1984 for the 21st Century
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But with a slightly less upsetting ending.
This is marked here as "young adult" and by the publisher as "TOR Teens". I hope no-one minds my having read it, although I left my teens behind some 40 odd years ago. The story is certainly told from a teenage viewpoint but the moral is one that all of us would do well to remember and the tale is engrossing enough to have held me for the several hours it took to read the book. The narrator, Marcus Yarrow, is 17, at school in San Francisco and accidentally gets caught up in a nightmare as US security over-react to a terrorist attack. There is a lot of techie stuff that is explained well enough that I at least felt I understood it (whether or not I did is irrelevant - this is a story, after all). Circumstances and a certain bolshieness conspire to push Yarrow into opposing the forces who have taken over SF in the name of protecting it and, in the end, he comes out on top, more or less.
I can't judge whether this book is right for its target market, but I can say that it made me think and reminded me that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty".
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Everything that's fun about the internet and scary about the USA
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After reading Doctorow's blogs for years, I finally bought one of his books and I was absolutely entranced. This book brought back all the good memories of my teenage years, when the web was a twisted playground, a place to explore and meet people, to try all the cool tricks and be tricked by them. Special codes, hand-built gadgets and secretive communities where the members felt a true sense of kinship.
It's all in here as these kids live on the razor's edge, trying to stay ahead of the latest "security" countermeasures brought in to a post-9/11 America. The great tag team of upbeat teenaged rebellion coupled with the grim and terror-filled atmosphere of America in the grip of potential threats from outside assailants makes for compelling writing as Doctorow explores the Constitution of the US and how it is being bulldozed aside in the name of Patriotism as well as how trying to fight for these rights often leaves those crusaders in the sights to be branded as criminals.
The writing style is clear and designed to allow even the less tech-savvy into this world of intrigue and digital rebellion, making it both a joy for the wired and the wireless to read.
Believe
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