dawnoftheread's review against another edition
5.0
Possibly one of the most important teen books of the year, if not the decade. Important concepts and ideas put across in a totally entertaining way. Highly recommended to everyone who cares about the future of America.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
5.0
Currently re-reading for book group. The beginning is pretty good. But it bogs down some. And then it bogs down more because it makes me blood boiling furious. But still I didn't see why I had given it a five star. And then I reached the point that I did. Still reading though. It is hard to believe that I read this for the first time so long ago - 2013 - in the beginning of the second Obama presidency.
And re-read finished. It goes a little too geeky at times. But it's worth reading now just as much.
A very quick read, especially if you are already at least vaguely familiar with computer networking, cryptography, signing parties and larping and the beat poets and yippies. I am still referencing a Doctorow story of the day google turns evil - http://cloudflare-watch.org/doctorow.html - this is a reasonable though unrelated followup to that. The original Franklin quote is apparently - "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". The modified version" most relevant to this book is "Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither". Simply put, this book is worth reading. But then again I don't recall ever being a "my country right or wrong" kind of guy. The US (or at least the story behind the US) is built on the idea that it is everyone's responsibility to keep everyone free. It makes genuine differences in opinion much more difficult - because we are brought up that bad laws are meant to be broken and then changed. In this book one particular outpost of the US government turns evil and needs to be brought to justice - to me it sounded all too true.
And re-read finished. It goes a little too geeky at times. But it's worth reading now just as much.
A very quick read, especially if you are already at least vaguely familiar with computer networking, cryptography, signing parties and larping and the beat poets and yippies. I am still referencing a Doctorow story of the day google turns evil - http://cloudflare-watch.org/doctorow.html - this is a reasonable though unrelated followup to that. The original Franklin quote is apparently - "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". The modified version" most relevant to this book is "Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither". Simply put, this book is worth reading. But then again I don't recall ever being a "my country right or wrong" kind of guy. The US (or at least the story behind the US) is built on the idea that it is everyone's responsibility to keep everyone free. It makes genuine differences in opinion much more difficult - because we are brought up that bad laws are meant to be broken and then changed. In this book one particular outpost of the US government turns evil and needs to be brought to justice - to me it sounded all too true.
elderfox's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
mushies's review against another edition
3.0
1984 meets "Red Dawn" and "War Games."
I am glad that I listened to this as a book on tape because I don't believe that I would be able to get through all the technological information thrown at me through the book.
I liked where this idea could have gone: techie kids playing a find-and-seek game using wifi connections in the city when terrorists blow up part of the city. Panic starts. Marcus and his friends playing the game were black bagged and picked up by Homeland Security. After being released with all but one of his friends, Marcus goes on a viral vendetta against his torturers.
I don't understand tech very well, so, again, I am glad that I listened to this novel rather than read it physically, and feel that I would have shut the covers shortly into the book.
I feel that I don't get any closure to the bombing terrorism that is happening in the city while Homeland Security is busy trying to capture these techie kids. There are constant reminders that "we're fighting terrorists from Al Qaeda" but never do we see what is happening with these agendas.
Regarding why the book was challenged and removed, I feel that is little compared to the other themes in the book: torture and false imprisonment of teenagers. I don't understand why hacking is the bigger issue instead of the TORTURE and falsifying information in the name of Homeland Security.
This book was on the most current banned and challenged list. Little Brother was removed as the approved reading assignment in the Pensacola, Fla. (2014), One School/One Book summer reading program by a high school principal because it promoted hacker culture. The principal “made it clear that the book was being challenged because of its politics and its content.” In response Doctorow and his publisher sent 200 complimentary copies of the book directly to students at the school.
I would recommend this to teenagers and people into tech. It was good.
I am glad that I listened to this as a book on tape because I don't believe that I would be able to get through all the technological information thrown at me through the book.
