Little Brother

Critics

• Little Brother

  Marcus and his friends bunk off school to take part in a treasure hunt in the Bay Bridge area of San Francisco. Caught up in what they think is an earthquake, in the ensuing panic they find themselves picked up by the Department for Homeland Security ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

• Nerd Activists

  In the opening chapters of “Little Brother,” a near-future terrorist attack hits San Francisco’s Bay Bridge and a teenager named Marcus Yallow is arbitrarily and brutally detained in the federal crackdown that follows. Marcus is a likable if undeniab ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

10 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  If there's a book worth reading and giving out as a present in this particular historical period, that is "Little Brother". What is our world really like?

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  Chiara L'Onironauta said on Nov 7, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Leggetelo

  La mia recensione è qui:
  http://www.sheldonpax.net/2010/01/29/little-brother-2/

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  Sheldonpax said on Jan 30, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Solid, but standard immediate-future Doctorow fare with his standard flaws. So entirely of its moment that it already seems dated, and championing its causes unabashedly at the expense of the narrative. Problems are largely resolved by the likeable first-person protagonist Marcus spontaneously break ... (continue)

  Solid, but standard immediate-future Doctorow fare with his standard flaws. So entirely of its moment that it already seems dated, and championing its causes unabashedly at the expense of the narrative. Problems are largely resolved by the likeable first-person protagonist Marcus spontaneously breaking character, shifting to the present tense and describing a contemporary technological issue in the voice of the author.

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  calebuck said on Aug 23, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  A hackers novel on a 17 years old techie who does not accept technological control and after being accidentally arrested as an aftermath of a terrorist attack declares technological war to Homeland Security.
  Structured as a David and Goliath novel in a teenage computer freaks world and spoken in a ... (continue)

  A hackers novel on a 17 years old techie who does not accept technological control and after being accidentally arrested as an aftermath of a terrorist attack declares technological war to Homeland Security.
  Structured as a David and Goliath novel in a teenage computer freaks world and spoken in a teenage language, it forms a politically engaged plot on what we consider the values of freedom, on the role of technology, on the relation between old and new generations, on US cyber subcultures and on hacking.
  I guess it's worth reading although I didn't like the literary extreme colloquial style.

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  minomataio said on Aug 24, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Well done, Cory!
  If I read this when I was 14, it would have changed my life. At present, finally I found some time to tune up my TOR browser :)

  Cory is the author of one of the finest SF tales I've ever read: "When sysadmins ruled the Earth". That tale was great also because it did not explain all ... (continue)

  Well done, Cory!
  If I read this when I was 14, it would have changed my life. At present, finally I found some time to tune up my TOR browser :)

  Cory is the author of one of the finest SF tales I've ever read: "When sysadmins ruled the Earth". That tale was great also because it did not explain all the tech involved. On the contrary this "Little brother" novel is full of howtos and explanations: it can be useful to readers, but I think maybe young people already know a big part of this stuff, and speaking of IT in books should require a new kind of language.

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  The Flash said on Jun 27, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  A good story about a possible near future (or present) where the government takes away freedom and privacy in exchange for a false sense of security, and what we as normal people can do about it.

  The story is technologically heavy and it often stops the plot to explain the basics of several o ... (continue)

  A good story about a possible near future (or present) where the government takes away freedom and privacy in exchange for a false sense of security, and what we as normal people can do about it.

  The story is technologically heavy and it often stops the plot to explain the basics of several of the hardware and software used by the main character. This gets sometimes annoying as the explanations aren't always woven into the story but simply infodumped on the reader. The plot itself is quite linear and not exceedingly original, though it works well in context as it's supposed to remind us of the security-related events in the recent history of the US; still, it feels at times that the story is nothing more than a macguffin for the book's underlying message. Summing up, it suffers from a bit of patronizing, which is a common mistake in first-time writers for kids and young adults.

  All in all it's a good book for young adults (and adults tout court) who want to discover more about the world of privacy and security.

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  Ian Atrus said on Jul 7, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Others 384 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0765323117
• ISBN-13: 9780765323118
• Publisher: Tor Teen
• Pub date: Apr 13, 2010
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover and Audio CD
• In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Libri Italiani

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