Little+Brother+by+Raphael+T

March 17, 2011 Pages 9-88 __Little Brother__, by Cory Doctorow, starts off telling the tale on a boy named Marcus Yallow. His name at this time is “w1n5t0n” or at least that’s what he used when he did stuff on computers. He goes into the administration office where Mr. Benson tries to prove he was “w1n5t0n”. He couldn’t prove it so they sent him back to class. During class he talks to his friend Darryl and they plan to leave school to get further in Harajuku Fun Madness,a game they play. They leave and meet up with 2 more friends, Jonu and Vanessa. Together they embark to find the next clue. They find that their clue is near the “Asian Massage Parlor” and they use their wifinder. They meet a rival group and the other group takes a photo and threatens to get them reported when they heard the explosion and felt the earthquake. They went to BART station seeking the shelters but it was so crowded that they returned to the surface. When they got there they notice Darryl had been stabbed. Marcus seeing all the police and ambulances wiz by tries to stop one so they can help his friend but he ends up stopping a military truck and getting taken. The take him into and 18-wheeled truck and they transport them to a prison island. There they interrogate them and force access into their technology. Marcus denies them access at first but later on he submits and gets released. Jonu and Van had already been released and were waiting for him. They didn’t know what happened to Darryl and they worried. They ended up all going home for the day because Marcus told them he was going to plan their revenge. Along the way, Marcus spots more 18-wheeled trucks and speeds up his moving. When he gets home his parents hug him, cry and ask him if he is okay. They order some curry and then Marcus goes to his room. He goes on his laptop but notices something strange and finds out that it is bugged. So then he gets his Xbox Universe. He downloads a new firmware on his Xbox and then he can use it to go online and be safe. media type="youtube" key="VO6-5BqBkIM" height="390" width="480"

I like this book because it has an amazing storyline and the characters are good. I dislike the bombing and Home Security. There seem to be holes at points that could be filled with some filler. Cory also should have had better chapter placement. A good thing is the description that Marcus gives throughout about the happenings; they are short and get the point through. I admire the authors introduction to the book with the placement of a major catastrophic event. It adds a nice touch. 


 * -Department of Homeland Security
 * -Terrorist bombings
 * -Moding, Hacking, and Cracking
 * -Bugs (video cameras, keystroke or audio recorder)
 * -High schools with cameras or other monitoring devices.

March 21, 2011 Pages 89-180

Marcus is sent to school the day after he comes back. He goes to a coffee shop and gets a Turkish coffee and the owner refuses to let him use the card because of how they use it to track people. So they converse for a while then Marcus goes to school. He interrogated by some police men about his train activities and he tells them nothing so they take him home to tell his mother. Marcus’ mother will not have anything to do with it and she kicks them out and tells them she’ll be suing them. Marcus uses Xnet, which is the name of the network that ParanoidXbox is on. He soon realizes that there are issues within the network that may lead to an exposure of Xnet. He updates people on it and even blogs! Homeland Security keeps trying to track people by even increasing the amount of cash you need to cross the bridges. The FasTrak can track you throughout the city and Marcus tries to help people fight it by changing the codes and messing with the system. He realizes later that this poses a risk to people and he decides not to support it fully. He logs onto the Pirate game and he finds people who want his location and he wonders if they are the HLS. He comes up with the idea of crypto messaging people he can trust to really push the revolution forward. He throws a party with alcohol and gets people he and Jolu trust to make codes that they can use to make sure their messages are private. After the party, Ange, a girl he met there, messages him and asks him if he want to go with her to a concert.

