Young - grownup authors have suppress scientific discipline fiction with a mixture of angst , romance , and the discovery that grownup are awry . But Cory Doctorow ’s Hugo / Nebula - nominated Little Brother put a geeky , subversive spin on that formula . spoiler !
Little Brother is plant five minutes into the future , when terrorists blow up San Francisco ’s Bay Bridge and the BART tunnel . This bring about a Brobdingnagian crackdown , with gobs of American citizens being round up and imprisoned in a confidential prison on Treasure Island – or ship off to foreign countries to be excruciate .
The novel ’s primary type , Marcus , is a snarky adolescent hacker with authority exit . And that ’s before he gets locked up and abused by the Department of Homeland Security , and his acquaintance Darryl disappears for good . That event transforms Marcus from a minor - league hack to a major dissident and insurgent constituent .
Marcus is a classic Doctorow friend : snarky and pissed off , but with an astonishingly affectionate center lurking just below the jagged armor . He launches a quixotic movement to make the American government spook ante up , which take up out by “ jamming ” the political science ’s endeavor to profile the great unwashed base on their locomotion and leverage , and gradually maturate into far - get through polite noncompliance , and a massive meshwork of unseasoned people communicate via hacked xBoxes .
Many , if not most , young - grownup science fiction novels take place in a dystopian or post - apocalyptical context , where the grown - ups have long since stopped asking questions about the vicious master and their excessive overlording . The twisted genius of Doctorow ’s novel is that it starts out in our world , more or less , and then shows how easily and quickly it transmute into a dystopia .
The “ Panopticon , ” in which reflexion and undercover work are unvarying companions , becomes an alarming world in Little Brother . It turns out all of those devices that make your life leisurely , like transportation fast passes , credit cards , and RFID - enabled tags , allow for the political science to track your every movement . And anyone whose movements falls outside normal patterns can be turn back – or simply made to melt – unless you’re able to “ prove ” that you ’re not a terrorist .
And the adult characters in Little Brother quickly become inured to this brainsick surveillance regime , take on it as a necessary iniquity to break those awful terrorist from destroying our way of life . Marcus ’ dad , in special , goes from being a critic of the government activity to an apologist for the Homeland Security fascists . And adults who do further dissent , such as Marcus ’ Social Studies instructor , tend to recede their job or disappear some other fashion .
The other thing that stick in your mind after read Little Brother is the alarming depiction of propaganda gone insane . Marcus ’ version of Dumbledore ’s Army becomes so successful , they start getting condemned on Fox News and in the newspapers , and in the mass media generally , and no matter how metier - savvy Marcus tries to be , he only makes thing bad . At one stop , he does a “ press conference ” in a virtual world , where he prove to explain his vantage point , and the pressing only curve his words around :
I ’d blown it , somehow . The press had come to my printing press - conference and conclude that we were terrorists or terrorist dupe . The risky was the newsman on Fox News , who had apparently establish up anyway , and who devoted a ten - minute comment to us , speak about our “ criminal subversiveness . ” Her killer parentage , repeated on every news - outlet I launch , was :
“ They say they do n’t have a name . I ’ve get one for them . permit ’s call these spoiled nestling Cal - Quaeda . They do the terrorist ’ oeuvre on the home front . When — not if , but when — California gets attack again , these terror will be as much to blame as the House of Saud . ”
leader of the anti - war social movement denounced us as outer boundary ingredient . One guy went on TV to say that he believed we had been fabricated by the DHS to discredit them .
The deed of conveyance , Little Brother , come from the melodic theme that young people can become “ footling brothers ” keeping tabs on “ Big Brother , ” but it kept remind me of this classic fourscore song :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L0H_w9kBx8
And meanwhile , Doctorow does n’t overleap the “ lovemaking story ” portion of the young - adult formula . Through his rabble - force out , Marcus meets the noncompliant Ange , who ’s just as ultra and brilliant as he is , and they bond over piquant food , flash music , hacking and civil noncompliance . compare to the Orwellian nightmares of the chief plot line , the Marcus - Ange erotic love story feels a routine less pressing , but it still has minute of echt sweetness and gives us another reason to settle for Marcus in his struggle .
you’re able to tell Doctorow was a staff member at the Electronic Frontier Foundation , the tekki civil liberties organization . He mentions EFF a turn of time in the novel , and the rule book is full of helpful little asides where Marcus explain the inch and out of surveillance , hacking and computer surety .
Major looter : The only actual problem I had with Little Brother was the felicitous ending , which felt a bit forced . It actually prompt me of the fake happy conclusion in Terry Gilliam ’s Brazil , and for a moment I consider Doctorow was doing something similar – I intend Marcus was fantasise this glad ending while he was being tortured by government punk . I felt a moment let down when I realized the happy ending was “ real , ” and there ’s a part of me that still imagines the book ’s recital panning back from Marcus ’ comatose face , as someone articulate “ He ’s gone . ”
But generally , Little Brother present a smashing step forward in the burgeon subgenre of dystopian young - grownup SF . It brings a large academic degree of political mundaneness , geekiness and civil noncompliance to a genre that was already serve up up a milder dose of rebellion . After this , no YA novel will be capable to get away with lacrimation down its youthful revolution .
Little Brother was make for Hugo and Nebula Awards . Read more of io9 ’s coverage of 2009 ’s Holy Writ award nomineeshere .
book reviewBooksCory DoctorowDystopian fictionReviewsyoung adult fictionyoung grownup novels
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