Acid

Acid (Agency for Crime Investigation and Defense) by Emma Pass is set in a future where a police force controls the government of Britain - now the Independent Republic of Britain.

Jenna Stone is in one of the most secure prisons in the IRB - Mileway Maximum Security. She has been there since she was convicted of killing her parents. She is surrounded by criminals who think they can take advantage of her because she is small. At seventeen her only friend - or the only person who is nice to her - is the prison doctor. He taught her how to defend herself. Now he is helping her more. She doesn't know why, but he is helping her escape.

There are groups at work against Acid, which is not an easy thing to organize in a land where you can be jailed for speaking against the government. Even just a casual comment that seems like a complaint will get the attention of the Acid agents.

Now Jenna is out of prison, living in disguise. But no one has told her why they got her out. Or what her role she will play in the attempt to overtake Acid.

Pass has created a dystopian novel with a strong female character. Her world is well-formed and readers will get lost in the fast-paced plot. Great read.

Pass, Emma. (2014). Acid. New York: Delacourte Press.

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.

The Traveler (The Fouth Realm #1)

The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks, is a story about the grid. The grid is the technology, surveillance, and tracking methods the government used to watch us. This book takes place in a world very similar to ours, though hopefully, not just like ours.

In London, a woman who has been training all of her life to protect the Pathfinders, is called into action. She is not sure that she believes all that her father has told her about how the world works, but when he is killed, she must act none the less.

In New York, a secret shadow organization exists to make sure that Pathfinders are killed before they can effect the status quo.

In Los Angles, two brothers start to realize they have strange powers.

How does it all tie together? Will the woman from London be able to protect the brothers from those who wish them dead?

This book is great. It is the first in a trilogy. Book two: The Dark River, is due out in July of this year.

Twelve Hawks, John. 2005. The Traveler. New York:Vintage Books.