Big Brother, Little Brother

By Daniela G.

Co-editor of Boing Boing and former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cory Doctorow is the author of numerous award-winning science fiction novels. One to gain much praise was Doctorow's novel, Little Brother, taking place in a dystopian society. The protagonist Marcus Yallow has a high knowledge in technology and must use this to save his country from becoming a nation-wide prison.

Marcus Yallow, better known as "w1n5ton," is a seventeen year-old hacker attending Chavez High School and has no trouble outsmarting his school's surveillance system. Usually, he and his group of friends: Darryl, Van, and Jolu, get together to play online games. The four decide to leave school one day to play an online role playing game that involves real-life quests, leading them to scour the San Francisco area. While they begin the quest, an explosion goes off nearby. As many people seek shelter, Marcus, Darryl, Van, and Jolu follow. However, they decide to escape the chaotic crowd but  are caught by the Department of Homeland Security instead. In the wrong place at the wrong time, the four are transferred to a hidden prison and relentlessly interrogated for days to find who was responsible for the terrorist attack.

After being released, Marcus learns of the strict security in his city where every citizen is being looked upon like a potential terrorist. Marcus is aware of the disbelief people would have if he tells anyone his story. He also knows it would run the risk of getting captured by the DHS once again. However, Marcus is not willing to surrender just yet. With his vast knowledge of technology, he takes on the challenge to defeat the DHS and reveal their true colors.

    Bringing on a similar theme to George Orwell's 1984, Little Brother possesses a great amount of foreshadowing in a clever way. This includes Marcus being known as "w1n5ton," the same name of the main protagonist, Winston, in 1984 and the title of the novel itself, Little Brother, similar to "Big Brother." One favorable feature of the novel is that despite the massive foreshadowing, the plot continues to be unpredictable. For instance, throughout Marcus' journey in taking down the DHS, one will never be certain if his plan will fail or succeed.

The author, occasionally throughout the book, would write the character discussing the history of most of the gadgets and technology utilized. Although generally informative, it does not help the plot but rather take time away from it.

I immensely enjoyed Little Brother overall and plan to follow up on the sequel, Homeland, that was published in 2013. I would certainly recommend this for people to read especially fans of science fiction novels.

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, May 2008, 382 pages