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    Homeland
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    Homeland
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    Homeland
    Ebook437 pages6 hours

    Homeland

    By Cory Doctorow

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In Cory Doctorow's wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state.

    A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus's hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It's incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier.

    Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can't admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He's surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can't even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He's not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he's gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do.

    Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they're used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want.

    Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.


    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateFeb 5, 2013
    ISBN9781466805873
    Unavailable
    Homeland
    Author

    Cory Doctorow

    Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. His latest book is THE LOST CAUSE, a solarpunk science fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His most recent nonfiction book is THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATION, a Big Tech disassembly manual. Last April, he published RED TEAM BLUES, a technothriller about finance crime. He is the author of the international young adult LITTLE BROTHER series. He is also the author of CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM (with Rebecca Giblin), about creative labor markets and monopoly; HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about conspiracies and monopolies; and of RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults, a YA graphic novel called IN REAL LIFE; and other young adult novels like PIRATE CINEMA. His first picture book was POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER (Aug 2020). His next novel is THE BEZZLE (February 2024). He maintains a daily blog at Pluralistic.net. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab Research Affiliate, is a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Open University, a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 2022, he earned the Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Awardee for lifetime achievement. York University (Canada) made him an Honourary Doctor of Laws; and the Open University (UK) made him an Honourary Doctor of Computer Science.

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    Reviews for Homeland

    4/5

    268 ratings26 reviews

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    • 5/5
      wow this is a well writen and researched book. lots of interest for the geek and normal alike, flows well and keeps you gripped. im adding this to my youthworker website and recommending it to young people and old people.

      read it, then check out the guardian project for android.linux tails (replaced paranoid linux) they are watching you.
    • 4/5
      Im not even sure how to review Little Brother and Homeland on a pure writing level. There's just so much good information and so many interesting ideas in there. I absolutely recommend these to people of any age as an introduction to privacy, activism, and making stuff with technology. I think they're really fun to read too.
    • 5/5
      Happiness is overrated.
    • 2/5
      Disappointing, but still entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Marcus Yallow, at just nineteen, already has a past as a cyberactivist, exposing embarrassing secrets of the US government. But now the harrowing events of Little Brother are behind him, and he just wants to enjoy the Burning Man festival and then find a job--job-hunting having been unsuccessful since the previous year's events forced him to drop out of college.

      His past catches up with him at Burning Man, though, producing on the one hand an offer of a job as webmaster for the campaign of an independent candidate for the California state senate, and on the other hand, a bittorrent file containing hundreds of thousands of documents revealing the darkest secrets of the US security establishment. And on the last night of Burning Man, he sees the woman who gave him the file and the key to it being kidnapped by a nightmare figure from his past, Kerry Johnstone.

      The next few weeks plunge Marcus and his girlfriend Angie back into cyber-intrigue and dodging both government and private sector goons. Along the way, he learns the strength of friendship and the limits of political idealism.

      I haven't read Little Brother, but I found I was able to pick up enough about previous events to follow what was going on. Marcus is convincingly nineteen years old, idealistic, still inexperienced in many ways despite past events, very bright, and extremely likable. The independent candidate he goes to work for is almost, but not quite, too perfect. The conflict between working for his candidate, who might make a first step toward challenging the corruption, and getting the secret files out is developed very exquisitely and painfully. Wil Wheaton, who has an excellent and very expressive voice, does the reading.

      Recommended.

      I bought this book.
    • 4/5
      Another great book by Doctorow. I liked it a lot, and while I didn't like it as much as Little Brother, it is still well worth your time.
    • 3/5
      Marcus' paranoid tale in a slightly more dystopian reality is bracketed by Burning Man and full of protests and info-dumps. He's a smart ass kid which is annoying and endearing at the same time. It was a good follow-up to Little Brother.
    • 3/5
      I would say its by far the worst Cory Doctorow book i've read (and I've read a large number of them). It reads like an advertisement / fangasiming for all of his favorite things online. Lots of name dropping.

      There are a large number of elements of the book I liked. I really want to build stuff, even tempted to try to get re-involved with the local hackerspace. I found the ending a bit disappointing.

