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blurrypetals's review against another edition
5.0
It's about fucking time I read this goddamn book. Incidentally, it's been almost exactly 7 years to the day since I read Little Brother and it's been more than 3 years since I went to the book store and picked up my hardcopy of this book.
But it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, when I was filling my arms with as many audiobooks as I was interested in taking home with me and as I could possibly haul up to the front to check out, that I spotted the bulky little case flaunting Cory Doctorow's name on the library shelves and, with that, I absconded with it as well as six or seven other cases just like it and rushed home; I was even more pleased and excited when I found that Wil Wheaton was the narrator.
With the amount of years that Little Brother has remained, steadfast, on my "best-books" shelf here on Goodreads, you would think I'd have been reviewing this book in February of 2013, not June of 2016, but I feel like something sort of magical happened, especially in that I somehow forgot just how divinely interesting and excitingly informative Doctorow's books were until I hit play on the audiobook.
I'm having trouble collecting my thoughts on this whole business, so I'll try to bottom-line it: First, I'm a little mad at how little I knew about Burning Man before this book; it really made me want to pack into the middle of the fucking desert and create a goddamn city and burn it down and if that isn't the result of persuasive writing, I don't know what is. Second, Wil Wheaton is a fucking delightful S.O.B. and he always will be. Third, I can't believe I forgot how great Marcus's story was and I'm mad it took me so long to return to it, but I'm very very very glad I finally hit that right-place-right-time magical zone and finally read this book because it's great.
But it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, when I was filling my arms with as many audiobooks as I was interested in taking home with me and as I could possibly haul up to the front to check out, that I spotted the bulky little case flaunting Cory Doctorow's name on the library shelves and, with that, I absconded with it as well as six or seven other cases just like it and rushed home; I was even more pleased and excited when I found that Wil Wheaton was the narrator.
With the amount of years that Little Brother has remained, steadfast, on my "best-books" shelf here on Goodreads, you would think I'd have been reviewing this book in February of 2013, not June of 2016, but I feel like something sort of magical happened, especially in that I somehow forgot just how divinely interesting and excitingly informative Doctorow's books were until I hit play on the audiobook.
I'm having trouble collecting my thoughts on this whole business, so I'll try to bottom-line it: First, I'm a little mad at how little I knew about Burning Man before this book; it really made me want to pack into the middle of the fucking desert and create a goddamn city and burn it down and if that isn't the result of persuasive writing, I don't know what is. Second, Wil Wheaton is a fucking delightful S.O.B. and he always will be. Third, I can't believe I forgot how great Marcus's story was and I'm mad it took me so long to return to it, but I'm very very very glad I finally hit that right-place-right-time magical zone and finally read this book because it's great.
ingo_lembcke's review against another edition
4.0
Started today July 10th, 2013.
A few days ago I bought Humble Bundle 2, getting [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349673129s/954674.jpg|939584] which I already read for free and paid for it just now.
It occurred to me to look for other books from him, and although I have not read [b:Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|29587|Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|Cory Doctorow|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316635583s/29587.jpg|1413] yet, this interested me more, being a sequel to Little Brother. Being new, it was for me to expensive at Amazon.De, over Eur 10. And while cheaper at Sony, I decided
to download it for free from his webpage. Nice touch, that you can read his book and decide later wether it is worth paying something for it - or not.
It also shows how much even a to me well-known author is worth, sorry, I do not pay 10 Eur or more for most e-books, I read a lot as it is.
The parts about bookshops where a bit much, also they seemed, at least a few of them, to be the same as in Little Brother.
The End was phhhhffff - anticlimatic.
So, only 4 stars, but nevertheless highly recommended, but not to read shortly after Little Brother, as they both share the same themes and the same structure.
First Afterword by Jacob Applebaum.
Eerie reading the second Afterword by Aaron Swartz, who hung himself January 2013. Read up on his case, there is a sad lesson there, which resonates deeply with the themes of the book.
A few days ago I bought Humble Bundle 2, getting [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349673129s/954674.jpg|939584] which I already read for free and paid for it just now.
It occurred to me to look for other books from him, and although I have not read [b:Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|29587|Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|Cory Doctorow|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1316635583s/29587.jpg|1413] yet, this interested me more, being a sequel to Little Brother. Being new, it was for me to expensive at Amazon.De, over Eur 10. And while cheaper at Sony, I decided
to download it for free from his webpage. Nice touch, that you can read his book and decide later wether it is worth paying something for it - or not.
It also shows how much even a to me well-known author is worth, sorry, I do not pay 10 Eur or more for most e-books, I read a lot as it is.
The parts about bookshops where a bit much, also they seemed, at least a few of them, to be the same as in Little Brother.
The End was phhhhffff - anticlimatic.
So, only 4 stars, but nevertheless highly recommended, but not to read shortly after Little Brother, as they both share the same themes and the same structure.
First Afterword by Jacob Applebaum.
