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Item must be in original condition and packaging along with tag, accessories, manuals, and inserts. Unlock any electronic device, delete your account and remove all personal information. |
Returnable | Yes |
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Return Window | 30 days from delivery |
Refund Timelines | Typically, an advance refund will be issued within 24 hours of a drop-off or pick-up. For returns that require physical verification, refund issuance may take up to 30 days after drop-off or pick up. Where an advance refund is issued, we will re-charge your payment method if we do not receive the correct item in original condition. See details here. |
Late fee | A late fee of 20% of the item price will apply if you complete the drop off or pick up after the ‘Return By Date’. |
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Little Brother (Little Brother, 1) Paperback – April 13, 2010
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The first in Cory Doctorow’s New York Times bestselling YA series about a youthful rebellion against the torture-and-surveillance state.
“A wonderful, important book ... I’d recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I’ve read this year.” –Neil Gaiman
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.
- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 13, 2010
- Grade level8 and up
- Reading age13 years and up
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-100765323117
- ISBN-13978-0765323118
- Lexile measure900L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion." --Scott Westerfeld, author of "Uglies," "Pretties," and "Specials," on "Little Brother"
"A worthy younger sibling to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary." --Brian K. Vaughan, author of the graphic novel "Y: The Last Man" on "Little Brother"
"A tale of struggle familiar to any teenager, about those moments when you choose what your life is going to mean." --Steven Gould, author of "Jumper," on "Little Brother"
"A believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco ... Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions... within a tautly crafted fictional framework." -"Publishers Weekly" starred review on Little Brother ("Featured in "PW" Children's e-newsletter)"
"Readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution ... Buy multiple copies; thisbook will be h4wt (that's 'hot, ' for the nonhackers)." -"Booklist" starred review on Little Brother ("Selected as a "Booklist" "Review of the Day")"
"Marcus is a wonderfully developed character: hyperaware of his surroundings, trying to redress past wrongs, and rebelling against authority ... Raising pertinent questions and fostering discussion, this techno-thriller is an outstanding first purchase." -"School Library Journal "starred review on Little Brother
""Little Brother" is generally awesome in the more vernacular sense: It's pretty freaking cool ... a fluid, instantly ingratiating fiction writer ... he's also terrific at finding the human aura shimmering around technology." -"The Los Angeles Times "on Little Brother
"Scarily realistic...Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile's civil protest." --Andrew "bunnie" Huang, author of "Hacking the Xbox," on "Little Brother"
"The right book at the right time from the right author--and, not entirely coincidentally, Cory Doctorow's best novel yet." --John Scalzi, bestselling author of "Old Man's War," on "Little Brother"
"I was completely hooked in the first few minutes. Great work." --Mitch Kapor, inventor of Lotus 1-2-3 and co-founder of the EFF, on "Little Brother""
"
"Little Brother is a brilliant novel with a bold argument: hackers and gamers might just be our country's best hope for the future." --Jane McGonigal, designer of the alternate-reality game I Love Bees on "Little Brother"
""Little Brother" sounds an optimistic warning. It extrapolates from current events to remind us of the ever-growing threats to liberty. But it also notes thatliberty ultimately resides in our individual attitudes and actions. In our increasingly authoritarian world, I especially hope that teenagers and young adults will read it--and then persuade their peers, parents and teachers to follow suit." --Dan Gillmor, technology journalist, author of "We the Media" on "Little Brother"
"It's about growing up in the near future where things have kept going on the way they've been going, and it's about hacking as a habit of mind, but mostly it's about growing up and changing and looking at the world and asking what you can do about that. The teenage voice is pitch-perfect. I couldn't put it down, and I loved it." --Jo Walton, author of "Farthing" on "Little Brother"
"Read this book. You'll learn a great deal about computer security, surveillance and how to counter it, and the risk of trading off freedom for 'security.' And you'll have fun doing it." --Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media on" Little Brother"
"I know many science fiction writers engaged in the cyber-world, but Cory Doctorow is a native...We should all hope and trust that our culture has the guts and moxie to follow this guy. He's got a lot to tell us." --Bruce Sterling
"Cory Doctorow doesn't just write about the future--I think he lives there." --Kelly Link, author of "Stranger Things Happen"
"Doctorow throws off cool ideas the way champagne generates bubbles...[he] definitely has the goods." --"San Francisco"" Chronicle"
"Doctorow is one of sci-fi's most exciting young writers." --"Cargo Magazine"
