In some ways, this book harks back to the juveniles of fifties as written by some of the great masters of sf, most especially Heinlein. Like those earlier books, it portrays teenagers that are intelligent, resourceful, game-loving, and confrontational, but are still at times prone to making stupid mistakes in the name of peer-group status. In other words, they are real teenagers.
The setting is the near future, when some ill-defined terrorist group decides to blow up the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Marcus, our hero, and several of his friends are picked up in a rather wide sweep by Homeland Security forces as possible suspects. And therein lies the tale, as the actions of the security forces clash violently with Marcus's idea of what is right and proper in the supposed land-of-the-free America. What Marcus decides to do about this situation is an instructional manual to the reader in just how personal freedom and privacy have been restricted and what can be done about it in today's very high-tech world of security cameras, RFIDs, cryptography, computer databases, and the insidious insinuation of propaganda both at our schools and into everything we see and hear on the internet and our TVs and from the mouths of our political leaders.
The story bubbles with suspense, and the actions that Marcus takes are very believable as something a seventeen-year old could actually do. It is very easy to identify with Marcus and become very sympathetic to his cause, while the situation itself is stark enough to frighten the daylights out of the reader as being all too possible. The info-dumps along the way not only impart some very necessary information to the reader, but are handled very much the way Heinlein did it, as things that are necessary for the hero to either know or learn about to accomplish his desires, making them easy to swallow. The techniques and technology presented are real, as some of the afterword material to this book details.
The other characters of this book, while not presented with the detail that Marcus is (almost a given in any first-person narration), are both intriguing and in some cases frightening. Marcus's father is a major case in point, as a man with liberal leanings who nevertheless finds himself driven to support the majority view out of fear for his son, and Marcus's social studies teacher, who is very reminiscent of some of the `mentors' of Heinlein's books, as her willingness to engage her students in free-wheeling debate and attempts to get them to think for themselves leads to a very plausible and ugly fate. It is just such touches that make the whole situation ring with that touch of reality that marks excellent science fiction.
The politics of this book are decidedly left-wing. The Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security come in for some merciless beatings, but the reasoning behind such depictions is carefully laid out and form a clarion call to all Americans to look carefully at just what we are giving up in the name of `security'. Perhaps it should be compared and contrasted (as one of those infamous school assignments I don't fondly remember) with something like Tom Clancy's
Executive Orders
, which presents the right-wing rationale of why and when the government should be allowed to exceed the boundaries of the Constitution and its amendments.
Unlike the YA material of the fifties, this book does not ignore an item of great concern to almost every teenager, namely sex. I found the presentation of this material both appropriate to the characters and handled realistically without being too graphic. However, it might make this book inappropriate for pre-teens.
Teenagers should find this book a riveting read, with characters they can identify with, and like all really good YA books, adults should find this book just as riveting, with concepts and philosophies presented that require thought and contemplation. This is the best book I've read out of the 2008 crop so far, and I'd be very much surprised if it doesn't at least make the 2009 Hugo nomination list, if not take the award itself.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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Reviews with images
A stark, dark look at paranoid dystopian overreach of government authority into American daily life
REVIEWED: Little BrotherWRITTEN BY: Cory DoctorowPUBLISHED: April, 2008 by Tor BooksThis book was a stark, dark read, a not-too-far-off look at paranoid dystopian overreach of government authority into American daily life. Trigger Warnings are in order for government/military torture of high school students, which was incredibly uncomfortable, mostly because of the framing for the episodes to ultimately be very believable.Doctorow is a smart writer, a smart person, and this book shows for it. It’s complex, discusses technology and spyware and hacking techniques which “may” be real or may not (it’s beyond my knowledge!), but plays out for a fascinating, often fun, surprising and suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse between the teenage protagonist against the Department of Homeland Security.There were several scenes of the book that ultimately came across as heavy-handed (sermonizing) discussing personal liberty against public safety, and interpretation of constitutional rights. Often the book’s pacing fell off, just getting slow and tepid, but then it would pick up to excitement and thrills—I felt like I would struggle through sections, but then, ultimately it would pay off. The book was filled with stand-out unique characters and confrontations, and ultimately had a great, satisfying ending.Four-and-a-quarter out of Five stars
Top reviews from other countries
Michał
if you’re going to read one book this year – this is the one
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2014