Little Brother

Author: Corey Docterow
Quick sketch: Young boy finds his destiny when fighting the forces of his government
Quick Review: good, if unsubtle

When I first started reading Little Brother, the quickest image that jumped into my head was my personal bugbear: The Last Centurion by John Ringo. They're both American novels about the collapse/ disintegration of the normal rules with a distinct political bias. In addition, both use the first person perspective and are heavily inspired by the Bush Era. That's about where the similarity ends, as I greatly enjoyed Little Brother (My opinion of TLC is a lot more pungent).
Firstly, Plot: Marcus and his friends find themselves caught up in a terrorist attack in San Francisco(for which there are never any suspects). In an attempt to get help after one is stabbed, they flag down a military vehicle and are instead arrested. After several days of imprisonment and punishment, Marcus and his two uninjured friends are released, leaving his injured best friend in prison. Discovering the city transfigured by the new security laws put in place (by the Department of Homeland Security) while he was imprisoned, Marcus finds himself almost accidentally leading the rebellion against the DHS.
The majority of Little Brother revolves around Marcus' efforts to disrupt the DHS' tracking systems and their efforts to find him. These various strategies generally revolved around the technology involved, including internet encryption, mathematics, RFID tracking and a load more. These strategies are non-violent and frequently funny, more about pointing out the inadequacies of the systems and their over-reach. The science/ maths behind these strategies is well described and clear, at least to my level of comprehension. The phrase 'little brother' itself is coined by an anonymous ally, to describe any attempt to record the actions of the DHS and show up their own incompetencies.
Little Brother's emphasis is on the little guy. Marcus does not do that much, physically at least. Instead it is his example and leadership that propel him. Early on, he founds the Xnet, a semi-underground network of hacked-Xbox users from which his rebellion grows. It is his efforts on here to rally civil disobedience that propel him forwards, whether it's to invent new ways to cause trouble or simply to build a coherent ideology behind his disobedience (Doctorow bases much of the novel's arguments around several excerpts from the Constitution).
The great element in Little Brother is the contrast between Marcus and his online persona 'M1k3y'. M1k3y quickly becomes this fearless, intelligent international celebrity, being interviewed by the BBC and other international news groups. However, Marcus is this scared kid, growing up very fast as he begins to realise how deep he's gotten. The distinction becomes very evident when Marcus begins to take a personal stand, rather than working out of his bedroom and in secret. Doctorow captures the mixture of fear and determination here very well, as Marcus finds himself being gradually sucked into the DHS' overgrowing insanity, frequently without any real effort on his part.
Doctorow does a good job of capturing the various personalities Marcus interacts with. A big element is his slightly crazy girlfriend Ange, who provides a degree of humour and support when Marcus needs it. Their growing relationship is one of the joys of the book and something that definitely showed up my cynicism. Other characters are believable and clearly distinct in their own right. Marcus' parents in particular make a great duality, with his mother clearly against the increased surveillance and his father for it, giving a kinda glimpse at the average person's perspective. Marcus' friends also have their own Meta-roles, with the two who are released dropping out of his rebellion as they begin to realise exactly how dangerous it is becoming.
My only complaint with Little Brother is that the portrayal of the DHS is a little heavy handed (whether or not it is true, is perhaps another question). The sole face of the DHS is a woman, known through out the book as 'Severe-Haircut Woman' by Marcus. She's cruel and brutal to him and keeps his injured friend for little or no reason. The DHS also reacts to all challenges to its authority with heavy-handed violence (in one scene they tear-gas and baton charge an illegal concert). One sequence involves Marcus seeing footage of the initial meeting between the DHS and the White House, in which the DHS representative (severe haircut woman) is given clear permission to to whatever she wants as 'the country sees this place as a Sodom and Gomorrah of fags'. There's also a suggestion the President's advisors are allowing terrorism to keep their man elected, which pretty much defines not subtle.
Little Brother is an interesting mixture of rebellion and maturation. You find yourself living the story of Marcus and M1k3y to a surprising degree. His dual instincts to survive and to fight back make the story a constant contrast, as he is never the fearless rebel. The book as a whole is an interesting take on a technological police state, if taken a little too far. Most of the digressions into the tech are informative rather than interesting and generally give you an idea of the history and just why something is happening rather than 'because'. Anyone interested in the relationship between freedom, technology and security could do well to read this.