"A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion." --Scott Westerfeld, author of "Uglies," "Pretties," and "Specials," on "Little Brother
"
"A worthy younger sibling to Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary." --Brian K. Vaughan, author of the graphic novel "Y: The Last Man"
"A tale of struggle familiar to any teenager, about those moments when you choose what your life is going to mean." --Steven Gould, author of "Jumper," on "Little Brother
"
"Scarily realistic...Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophile's civil protest." --Andrew "bunnie" Huang, author of "Hacking the Xbox," on "Little Brother
"
"The right book at the right time from the right author--and, not entirely coincidentally, Cory Doctorow's best novel yet." --John Scalzi, bestselling author of "Old Man's War," on "Little Brother
"
"I was completely hooked in the first few minutes. Great work." --Mitch Kapor, inventor of Lotus 1-2-3 and co-founder of the EFF, on "Little Brother"
""Little Brother "is a brilliant novel with a bold argument: hackers and gamers might just be our country's best hope for the future." --Jane McGonigal, designer of the alternate-reality game I Love Bees
"I know many science fiction writers engaged in the cyber-world, but Cory Doctorow is a native...We should all hope and trust that our culture has the guts and moxie to follow this guy. He's got a lot to tell us." --Bruce Sterling
"Cory Doctorow doesn't just write about the future--I think he lives there." --Kelly Link, author of "Stranger Things Happen"
"Doctorow throws off cool ideas the way champagne generates bubbles...[he] definitely has the goods." --"San Francisco"" Chronicle"
"Doctorow is one of sci-fi's most exciting young writers." --"Cargo Magazine"
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Little Brother
By Doctorow, CoryTor Teen
Copyright © 2010 Doctorow, CoryAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780765323118
Chapter 1 I’m a senior at Cesar Chavez, High in San Francisco’s sunny Mission district, and that makes me one of the most surveilled people in the world. My name is Marcus Yallow, but back when this story starts, I was going by w1n5t0n. Pronounced "Winston." Not pronounced "Double-you-one-enn-five-tee-zero-enn"— unless you’re a clueless disciplinary officer who’s far enough behind the curve that you still call the Internet "the information superhighway." I know just such a clueless person, and his name is Fred Benson, one of three vice-principals at Cesar Chavez. He’s a sucking chest wound of a human being. But if you’re going to have a jailer, better a clueless one than one who’s really on the ball. "Marcus Yallow," he said over the PA one Friday morning. The PA isn’t very good to begin with, and when you combine that with Benson’s habitual mumble, you get something that sounds more like someone struggling to digest a bad burrito than a school announcement. But human beings are good at picking their names out of audio confusion—it’s a survival trait. I grabbed my bag and folded my laptop three-quarters shut—I didn’t want to blow my downloads—and got ready for the inevitable. "Report to the administration office immediately." My social studies teacher, Ms. Galvez, rolled her eyes at me and I rolled my eyes back at her. The Man was always coming down on me, just because I go through school firewalls like wet kleenex, spoof the gait-recognition software, and nuke the snitch chips they track us with. Galvez is a good type, anyway, never holds that against me (especially when I’m helping get with her webmail so she can talk to her brother who’s stationed in Iraq). My boy Darryl gave me a smack on the ass as I walked past. I’ve known Darryl since we were still in diapers and escaping from play-school, and I’ve been getting him into and out of trouble the whole time. I raised my arms over my head like a prizefighter and made my exit from Social Studies and began the perp-walk to the office. I was halfway there when my phone went. That was another no-no—phones are muy prohibido at Chavez High—but why should that stop me? I ducked into the toilet and shut myself in the middle stall (the farthest stall is always grossest because so many people head straight for it, hoping to escape the smell and the squick—the smart money and good hygiene is down the middle). I checked the phone—my home PC had sent it an email to tell it that there was something new up on Harajuku Fun Madness, which happens to be the best game ever invented. I grinned. Spending Fridays at school was teh suck anyway, and I was glad of the excuse to make my escape. I ambled the rest of the way to Benson’s office and tossed him a wave as I sailed through the door. "If it isn’t Double-you-one-enn-five-tee-zero-enn," he said. Fredrick Benson—Social Security number 545–03–2343, date of birth August 15 1962, mother’s maiden name Di Bona, hometown Petaluma—is a lot taller than me. I’m a runty 5'8", while he stands 6'7", and his college basketball days are far enough behind him that his chest muscles have turned into saggy man-boobs that were painfully obvious through his freebie dot-com polo shirts. He always looks like he’s about to slam-dunk your ass, and he’s really into raising his voice for dramatic effect. Both these start to lose their efficacy with repeated application. "Sorry, nope," I said. "I never heard of this R2D2 character of yours." "W1n5t0n," he said, spelling it out again. He gave me a hairy eyeball and waited for me to wilt. Of course it was my handle, and had been for years. It was the identity I used when I was posting on message boards where I was making my contributions to the field of applied security research. You know, like