I liked where this idea could have gone: techie kids playing a find-and-seek game using wifi connections in the city when terrorists blow up part of the city. Panic starts. Marcus and his friends playing the game were black bagged and picked up by Homeland Security. After being released with all but one of his friends, Marcus goes on a viral vendetta against his torturers.
I don't understand tech very well, so, again, I am glad that I listened to this novel rather than read it physically, and feel that I would have shut the covers shortly into the book.
I feel that I don't get any closure to the bombing terrorism that is happening in the city while Homeland Security is busy trying to capture these techie kids. There are constant reminders that "we're fighting terrorists from Al Qaeda" but never do we see what is happening with these agendas.
Regarding why the book was challenged and removed, I feel that is little compared to the other themes in the book: torture and false imprisonment of teenagers. I don't understand why hacking is the bigger issue instead of the TORTURE and falsifying information in the name of Homeland Security.
This book was on the most current banned and challenged list. Little Brother was removed as the approved reading assignment in the Pensacola, Fla. (2014), One School/One Book summer reading program by a high school principal because it promoted hacker culture. The principal “made it clear that the book was being challenged because of its politics and its content.” In response Doctorow and his publisher sent 200 complimentary copies of the book directly to students at the school.
I would recommend this to teenagers and people into tech. It was good.
shallowdepths's review against another edition
3.0
Very readable, and on a topic I care about. YA is not an excuse to completely avoid nuance though.
isabellaweise's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
msdaisylaurel's review against another edition
1.0
I got through Chapter one feeling like the characters were pretty one dimensional, and their assessment of growing up in SF sounded like it came from a television series. One of the most excruciating parts was the laptop hack that allowed a Firefox browser to run because it was called "$SYS FIREFOX" *cringe*.
However, I couldn't listen to chapter 2 after hearing the author's description of the Tenderloin. If the ONLY thing you can say about the REAL LIVE HUMAN BEINGS in the Tenderloin district is "cracked out hobos and tracked up transvestites" then either the characters are awful characters that I have no way to empathize with and/or the author is an awful person with whom I cannot empathize.
Descriptions of San Francisco like this sound like they're coming from a zoned out tech broster who never walks in the City without headphones and a clutched purse. Or maybe literally never walks in the City and just takes Uber or Lyft everywhere. If you are unable to provide a storyline or character arc that includes a failure to acknowledge the humanity of ALL people, and not just people who look like the author, then you're not a great writer.
However, I couldn't listen to chapter 2 after hearing the author's description of the Tenderloin. If the ONLY thing you can say about the REAL LIVE HUMAN BEINGS in the Tenderloin district is "cracked out hobos and tracked up transvestites" then either the characters are awful characters that I have no way to empathize with and/or the author is an awful person with whom I cannot empathize.
Descriptions of San Francisco like this sound like they're coming from a zoned out tech broster who never walks in the City without headphones and a clutched purse. Or maybe literally never walks in the City and just takes Uber or Lyft everywhere. If you are unable to provide a storyline or character arc that includes a failure to acknowledge the humanity of ALL people, and not just people who look like the author, then you're not a great writer.
mxinky's review against another edition
5.0
Awesome young adult book about a teenager trying to take down the Department of Homeland Security. It is a little heavy on explaining why the DHS is awful and also digresses a lot into how to do certain techy things. But I can forgive that because I understand that the book is for younger people. A fun read, good to give to a 15-year old niece or nephew if you think their parents can handle it!
missprint_'s review against another edition
1.0
I don't know what I was expecting when I opened Little Brother (2008) by Cory Doctorow. What I do know is that those expectations were largely colored by Doctorow's appearances in various web-comic-strips on XKCD as a red cape wearing blogger who flies around in a hot air balloon.
Anyway, Marcus Yallow is a senior in San Francisco in the near future. He goes to Cesar Chavez High School which makes him one of the most surveilled people in the world. There's a terrorist attack, he's held captive in a Guantanamo Bay-esque prison, he's released and then he decides to use his hacker skillz to get even and reclaim his city from the sinister clutches of Homeland Security.