      I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but I don't regret reading it.
    • 4/5
      I liked it, but it lacked the vigor of Little Brother. Kids have to grow up, but the angst of the college student was just less entertaining to me than the angst of the wrongfully imprisoned high school kids. Other random comments: Using the same villain was ... interesting. I didn't actually love this villain, but it gave Doctorow a chance to explore the protagonist's PTSD, which I appreciated. On the other hand, I didn't really love the guest appearances of big name Bay Area / Burning Man culture, and the general coolness vibe.
    • 4/5
      The best measure of how I feel about Cory Doctorow's Homeland is that I read it in the course of two incredibly busy days. I carved out time late at night and between highly productive work projects to devour this book. I really enjoyed it and it made me tear up a time or two.

      It's not perfect. It doesn't have the impact of Little Brother, but it is a worthy follow up and does a number of things better than the first one. I think it does a better job of serving as a gate-way drug to geek skills than Little Brother, and that's a non-trivial data point.

      The book is highly politicized, but I think Doctorow's restraint is important to note. Much more so than in Pirate Cinema (another didactic YA tech novel by Doctorow) Cory Doctorow paints his juvenile tech hero's path as one of restraint. Marcus Yallow (the protagonist) chooses intentionally how to exercise the power his tech skills grant him. This restraint is contrasted to the techno-anarchism or techno-vigilantism of Anonymous and other hacker communities. This fine and subtle distinction may be lost by those looking for clearer distinctions between the white and black hats, but I want to applaud the author for showing that the ability to do things with technology != the right to do them. Yallow chooses well, but his restraint may be lost on less sophisticated readers and/or reviewers.

      In the end, I'm on board. Doctorow has done a fine job turning the moral quandries of the information frontiers into a very human novel for young people. In the end, it is better for all of us to empower ourselves to make as many choices as possible, since the alternatives are to surrender that agency to government, corporate, or black-hat computer criminal groups. The choices aren't easy, but better to make difficult choices than to be a pawn.
    • 3/5
      I liked Little Brother so much I was excited to get my hands on Homeland as quick as I could. Unfortunately that was the only excitement I held for this though. The same group of. Hat actress returns, a bit scared and damaged from past experiences. To me though the new set of problems Marcus and company find doesn't have the same depth and sense of doom that the original book had.
    • 3/5
      This sequel to "Little Brother" doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. At the end of LB, Marcus has gone from a somewhat cocky teen rebel to a wiser, scarred near-adult. He learns; he grows; he evolves. In contrast, Marcus ends Homeland in basically the same shape he starts in. It's a shame, because the writing in both books is good, if a bit tech-y in places.

      In any event, the book begins with Marcus and his girlfriend Ange having a great time at Burning Man. They run into Masha, a former baddie in LB, who gives them a USB stick with a complete and very damaging dossier on "Severe Haircut Lady," the Big Bad from LB. She wants Marcus to leak it, Wikileaks-style, in hopes that the info will bring down the clandestine Homeland Security apparatus.

      Then Masha disappears, and Marcus has a dilemma--how to release the info without drawing the attention of the baddies. In the meantime, he's found a dream job as a webmaster for an up-and-coming politician. The rest of the book covers his attempts to get the info out without losing his head, his friends, or his job.

      I'll keep this one, because I do like the characters, it's a quick read, and the writing is good. I had the pleasure of hearing Cory Doctorow talk about Homeland on his recent tour, and I don't think we've heard the last of Marcus. I just hope that in the next one, Marcus continues to evolve, and the tension/stakes are higher.
    • 5/5
      I read this book last week of March and used it in my CJ 200 Class it is a fiction but shockingly real compared to what is currently happening in our country a must read for all ages and everyone who is an American Citizen with concerns about our Govt. and Privacy rights
    • 4/5
      Nice sequel to Little Brother, dealing again with government overreach and potential and actual abuse of power.
    • 2/5
      Marcus gets mixed up in a world of espionage, political campaigns and protests due to his computer savvy manners.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this audio book. Wil Wheaton's reading is both a piece of art and a brilliant interpretation of Cory Doctorow's book. Even if I dissed Wil's Australian accent - however as Cory tweeted back to me "it is meant to be a computer used Australian Accent!"
      In this sequel to Little Brother we again follow Marcus as he battles government and business who conspire to control and beat the population down. Except this time Marcus joins forces with a political candidate who might just be able to make a difference.
      My biggest concern with this book is how real it could be. I was oftener angered but the themes and actions in this story. To the point where I had to press pause and pull the headphones from my ears - and google pictures of puppies and cats!!!!
      This is a powerful book and one that is a must read especially the extra bits at the end of the audio book!!!
      Get it and enjoy!!!
    • 3/5
      (All this review is based on comparison with the first book, Little Brother)

      This is honest 3 / 5.
      This book is more balanced, not like three separate books, the narration is smoother. Though I have problems with relating to the situation, because the setting was not the same type "it can happen to everyone" --- more like "it can happen in the spy movies."

