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Searching... Salem Main Library | TEEN FICTION Doctorow, C. | Searching... Unknown |
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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Doctorow, C. 2013 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In Cory Doctorow's wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco--an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state.
A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus's hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It's incendiary stuff--and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by thesame government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier.
Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him--but he can't admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He's surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can't even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He's not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he's gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do.
Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they're used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want.
Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother --a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.
Author Notes
Writer and activist Cory Doctorow was born in Toronto, Canada on July 17, 1971. In 1999 he co-founded a free software company called Opencola and served as Canadian Regional Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. For four years he worked as European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and in 2007 won its Pioneer Award. His first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, won a Locus Award for Best First Novel. His short story collection A Place So Foreign and Eight More won a Sunburst Award, and his bestselling novel Little Brother received the 2009 Prometheus Award, a Sunburst Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Doctorow also writes nonfiction books and articles, and he co-edits the blog Boing Boing.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Doctorow picks up the story of Marcus Yallow, two years after the events of Little Brother (Tor, 2008). Marcus and Ange are attending the Burning Man event in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, enjoying the myriad oddities there, when Marcus is approached by Masha. He had never expected to see her again and is even more surprised by her reason for contacting him. She gives him a flash drive containing the key to unlock more than 800,000 files that document numerous acts of governmental and corporate skullduggery and asks him to make them public if anything happens to her. Before Burning Man ends, Masha is snatched by Marcus's nemesis, Carrie Johnstone, and some rent-a-goons. As if this isn't enough, Marcus also meets the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation playing D & D, with Wil Wheaton of "Star Trek" fame as game master. One of the EFF founders gives Marcus a lead on a job working as webmaster for Joseph Noss, an independent candidate running for the California Senate. When he arrives back in San Francisco, he has to figure out how to release the incriminating documents without compromising his job. While Doctorow is known as a sci-fi writer, none of the science or technology here is fictional so the story hits close to home. The author combines excitement, romance, humor, and geekery with challenging questions for readers. Anyone concerned about the future of information should read this book.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this rousing sequel to Little Brother, Marcus has gone to college, dropped out, and is looking for a job-no easy task in this near-future America's worsening recession. While attending the spectacular Burning Man festival, Marcus and his girlfriend run into Masha, a secret agent he met three years earlier; she hands him a data stick filled with governmental and corporate dirty secrets, telling him to release it if she disappears. Immediately thereafter, she is kidnapped by Carrie Johnstone, the uber-competent mercenary who is determined to reacquire the data stick and protect her clients. Returning to San Francisco, Marcus finds his dream job working for an honest politician and must decide whether to make public the explosive data, while dodging Johnstone and her goons. As always, Doctorow fills his novel with cutting-edge technology, didactic progressive messages, strong and somewhat snarky characters, and discursions that reflect his passions (a Wil Wheaton cameo? instructions on cold brewing coffee? why not?). Fans of Little Brother and the author's other stories of technophiliac hacktivism ought to love this book. Ages 13-up. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Three years after the events of Little Brother (rev. 7/08), Marcus Yallow drops out of Berkeley, struggles to find a job during the recession, and attends Burning Man in the Nevada desert. There he runs into former nemesis Masha, who entrusts him with more than 800,000 files of government corruption. When Masha is kidnapped later in the festival, Marcus is left to decide what to do with the incendiary material. Meanwhile, Marcus begins to work as a webmaster for the campaign of the charismatic Joe Noss, an independent political candidate for the California State Senate. Marcus has a lot on his plate: working during the day on the campaign, spending his nights sifting through the files, juggling new and old personal relationships, getting arrested -- and trying to do the right thing through it all. Once again, Doctorow delivers a brazen, polemical novel that riffs on a dozen contemporary issues such as privacy rights, political corruption, and grass-roots reform. All of the storytelling elements -- plot, character, setting -- serve the higher purpose of provoking readers to think about, and act on, the injustice in the world around them, and the myriad digressions into politics, history, and technology further contribute to the novel's unique strengths. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Doctorow strikes a successful balance between agenda and story in his newest near-future, pre-dystopian thriller. Marcus Yallow is at a loss; he's dropped out of college because of finances and struggles to find employment in a terrible recession. Through a lucky encounter and thanks to his reputation as a technological guru and activist--a reputation left over from Little Brother (2008)--Marcus lands a job as webmaster for an independent politician campaigning as a reformer. Even as Marcus works to effect change through legitimate channels, he grapples with an ethical quandary. Frenemy Masha has given him some confidential information as insurance to release should anything happen to her--which it does. He's tasked with sorting through the massive potential leak, making sense of the secrets revealed, and coming up with a method of release that is credible, will attract notice and won't be linked back to him. After all, the secrets contained reveal large-scale privacy breaches and government corruption that involves military contractors like the intimidating figures following Marcus around. Such nerd-favorite icons as 3-D printers, Wil Wheaton and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic serve as in-jokes, but the concise explanations of real-world technology and fast pace make it accessible to less technologically savvy readers. Outstanding for its target audience, and even those outside Doctorow's traditional reach may find themselves moved by its call to action. (afterwords, bibliography) (Science fiction. 13 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Marcus is back in this sequel to the crossover thriller Little Brother (2008). While attending the Burning Man festival, Marcus receives a USB drive from a hacker, Masha, with more than 800,000 incriminating government documents, and she advises Marcus to publish the material if anything happens to her. Meanwhile, a contact at the festival recommends Marcus to California Senate Independent candidate Joe Noss as a webmaster, and he has his first real job, but can he fulfill his promise to Masha and keep his new position? Doctorow sends readers into a world of Darknet secret websites, Occupy protests, kidnapping and interrogation, and hacking. The narrative is threaded with geek teen culture, economic problems, election strategy, corporate greed, government conspiracies, and privacy issues, and technology nerds will eat this for breakfast with a cup of really good coffee Marcus says cold-pressed is the only way to go. Libraries are going to want to pwn multiple copies to meet demand, and hope that readers take up the activism call to use their skillz for good. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Doctorow's international following is already lining up for this long-awaited sequel.--Dobrez, Cindy Copyright 2010 Booklist