Cory DoctorowCríticas

This YA book was our March monthly assigned read for my SF book club. I had been familiar with Cory Doctorow through his work with the EFF and his writings on www.boingboing.net. These biases show clearly in Little Brother, but the novel does not suffer for it at all. His writing is clear and tight. Even when delving into hyper-technical geek talk, Doctorow’s explanations did not pull me out of the story. (But then, I am a self-confessed geek.) Within the first dozen pages he has drawn interesting and engaging characters, and I was intrigued to see where things would go.

The overall story is about how the main character, 17-year-old Marcus, deals with a security crackdown in San Francisco directly after a terrorist attack. As the new city-wide security protocols are implemented, he describes a few harrowing incidents that echo elements in The Handmaid’s Tale. In a classic example of doublespeak, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says, regarding the hundreds of citizens pulled over randomly on the street for database checks: “[You’ve been] momentarily detained so that we can ensure your safety…”. It is a key point in the novel that the catch-and-release policies of DHS are not uniformly applied.

Released in 2007, Little Brother is prescient regarding present-day surveillance technology (cf CBC's Spark). Though the terrorist attack is used as the McGuffin to get us to the issues of privacy versus security, it is clear that they can’t put this genie back in the bottle. Once DHS installs new spyware in existing cameras around the city, and infiltrates the existing internet and POS technology, it is virtually impossible to restore the city to the pre-attack state of decentralized data. In Canada, we saw this with the “temporary” security cameras installed for the Vancouver Olympics that then became permanent. Once laws and procedures are put in place, they have a political imperative to remain.

As can be expected from Doctorow, there is great use of language: “He’s a sucking chest wound of a human being.” And “…the chandelier of gear hung around their midriffs.” There are also nods to elements in pop culture, such as Harry Potter and The Matrix, that will be familiar to the target YA audience.

One weakness of the book was its focus exclusively on the plight and reaction of middle-class white teenagers. There were two brief moments towards the end of the book acknowledging the deeper nature of the problem – one of systemic racism in choosing who is a “potential threat” – in a conversation with Marcus’ friend Jolu, and Marcus noting the predominant skin colour of his fellow prisoners.
I would, perhaps, have liked a more overt acknowledgement that the escalating cyber-revolution Marcus starts was, in fact, seeded by the very acts of aggressive suppression and incarceration perpetrated by DHS.

Marcus’ character is a dissident without being too obnoxious – this is a useful contrast to the rebellious character in Boneshaker [see my review]. In addition, Marcus regularly engages in self-reflection and matures through the arc of the book. He comes to realize that actions regularly have consequences that he cannot fully foresee. Therefore, he becomes more thoughtful and less reactionary in his responses and the form his activism takes.

In the Afterword, Andrew “bunnie” Huang (a noted crypoexpert) presents an interesting metaphor. When artists, hobbyists, and iconoclasts (however that is defined) can be so easily implicated as terrorists, what do we call this dysfunction? Huang writes, “...it is called an autoimmune disease, where an organism’s defense system goes into overdrive so much that it fails to recognize itself and attacks its own cells.”

The message is clear and repeated often: the terrorists win if we act scared. If we give up privacy for security, we don’t deserve either. In fact the repetitive “message” was beginning to bog the novel down about one-third of the way through. Fortunately, the plot picked up, took a turn, and kept moving.

This book is a call-to-arms to know what your rights are and to recognize when others are trying to take them away from you. It is a great talking tool for parents and their teens re: the limitations and boundaries of privacy, security, and personal versus government responsibility.

Subversive and hyper-geeky, I liked this book very much. Have the terrorists already won? Not as long as people like Cory Doctorow are sounding the alarm.

A while back, I saw a tweet from someone who said they only read non-fiction because fiction is lacking "information density." This is someone who obviously hasn't read a Cory Doctorow novel. Both The Bezzle and Red Team Blues, along with the forthcoming third Marty Hench novel, are so information rich and dense that you can't lot learn something. And oh how entertaining that learning is when you're in Cory's hands.

Cory Doctorow is nothing if not prolific, but unless you count "The Rapture of the Nerds," his collaboration with Charlie Stross (which I don't), I really haven't been interested in the sort of near-term polemical thrillers that are his bread and butter. However, when Doctorow decided to tackle future American political strife my thought was, okay, challenge accepted.

