Cory Doctorow’s newest book, Homeland, is a sequel to his earlier novel Little Brother(my review). It follows the continuing adventures of Marcus (M1k3y) Yallow, accidental thorn in the side of Homeland Security. The book, like all Doctorow books, reads as part YA love story and part technology essay. And, while I love Doctorow’s stories, his essays sometimes overwhelm the story. So, let’s see what’s happened here.
Marcus Yarrow is a free man and in a relationship with his girlfriend Ange. He’s no longer in trouble with the law, but doesn’t have a job (or much money). In addition, his shenanigans from Little Brother have cost his parents their jobs as well. While at Burning Man, after running into some Internet legends (including Wil Wheaton) who suggest a job for him, Marcus is found my Masha (from Little Brother). After some back and forth, she gives him an encryption key and tells him about a torrent of some incriminating documents. She tells him to free it if anything happens to her. Of course, he sees something happen to her before they all leave Burning Man, but Marcus isn’t sure what to do.
Making it back to civilization, Marcus ends up as webmaster/IT master/techno ninja for a populist politician who’s running as an Independent. His boss, the campaign manager, tells Marcus in no uncertain terms that she knows about his past and if he does anything that threatens the campaign, he’s out. Marcus now has to decide what to do with the gigabytes of incriminating data, while helping out with a politician he believes in, trying to maintain a relationship and not get arrested again.
The book deals with a lot of contemporary issues addressed to a YA audience. However, once again, the biggest issue I had with the book is that I too often felt like Doctorow was lecturing instead of telling a story. And since I knew the majority of what Doctorow was lecturing me about, those parts bored me. I’d love to see Doctorow trust his readers once and not feel the need to over explain everything. Till then I’ll keep warily reading his book. Recommended.
A friend lent me an ARC of this, and it’s been sitting on the table staring at me for a while. I used to love Doctorow, i used to love his characterization and the way his characters interacted with technology and society.
Pirate Cinema was such a disappointment to me, for the same reasons you were nervous going into Homeland – it felt more like a tech/politics essay than a story.
I may give Homeland back, unread, and try it again in a few years when the sting from Pirate Cinema doesn’t hurt so much.