While I had been only kind of lukewarm on his writing, I happened to preorder Cory Doctorow’s new novel Little Brother, so it ended up arriving on Tuesday. I’m glad I did — I finished it between an hour during lunchtime and a few hours in the evening yesterday. I’m not sure if I’ll read it again, but it was really fun.
Basically, Little Brother is young-adult fiction of the coming-of-age by completely going against the society you’re living in, in order to save it. Kind of like some of the Uglies/Pretties/Specials trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, but much closer to the present day. I think this kind of fiction is really compelling because many of us first developed strong moral principles when we were the age of the characters (high school years), so it’s easy to identify. Also, in this case, it’s all about government abuses of power, terrorism hysteria, security theater, and similar aspects of the present-day political landscape. Well, that, and hacking and general mischief.
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I enjoyed “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom”, so I’d considered picking this up. I’ve heard lots of good things about it, so I think I will.