For one thing, this is kind of old-school speculative fiction in that it's very "ideas first," only the ideas that Doctorow is dealing with are of the sort that the people who wish for SF like it used to be written don't want to engage with. This is as the characters in this novel are well up to their waists in the "Long Emergency" of catastrophic climate change, where some people like protagonist Brooks Palazzo factor this into their future, and some, like his toxic grandfather, are stewing over what they see as the end times. Which is to say that while Doctorow's characterization is fine, they do sometimes seem mostly like the tools of a polemic; though since I expected to be polemicized this is more of a feature than a bug.

On the whole my experience with this novel was positive, but my biggest gripe is having Palazzo's grandfather conveniently die early in the book, with his place being taken by various surrogates; to me this seemed like a cop-out. To really engage with the conflicts in question would have meant Doctorow dealing with the inner life of the future MAGA "bitter ender." I know that's a tough task, but I think it would have resulted in a better novel; a lot of the time this felt like a survival-horror game where our plucky band of adventurers have to deal with an escalating series of "bosses" who are mostly inscrutable.½

dystopia

This was a weird story that I wasn't sure of, until the last 3rd of the book. After the Singularity, most humans have uploaded themselves into the cloud and are off-world. Huw is one of the ones that remain dirtside. Somehow he is tapped to speak for humanity to keep an alien intelligence from destroying and absorbing our world (think Vogon contructor fleet). It was the odd post-cyberpunk fare that I'd come to expect from Doctorow. A decent listen.½

If you know Cory Doctorow as a science fiction writer (as I do) then you might be a little confused by this book and the previous one, Red Team Blues. It's set more or less in contemporary times and, as far as I was able to determine, there's little that is not based on actual occurrences. It's like when Margaret Atwood talks about The Handmaid's Tale, she says there is nothing in that book that hasn't taken place at some point somewhere in the world.

Martin (Marty) Hench is a forensic accountant and he specializes in uncovering fraud and scams. He's not wealthy but he usually has to only work a few months out of the year because when he recovers money he gets 25% of it as his fee. And, usually, the amounts he finds are substantial. So, when his friend Scott Warms invites him to go to Catalina Island with him, Martin is free to do so. Scott is a tech entrepreuner who sold his company to Yahoo! and is very rich. On Catalina Island he socializes with other ultra-rich people and so does Marty by extension. Scott likes to take fast-food hamburgers over to Catalina to give to the locals who live there because there are no fast-food joints on the island. On one visit their driver/guide introduces them to the new scheme that monopolizes all the fast food that comes onto the island by getting people with access to it to give it up in return for shares in the scheme. As the driver explains it Martin and Scott realizes this is just a Ponzi scheme and they know that no-one ever gets rich in them. They disclose this to their driver and get him to withdraw from the scheme and get all his friends to do so. This brings the scheme down and incurs the wrath of the head, Lionel Coleman Jr. Some years later when Scott racks up a third felony charge for possession of cocaine he is sent to prison for life. Marty tries to visit and help Scott but shortly after a private company is given the contract for running all the non-essential services at the prison. Things like meals, visits, commissarry, library, telephone calls. And guess who turns out to be head of the company that got this contract? Yes, their old friend Lionel Coleman Jr. He takes the opportunity to make things as hard as possible for Scott and Scott wants Marty to take the company down. When Marty starts investigating all the shell companies and off-shore accounts, Marty gets roughed up by some police officers who are investors in the company.

Although I've never longed to live in the US, this book made me wonder if I even want to visit there. Who knows what other segments of society are stacked against the ordinary person and when one might run afoul of the "rules". And, especially if a certain person wins the presidential election later this year.½

This novel is set in a world damaged by climate change, and afflicted by the polarized politics that priorizes the rights of the occupants of the wealthier countries, and global financial elites over the moral claims of people displaced by climate change. It is polemical and didactic. Its young characters are examples of correct ideals and practices. It is, it appears, among Mr. Doctorow's SF novels written for youg adults.½

As a Silicon Valley forensic accountant, Martin Hench usually works to untie the knots in startup spreadsheets. In Red Team Blues, he unraveled a scheme involving cryptocurrency. In The Bezzle, he tells a story about the first dotcom boom when he helped the victim of a Ponzi scheme on Catalina Island and a young man who ran afoul of corruption in California’s recently privatized prisons.
Hench can be your “avenging angel of the balance sheet.” But there are limits. He explains that once you have invested in a Ponzi scheme, the money is gone. The best you can do is cut your losses and get out. You may never get your money back, but some revenge may be possible if you can take advantage of the bezzle, the period when an embezzler has his swag, but his victim has yet to feel the loss.
The Bezzle is not the science fiction novel we usually get from Cory Doctorow, but it is one of his most character-driven stories. Hench is like the Ancient Mariner as he tells an unnamed listener his story of labyrinthian greed that fascinates and appalls.

