The ultimate tale of teen rebellion -- one seventeen-year-old against the surveillance state. Big Brother is watching you. Who's watching back? Marcus 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 no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
About the Author
Cory Doctorow is a coeditor of Boing Boing and the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He writes columns for Make, Information Week, the Guardian online, and Locus. He has won the Locus Award three times, been nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula, won the Campbell Award, and was named one of the Web’s twenty-five influencers by Forbes magazine and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He hopes you’ll use technology to change the world.
This was a fairly good book, but i found some parts of it had too much information which lost me. The plot was quite interesting overall, though.
ReplyDeleteGreat Book!!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought that the story was interesting, but felt like the author was trying to hard when he was writing it. Every single thing was described, making it seem tiresome at times. I also found the explanations of the technology over my head, but that may not be the author's fault...
ReplyDeleteOver all, it was pretty good.
I thought this book was interesting, but I found the parts with the computer code a little hard to understand since I am not a computer person.
ReplyDeleteNicole (WCHS)
I thought this book was amazing. I found that the extra information the author added integrated nicely and made it seem as though he wasn't trying to be above you. I felt like I had the right amount of information to understand what he was getting at, but to not be completely bored with details and descriptions I didn't care about. - Lisa (WCHS)
ReplyDeleteloved this book. i really enjoyed how much detail they went into when explaining the technical things, but the sex parts could've been skipped
ReplyDeleteAMAZING, and HILARIOUS Book
ReplyDeletecould have done withour some parts though
Jenny(WCHS)
Good book, it kept me hooked and seemed really realistic.
ReplyDeleteSarah(WCHS)
This was a great book- good story, great characters. But the computer jargon completely lost me. Unfortunately, I know far more about books than I do about computers.
ReplyDeleteThe tightening security measures depicted were terrifingly realistic. As airports guidelines become more and more strict- and more restrictive- how will we ensure that our security measures are truly keeping us safe?
-Bethany (WCHS)
This was a really good book, and has some pretty good points too-especially about how our safety measures against terrorism just create more terror and help accomplish the terrorists' goals.
ReplyDeleteJoel(DCHS)
I completely agree with John.
ReplyDeleteThere, now I don't have to type it myself.
Celeste W. (WCHS)
Back by popular demand, (Do I count as popular demand?) CELESTE!!!
ReplyDeleteI just thought it was necessary to add more to my rather short blog.
I feel that authors and screenplay writers are way too willing to put just anything in their works to please the crowds. So it ruined the book for me seeing that Cory Doctorow was one of those people.
However, I thought that the computer hacking whatnot parts were interesting. This is because I really do not know much about computers, so it was neat to read about this stuff that would usually go right over my head put simply. But if any of you read the afterwords, you may know what I am getting at when I say they are ridiculous. If I remember correctly, one person said ‘Put down this book and go hack anything you can.’ I am sure it was not those exact words, but I am not far from it. Why would you encourage High School students to become hackers? It is not a good idea to go around hacking your school’s computers, unless you want to get expelled.
Marcus had both a very predictable and not predictable character. In a way this was a clever mix, but at some parts of the book I doubted it. And I still don't understand WHY Caesar Chavez High had gait detectors and all that. The book never really gave a reason. This was not terrible, but it leaves me mildly confused.
So would I recommend this book?
Nope.
The good parts are heavily outweighed by the inappropriate content and teenage fluff.
Celeste W. (WCHS)
This was a good book! It had a good story line and I didn't mind any of the geeky lingo.
ReplyDeleteEmily (WCHS)
A good book for the conspiracy theory-ness of it and techy bits. Better in ways than other books that would have the main character drop off the grid and wage all out war against the all powerful oppressive government.
ReplyDeleteThen again the sketchy bits were annoying to have thrown in there randomly. As far as recommending goes it would be a person to person decision.
-Will S. WCHS
I thought this book was amazing and clever. I didn't understand much of the computer programing talk, and the love bits were unecesary. But it was still a great book
ReplyDelete