Since we were talking about Cory Doctorow the other day, I want to plug the man’s new book.
Important bit first: it’s free. You can download it in a variety of formats, including html and pdf, here. Doctorow practices what he preaches around this stuff.
What is it? It’s youth fiction with tech smarts, street savvy and one hell of a political kick, as you would expect from a conscious followup to Orwell’s 1984. Check out the blurb:
Marcus, a.k.a “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, Marcus discovers that his 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: to take down the DHS himself.
Go download it. Then read it. I’ve done the first, plan on getting to the second real soon now.
(But I’ve got the busy. Blog may fall silent for a day or two.)
I’m totally reading this story! Have begun and it’s fun. Reading good things online only makes me want to support and buy real hard copies!
Ditto
I totally finished reading it at 3am on Sat morning ’cause even though I was tired, I kinda couldn’t stop. Enjoyed it. A lot.
I finished it today. It’s a good read, gets hella compelling about halfway through. I liked it lots.