A fantastic collection of short stories. I row-boat is a great story from the collection. Doctorow has this book, along w/ several others available for free download here.

I went into "In Real Life" with high expectations- several book reviewers I follow (and trust their taste in books) were RAVING about this. People were practically drooling over this graphic novel, and I couldn't wait to read it.
I don't understand that hype anymore. "In Real Life" has an interesting concept and a cool variety of strong, female characters, but overall, the storyline falls flat and the artwork leaves something to be desired.

The story revolves around Anda, a girl who has recently discovered a MMRPG called Coarsegold Online, where she can go on cool quests, fight fantasy creatures, and talk to other women in guilds. She teams up with an avatar named Sarge who convinces Anda to help her slay "gold farmers" - avatars who are simply gathering virtual gold in the game and then selling that virtual gold to players in real life. After doing so, Anda meets and talks to one of these "gold farmers" and finds out that he is a boy named Raymond living in China. He works as a gold farmer many hours a week- it's one of the only jobs he can get.
Slowly, Anda becomes torn between wanting to stay true to the Coarsegold standards and not let gold farming continue, and doing what she feels may be right by trying to help Raymond shape his life in a better way.

Like I said, this had a very interesting plot, and I really liked the tie-ins to economics and real life situations (like Doctorow discussed in his prologue). But these themes feel very weak throughout, and they're not as fully explored as I feel they could have been. For example, when Anda begins asking her father about how strikes work, I think there was definitely an opportunity there for a deeper discussion.
There is also a lot of "waste" in this book- wasted time and wasted space. For instance,during the course of the novel, one of Anda's schoolmates tries to convince Anda's D&D group to be a part of the new Board Game Club. This is brought up again near the end, but this adds almost NO substance to the book at all! That time could have been spent further developing the plot or the topic of economics and gaming.
Also, I'm very unimpressed with the artwork by Jen Wang here. Like a lot of people say, I think the colors are very pretty, and the characters are well drawn. But her backgrounds are very very lazily drawn. Sometimes there is no background, just a white page. Mostly it is a simple wash of color. Even within the Coarsegold game, which is a place of fantasy and cool stuff, the backgrounds are unimpressive. There are a couple of nice buildings or the hint of a forest a few times, but mostly, they're large, empty space with just a splash of green color.

I really want to like this graphic novel. It is a cool book to hold and flip through, but honestly, I think everything could have just been more well-developed. I'd be willing to read something else either Doctorow or Wang worked on, but it's going to be with much lower expectations

The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow is a financial thriller that offers a glimpse along with real insight into financial shenanigans. It is very highly recommended.

In 2006 Martin Hench, a self-employed forensic accountant, is vacationing with his friend Scott Warms on Catalina Island, where there is no crime. Martin uncovers a black market financial pyramid scheme that is based on the resale of fast food on the island where fast food chains are banned. He knows that the man running the scheme, Lionel Coleman Jr., is going to take all the money the islanders have invested so he helps them bring the scheme down. Lionel finds out Martin and Scott were involved in ending the fast food scam, so he gets revenge on Scott, who ends up sent to prison. But this is just the beginning of the scams Martin uncovers that are being perpetrated by the ultra-wealthy, including California’s Department of Corrections.

The fascinating narrative is via Martin telling someone the story about his experiences in 2006 leading up to the 2008 financial crash. Doctorow does an excellent job writing about what could be considered boring financial details that a forensic accountant uncovers and makes the examination interesting. He knows about tech-sector monopolies, copyright laws, and internet ethics. He also understands that some of these wealthy people wield real power behind the scenes.

Most of the novel is akin to a procedural and provides details into the financial aspects of cases leading ultimately up to a final major encounter/case. The writing is clear, clever, and concise. This can work as a stand-alone novel. 4.5 . Thanks to Tor for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/02/the-bezzle.html½

What you expect from a Cory Doctorow novel is a political manifesto where right-on characters who all sound the same deliver inspiring lectures to each other about decentralised computing or collective action, and there will also be lovingly described cooking including in this one a short recipe for shakshuka I want to try out. Normally I give up about halfway through, but this one was surprisingly moving and hammered out some optimism for a time when it seems like the global consensus is to procrastinate deaiing with (waves hands around).

