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Little Brother | 
 enlarge | Author: Cory Doctorow
Publisher: Tor Teen
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $9.82
You Save: $8.13 (45%)
New (37) Used (10) Collectible (6) from $9.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 1547
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0765319853
EAN: 9780765319852
ASIN: 0765319853
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Echoing the many praises... July 18, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I will just echo what so many others have said. This is an excellent book for the "older young adult" (mid teens perhaps?) who is looking for a good read. It's a coming of age story, set in the near future (perhaps even current day) with a message that is important. Blind obedience to government is not a good thing, among other lessons.
As a parent, I would be more than comfortable to give it to my children when they are old enough (13 or 14 and up).
birthday gift for my son July 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
i ordered this book for my son for his birthday it was so good he read it in one day.
Better than Anything "1984" Strived to Be July 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pretty darn amazing if I do say so myself! Unlike it's "Big Brother", pardon the pun, Little Brother is written in a thoroughly interesting and provocative way that challenges the way anyone thinks. It tells of a frightening future, one the country may in fact be heading towards, and a geeky rebellion that proves that kids have the power, too. Marcus, aka m1k3y, is no ordinary teenager, as he has the guts to not only stand up for what he believes in, but to take action no ordinary kid has would. He is what everyone should strive to be, unafraid to believe and act. It all starts and ends because of a simple game, but by the end, there's no game left, and it's all for real, as this 17 year old hacker takes on the Department of Homeland Security itself.
I suppose my one real complaint is that we never got a clear resolution on the Darryl/Van/Marcus triangle, but, you know, the book's bigger than that :) Marcus's dad was irritating, and I was highly glad to see that he did change at the end of the book (which does give me some hope for the future).
The parallels to the world we live in today are so...non-subtle, but at the same time, hidden. Scary and amazing at the same time.
I can only hope that if the time should ever come, we realize that we have the power to act, no matter how young we may be. Don't Trust Anyone Over 25, and bite bite bite bite bite!
 Short version: Read BoingBoing instead... July 7, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Little Brother fits in perfectly with the rest of Doctorow's body of work: intriguing plots marred by two-dimensional characters who don't actually interact with one another so much as they preach at each other. This tendency isn't quite the narrative buzzkill as it is elsewhere, but it doesn't make the book any more fun to read.
His characters are leaden caricatures without a hint of subtlety. The government henchfolk are Evil with a capital-E, the supporters of the new regime are mindless drones who seem to forget each frustration and lesson as soon as they've happened, and our hero's friends are all good but apparently weak willed. Meanwhile, Marcus, while no paragon of virtue, is simply too good to be true. In fact so many of his beliefs and interests are ported from Doctorow's posts at BoingBoing that I began to feel that Marcus was even less of a character and more of a surrogate for Doctorow's wish fulfillment: an anti-establishment "hacker" who speaks 1337, has a host of neat au courant interests, loves cutting edge bands, believes in the boilerplate of the EFF and the ACLU and gets the girl too!
Not that he doesn't have doubts and fears, but at no point did I ever think that he'd change his ways. No sooner does he worry that he might be going to far but something comes up to prove him right. Over and over again: Will our hero persevere? Of course! Why worry? Especially after the fourth crisis of faith.
Is it an informative read? Yeah. There's a lot of talk about civil liberties and networks and internet privacy that's worth reading. Is it a fun read? Not even close. Between the seemingly constant preaching and the completely unsatisfying conclusion, I finished the book simply to say I was done with it. And I am: I'm done with this book and, unless someone convinces me otherwise, I am done with Doctorow's work.
 Dissapointing July 5, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I believe that Doctorow has an excellent foundation in his premise. However, I must agree with several other reviews in that his characters (both good and evil) are one-dimensional and completely unrealistic. I like his ideas and respect what seems to be his beliefs, however I feel that a potentially good story has been sacrificed at the expense of the author attempting to push his political opinions on the world at large. The entire work is convoluted with dialogue about the authors opinions.
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