Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

Cory Doctorow – Little Brother

I finished Little Brother earlier this week.

The book is free to download from the link above, or can be purchased at shops or online.

I give it a good 8/10 as reads go; below the likes of “Snow Crash” but not by far. Frankly some parts of it are disturbing even for a hardened 40 year old security geek like me, but I am in touch with my inner teenager; friends and relatives who read the “Daily Mail” will be less sympathetic to the characters or what happens to them.

I skimmed some bits of the explanations of crypto, of TOR, of 1337, of Linux etc – but I if you lived through the crypto wars you will know a lot of that stuff; the background will be necessary for many “normal” people and it will be a good thing if the book gets to the teen demographic at which it is targeted.

I fear it’s going to date pretty rapidly – caricatures of Karl Rove, etc – but that’s a risk of a lot of sci-fi; one of the things which will not date however is the pursuit of the surveillance state, and that’s what people will have to understand is NOT science fiction.

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Comments

4 responses to “Cory Doctorow – Little Brother”

  1. Carolyn

    Okay, Alec. As you know, I’m not in your biz, although I feel like there were people who insisted I am. I guess the main thing is I don’t get paid for it, but you do. Crypto wars? Seriously, that’s news to me. It makes me think of the time my co-workers taught me this fairly simple dance, and afterwards told people I knew how to do the Macarina. I said, “I do? What’s that?” They said, “What you just did.” Oh. Sometimes you don’t know you know something.

    As for reading Cory Doctorow, well, I hate to say I’ll have better luck if someone reads it to me, and if it scares you, that’s my “ward off” sign. I never liked Stephen King movies / books, although I’ve seen / read a few.

    >>” one of the things which will not date however is the pursuit of the surveillance state, and that’s what people will have to understand is NOT science fiction.”
    *Absolutely right.*

    Reply
  2. neil

    I’ve not heard of the crypto wars either, noe that EFF fought a court case, though I had heard about encryption being regarded as munitions or whatever.

    I read the book online and enjoyed it a lot. Very enjoyable. Very worrying.

    Reply
  3. neil

    I didn’t notice the caricature of Karl Rove either – but possibly just not political enough, especially usa politics.

    Reply
  4. alecm

    @neil: Presidential Advisor with the initials “KR” on the video clip streamed over DNS…

    Reply

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