Little Brother

Title:	Little Brother
Author:	Cory Doctorow
Genre:	SF
Ranking:	?Unranked
LibraryThing:	Title:Little Brother ISBN:978-0-00-728842-7 (Add Book)
Type:	Owned
Read:	2009-07-22

Big Brother is watching you. Who is watching back?

Thoughts

The problem with things that are up-to-the-minute is that they get out of date very fast. So when I saw this, I knew I'd have to read it ASAP, because it is very up-to-the-minute. The setting is the very near future, in a US where the Bush Administration, or their successors, are still in power. The technology described here already exists, and could easily be deployed in that way. That's how up-to-the-minute it is.

This is the story of Marcus, how he and his friends are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and are kidnapped by the Department of Homeland Security. But that is only the start of the nightmare; the real nightmare is what happens to their city after they've been released. But how do you fight back against surveilance, RFIDs, datamining, keylogging, and a government that influences the press? It's hopeless. But Marcus doesn't want to be a prisoner in his own city. He fights back anyway.

There are points in this which are heartbreaking, and points which are uplifting. This isn't a simplistic situation. Every time Marcus and his friends do something, the DHS fights back with something even worse. Will they win through? Read it and find out.

However, I got to a point where I couldn't bear the troubles Our Hero was going through, so I am stopping with this, and trying again later.