Little Brother

#263
Title: Little Brother
Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2008
384  pages

A fun young adult dystopia, though it doesn't seem like enduring fiction of the sort that warrants a Hugo nomination. Marcus, a 17-year old gamer, has trouble with an authoritarian school and culture. However, these difficulties pale beside those he encounters when terrorists blow up a bridge in the Bay Area, providing the grounds for Homeland Security to swoop in and begin abrogating civil liberties. Subjected to the sorts of intrusions, threats, and indignities with which Americans have become increasingly familiar, Marcus vows to take down Homeland Security. His attempts to do so are engaging, though sometimes for a smart adolescent he doesn't think through consequences well. The narrator's tone never seemed quite natural to me, and the concluding sequence was fast enough to be somewhat flat. If you like to learn your science from hard science fiction, you should be reasonably satisfied with this quick but entertaining read. Doctorow makes his texts available free through Creative Commons. Download this book from http://craphound.com/littlebrother/downl

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