened Borderlands in Hayes Valley as a used-only bookstore consisting of his personal collection and a selection of books from Know Knew Books...
, Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
, Secret Headquarters, Powell's City of Books, Books of Wonder, Borders, Compass Books/Books Inc., Anderson's Bookshops, the university bookstore at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet (bookstore)
Forbidden Planet is the trading name of two separate science fiction, fantasy and horror bookshop chains across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States of America, after the feature film of the same name....
, Books-A-Million
Books-A-Million
Books-A-Million, Inc., also known as BAM!, is a company that owns the second largest U.S. bookstore chain and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company operates over 200 stores in the South, Midwest, Northeast...
, Mysterious Galaxy
Mysterious Galaxy
Mysterious Galaxy is an independent bookstore located in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1993 and caters mostly to fans of genre fiction such as mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and horror...
, Chapters
Chapters
Chapters is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a company in its own right competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001.-History:...
/Indigo Books
Indigo Books and Music
Indigo Books & Music Inc. is a Canadian retail bookstore chain. The company was founded in 1996 by CEO Heather Reisman, wife of Gerry Schwartz, majority owner and CEO of Onex Corporation....
, Booksmith
Booksmith
Founded in October 1976, The Booksmith is an independent bookstore located in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. When first opened, the store was located at 1746 Haight Street, below the former I-Beam nightclub. In 1985, the store moved to its current location at 1644 Haight Street...
, Waterstone's
Waterstone's
Waterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe....
, Sophia Books, MIT Press
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
Bookshop, The Tattered Cover, Pages Books, and Hudson Booksellers
Hudson Group
The Hudson Group is an East Rutherford, New Jersey, based retailer which operates a chain of newsstands, bookstores, fast food restaurants, and other retail stores chiefly at airports and train stations in the United States. It was founded in 1918 by Ike Cohen as a newspaper distributorship in...
.
Cultural cross references
- Chapter 17 mentions Dan BernsteinDaniel J. BernsteinDaniel Julius Bernstein is a mathematician, cryptologist, programmer, and professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago...
and his contributions to an EFFElectronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
lawsuit about strong cryptography. - The title "Little Brother" is a play on Big Brother in George OrwellGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's Nineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, mentioned in the author's bibliography. Marcus also uses the handle "w1n5t0n", a reference to the book's main character, Winston SmithWinston SmithWinston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with"...
. - The later pseudonym of M1k3y is a reference to the computer "Mycroft" or "Mike" in Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's The Moon Is a Harsh MistressThe Moon Is a Harsh MistressThe Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth....
. That novel's plot also involved a computer-facilitated revolution. - A real Paranoid Linux (defunct) is in development based on the version of LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
in the book (Which ParanoidXboxXboxThe Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
was based on.) - Stealthiswiki.org, a wiki site inspired by Abbie HoffmanAbbie HoffmanAbbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
's Steal This BookSteal This Book-Advice on dissidence:The book includes advice on such topics as growing cannabis, starting a pirate radio station, living in a commune, stealing food, shoplifting, stealing credit cards, preparing a legal defense, making pipe bombs, and obtaining a free buffalo from the Department of the Interior...
that the main character uses, actually exists as a open source project that predates the novel. - The film Office SpaceOffice SpaceOffice Space is a 1999 American comedy film satirizing work life in a typical 1990s software company. Written and directed by Mike Judge, it focuses on a handful of individuals fed up with their jobs portrayed by Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, and Diedrich...
is referenced by the systematic destruction of a laptop computer and an offhand reference to a "pound-you-in-the-ass" prison. - The way "Vista4Schools hides any program beginning with the letters "$sys$ is a reference to the Sony Rootkit, which hid any file beginning with the same letters.
- The line "Guantanamo by the Bay was in the hands of its enemies" is a reference to the last line of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's short story "The Pit and the PendulumThe Pit and the Pendulum"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The...
". - The line "It was like running though a maze of twisty little passages, all alike," is a reference to Colossal Cave AdventureColossal Cave AdventureColossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
.
Reception
Cindy Dobrez in her review for BooklistBooklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
said that "Doctorow’s novel blurs the lines between current and potential technologies, and readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution. Obvious parallels to Orwellian warnings and post-9/11 policies, such as the Patriot Act, will provide opportunity for classroom discussion and raise questions about our enthusiasm for technology, who monitors our school library collections, and how we contribute to our own lack of privacy."
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
described it as an "unapologetically didactic tribute to 1984
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
", and that it was a "terrifying glimpse of the future--or the present."
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
said that it was "filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras
Gait analysis
Gait analysis is the systematic study of animal locomotion, more specific as a study of human motion, using the eye and the brain of observers, augmented by instrumentation for measuring body movements, body mechanics, and the activity of the muscles. Gait analysis is used to assess, plan, and...
, RFID's (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices, this work makes its admittedly didactic point within a tautly crafted fictional framework."
Major Themes
Cory Doctorow's Little Brother has major themes that according to some are too serious for a YA novel. In an interview, the Journal of Adolescent & Adult literacy asked Doctorow about his "potentially heavy themes, including paranoia, loyalty, sex, torture, [and] fear" and whether his editing staff asked to censor the themes. He replied, "Oh, no."The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "The book tackles many themes, including civil liberties and social activism".
External links
- Official Book Page on Cory Doctorow's website
- All the images from the deluxe edition of Little Brother on Richard Wilkinson's Flickr page
- A Little Brother related article by Cory Doctorow: Security Literacy: teaching kids to think critically about security
- eMusic Q&A: Cory Doctorow about Little Brother
- w1n5t0n on Instructables.com
- Little Brother Facebook Page
- Little Brother related video playlist on YouTube
- Online Version of the book
- Audio review and discussion of Little Brother at The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
- http://stealthiswiki.org The actual counterculture wiki site referenced in the novel.