Free Scifi: “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow [Lit]

1984 is a great novel, but it’s showing its age. When it was written, the idea of an overbearing totalitarian government using advanced technology to control its population seemed frightening and futuristic. Now in 2011, it seems a little quaint. I mean, a “future” of television and video cameras everywhere is downright antiquated. The government itself is melodramatically sinister in a way that real governments rarely behave. That’s where Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother took dystopian fiction in a new direction. It’s about a group of teenagers who lead a rebellion against a domineering government using technology to control its citizens. The twist is that it’s set in the United States in the very near future, and all the technology used for control already exist. The novel is disturbingly realistic as you realize that its use of RFID chips and gait recognition is only one step away from reality.

Little Brother is technically classified as a young adult novel, but its themes of torture, death, and paranoia make it truly a book for adults. It’s critically acclaimed, having won the 2009 White Pine Award, the 2009 Prometheus Award, and the 2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Despite all this, it’s available online for free at Doctorow’s website.

Are you going to check out Little Brother? If you have, what did you think of it? Let us know in the comments.

[Image Source: craphound]