Little Brother
I started reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother as a free ebook a while back. And, after about five or six chapters, I decided I really, really wanted the dead-tree version. It took me a while to get around to picking it up, and I finally finished reading it this weekend.
Now, I'm not a great reviewer, so you should probably check out what Neil Gaiman said about it, and the Unshelved comic-format review. And now alasdair has his comments up, which reminded me that I'd wanted to mention it here.
I've not really been aware of Mr Doctorow until recently; his books have generally had limited releases in Britain, and I don't spend a lot of time on BoingBoing. I'd heard at least one of his short stories on EscapePod, but this was pretty much my first real exposure to his writing.
It's a treatise on the advantages personal privacy, cryptography and the constitutional right to freedom wrapped up in a fun romp about a teenager outwitting the government. It's what Cryptonomicon should have been, and possibly the best (both in terms of fun, and social mores) "young adult" book in several years.
Read it. Buy a copy for any teenagers you know, or download the text for free. What kid wouldn't want to know how to beat The Man with nothing more than an XBox and a handful of gravel? In the mean time, I'll definately be keeping an eye out for Eastern Standard Tribe or Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. Or even some of his essays.
Even if you don't agree with the political message (which is the entire point of the book), I'm sure you'll get something interesting out of it.
Now, I'm not a great reviewer, so you should probably check out what Neil Gaiman said about it, and the Unshelved comic-format review. And now alasdair has his comments up, which reminded me that I'd wanted to mention it here.
I've not really been aware of Mr Doctorow until recently; his books have generally had limited releases in Britain, and I don't spend a lot of time on BoingBoing. I'd heard at least one of his short stories on EscapePod, but this was pretty much my first real exposure to his writing.
It's a treatise on the advantages personal privacy, cryptography and the constitutional right to freedom wrapped up in a fun romp about a teenager outwitting the government. It's what Cryptonomicon should have been, and possibly the best (both in terms of fun, and social mores) "young adult" book in several years.
Read it. Buy a copy for any teenagers you know, or download the text for free. What kid wouldn't want to know how to beat The Man with nothing more than an XBox and a handful of gravel? In the mean time, I'll definately be keeping an eye out for Eastern Standard Tribe or Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. Or even some of his essays.
Even if you don't agree with the political message (which is the entire point of the book), I'm sure you'll get something interesting out of it.