A review by insomni
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
5.0
A great read if you are a techie and are even a little concerned about all the chaos regarding privacy currently going on. I've been in IT professionally for about 5 years now and I really appreciated the fact that a lot of the information in this book is aimed at teaching people more about the technology they use everyday in terms that they can understand. Information security is a huge part of this book and, after finishing it, I had the strong desire to go out and learn more about information security on my own. This was not only evident when it came to technology, but it was also used to help educate the reader on some basic history involving civil rights movements in the USA.
Aside from being educational, Little Brother's idea of the government abusing it's power and stripping everyone's basic privacy rights away to catch the "terrorists" sure doesn't feel fictional as new stories continue to break (NSA & Verizon anyone?). The not-so-distant future of 2015 is very believable and the various reactions from people and the stances they take when faced with the changes to their world is how I have personally seen people react to things done in the past few years.
The story itself is gripping, you feel for Marcus and all the stuff he's gone through. Cory Doctorow does a great job of helping you feel Marcus' anxiety, fear, and overall weight of what is going on. Not to mention the anger and frustration he feels when things don't go according to plan.
I couldn't put the book down and finished it over the course of this weekend. There were a few minor items that were missed on editing that kind of jarred me, but that's all from a technical writing point of view. These were very, very few and did not harm my reading experience.
Overall a great read. It might make you a little more paranoid about your privacy when it comes to electronics and anything with an internet connection, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. At the very least, you may learn a few things you didn't know about technology or the civil rights movement. Totally recommend this book if you have the slightest interest in government cover ups, tech talk, or even just seeing someone playing their cards better than an "evil" government entity.
Aside from being educational, Little Brother's idea of the government abusing it's power and stripping everyone's basic privacy rights away to catch the "terrorists" sure doesn't feel fictional as new stories continue to break (NSA & Verizon anyone?). The not-so-distant future of 2015 is very believable and the various reactions from people and the stances they take when faced with the changes to their world is how I have personally seen people react to things done in the past few years.
The story itself is gripping, you feel for Marcus and all the stuff he's gone through. Cory Doctorow does a great job of helping you feel Marcus' anxiety, fear, and overall weight of what is going on. Not to mention the anger and frustration he feels when things don't go according to plan.
I couldn't put the book down and finished it over the course of this weekend. There were a few minor items that were missed on editing that kind of jarred me, but that's all from a technical writing point of view. These were very, very few and did not harm my reading experience.
Overall a great read. It might make you a little more paranoid about your privacy when it comes to electronics and anything with an internet connection, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. At the very least, you may learn a few things you didn't know about technology or the civil rights movement. Totally recommend this book if you have the slightest interest in government cover ups, tech talk, or even just seeing someone playing their cards better than an "evil" government entity.