      Overall, even if I have a lot of to complain about, these books are my personal favorite. Doctorow found the thin line between not political and political. There are no certain ideas or propaganda "how everything should be" -- just observation of how bad the current system is. And even if some problems are mainly "US-ish", I can see implication and certain parallels to other countries.
    • 3/5
      OMG MY HEART RATE DIDN"T GO BELOW 200 BPM until the last couple of chapters. In another book that might have been disastrous, but I like Mr. Doctorow's writing enough that I minded neither segment of the rollercoaster. Good story, too, and one of the only thrilling adventure books you'll find in which a gun is never fired. It's important to note as well the social agenda behind Mr. Doctorow's books, which I applaud.
    • 4/5
      Finished this a while ago. Pretty good. Not as good as the first one but worth the read. I'm excited to see if there will be more. Mad props to Cory Doctrow for releasing for free (I bought a copy to support him). Makes me want to go to Burning Man.
    • 4/5
      ‘When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.’ - Marcus YallowMarcus Yallow’s mantra seems like the type of statement you would hear from someone who panics when things go wrong – not at all your typical hero. But what defines a hero is not the size of his muscles, or a cool and calm demeanor in a crisis, but a willingness to tilt at windmills, even when those windmills are the Department of Homeland Security.Life is bleak for Marcus. When his parents both lose their jobs due to an ever-declining economy, he has to drop out of school at UC Berkeley. But an amazing quirk of fate lands him the ideal dream job – webmaster for an idealistic independent politician. So what should Marcus do when he is given a flash drive that contains an amazing amount of data depicting some pretty heinous crimes … committed by the government? If he releases this information to the internet, he puts his perfect job at risk, but his conscience tells him he needs to do something to help prevent these violations from proliferating. This story was a brilliant combination of morality tale and techno thriller adventure. For people who want action, there is plenty as Marcus is chased through the streets of San Francisco by people who can trace your every move via cell phone, web cam, or IP address. It is also one of those stories that presents its characters with a moral dilemma. We know there are injustices in the world. Isn’t it easier just to keep our nose to the grindstone and let someone else battle the bullies? This is the type of book that will not only make you want to think, but also make you want to fix some of the wrongs in the world. You’ll feel like you have to do something, even if it’s just running around in circles and screaming and shouting.If you are debating on whether you should read this book in print, or listen in audio, the choice is obvious. LISTEN to this book. The narration is perfectly performed by Wil Wheaton (yes, Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame) and the best part? Wil Wheaton makes a cameo appearance in the story. I also loved that Cory Doctorow doesn’t just write David vs. Goliath stories about individuals against the establishment, but walks the talk. The first track of this book is a passionate discourse by the author on why his book isn’t available from Audible. As you can imagine, Audible’s requirement of forcing DRM (Digital Rights Management) would rub someone who is as passionate about individual rights as Doctorow the wrong way. So much that this book is not available from Audible, who has the lion’s share of the audio download market. Great story – entertaining and it will inspire you to do your part to change the world, bringing out the hero in all of us.I received a free download of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Homeland is the sequel to the equally phenomenal book Little Brother.Both novels match the America we live in right now in ways I haven't read in other novels. Every horror is based on true programs and mercenary groups.Marcus has matured and grown up since we last saw in Little Brother. The world of Little Brother was like the one in 2001 where people were scared and allowed their freedoms to be trampled on. Marcus and his band of hackers took that step back and questioned what those freedoms meant and why we must safeguard them even in times of turmoil.The world of Homeland is 2008 and on after the financial crisis, blackwater, wikileaks, occupy Wall Street and such are part of this story. Marcus parents have lost their jobs and he had to drop out of school. The book can be a bit dark at times if you’re living that life of uncertainty and fear. It is also hopeful, however, and you work out your own fears through Marcus. Even if you aren't daring enough to build your own computer system being involved in political process and engaging in protests are very much part of the fight. Homeland reads as more adult; he is 19 as opposed to a teenager in Little Brother, for this reason. I think it might be more accessible to those turned off from the techy aspects of Little Brother.I didn't read this book as quickly as I did Little Brother because it was darker [being tortured in a secret prison notwithstanding since the fight was more obvert and subtle than in Little Brother. It was in no way less satisfying towards the end, anyway, because it was something we could all do, but I did get depressed. This is the dystopian we all actually live in as opposed to the victory fight we hope to see played out in YA dystopian novels. The Marcus of Little Brother was the hero we all hope will stand up and do the work for us. Marcus of Homeland is us and we all need to do the work to fix our country.The end was quite cathartic and inspirational. We can do it, hopefully, change the two party system and maybe not everyone in the system is crooked.I was quite interested in the method of persona management that online trolls use to thwart the public from taking these leaks about government corruption seriously. There are a few commentators on Glenn Greenwald's articles I have no doubt are part of that cog.I'd love to see a third book based on the Ed Snowden leaks.How would Marcus and co take down the mass media being bought and paid for by the Carrie Johnstones of the world?The Aaron Swartz afterward brought tears to my eyes.I loved this book.
    • 4/5
      Sequel to Little Brother. If this book doesn't make one paranoid and start taping over your camera lens & mic on your pc/ laptop/ tablet/ phone, you're reading it wrong ;)