I think that the book opened with relationships more and wasn’t just stating the fact but making it seem more realistic. I also like the background info they give about some programming jargon. The many references to things readers may know about really helps the book spur interest.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 200%;">Augustus Caesar
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 200%;">Cliff's Notes
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 200%;">Sailor Moon
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 200%;">Great Firewall of China
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; line-height: 200%;">Golden Gate Park

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">April 1, 2011 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Pages 181-267

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Marcus meets up with Angela at the anarchist bookstore and then they go to the concert in Dolores Park. The concert was powered by car batteries and most of the crowd already there were under 25 years of age. Marcus and Ange danced until they could no more and then they went off to kiss but the DHS and the police ordered everyone to disperse immediately so they walked away. They were lucky to not have been imprisoned. The concert was later called a riot. So Marcus made a page with the truth and finds out that Ange knew his code name. His parents see the concert on the news and ask him about Xnet and his use of it. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">He gets a new teacher and they discuss the Bill of Rights and how the government can take it away. During the dispute, Marcus gets into it and gets suspended for 2 weeks. He watches the news and sees Major General Graeme of the DHS, who says that the terrorists were influencing children because it was all people under 25. Marcus had to right a paper in every class and so he traveled the city to do it. Marcus goes to meet Ange at school and while there he sees Van and he feels awkward. The duo goes to Ange’s house and they see the video with the general getting tackled by DHS thugs. They make a blog, AbusesOfAuthority, which leads to Marcus getting asked to be interviewed and so he hold a press conference. Ange tells him she loves him and he says it back and then he runs home. The DHS used the conference against them and showed the anarpid cloner being use to rob a car. M1k3y decides to stop jamming and blogs it to stop others from getting caught and being sent to jail. Ange got mad about this and they stopped talking for a few days. After school one day, after learning about Manifest Destiny, he gets bumped by a person named Zeb. Marcus started on some projects he never finished and found the note from Zeb in his pocket. He later told his parents about how Darryl and him were captured and imprisoned. They told Darryl’s father and later a reporter, Barbara Stratford.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">I liked this section because we learn a lot about the main character that we don’t in other books. We see the character being harassed by his own government. I also think that the news favoring money as no surprise.


 * Ø -Declaration of Independence
 * Ø -Tabasco sauce
 * Ø -Navy
 * Ø -Sydney Morning Herald
 * Ø -USA Today

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">April 10, 2011 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Pages 268-365

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Marcus went with Ange to talk to Barbara. Later they go to Ange’s house and have safe sex while Ange’s sister and mom are out of the house. Later he gets an anonymous email from Masha who wants to escape with him. She sends him a video of the head of the DHS and other high standing officials in the DHS. So he believes her and talks to her more about getting him and Ange out safely. She tells him that she needs a distraction and she’ll get it done. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Marcus recalls a time when he was into Live Action Role Playing. He tells the story of how he went to camp and how he got back at Charles for hurting the kids there. He also recalls the time when he was part of Wretched Daylight, a club the set you in a vampire clan that needs to take out the other vampires. While he played once, a Italian magazine editor interviewed him about what they were doing and he made a whole story up that was fictitious and later republished by many news media outlets. Then the //New York Times// published that it was all a joke and Marcus got a lot of humiliation because of how negatively the news later portrayed LARPing. So he switched to Alternate Reality Games instead. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This flashback helped him set up the perfect distraction by Getting Xnetters to play a LARP with vampires at the Civic Center. So Marcus and Ange packed and withdrew money for the trip into hiding. They woke up early the next morning to spray paint directions for people. The Vampmob LRP was going swell until the DHS came and the gassing and coughing occurred. Marcus was taken by Masha but they didn’t get Ange. Masha took him to a far away truck and they loaded under a table. Marcus decided to fight instead of run and he left with the evidence he needed to bring down the DHS. So he runs away and goes on Xnet after befriending some kids and he sets up the downfall. Before it takes action he is caught and they begin to torture him but State Troopers came and saved the day. Marcus found Darryl and Ange in the prison and later he had most of the charges dropped except the theft of the phone. He finds out later that the later who tortured him gets to go free and he makes a video about it to help inform people. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">My feelings on the book have not changed. I still enjoy the story line with all its twists and turns. I like the explanation of certain elements in the novel to assist readers understand the book. The book is both a relaxing and suspenseful. Some parts used a lot of ethos and got you revved up to strike. Other parts had logos that made your thoughts change instantly. The pathos that occurs throughout is just like in real life how we trust people and they go behind our backs. It's a lot like real life but it still is a story with foes and heroes. I would recommend reading this book.

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