sneaking out of school and disabling the minder-tracer on my phone. But he didn’t know that this was my handle. Only a small number of people did, and I trusted them all to the end of the earth. "Um, not ringing any bells," I said. I’d done some pretty cool stuff around school using that handle—I was very proud of my work on snitch-tag killers—and if he could link the two identities, I’d be in trouble. No one at school ever called me w1n5t0n or even Winston. Not even my pals. It was Marcus or nothing. Benson settled down behind his desk and tapped his class ring nervously on his blotter. He did this whenever things started to go bad for him. Poker players call stuff like this a "tell"— something that lets you know what’s going on in the other guy’s head. I knew Benson’s tells backwards and forwards. "Marcus, I hope you realize how serious this is." "I will just as soon as you explain what this is, sir." I always say "sir" to authority figures when I’m messing with them. It’s my own tell. He shook his head at me and looked down, another tell. Any second now, he was going to start shouting at me. "Listen, kiddo! It’s time you came to grips with the fact that we know about what you’ve been doing, and that we’re not going to be lenient about it. You’re going to be lucky if you’re not expelled before this meeting is through. Do you want to graduate?" "Mr. Benson, you still haven’t explained what the problem is—" He slammed his hand down on the desk and then pointed his finger at me. "The problem, Mr. Yallow, is that you’ve been engaged in criminal conspiracy to subvert this school’s security system, and you have supplied security countermeasures to your fellow students. You know that we expelled Graciella Uriarte last week for using one of your devices." Uriarte had gotten a bad rap. She’d bought a radio-jammer from a head shop near the 16th Street BART station and it had set off the countermeasures in the school hallway. Not my doing, but I felt for her. "And you think I’m involved in that?" "We have reliable intelligence indicating that you are w1n5t0n"—again, he spelled it out, and I began to wonder if he hadn’t figured out that the 1 was an I and the 5 was an S. "We know that this w1n5t0n character is responsible for the theft of last year’s standardized tests." That actually hadn’t been me, but it was a sweet hack, and it was kind of flattering to hear it attributed to me. "And therefore liable for several years in prison unless you cooperate with me." "You have ‘reliable intelligence’? I’d like to see it." He glowered at me. "Your attitude isn’t going to help you." "If there’s evidence, sir, I think you should call the police and turn it over to them. It sounds like this is a very serious matter, and I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of a proper investigation by the duly constituted authorities." "You want me to call the police." "And my parents, I think. That would be for the best." We stared at each other across the desk. He’d clearly expected me to fold the second he dropped the bomb on me. I don’t fold. I have a trick for staring down people like Benson. I look slightly to the left of their heads, and think about the lyrics to old Irish folk songs, the kind with three hundred verses. It makes me look perfectly composed and unworried. And the wing was on the bird and the bird was on the egg and the egg was in the nest and the nest was on the leaf and the leaf was on the twig and the twig was on the branch and the branch was on the limb and the limb was in the tree and the tree was in the bog—the bog down in the valley-oh! Hi
Continues...
Excerpted from Little Brother by Doctorow, Cory Copyright © 2010 by Doctorow, Cory. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : Tor Teen; First Edition (April 13, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0765323117
- ISBN-13 : 978-0765323118
- Reading age : 13 years and up
- Lexile measure : 900L
- Grade level : 8 and up
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #95,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER. His latest novel is ATTACK SURFACE, a standalone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book interesting and eye-opening, with a compelling storyline. They describe the writing style as well-written, realistic, and easy to identify with. Readers also praise the well-developed characters and fast-paced plot. They say the book is an outstanding young adult novel and a primer on civil liberties.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the storyline compelling, with good action development. They also describe the novel as wonderful, terrifying, and fun. Readers also mention that it's not a dense or intricate read.
"...The story bubbles with suspense, and the actions that Marcus takes are very believable as something a seventeen-year old could actually do...." Read more
"...I defiantly believe (for the most part anyhow) that LITTLE BROTHER's plot is plausible and something like this could easily happen in the not so far..." Read more
"...The book has a compelling story that may be too much for some. This pre-attack California is scary and a little too telling...." Read more
"...The overall subject matter is "deep". And it's really just barely science fiction... everything described in Little Brother already exists..." Read more
Customers find the book interesting and eye-opening, with profound social commentary. They also describe it as a feast for geeks, a political tract, and a great book to get young adults thinking about the powers of the state. Readers also mention that the book is a cautionary tale and an up-to-date thriller.
