this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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Anyone read them? How are they?
Little Brother is amazing. Its a novel that takes place in California after a terrorist attack and Homeland Security uses the attack as an excuse to go full fascist and start tracking and arresting people on terrorism charges with no trial.
It includes mention and use of a ton of real technologies (tor, torrents, linux, pgp key signing parties, etc) and the main characters are teens that use a jailbroken gaming console to create a p2p network/community of hackers to fight back against fascism. It shows how communities can organize and share files and information, how communities can be infiltrated, how people can avoid surveillance using technology and even simple things like placing a pebble in your shoe to avoid gait recognition (which the cameras in their schools use to track each student).
I highly recommend it! Homeland is the sequel and it looks like theres a new book as part of the story. I haven’t read any of the other books other than parts of Walkaway which I want to finish when I have time. Walkaway is a story about people who essentially leave society to build an open source society/commune
They're FOSS competence porn and wish fulfillment fantasy. I'm 100% on board with his politics and ideas, but the stories are a bit weak.
They're fun though.
That may be the best most detailed description I've ever seen in three words. Sounds like it could be interesting
Exactly the kind of porn youngsters leading to become adults should read, IMO.
While they're written for a YA audience, (doesn't include me) I read and enjoyed both Little Brother, Homeland, and Makers. Cory's head is almost always in the right place for me (including at readings.)
Which book or books did you read? I've read Walkaway, and I'm half way through The Lost Cause, and while I wouldn't say that they're not competence porn, I actually think the story and character work is pretty good in these, imo.
I haven't read any of his book yet, but I agree with a lot of his philosophy toward tech. For example, you can read here why he did not publish his recent book on enshittification on Audible, Amazon's audio book service, because he is against the DRM that Amazon requires: https://scribe.rip/@doctorow/kickstarting-a-book-to-end-enshittification-because-amazon-will-not-carry-it-7585250dabaf . He's willing to put his money where his mouth is, excluding himself from potential sales out of principle, and I respect that.
I also try put my money where my mouth is and support DRM-free media when possible, e.g. on gog.com and the DRM-free section of ebooks.com.
I've read about a dozen of his works, and probably more if you count short stories. I really enjoy his writing style. I started with the Homeland series and have gone backwards and forwards. His latest work reads similar to Neil Gaiman's in a sense that I'm hooked and drawn into a new universe. Homeland was EXCELLENT. His earlier stuff is really creative and very detailed. The way he breaks down and describes how tech works is accurate and detailed. He's got 4 short stories that make up a works called Radicalized that really well describe the awful experience some people get fiscally locked into in tech.
TLDR: yes.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is his masterpiece. If you only read one book from the bundle I recommend that one.
Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother is available for free online in case you want to check out his writing style.
thanks, link for future viewers https://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
They’re pretty good. He has a very clear, very technically detailed style. Good solid mystery writing. Kind of like a poor man’s William Gibson. After reading a two page segment of red team blues where Doctorow explains keypair encryption I described him to my wife as “Tom Clancy level detail for computers and the internet” not that Clancy is good, but his stuff is that detailed.
So should I read William Gibson instead?
I can't tell you if you should read William Gibson instead, but I can definitely tell you that you should read William Gibson
I would advise anyone who likes sci-fi to read both of these authors.
Count Zero and Neuromancer are fundamental books for the cyberpunk ethos.
William Gibson wrote Neuromancer, and it had an incredible cultural impact. But everything else he wrote hasn't come close. I've read the Bigend trilogy. Can't really remember anything that happened in those books.
On the other hand, Cory Doctorow is the writer I wish I was. He does high tech thrillers the way they're supposed to be. Attack Surface is excellent, a master class in a flawed but sympathetic main character. Just read Red Team Blues. Doctorow reveals how interesting forensic accounting really is.
His "Burning chrome" short story collection is great too. It has "Johnny Mnemonic" in it, an amazing short story turned into a terrible movie. Just having more Molly is worth the ride.
You know, I'm a developer on an open-source tabletop RPG that is meant to be to solarpunk what D&D is to fantasy. We're nearly done, but if you like writing stories in this kind of genre, I think it might interest you, either as a player or contributor to the game modules.
Solarpunk?
Edit: Nevermind, just looked it up. Interesting.
I can't speak for all of Doctorow's work, but of the stuff I've read, I think that's the genre he's writing in.
Do you have a link or something? I'd like to check it out.
Sure. The website is https://fullyautomatedrpg.com. You can see the whole thing there. We discuss development on a Discord server (linked from the website), although we also have an early Lemmy community: !fullyautomatedrpg.slrpnk.net.
I don't read many books, but I've read both "Little Brother" and "Homeland" quite some time back and they were honestly some of my favourites. Though in my opinion it can suffer slightly from the main character being too technically capable than most people today. I believe at one point in one book they go through their computers entire kernel to find some backdoor or rootkit, which I found to be probably the most unbelievable part of it all.
Other than that minor gripe, I actually really appreciate the stories for how engaged I was and their warnings of what could quite easily happen. Also I appreciate the technical level that Cory engages the stories with. I'm a developer, so I appreciate those technical explanations a little more than just 'hackerman does a hacker on the keyboard to gain access' type dialogue.
I don't really follow specific authors but with Cory's "enshittification" article combined with his recent publicity, some of his stories and messages are quite relevant still today with the implementation of our primitive AI.
I'm quite tempted to get a copy of this bundle because I didn't know there was a third/related book but I am honestly a little sad they are not physical copies.
I'd like to know as well
The short answer is, yes, his work is very good.