by Kristi Jenkins

Little Brother is Cory Doctorow's first novel specifically targeted at young adults, but that should in no way limit its audience.

The story is the first person narrative of Marcus Yallow, a high school senior in San Francisco and "one of the most surveilled people in the world".

As the story begins, a simple afternoon of ditching school to play a game goes horribly awry, and Marcus and his friends find themselves in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. Through the teens' experiences, the reader is presented with issues of surveillance and civil liberties, and the characters voice an interesting libertarian perspective without being heavy-handed. There are three chapters in the first 50 pages, and each is an effective combination of exposition and action. The first chapter introduces Marcus Yallow and gives a quick overview of the various surveillance and tracking systems in place at his high school. Yallow is written as a street smart nerd with a knack for getting around out-of-touch adults and their attempts to manage teens. We meet Yallow's fellow nerd friends and learn about their favorite Alternate Reality Game (ARG), Harajuku Fun Madness. Harajuku is a mix of online and real-world gameplay in which players use GPS to track down local clues related to the game. A major puzzle has just been posted to Harajuku, and Marcus and his friends make plans to ditch school and hunt down the clue.
Chapter two starts with Marcus and his friend, Darryl, working to evade the school's surveillance so they can start searching for the Harajuku clue. They have a run-in with the school's bully and truant snitch, and unleash technological havoc to make their escape. The boys meet up with the other two members of their Harajuku team: Van, the cool nerd girl of the group, and Jolu (Jose Luis), and head to the Tenderloin District. "We struck out, four good friends, on our way to decode a clue, win the game--and lose everything we cared about, forever." While in the midst of an encounter with another Harajuku team, an explosion rocks the city, and loudspeakers order everyone to report to shelters. The friends hurry to the nearest BART station, noticing a cloud of smoke in the distance.

Chapter three opens with the group in a press of bodies in a local BART station. People are trampled in the melee, and the group opts to fight the tide of humanity and take their chances on the streets above. While not terribly graphic, the sense of panic in the BART station is palatable, and when Darryl pulls up short with an injury, we see that Doctorow is not afraid to hurt his protagonists. It gives an edge to the writing and ratchets up the drama without going over the top. That's just the beginning of their troubles, though. While attempting to flag down an emergency vehicle for Darryl, Marcus finds himself looking down the barrel of a military gun, then blindfolded, cuffed, and loaded into a Hummer. His friends are rounded up, too, and are taken into custody on suspicion of terrorism.
Doctorow's skill lies in giving the reader enough information about the technology to be effective, but not bogging down the story in details. A seasoned nerd can gloss over the descriptions without feeling lectured, while novices get enough detail to keep them up to speed. The technology is central to the story, so it's important for the reader to be on-board. Yallow's voice is mature enough to hold the narrative, but hip and fun, with plenty to interest both teen and adult readers. Little Brother is a present-day techno-thriller that touches on many important issues, and once you have read the first 50 pages, it will be hard to stop.
Little Brother won the 2009 Prometheus and Campbell awards, and is a finalist for the 2009 Hugo award in the Best Novel category. The novel is available as a free Creative Commons download.