By Sean Begin
The advent of the Internet has vastly changed the way the world runs, for better or worse. The Internet allows large companies to maintain instant communication and effectively run their business. On the flip side, a clever or stubborn hacker can work their way into nearly any system in the world, from the security systems of those companies to phones and gaming consoles.
And with work from groups such as the digital rights non-profit group Electronic Frontier Foundation and, more recently, the high profile actions of members of the online Anonymous collective, Internet freedom and rights has come to the forefront.
Cory Doctorow’s novel “Little Brother” takes the concept of not only Internet rights but human rights in general and shows what happens when the a government agency decides they do not exist.
Set in a near future San Francisco, the novel follows seventeen year old hacker Marcus Yallow, who finds himself held against his will by the Department of Homeland Security following a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge.
Taken prisoner, blindfolded and gagged, Marcus, along with his friends, is dragged to an unknown destination, forced to undergo interrogations and endure horrible living conditions for several days.
After being released, Marcus, with the help of friends both new and old, decides it’s up to him to show what the DHS is really capable of to a city that has no clue. Through clever use of real life technology, as well as potential technology that hasn’t been fully realized (such as gait recognition cameras, which identify people by the way they walk) Marcus and his friends spend weeks waging an underground war against the DHS.
The novel is marketed as a young adult paperback, but handles issues important to people of all ages. Topics such as guilt, paranoia, loyalty and fear drive Marcus and his companions throughout the novel. Guilt keeps Marcus quiet about his kidnapping by the DHS but paranoia drives him to fight back.
Doctorow, who worked for the EFF, fills his novel with serious concepts about civil liberties, social activism, and digital rights that could be found in adult novels, let alone a book aimed at high school students.
Despite the heavy messages, “Little Brother,” through Marcus, does a fantastic job explaining concepts such as TOR (The Onion Router), cryptography, and Bayesian math in easy to understand terms, imparting knowledge to the reader that could be useful in the modern digital age.
In the end, “Little Brother” offers a unique look at issues that are just under the surface of real life. While Doctorow published the novel in 2008, the recent NSA spying scandal is a scarily similar situation that wouldn’t be out of place in Marcus’ world.
A follow up to “Little Brother,” titled “Homeland,” was published by Doctorow in February of this year, and follows Marcus and his friends once again.
