Little Brother

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a technological thriller about civil rights in the face of terrorism - a subject we all need to ponder these days...

Marcus is a seventeen year old who is familiar with the systems used to keep people in line. He knows that the high school provided laptop is recording his every key-stroke, the school's gait recognition keeps track of who is walking where, and the Internet is monitored by the US government - by the Department of Homeland Security.

He also know how to get past most of the systems. He has downloaded an Internet program that runs in the background and is invisible to the school computer. He puts rocks in his shoes when he wants to avoid being recognized by the gait cameras. And he encrypts anything important that he sends out.

But when he and three friends skip school to follow the next clue in an ongoing Internet game, he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Terrorists have blown up a bridge - too close to where he and his friends are for DHS. They are captured and taken away for questioning.

After being released from the DHS, Marcus vows to fight back. The government cannot harass thousands of innocent citizens to look for a terrorist in a haystack. As civil liberties are taken away, Marcus creates an underground movement that will prove the inefficiency of the governmental policies. As the Constitution says - if the government is no longer working, the people have a right to overthrow it and start again...

Filled with information on how computers work and how they have changed the world, as well as a history of the civil rights movements in the US, this book is exciting and educational.

Doctorow, Cory. (2008). Little Brother. New York: TOR.