Homeland
by Cory Doctorow
sequel to Little Brother
science fiction, thriller, subadult
copyright 2013
read in June 2014
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
This book is "A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion." That's what it says on the back cover -- and I agree. On the other hand...
There is so much that is simply *wrong* with this book.
Doctorow spends a lot of time telling us how clever he is. Pages and pages devoted to "facts" which have no relevance to the plot. Remember Heinlein, whose characters would spend many a long and weary page discussing the author's political philosophy ? Like that, only less interesting.
Cold brew coffee, for example...
Okay, I found that one interesting. So I checked the web. And found that the author has given the same recipe on his blog. So... irrelevant to the plot... and double-dipping.
The book is a call to "the people" to rise up and fight against our loss of freedom. In the style of Wikileaks. "The people" being young, impressionable teenage geeks. Being called to rise up against the people in power, those who used to be called "the man". It's a strong argument...
Weakened by factual errors. And one-eyed bias.
Okay, I have no opinion on the techno-babble. It's certainly exaggerated -- but this is science *fiction*. "What if" the technology were this powerful and this easy to use...
But what if it's all a load of nonsense ?!
"Pluto is too a planet!" shouts the story-teller. No, even writing it in all upper case doesn't change a scientific definition.
It's "something like the asteroid belt, or Pluto." One is a lot of rocks circling the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, the other is way waaaay out there all by itself in an unusual orbit. So which is it like, the asteroid belt or Pluto ? As an analogy, it's rubbish.
The author writes with his Big Book of Geek Speak in constant use. He uses cut-and-paste from his favorite website of techno trends. He aims to look very clever with snippets of code.
Aims... And misses.
Perhaps his Perl and his Python work. His Basic is definitely wrong.
When the small facts are wrong -- it's hard to trust the big facts.
And so, to the call to arms... Having expressed his shock and horror at The Man's use of computer systems to influence voters, what does the hero do ? He writes his own computer system to influence voters.
It's evil when done by government. It's okay for "us" to do exactly the same ?!
And that ethical ego trip is the final piece of nonsense. The author may have a truth to tell. Yet his answer -- is to fight with the same dirty weapons.
Sorry, game over.
It's a lot of fun. The warnings may be valid. The call to arms is dangerous.
If I don't like what the government tells me to do -- I'm just as much against this book's unethical approach to resistance.