And as action-packed as that sounds, the book never became more than a mildly interesting bit of tedious reading for me.
I'm fairly tech savvy, and I do worry about privacy and the like, but after finishing Little Brother the only piece of tech-related advice I retained from the story was that crypto is really awesome. Doctorow tries to embed useful information into the story, but it is either too basic to be interesting or too specialized and esoteric to make sense.
I'm not a teenager and I come from a liberal household and I was living in Greenwich Village during 9/11. I found it irritating that Doctorow's character's seemed to operate in a very binary way. Young people (for the most part) opposed the Department of Homeland Security while older people (for the most part) blithely accepted martial law. Really?
Finally, the real reason I disliked this book is that it just was not well put together. With all due respect to the importance of this novel's subject matter, the writing was far from impressing. The descriptions of technology were almost always too long (and often too technical) to be seamlessly integrated into a novel.
The novel's continuity verged on non-existent. For instance, Marcus makes a point of mentioning in the early pages that he is wearing boots for easy removal at metal detectors. Yet when he is released he receives his sneakers back with clean clothes. The core of the story--about Marcus' missing friend--is left hanging for vast spans of the plot. Doctorow is at pains to create a core group for Marcus only to have them all removed from the story by the halfway point and then haphazardly mentioned in a rushed ending.
Marcus was also a bit annoying as a narrator--particularly when in the company of his girlfriend. Realistic depictions of teens aside, I was hoping for a bit more from characters (teen or otherwise) in a novel which is grounded in such extraordinary circumstances.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
Anyway, Marcus Yallow is a senior in San Francisco in the near future. He goes to Cesar Chavez High School which makes him one of the most surveilled people in the world. There's a terrorist attack, he's held captive in a Guantanamo Bay-esque prison, he's released and then he decides to use his hacker skillz to get even and reclaim his city from the sinister clutches of Homeland Security.
And as action-packed as that sounds, the book never became more than a mildly interesting bit of tedious reading for me.
I'm fairly tech savvy, and I do worry about privacy and the like, but after finishing Little Brother the only piece of tech-related advice I retained from the story was that crypto is really awesome. Doctorow tries to embed useful information into the story, but it is either too basic to be interesting or too specialized and esoteric to make sense.
I'm not a teenager and I come from a liberal household and I was living in Greenwich Village during 9/11. I found it irritating that Doctorow's character's seemed to operate in a very binary way. Young people (for the most part) opposed the Department of Homeland Security while older people (for the most part) blithely accepted martial law. Really?
Finally, the real reason I disliked this book is that it just was not well put together. With all due respect to the importance of this novel's subject matter, the writing was far from impressing. The descriptions of technology were almost always too long (and often too technical) to be seamlessly integrated into a novel.
The novel's continuity verged on non-existent. For instance, Marcus makes a point of mentioning in the early pages that he is wearing boots for easy removal at metal detectors. Yet when he is released he receives his sneakers back with clean clothes. The core of the story--about Marcus' missing friend--is left hanging for vast spans of the plot. Doctorow is at pains to create a core group for Marcus only to have them all removed from the story by the halfway point and then haphazardly mentioned in a rushed ending.
Marcus was also a bit annoying as a narrator--particularly when in the company of his girlfriend. Realistic depictions of teens aside, I was hoping for a bit more from characters (teen or otherwise) in a novel which is grounded in such extraordinary circumstances.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
jsmithborne's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. It did give me flashback nightmares (literally, bad dreams at night) to Feed at first, because it felt pretty similar--young people; commercial, high tech future; but the similarity ends there. I'm just starting Feed, so I imagine I'll have a better grasp of the differences when I finish that, but Doctorow's book ends with the teens mostly winning, and changing the system. Feed is so much about the relationship between Violet and the narrator, and his inability to really connect with her is so sad to me that I could hardly stand it. But in Little Brother the teens seem pretty self-aware and empathic, and develop honest connections.