A review by tnanz
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
3.0
This is certainly a book I'd recommend to other people. I'm not sure exactly who, but they are out there. This book had the same moralizing heavy handedness as a Louisa May Alcott book, which I can really enjoy. But I think something about the moralizing in this book felt canned. The bad guys were too clearly bad, the good guys too good. There's more to fear from the wafflers of this world than the pure dogmatic people.
Perhaps if I had read this as a young adult I would have liked it better. Definitely possible.
There were several things I really enjoyed about the story though: I ultimately agree with its message that privacy is something worth defending, the plot was quick and interesting, and the author did a particularly good job of capturing the addictiveness of being known for being smart. That's admirable. The romantic story I didn't find interesting or realistic at all. There are a few plot holes and loose strings at the end of the book that you would think a coder, with the inevitable eye for detail, would have noticed and cleaned up.
Also, while I feel like Doctorow did an acceptable job explaining encryption, it wasn't great. His explanation of Bayesian analysis was much better. I gues that would be the target audience I would recommend this book to: young people who have a passing acquaintance with coding, but no substantial background. It would be a gripping and adequate primer to the subject.
Overall, I feel like it's a shame that the story telling aspects of this novel weren't better. The message is important and the plot fairly well done: making your characters more realistic and interesting wouldn't be terribly difficult. If this were Doctorow's first book, all would be forgiven, but as his fourth... I can't say that I'll be keeping an eye out for Doctorow at the bookstore.
Perhaps if I had read this as a young adult I would have liked it better. Definitely possible.
There were several things I really enjoyed about the story though: I ultimately agree with its message that privacy is something worth defending, the plot was quick and interesting, and the author did a particularly good job of capturing the addictiveness of being known for being smart. That's admirable. The romantic story I didn't find interesting or realistic at all. There are a few plot holes and loose strings at the end of the book that you would think a coder, with the inevitable eye for detail, would have noticed and cleaned up.
Also, while I feel like Doctorow did an acceptable job explaining encryption, it wasn't great. His explanation of Bayesian analysis was much better. I gues that would be the target audience I would recommend this book to: young people who have a passing acquaintance with coding, but no substantial background. It would be a gripping and adequate primer to the subject.
Overall, I feel like it's a shame that the story telling aspects of this novel weren't better. The message is important and the plot fairly well done: making your characters more realistic and interesting wouldn't be terribly difficult. If this were Doctorow's first book, all would be forgiven, but as his fourth... I can't say that I'll be keeping an eye out for Doctorow at the bookstore.