Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is part novel, part manifesto. It’s been called an updating of 1984 or a call to arms for openness in the digital world. But it’s mostly an above average novel, that is designed as a primer on internet technology and security systems. Doctorow is a big believer in these things and it shows through in his novel. The novel is aimed at a high school age audience and uses many pages to explain the whys and hows of the internet era.

Marcus is a 17 year old hacker in the Bay area who enjoys skipping school, figuring out how to break systems and playing games with his friends. Their favorite game involves going out and playing a game that combines real-world exploring, technological hacking and problem solving. While out on an adventure, a terrorist attack destroys the Bay Bridge. Since Marcus and his friends are out and about, they are grabbed as potential terrorists. Marcus is threatened into giving up his online passwords and identity to go free, but his friend Daryl disappears.

Marcus is mad and decides to do something about it. He uses a free game machine and a open source security conscious operating system to create an anonymous network to create problems for the Department of Homeland Security (who has basically taken over the whole city). As more people join, the stakes get higher and Marcus is forced to make decisions he never thought he’d have to do.

Every chapter of the book is dedicated to a bookstore loved by Doctorow. he tells where and why in the chapter introductions There are prefaces and afterwards that are designed to try and pull the novel into the real world. The focus of the novel is that this could happen now and we must not give up our rights. It’s an interesting idea that completely overwhelms the novel. The bad guys are too bad and the good guys are too good. There is no subtlety and very few shades of gray. This is more of a polemic than a novel, but it’s a quick and mostly fun read.