Fun read, nice illustrations. Deals with some serious issue of digital economy and its impact on people's lives.

Well, I liked this book. It came part of a Humble Bundle I bought, so didn't specifically go out to read it. I realised once I started, it's definitely a young adult book. Nevertheless, an interesting read that's prompted some questioning thoughts.

Cory Doctorow is a writer who has some wonderful ideas ([b:Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|29587|Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168033624s/29587.jpg|1413]) and a solid technical grounding to support many of his stories ([b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255817214s/954674.jpg|939584]). But sometimes, as in this book, he meanders. Plot threads are introduced that don't actually advance the story. Characters go from villains to mostly-nice guys at whiplash speeds. There's a single, graphic sex scene that (in its solitariness) seems gratuitous or as if Doctorow was challenging himself to see if he could write credible erotica.
Most troubling for me was the cloying arrogance Doctorow was displaying towards people. Even background characters are noted to be fat, acned, smelly, dull, lacking fashion sense, etc. I came away thinking far less of Doctorow as a person than I did of the kinds of people he was skewering.
In any event, I found myself just wanting the story to move along faster and get to a point. Good thing he added the Epilogue, which ends the book on a very human, very bittersweet note.

Meh.

[My first print-on-demand book!]

I grew up with a healthy distrust of the government. Little Brother was a great reminder why. Doctorow does a first-rate job in this book (especially after abysmal disappointment like Someone Comes to Town) with a well-thought-out story and sympathetic, believable main characters. If the villains seem a little cardboard, well that's because they don't let the main characters get close enough to see them as real people.
I've urged this book upon all my friends I've had occasion to discuss it with. Read it. Enjoy it. Learn from it.

This was the first SF book I read in years that made me think, "I want to live in that future!"
This was Cory's first published novel, and as such it has a few weaknesses. There's a too-extended interlude stuck in the middle. And the main character becomes somewhat unlikeable for a while. But the sociological and technical ideas underpinning the story have much more strength. He's one of the few SF authors to try tackling an entirely new economic system.
Savor the good parts, quickly skim the bad parts. Enjoy it for what it offers.

Narratively, this just wasn't as strong as [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)|Cory Doctorow|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349673129s/954674.jpg|939584], nor were the lessons on "electronic hygiene" as good. Plus, the celebrity name-dropping was a little annoying; most of them appeared in the story for no good reason. Perhaps the only satisfying thing I got out of this was Doctorow's acknowledgement that even electing a "good-guy" president didn't change the course of the surveillance state we're building in America. But Little Brother is still a much better call to arms than is [b:Homeland|12917338|Homeland (Little Brother, #2)|Cory Doctorow|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1340259004s/12917338.jpg|18072409].

I found this book somewhat less satisfying than Doctorow's other YA novels, [b:Little Brother|954674|Little Brother|Cory Doctorow|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349673129s/954674.jpg|939584] and [b:For The Win|7241373|For The Win|Cory Doctorow|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317793244s/7241373.jpg|7359191]. Interestingly, although the threats in Pirate Cinema are less dire and the story's geography smaller, the story is actually less believable. But I nevertheless enjoyed it, and wouldn't hesitate recommending it if you have already read the other two. Otherwise, I would say read Little Brother first, simply because it is the better book.

While not as gripping and compelling as Little Brother, For the Win still fulfills its mission of educating readers (especially young adults) about economics and labor. I must confess I was worried going in about how Left-oriented Doctorow's treatment would be, given that he was rereading Marx recently. To his credit, Doctorow keeps a pretty even hand here. And while the economics lessons can interrupt the narrative flow, they're not preachy or eye-glazingly dull.

I'm on the fence about giving this 3 or 4 stars. I've just finished it and am a little disappointed in the climax and denouement, but I'm not sure why. If the book keeps popping up in my thoughts over time, I'll probably raise my rating.

Very thrilling and very educative at the same time. Obviously a modern-day 1984 but much less depressing, since the main character fights his unjust government with passion. Great read, though I felt that the occasional "you" passages were a bit out of place.

I thought it started out a bit slow, plus the story was hard to keep track of with the ever-changing narrations/timelines. But it gets interesting at some point and is a somewhat decent Doctorow.

Never having read much by Doctorow except boingboing, I didn't quite expect this to be Sci-Fi - but it's even better this way! The described technology resembles that of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, 100 years advanced. Combine that with a Walt Disney World setting and you've got a pretty way-out story.