Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
June 18, 2008 – 9:26 pmRecently I read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and loved it.
Marcus Yallow decides to ditch school with his friends to play an alternate reality game called “Harajuku Fun Madness”. After dodging RFID security, gait recognition systems, and school hall monitors they close in on the ARG’s latest clue. That very moment two Al Queda bombs detonate and destroy the nearby East Bay bridge. Over 4,000 people are killed. In the confusion immediately following the explosion, Marcus and his friends are taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security. What follows is a horror story of privacy and human rights violations, political paranoia, and espionage.
Little Brother reads like a Tom Clancy novel as told by William Gibson. It features cutting edge technology and techniques with a smart-ass sense of humor. Doctorow has a way of making the present feel like the future. There are so many moments in this book where I got to thinking seriously about my privacy. We put so much information about ourselves in to various systems and its just waiting to be collected into a complete profile. I doubt this comes as a surprise to anyone, but when you stop to think about it in reference to what could be done with your info it can be terrifying.
You can download it from here: http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
If you love it (like I do), buy a hard copy.
In other news, it’s fucking hot. It was 111 degrees today and the A/C in my van has quit working. Unfortunately, my van’s A/C is used the R12 refrigerant. Its hard to get except by mail order and even then there is no guarantee that it will work. I might take it to the shop, but so far I’m told they want $150 just to test the system. Damn! My Escort has working A/C but its not insured, it’s out of gas, and the battery needs to be recharged. It’s not a lot of work, but its enough. Maybe tomorrow.
