BOOK REVIEW: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow - geek, activist, contributor to Boing Boing, and active voice for Creative Commons, has released his most recent book, as with his previous novels, under an open license that allows the propagation and alteration of the text, as long as full accreditation is given. It's also free to download from here now.

Little Brother is a 'young adult' novel, based in the near future where US homeland security operates on an even more intrusive level than is currently allowed. Enter the young protagonist, who gets swept up in the paranoia and treachery after a terrorist attack hits his city. It is certainly fast paced, and given it's length, can be polished off in one sitting - which is not necessarily a bad thing. Despite it's shortness, it manages to tackle themes from young love and sexuality to heavy handed governments and the politics of revolution, whilst maintaining swift plot evolution.

I do tend to have a gripe with the concept of 'young adult' writing - it seems a little insulting to think that teenagers can't deal with 'adult' books, and there are times where the text gets a little too childish. J.K. Rowling has shown the world it is possible to write perfectly accessible stories for children which do not insult the reading capabilities of adults, whereas there are passages here which I know for a fact would have almost made me put the book down had I been reading it at the age it is intended for.

Occasional problems aside, this is an absorbing read, that generates real passion from the reader for the main character's plight, while throwing in plenty of hacks and geek-culture references for good measure. The most pleasing thing is that the hacking mentioned is all feasible today, from RFID cloners to ultra-secure linux distros - in fact, tutorials for making items from the book are springing up already.

Little Brother boils down to a slick, cool adventure, with a few unfortunate slips in writing, that will appeal to a far wider audience than that of young geeks. It is to be released in printed form in the UK later this year.