"...those earlier books, it portrays teenagers that are intelligent, resourceful, game-loving, and confrontational, but are still at times prone to..." Read more
"...views within this story, I will give him credit creating a thought provoking story with believable character and situations...." Read more
"...It is not only current and politically relevant for the world we live in today, it was fun to read and exciting!..." Read more
"...who constantly speaks out against Internet censoring, includes a list of resources for those interested in continuing their education in either..." Read more
Customers find the writing style well written, descriptive, and easy to understand. They also say the book is engaging and realistically portrays the power and limitations of technology. Readers also say it's easy to identify with Marcus and sympathetic to his cause.
"...It is very easy to identify with Marcus and become very sympathetic to his cause, while the situation itself is stark enough to frighten the..." Read more
"...What I did find was a well written, well thought-out story with relatable characters written true to their age/gender and situation and a plot that..." Read more
"...Particularly insightful is his brief, easy to understand explanation of the "false positive paradox"; which basically means that if you..." Read more
"...No. It just tries too hard and misses a lot of nuance. However, the “love scenes” ring truer than most of the rest...." Read more
Customers find the characters in the book well developed and easy to like.
"...Like those earlier books, it portrays teenagers that are intelligent, resourceful, game-loving, and confrontational, but are still at times prone to..." Read more
"...What I did find was a well written, well thought-out story with relatable characters written true to their age/gender and situation and a plot that..." Read more
"...Marcus is a true hero - near the end of the novel he is ready and willing to sacrifice everything, even his life, to protect the freedoms that are..." Read more
"...The character development was mostly excellent, but an editing slip up when Ange was referred to as Van was, I believe, telling...." Read more
Customers find the book fast-paced, and mention it's a fun read.
"...He's smart, fast and can hack into, or override, almost any security system, including the ones at school...." Read more
"...relevant and the writing is quite good, with complex characters and fast pacing. I look forward to reading the 2013 sequel, Homeland." Read more
"...This book is important, timely, interesting, and exciting to read...." Read more
"...Because it is well done, timely and goes into depth on important social issues I give this a 5." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and thought-provoking. They also say it's an outstanding young adult novel with good tech and likable kids.
"...Anyway, Little Brother is a great book - a landmark accomplishment of the science fiction field, but also just a really fun book to read...." Read more
"...You see, Little Brother is a fun read, but it's also a chilling look at what can happen when a society blithely turns over its rights to privacy out..." Read more
"...It's definitely written for young adults (I'd say ages 12-18), but not to the exclusion of adults...." Read more
"Little Brother is an outstanding Young Adult novel playing on the idea of "big brother" from the classic 1984...." Read more
Customers find the book a primer on civil liberties with deep texture and nuanced debate. They also appreciate the discussion about privacy and the thoughtful novel riffing on Internet freedom.
"...The most important part of this book, though, is the discussion about privacy...." Read more
"...A powerful, forceful argument for personal liberty." Read more
"...Little Brother is a novel about freedom, pride, individuality, independence, and human kindness - all the things Americans tend to value..." Read more
"...use of 9/11 to expand the surveillance state, a detailed handbook on civil liberties and technology, and a can't-put-it-down story that will have..." Read more
Customers find the plot entertaining, gripping, and appealing. They also say the characters are complex and relatable.
"...And i'd definitely say LITTLE BROTHER is an entertaining and gripping goodread and one that I'd highly recommend." Read more
"...The next few chapters are gritty and gripping, as Marcus - along with literally hundreds of others picked up in the raid - is imprisoned and..." Read more
"...It certainly does that, not only in a gripping and entertaining read, but also with oodles of disturbing facts about the modern police/surveillance..." Read more
"...But it's also embedded in a gripping, edge-of-your-seat narrative that will literally have you finishing the book in a sitting...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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The setting is the near future, when some ill-defined terrorist group decides to blow up the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Marcus, our hero, and several of his friends are picked up in a rather wide sweep by Homeland Security forces as possible suspects. And therein lies the tale, as the actions of the security forces clash violently with Marcus's idea of what is right and proper in the supposed land-of-the-free America. What Marcus decides to do about this situation is an instructional manual to the reader in just how personal freedom and privacy have been restricted and what can be done about it in today's very high-tech world of security cameras, RFIDs, cryptography, computer databases, and the insidious insinuation of propaganda both at our schools and into everything we see and hear on the internet and our TVs and from the mouths of our political leaders.
