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Cory Doctorow
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Homeland: Cory Doctorow Paperback – 12 Sept. 2013

by Cory Doctorow (Author)
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Marcus Yallow is no longer a student. California's economy has collapsed, taking his parents jobs and his university tuition with it. Thanks to his activist past, Marcus lands a job as webmaster for a muckraking politician who promises reform. Things are never simple, though: soon Marcus finds himself embroiled in lethal political intrigue and the sharp end of class warfare, American style.
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  1. Book 2 of 3
    Little Brother
  2. Print length
    416 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Titan Books
  5. Publication date
    12 Sept. 2013
  6. Dimensions
    13.1 x 2.8 x 19.8 cm
  7. ISBN-10
    9781781167489
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1781167489
  9. See all details
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  1. Little Brother: Cory Doctorow
    Cory Doctorow
    4.4 out of 5 stars 1,982
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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
874 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Jack
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story, ever more relevant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2020
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Superb sequel to Little Brother, with all the thrilling plot, well-informed technology, teenage love and strong opinions on coffee you could hope for. Read if you want be be justifiably angry with the world, and equipped with a few ideas to make things different.
One person found this helpful
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Review Buddy
4.0 out of 5 stars Homeland
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 April 2013
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I bought this book for my Son, he tells me he thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the tv series.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2016
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Superb book. Everyone should read it! Opens your eyes on the way the world really works. Great characters, I felt their pain and joys. I also learned a lot about technical side of Internet and modern technology, all made clear for an old layman like me.
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NDC
5.0 out of 5 stars Marcus et all are back. W00T!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 August 2014
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I loved 'Little Brother' and so it was shoe in that I'd love 'Homeland', its sequel: I did. Doctorow's characters grab you, and his tale, though fiction, is painfully close to reality. I Want to go to Burning Man!!!
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Inthebookgarden
4.0 out of 5 stars You can go now
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2013
I first encountered Cory Doctorow when I read his young adult novel,  Little Brother . At the time I thought Boing Boing was the sound rubber balls made. In one of my first ever Amazon reviews I described Little Brother as 'evocative and exciting' and a 'counter culture blockbuster'. For me it set the techno-thriller benchmark and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

On the back of that enjoyment I have read a couple of his follow up novels  Makers  and  For the Win . Whilst interesting, these are much patchier affairs. Doctorow has a tendency to let his depth of knowledge and passion for his subject overwhelm the story he's trying to tell. This may be fine if you are an über geek, but if you just a common or garden variety like me, you can't help but wish for a tougher edit.

This is the first Doctorow novel I've read since he switched publishers to Titan books. I have no idea if the switch has brought about greater editorial control, but Homeland is a worthy, compelling sequel to Little Brother. If you haven't read LB yet, you really should start there. Whilst Homeland just about stands on its own, reading LB will give it much greater context.

"There's something wrong with our world."

"Somehow the ideals of friendliness, neighborliness, and justice have vanished."

"To be replaced by a cult of greed, shortsightedness and whatever you can get away with."

Homeland is set several years after LB. Life for Marcus has returned to some level of normality. He is still something of an Internet celebrity but he no longer attracts unwanted attention from US secret services. The world's financial crisis is biting the San Francisco area hard. Marcus's parents have lost their jobs, and he has had to give up going to college through lack of funds. He has diligently been searching for a job, without success.

The novel opens with Marcus trying to forget his woes at the Burning Man festival. A zero impact festival, something like a hi-tech Glastonbury in the middle of the desert. When two associates from his past turn up with a flash drive filled with incendiary data, Marcus feels himself being dragged back towards his old life. When he witnesses his Nemesis kidnapping his old friends, he is flung headlong back into the world of secrets, encryption and the occasional 3D printer. (Everything I know about 3D printing, I know from Doctorow. It's clearly a favourite topic.)

The plot is slight and some of the arguments made are over-simplified, but that doesn't really matter. What is important is the novel's tone. This is a left leaning polemic about freedom of information, the abuse of anti-terrorism laws and corporate greed. It's a book that can be distilled into any number of aphorisms, but it's overriding message could well be 'Tech don't kill people, humans do,' all the while asking that vital question,'Who watches the Watchman'. (The are a number of similarities between the themes in this book and the recently published  The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar. The books are nothing alike but have a thematic harmony).

There is a lot made of the fallibility of the political system, much of which is entirely justified. It seems a fact of life that an idealist with an agenda for change will wind up a conformist, focused on defending their position. 'It's complicated' runs the excuse. Marcus and Doctorow suggest that perhaps it isn't.

Whilst never being quite as eye-opening as Little Brother, Doctorow once again reveals the frightening capabilities of modern technology to track every mote of our existence. He explains complicated constructs in a simple fashion, mostly refraining from bombarding us with detail. Once again Doctorow has provided a clarion call for the disaffected and technologically savvy youth. The geek may inherit, but what they do with it is entirely up to them. For a man entering his fifth decade, this idea is slightly worrying, but with ethically and socially conscious writers like Doctorow providing guidance there is hope for us all. Maybe.
3 people found this helpful
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G. Coale
3.0 out of 5 stars a littler brother - good polemic at the expense of the story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 October 2013
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Firstly fans of Little Brother will enjoy this direct sequel we have another diatribe against the current state of American society - instead of the War on Terror and the craziness of Homeland Security we have as slightly wider canvas as Doctorow takes on the American 2 party system and the Military Industrial complex that helps support it. With the main plotline inspired by Wikileaks we get another rattling chapter of Marcus' life.

