Pirates of the Internet

By Fianna T.

Lights. Camera. Action. Enter the world of rebellious film geeks fighting against corrupt government lawmaking with science fiction author, Cory Doctorow. His novel, Pirate Cinema, is yet another thrilling page-turner, starring 16 year old protagonist Trent McCauley of Bradford, England.

Trent McCauley is an artist- at least he considers himself to be. His urge to create something out of nothing has fueled an obsession of reassembling pieces of created movies into completely new films. However, Trent gets his film "footage" through illegal downloading, an act that leads to a severe punishment: losing internet for a year. In the futuristic England where Trent lives, internet is an irreplaceable asset to everyone. When he finally gets caught, the termination of internet causes his father to lose his job, ruins his sister's grades, and stops online health care benefits for his mother.

In guilt and shame, the teen runs away to London, where he meets Jem Dodger, another outcast who teaches him the ways of street life. Soon, Trent becomes part of a family of other teenagers who lead him into an underground subculture of illegally created movies. There, he resumes a new identity as "Cecil B. DeVil," where he continues creating insanely popular pirate-created films. When he meets a girl named 26, Cecil is pulled into the politics of copyrighting, where he becomes a creative activist against unfair piracy bills.

Cory Doctorow's characters truly connect with readers in a way rarely found in other books.  Each character has their own, clearly defined personality that I find myself smiling at with each dialogue. Cecil's thoughts as written in the book are also quite entertaining, with many additions of cringing and his awkward attempts to be cool. The plot does not drag on and on, and the fast pace of action within the story keeps you engaged and frantically reading for more. Needless to say, my appetite for a good read was satisfied at the last page. Doctorow is rather biased in his opinions about copyrights, however, and he includes many monologues with rants about government issues within the text. Soon your interesting sci-fi novel becomes a boring essay-like paper, before suddenly switching back into action as if nothing had happened.

I have never read any other works of Doctorow, but I'm definitely looking towards reading some of his other books, like Little Brother and Homeland. If you're looking for something exciting to read, I highly recommend that you check out Pirate Cinema, too.

Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow, Tor Books, 384 pages