The story bubbles with suspense, and the actions that Marcus takes are very believable as something a seventeen-year old could actually do. It is very easy to identify with Marcus and become very sympathetic to his cause, while the situation itself is stark enough to frighten the daylights out of the reader as being all too possible. The info-dumps along the way not only impart some very necessary information to the reader, but are handled very much the way Heinlein did it, as things that are necessary for the hero to either know or learn about to accomplish his desires, making them easy to swallow. The techniques and technology presented are real, as some of the afterword material to this book details.
The other characters of this book, while not presented with the detail that Marcus is (almost a given in any first-person narration), are both intriguing and in some cases frightening. Marcus's father is a major case in point, as a man with liberal leanings who nevertheless finds himself driven to support the majority view out of fear for his son, and Marcus's social studies teacher, who is very reminiscent of some of the `mentors' of Heinlein's books, as her willingness to engage her students in free-wheeling debate and attempts to get them to think for themselves leads to a very plausible and ugly fate. It is just such touches that make the whole situation ring with that touch of reality that marks excellent science fiction.
The politics of this book are decidedly left-wing. The Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security come in for some merciless beatings, but the reasoning behind such depictions is carefully laid out and form a clarion call to all Americans to look carefully at just what we are giving up in the name of `security'. Perhaps it should be compared and contrasted (as one of those infamous school assignments I don't fondly remember) with something like Tom Clancy's Executive Orders , which presents the right-wing rationale of why and when the government should be allowed to exceed the boundaries of the Constitution and its amendments.
Unlike the YA material of the fifties, this book does not ignore an item of great concern to almost every teenager, namely sex. I found the presentation of this material both appropriate to the characters and handled realistically without being too graphic. However, it might make this book inappropriate for pre-teens.
Teenagers should find this book a riveting read, with characters they can identify with, and like all really good YA books, adults should find this book just as riveting, with concepts and philosophies presented that require thought and contemplation. This is the best book I've read out of the 2008 crop so far, and I'd be very much surprised if it doesn't at least make the 2009 Hugo nomination list, if not take the award itself.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Marcus is our 17 year old protagonist, a techy kid and a gamer. Basically he spends a lot of his teenage energy beating "the system" with his above average knowledge of computers, coding and gaming. And by the system I mean mostly his high school's advanced security program, cameras, cell phone tracers, jammers, and The SchoolBooks, aka "free" laptops provided by the school that really just helped the system keep track of the kid's goings on online activity. Unfortunately for Marcus and a few of his pals, they happen to be near the bridge when the terrorist attack and although they don't actually get blown up themselves, that is pretty much where their luck runs out, when they get grabbed by DHS.
I defiantly believe (for the most part anyhow) that LITTLE BROTHER's plot is plausible and something like this could easily happen in the not so far future (only I think it would be worse, more violent) with the threat of terrorism on everyone's radar and heighten security everywhere you turn and let's not forget how government takes every opportunity to have more of a say in our lives. That being said (and said by me, an ultra conservative and anti-big government someone) Cory Doctorow's pov through Marcus is clearly that of the left; The Patriot Act is bad and takes away our constitutional rights. We all have our opinions and feelings on this topic and it's not something that I really want to get into here, but what I will say is that although I might not agree fully with Doctorow's perceived political views within this story, I will give him credit creating a thought provoking story with believable character and situations. I didn't feel that a particular party was bashed or attacked. What I did find was a well written, well thought-out story with relatable characters written true to their age/gender and situation and a plot that very well could be a possible future occurrence if we as a people are not careful as to how much leeway we give to our government in the name of security. And i'd definitely say LITTLE BROTHER is an entertaining and gripping goodread and one that I'd highly recommend.
Top reviews from other countries
“Little Brother”, on the surface, seems to be an enjoyable read about of a teenager living in today’s world of ubiquitous surveillance. Marcus tries to live a normal life, with his friends, family and a girlfriend. Then comes the twist - he gets caught in the aftermath of a terror attack. The young American is not arrested - as you would expect in sunny San Francisco, California. He is detained.
That’s where the real story unfolds. From that moment on, you can’t stop reading and you can’t stop wondering. Why this fiction (about home) is so similar to reality (abroad)? Why is it so scary? Is it really that easy to change the land of freedom into a land of terror?
This is a great book. If you have never been interested in civil liberties, didn't care about Guantanamo, secret prisons or torture – this book is precisely for you. It won’t bore you. The life of a young man with impressive computer skills is entertaining enough. But really, it’s a very important warning how fragile are liberties are. In unassuming, even light style, the story unfolds to shows surprisingly accurate parallels between fiction in the book and the real events we hear about, no so far from home.
Someone said “if you’re going to read one book this year – this is the one”. I couldn't agree more.