James Swenson's Reviews > Homeland

If you loved Little Brother, you'll want to read this, too. It's the same mix: one teenage moral dilemma after another, blended with evangelism for freedom through cryptography.

Since Cory Doctorow is a fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, I was irritated by his use of a sandstorm to literally blow his main characters into a tent containing three of the leading lights of the EFF -- and Wil Wheaton, the internet hero formerly of Star Trek: The Next Generation and eponym of Wheaton's Law. Through the rest of the novel, I felt the EFF hanging over me as a deus ex machina in waiting. It didn't seem to occur to Marcus, though.

The book ends with an afterword by Aaron Swartz, which gives a sadly appropriate conclusion to a story about the breakdown of society.