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annathepiperThe other day, editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden posted up on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
makinglight that he had several dozen ARCs of Cory Doctorow's forthcoming novel Little Brother to hand out to any readers of the blog willing to immediately read it and talk about it. He announced a specific email address you could contact to ask for one of the books, and all you had to do was provide an address to which they could send it.
I was one of those fortunate enough to get in an email before they ran out of copies, and mine arrived in the mail yesterday. Pretty nifty; I've never gotten an ARC before. And this was a hell of a novel to get in such a form. I feel privileged to have gotten an advance look at it.
Little Brother is simultaneously profoundly depressing and vitalizing. It's depressing because it paints an all-too-real picture of what could happen if another terrorist strike ever happens on American soil, and the terrifying part comes in not just with the thousands who die in San Francisco in the story, but also with the transformation of the city into a police state. And it's vitalizing, because it challenges the reader with the concept that if you feel that what your government is doing is wrong, you don't have to take it lying down. You can take steps to make it right again. You can act.
Marcus, a.k.a. w1n5t0n, a.k.a. M1k3y, is a seventeen-year-old high school student caught in the wrong place at the wrong time during the attack on the city. He and his friends are detained by the Department of Homeland Security and questioned for days; one of them isn't even released. The whole experience moves Marcus to found the XNet, through which he and thousands of other young people across the city begin to fight back against the brutal surveillance tactics imposed upon their city in the name of fighting terrorism.
There's some deeply disturbing scenes of a crowd of young protestors being gassed, and some even more disturbing ones later where Marcus is interrogated and, yes, tortured. Most disturbing of all is the ultimate government reaction to the entire crisis, furious attempts to sweep everything under the rug. But even then, Marcus and those who come to believe in his actions, both of his own generation and older, don't let it lie. The book does end on a note of hope.
Keep that thought of hope in mind as you read this book. Because you should read it, especially if you fall into the same generation as Marcus and his compatriots; the story's talking directly to you. For everyone else, if you happen to agree with its politics, it may depress the hell out of you for the realism of the story it tells. If you don't agree with its politics, you may wind up wanting to throw the book across the room. But it's a story that needs reading, and arguing about, and acting upon--as do each and every one of the points its story raises.
Little Brother's formal release date is this Tuesday, April 29th. I encourage you all to check it out. It'll probably be available for free download on Doctorow's site by then, as is his custom for his works; check it out that way if you wish. If you find though that this book does speak to you, buy a copy.
For what will undoubtedly be the most challenging thing I'll have read this entire year, four stars.
makinglight that he had several dozen ARCs of Cory Doctorow's forthcoming novel Little Brother to hand out to any readers of the blog willing to immediately read it and talk about it. He announced a specific email address you could contact to ask for one of the books, and all you had to do was provide an address to which they could send it.I was one of those fortunate enough to get in an email before they ran out of copies, and mine arrived in the mail yesterday. Pretty nifty; I've never gotten an ARC before. And this was a hell of a novel to get in such a form. I feel privileged to have gotten an advance look at it.
Little Brother is simultaneously profoundly depressing and vitalizing. It's depressing because it paints an all-too-real picture of what could happen if another terrorist strike ever happens on American soil, and the terrifying part comes in not just with the thousands who die in San Francisco in the story, but also with the transformation of the city into a police state. And it's vitalizing, because it challenges the reader with the concept that if you feel that what your government is doing is wrong, you don't have to take it lying down. You can take steps to make it right again. You can act.
Marcus, a.k.a. w1n5t0n, a.k.a. M1k3y, is a seventeen-year-old high school student caught in the wrong place at the wrong time during the attack on the city. He and his friends are detained by the Department of Homeland Security and questioned for days; one of them isn't even released. The whole experience moves Marcus to found the XNet, through which he and thousands of other young people across the city begin to fight back against the brutal surveillance tactics imposed upon their city in the name of fighting terrorism.
There's some deeply disturbing scenes of a crowd of young protestors being gassed, and some even more disturbing ones later where Marcus is interrogated and, yes, tortured. Most disturbing of all is the ultimate government reaction to the entire crisis, furious attempts to sweep everything under the rug. But even then, Marcus and those who come to believe in his actions, both of his own generation and older, don't let it lie. The book does end on a note of hope.
Keep that thought of hope in mind as you read this book. Because you should read it, especially if you fall into the same generation as Marcus and his compatriots; the story's talking directly to you. For everyone else, if you happen to agree with its politics, it may depress the hell out of you for the realism of the story it tells. If you don't agree with its politics, you may wind up wanting to throw the book across the room. But it's a story that needs reading, and arguing about, and acting upon--as do each and every one of the points its story raises.
Little Brother's formal release date is this Tuesday, April 29th. I encourage you all to check it out. It'll probably be available for free download on Doctorow's site by then, as is his custom for his works; check it out that way if you wish. If you find though that this book does speak to you, buy a copy.
For what will undoubtedly be the most challenging thing I'll have read this entire year, four stars.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 04:46 am (UTC)(1) That's my birthday.
(2) That's the scenario I've been planning for/against for ... hell, decades now.
Yeah. Gotta get this. Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 02:06 pm (UTC)Rest of those ideas can wait for a chance at a quiet table and a bottle of something worthwhile. Either of you planning to be on my side of the wall any time soon?
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 04:12 pm (UTC)As for
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 04:46 pm (UTC)Cathy
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 05:03 pm (UTC)