Book Review - The Best Book I've Read This Year, or "Little Brother," by Cory Doctorow

Sometimes, a book can change your life. This is a book that, I'm certain, will change a lot of lives.

Seventeen year old Marcus lives in San Francisco in the somewhat near future. Life is very similar to the way it is today, it's mostly the technology, and the government surveillance, that has changed. People are tracked; the government follows them via the cards they use on public transportation. Also, people's gaits (how they walk) are recorded for identification; this works around disguises. Marcus knows all of this and he doesn't like it. He and a bunch of his friends are big gamers, and not so keen on the government having the capability to glance at all their personal private information (why should they be able to, anyway?), so he uses computer programs and cryptology to keep his private stuff private. That's all well and good, until there's a terrorist attack on San Francisco's bridges and subway system. Marcus is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the next thing he knows, the Department of Homeland Security has him chained to a cell, and they're asking him questions he doesn't know the answers to.

"Little Brother" follows Marcus and his friends in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, as they decide what to do as they watch their freedoms and civil liberties be taken away. Cory Doctorow has written a smart, witty, action-filled book that will keep you up well into the night. "Little Brother" will leave you thinking about whether or not its scenarios are so far fetched, and whether anyone should be asked to give up their freedoms in the name of security.

* * * * *
(Five stars)

Recommended for sci-fi fans, gamers, thinkers, and dreamers.

FYI, author Cory Doctorow is probably most well-known for his website, BoingBoing.