Dan's Bookshelf

Last month at Naperville Reads, I was talking with the amazing folks at the equally amazing Anderson’s Bookshop about what titles they were excited about for the spring. A few people mentioned Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. And since I’d heard about the book and been intrigued by it, I snagged an early copy.

Yowza. Now that I’ve read it, I’ve become extremely paranoid. Little Brother is set in the not-so-distant future when, partly in response to a terrorist incident in San Francisco, the U.S. has become essentially a police state — or more accurately, a surveillance state. Schools are choked with security cameras, software monitors every laptop, and the government watches people’s travel routes to make sure they’re not up to no good.

But one person is willing to fight back: Marcus, known also by his screen name “w1n5t0n.” (Think Winston Smith from 1984). Marcus, at the tender age of 17, is a hacker extraordinaire. And after realizing what the feds are up to, he uses his technological know-how to try to bring the bad guys down and restore America as place that respects civil liberties. Doctorow does a great job of explaining all kinds of technical details like encryption and Internet security and the like. And while the characters could have used a few gray shades to even out the black and white, the book makes you think. When, if ever, should the government monitor its citizens? What price in liberty are we willing to pay for security? And are these surveillance technologies infiltrating our lives in a way we’ll soon regret?

Little Brother is billed as a young adult title — I thought our 11-year-old might like it — but I think its appeal is wider than that. It will also make a great movie. Look for it when it pubs next month. (And if you’ve got time on your hands, check out this Wired column from a few years ago that covers related territory in a less seat-of-the-pants suspense way.)