A Review: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
7:06 AM
"Marcus aka “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself."
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Let me just start off by saying that I wanted this book to be good so, so badly. I was praying to the book writing gods to just let this be a good read. This book sounded like a full package that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. (lol'ing at this unintentional crude pun.) Programming/coding is something I'm a total nerd about, so if you put that into a dystopian-esque book and put it in front of me, I'm going to drool. (sci-fy? Dystopian? Not so near future? robots. I don't even know.)
I am insanely disappointed to say I felt the complete opposite about this novel.
I am not a very big fan of being preached too, in real life or otherwise, so this book annoyed the hell out of me. I wasn't sure if I was in a coding 101 class or if I had a book in my hands. Most of the things he spent an entire chapter explaining, I already knew about. It was boring, the characters where very sloppily put together. Most of the time I could tell he was forcing his hand. You can always tell when a writer is writing something they don't 100% believe in. When you read it, it just feels tense and forced. This is how I felt when reading a majority of the "action/suspense" scenes. When you go to a movie, you enjoy the action scenes because you did not have to write them out/film them etc. They are enjoyable because they feel real and possible. Cory Doctorow tried to imitate this, and it is very obvious action/suspense is not his forte. Of the few action scenes he had, they were almost always disappointing.
While I was reading, it felt like he was a small child sitting in his fathers chair, trying on his fathers clothes; He's an author going way in over his head and stepping into shoes that are way too big for his feet. Although there are quite a few things I didn't like about this book, I did like a number of things. In the beginning I liked Marcus. He was funny, smart, and I was lulled into a false sense of hope that he'd be the same throughout the book. He turned into a major annoyance for me. I hate weak, half assed main characters, I hate them more than anything. This is the thing I bitch about the most on reviews and to my family and friends. If your main character is weak/half assed/sloppily conveyed, what is the point of writing the book in the first place. Just stop. Take a leave of absence and get to know your characters. I'm serious, this makes such a huge difference. This book could have been so much better if Cory Doctorow took the time to figure out what he was writing about. Does he usually write books? I'm not sure what his day job is, but it felt like a blogger had moved into the book writing scene and tried to take it by storm. It didn't work. Don't even get me started on the ending of this book. I'm so mad about it I can't even talk about it.
Just know that I hate sloppy cut and paste endings more than I hate weak characters. If you tie up the loose ends of a book in one single paragraph and don't answer any questions left over from the book, you must be satan. I actually cannot believe how this ended. A part of me was okay with how shitty the book was, but then I got to the end and decided that nothing was okay about this.
There is a sequel, but I will not be reading it.
Just know that I hate sloppy cut and paste endings more than I hate weak characters. If you tie up the loose ends of a book in one single paragraph and don't answer any questions left over from the book, you must be satan. I actually cannot believe how this ended. A part of me was okay with how shitty the book was, but then I got to the end and decided that nothing was okay about this.
There is a sequel, but I will not be reading it.
.JPG)
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