Eerie reading the second Afterword by Aaron Swartz, who hung himself January 2013. Read up on his case, there is a sad lesson there, which resonates deeply with the themes of the book.
aligrint's review against another edition
3.0
It's YA fiction in the 'kid hacker' genre. Since this is one of my few adventures into YA novels, I can't judge it with good relative accuracy, but it does fall into many tropes - tortured revolutionary political boy with female love interest and SF setting. The plot has few major hooks. But all-in-all, it's a nice read and, even if it laboriously explains every tech concept, it does so accurately and has a tasteful selection of references.
beeblebroxide's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
So much meandering crap that isn’t actually part of story or character development. Want to read a two page summary about how to make cold brew for no reason whatsoever? Then this book is for you. Want to nonsensically go to burning man because *reasons*? This book is for you. Want to hear about the cool people Cory Doctorow knows? They’re named dropped in there too! This book is for you. I didn’t realize how frustrated I was with this book until I was nearly done, then I asked myself why I was wasting my time…I still don’t have an answer.
zer0faults's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book and how it took off from Little Brother. It continued in the same path with characters I have grown to enjoy, without any of the awkwardness sequels sometimes carry. I was not as big a fan of the ending, not necessarily because I wanted something happier, but because it seemed to be stitched together, it didn't seem to make as much sense for the character. I was also surprised by how quickly the ending came together. It felt a little anti-climactic, but much more realistic, what did you really expect to happen? This isn't James Bond.
Things I enjoyed:
1. The varied technologies that are discussed, HREF, quadcopters, darknet sites, Tor, etc. Not only the mention of them, but that Doctorow explains the technologies, how they operate, and their uses, all within the story, it blends very nicely.
2. The relationships between the characters, especially between Marcus and Ange, up until the end, it seemed to fall apart in a way I didn't really get, perhaps because it seemed so sudden.
3. Joe Noss! For being an interesting idea of an ideal candidate, but even showing that the "hero" candidate also will have limits for how far they can push things.
4. Most importantly I enjoyed the exploration of how close companies have become to our government, to the point they are intertwining.
Thing I didn't like:
1. Slightly the ending of Marcus and Ange's relationship, it seemed forced. The whole final Burning Man scene.
2. Slightly the variety of Marcus's expertise. By the end of the story he is involved in mechanical engineering, coding mobile apps, coding websites, and debugging his Linux kernel, writing code to handle encryption within a desktop application. I am sure there are people who do all this, but being able to code, doesn't mean you can code everything.
3. The above two items are largely nitpicking.
Enjoyed the two books a ton. Would certainly read another in the same vein if presented. Going to look for someone to pass these along to, or maybe get involved with that book donation program.
Spoiler
Things I enjoyed:
1. The varied technologies that are discussed, HREF, quadcopters, darknet sites, Tor, etc. Not only the mention of them, but that Doctorow explains the technologies, how they operate, and their uses, all within the story, it blends very nicely.
2. The relationships between the characters, especially between Marcus and Ange, up until the end, it seemed to fall apart in a way I didn't really get, perhaps because it seemed so sudden.
3. Joe Noss! For being an interesting idea of an ideal candidate, but even showing that the "hero" candidate also will have limits for how far they can push things.
4. Most importantly I enjoyed the exploration of how close companies have become to our government, to the point they are intertwining.
Thing I didn't like:
1. Slightly the ending of Marcus and Ange's relationship, it seemed forced. The whole final Burning Man scene.
2. Slightly the variety of Marcus's expertise. By the end of the story he is involved in mechanical engineering, coding mobile apps, coding websites, and debugging his Linux kernel, writing code to handle encryption within a desktop application. I am sure there are people who do all this, but being able to code, doesn't mean you can code everything.
3. The above two items are largely nitpicking.
Enjoyed the two books a ton. Would certainly read another in the same vein if presented. Going to look for someone to pass these along to, or maybe get involved with that book donation program.
callmecat's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. And it had a satisfying ending unlike For The Win, which I could still just kill this author for. Sigh. Anyway, it taught me a few nerdy things I didn't know and it kept me interested. And I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the romance too, actually!
lenoel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
boots's review against another edition
4.0
This is one of the few books where I've had to take frequent reality breaks to recalibrate my mind. It's that engrossing that you can forget it's not real, and I always get that from Doctorow's books. I always come away feeling like I see the world a little clearer.
Make no mistake, this isn't sci-fi, this isn't a dystopian future; this is the world we live in. Read it to get righteously angry.
Make no mistake, this isn't sci-fi, this isn't a dystopian future; this is the world we live in. Read it to get righteously angry.
basilkumquat's review against another edition
4.0
Diadictic and gripping, Doctrow illustrates a grim view of the current/near future state of the government and the weaknesses in our technological security. Deducted a star for confusing and vague relationship drama and lack of character development (although Marcus's fatigue is understandable).
lissaroyal's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0