Little Bother: A Novel
I just finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and I must say it is brilliant and timely. It is actually written as a Young Adult book but is not “written down to that level” as many YA books are. I fist heard about it via a sample of the audio book that was played during the podcast This Week in Technology and was so impressed with the writing I immediately bought a dead-tree version through Amazon.
The story is set in the near-future but the author is very careful not to specify an exact year although he mentions some name brands in the story. The main character and his friends are ordinary high school students until circumstance makes them suspects in a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and are detained by the Department of Homeland Security. I do not want to give too many spoilers, but after harsh treatment at the hands of DHS he sees them as the enemy and plots his revenge. I do not know what Mr. Doctorow’s personal political views are, but this book is brilliantly anti-authoritarian in nature and deserves all of the publicity it can get. In terms of the influence it can have on future generations, this may be the most important Young Adult book of the past 20 years. I highly recommend it. This book deserves the support of any person concerned about our loss of liberty.
I am an eklektarchist not an anarchist.
Educational Pamphlet Mises Group
I think he's libertarian-leaning on certain issues. He's against IP, for example. But he's not a libertarian. On Free Talk Live he gushed about socialized medical care. Recently on Boing Boing, iirc, he made a negative post about guns.
Yours in liberty,Geoffrey Allan Plauché, Ph.D.Adjunct Instructor, Buena Vista UniversityWebmaster, LibertarianStandard.comFounder / Executive Editor, Prometheusreview.com
Offtopic a little, two of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson and William Gibson frequently use AnCap themes in their novels.
I'm thinking specifically of Gibson's "Bridge trilogy" which may be similar in some ways to the book you have posted about, and Stephenson's Snow Crash, where each town and village is an independent sovereign nation.
PDAs are normal features in these books. If you enjoy Sci-Fi, I can't think of much better than Gibson, and Stephenson is a close second.
Sounds like he has no concept of property rights, without which, I don't see how a person can be libertarian.
liberty student: Offtopic a little, two of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson and William Gibson frequently use AnCap themes in their novels. I'm thinking specifically of Gibson's "Bridge trilogy" which may be similar in some ways to the book you have posted about, and Stephenson's Snow Crash, where each town and village is an independent sovereign nation. PDAs are normal features in these books. If you enjoy Sci-Fi, I can't think of much better than Gibson, and Stephenson is a close second.
Vernor Vinge uses similar themes, especially in Across Realtime. Part of it involves a statist invasion being repelled by anarchists hoarding nukes in the desert .
Market anarchist, Linux geek, aspiring Perl hacker, and student of the neo-Aristotelians, the classical individualist anarchists, and the Austrian school.
Geoffrey Allan Plauche: I think he's libertarian-leaning on certain issues. He's against IP, for example. But he's not a libertarian. On Free Talk Live he gushed about socialized medical care. Recently on Boing Boing, iirc, he made a negative post about guns.
Interesting, in the novel, one of their meeting places is an anarchist bookstore.
wombatron: liberty student: Offtopic a little, two of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson and William Gibson frequently use AnCap themes in their novels. I'm thinking specifically of Gibson's "Bridge trilogy" which may be similar in some ways to the book you have posted about, and Stephenson's Snow Crash, where each town and village is an independent sovereign nation. PDAs are normal features in these books. If you enjoy Sci-Fi, I can't think of much better than Gibson, and Stephenson is a close second. Vernor Vinge uses similar themes, especially in Across Realtime. Part of it involves a statist invasion being repelled by anarchists hoarding nukes in the desert .
Thanks to both of you for the tips. I will have to pick those up.