Little Brother

In Cory Doctorow's latest YA thriller, Marcus, a 17-year-old hacker, finds himself imprisoned by the Department of Homeland Security after a massive terrorist attack in San Francisco. In a sign of the times, the U.S. is becoming an Orwellian police state, and Marcus is the only one who can set things right. Kirby Heyborne is the perfect choice to narrate. His youthful voice offers a sly intelligence beyond its years while still managing to sound innocent enough to garner plenty of sympathy. Heyborne becomes Marcus in every possible respect, never reading, but simply living the role. Listeners will find themselves immersed in a genuine portrayal that is as seamless and well realized as the story itself. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 14, 2008
SF author Doctorow (Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
), coeditor of the influential blog BoingBoing, tells a believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco, victimized first by terrorists and then by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security determined to turn the city into a virtual police state. Innocent of any wrongdoing beyond cutting school, high school student and techno-geek Marcus is arrested, illegally interrogated and humiliated by overzealous DHS personnel who also “disappear” his best friend, Darryl, along with hundreds of other U.S. citizens. Moved in part by a desire for revenge and in part by a passionate belief in the Bill of Rights, Marcus vows to drive the DHS out of his beloved city. Using the Internet and other technologies, he plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse, disrupting the government’s attempts to create virtually universal electronic surveillance while recruiting other young people to his guerilla movement. Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras, arphids (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices, this work makes its admittedly didactic point within a tautly crafted fictional framework. Ages 13-up.