Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

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Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

In the aftermath of a terrorist atrocity in San Francisco a teenage hacker gets caught up in the inevitable security backlash. It's a case of the cure being worse than the disease as the fear of terrorism is used to justify brutality and totalitarian surveillance by the department of homeland security.

This young adult novel is a great adventure story but it is also the most political Doctorow novel I have read yet. This is a novel about post 911 America and it sails close enough to the truth to be genuinely scary. Of course the fact that the last book I read was set in Nazi Germany didn't help.

To be honest,I am not fully convinced by Doctorow's political beliefs but he is always worth reading. A word of warning though. Doctorow's depictions of teenage gamer culture are surprisingly inept given it's prevalence in his young adult fiction. He gets the basics right but genuine gamers will find his use of leet speak and his mangling of manga themes cringeworthy.

Down and out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory L. Doctorow

I enjoyed the setting of this near future novel where mankind has achieved immortality and the economy is based entirely on a tradeable analog of esteem called "whoofie". The story is somewhat forgettable though. It is entirely possible that I am missing deep symbolism and allegory. This is a story about a future utopian world that just happens to be set in Disney land after all.

FTW by Cory Doctorow

Interesting "Young Adult" novel which combines a good story with a political tract. Doctorow uses a story set in the near future world of mmorpg gold farmers to share his left of centre views on globalisation and the exploitation of workers. There is a tonne of economic theory in there too. Even if you don't entirely agree with Doctorow's political stance it is still a pretty good read. It is also interesting to see gold farmers as heroes for a change given the fact that they are more ussually spoken of with derision by many mmorpg gamers and bloggers. Chinese players in particulary are subject to a considerable amount of racist abuse because of the gold farming issue.