So why the 3 stars? Effectively the novel loses 2 stars for the poorly constructed and plotted ending - most of it happens off screen at one hand removed so the story never reaches a satisfying conclusion. In fact my major complaint is that several plot lines are not tied off - we never find out about Joes senate bid for example.

So as a polemics this books works as well as Little Brother - as an example of the storytellers art not so much.

As another plus there are some small essays from key people involved in Wikileaks and Reddit.

Highlight of the bonuses is a Little Brother short story which lacks most of the flaws of the main novel as does work both as a polemic and a story.

A little more polish next time please Mr Doctorow.
2 people found this helpful
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NickY
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2015
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Excellent follow-up to Little Brother. Cory's books are 'must reads' for our modern digital surveillance society.
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pawebb
5.0 out of 5 stars thank you
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2014
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I haven,t enjoyed a tech book as much since the golden age of cyber punk. Two books in two days. They are addictive.
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jason
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 8 July 2018
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I love the book. But make sure you read Little Brother before this one!
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Steffen
5.0 out of 5 stars Fesselnd, unterhaltsam, nachdenklich..
Reviewed in Germany on 5 March 2016
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Wie schon beim Vorgänger eine interessante Erzählweise, bei der dem Leser im Laufe der Story sowohl grundsätzliche Überlegungen zum Thema Überwachung/Demokratie/Freiheit sowie ein paar technische Konzepte zum Thema Internet-Sicherheit und Privatsphäre erklärt werden.

Mit Nachworten von Jacob Applebaum und Aaron Schwartz quasi der direkte Einstieg für den angehenden Hacker, und immerhin unterhaltsames SciFi für alle die die Diskussion/Technik schon kennen.

Ein interessanter Twist sowohl in Homeland als auch Little Brother, ist dass der Erfolg am Ende nicht durch die Technik erzielt wird. Die Romane sind hier und in anderen Aspekten wesentlich bodenständiger/realitätsnaher als der typische Cyberspace SciFi, und aus meiner Sicht durchaus eine neue oder wenigstens direktere Art, sich mit aktuellen Problemen auseinander zu setzen.
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diamondheart
4.0 out of 5 stars Il seguto di "Little brother"
Reviewed in Italy on 5 January 2016
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Non bello come il primo capitolo ("Little Brother") , ma comunque un bel libro.
Adatto più' agli adolescenti che agli adulti.
Raccomando la versione inglese, Cory Doctorow è un bravissimo scrittore, piacevole e facile da leggere. Avevo provato la traduzione italiana di "Little Brother" ma non è all'altezza.
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William Hertling
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic novel, either as standalone or sequel
Reviewed in the United States on 25 February 2013
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I read and loved Little Brother when it came out two years ago, but I was fuzzy on the details by the time I got around to Homeland, its sequel. So I approached Homeland essentially as a stand-alone novel.

Both are dystopian novels about surveillance societies, but in many ways, Homeland is a more immediate, present day thriller. The vast majority of surveillance technology Doctorow describes exists now, and is already deployed in schools and by governments and corporations. Schools are today monitoring kids, taking pictures of them at school, in their homes, in various states of undress. Governments are installing spyware, with its own weaknesses that then make it easier to for criminals to get access to your computer. Companies are turning vast quantities of personal data into ever-more targeted marketing.

While I recall being outraged at the spectre of draconian surveillance in Little Brother, that feeling turned more to fear in Homeland. The future is here, and it's not pretty.

As another reviewer noted, 'Severe Haircut Lady' is not very threatening as the villain of the story, but I would say the true antagonist is the surveillance state itself, rather than any one person.

Like most Doctorow novels, Homeland is one third entertainment, one third education about the state and direction of technology's influence on us, and one third practical lessons in privacy defense. Since reading it I've changed and lengthened passwords, turned on two-factor authentication, encrypted hard drives, and started using a secure VPN.

This is the sort of novel I'd want my kids to read as teenagers: to learn when and where it's appropriate to question authority, how to act independently and responsibly, and to see positive examples of how they can create change in the world. I attended Cory Doctorow's reading for Homeland in Portland, and was heartened to see teenagers present at the talk who went on to ask intelligent questions about copyright laws, remixing, and rooting phones.

It's a fun read (you'll certainly get caught up in the story, and I did as well, finishing it over three evenings), and it's probably one of the most important books you could read this year.
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Alan B. Clements
4.0 out of 5 stars Good sequel to 'Little Brother'
Reviewed in Canada on 18 September 2013
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A slightly older Marcus Yallow returns for some more adventure. The world hasn't gotten any better since 'Little Brother' and wrongs must be righted. Includes wonderful cameo's by some truly awesome geeks!
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