      The afterword by Aaron Swartz is kinda bittersweet.
    • 4/5
      I should never start a Doctorow book in the evening because I will surely be up all night alternately reading and pacing and Googling and despairing and hoping.

      This sequel to Little Brother is splendid. The technology bits make me frightened and determined to learn more. The story is gripping, the people (with the possible exception of Carrie because I just can't believe in that much evil- for my own tenuous sanity, I mean) are real and wonderful. The quiet defeat of Marcus' parents is heartbreakingly believable. The late-adolescent love stories are a welcome diversion throughout the narrative.

      Reading Doctorow now is, for me, a lot like what reading Heinlein was back in the day; there's plenty of preaching but since I'm already sitting in the choir loft, I'm happy to hear it. And I holler AMEN at every opportunity.

      Read this one, then give it to all the teenagers you know.
    • 3/5
      I don’t really seek out overtly political books—mainly nonfiction, but when I come across a fiction book that’s very political, I tend to side-eye it a little more. There’s a reason why books like Fahrenheit 451 works so well is that the politics they discuss aren’t so topically specific. And as a personal preference, I don’t really seek out books that I know I’m going to disagree with or something that’s way more extreme than I believe. (I consider myself a moderate, for the record.) While I consider Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother a great discussion of American security and psychology post-9/11, Homeland feels more like a personal manifesto for Occupy Internet. I didn’t think it works as well—my own misgivings of “A sequel to Little Brother? Really?” aside. (Not that I scoffed at it, just that I wasn’t jumping up and down for “MORE MORE!” )

      One of the big problems I had overall was the retreading of major plot points from the first book. I do like Marcus is still dealing with the massive psychological trauma inflicted on him from Little Brother and that it’s not just touched on once or twice, it’s fully explored. I wasn’t as big of a fan of the fact that his torturer, Carrie Johnstone, was dragged back into the plot as one of the main antagonists’ lackeys. I wouldn’t have minded it if Marcus had thought he saw Johnstone at Burning Man, only for him to mistake another woman for her. I actually didn’t mind it when the hackers taunted Marcus with her hacked files and his ‘cowardice’ for not making them public. But having her as a player in the larger events didn’t sit well with me, and it does feel like Doctorow’s rehashing here.

      My other major problem is that I really don’t know what the book’s message is. Going in, with the opening chapters set at Burning Man and the implication of sensitive leaked documents, it feels like that the core of the book is going to be about information and it’s widespread availability. (The post-script by the late Aaron Swartz also nods towards this.) But a quarter of the way in, it begins to turn into a rail against the American two-party system and for that, I think it loses its focus. I’m not being critical about Doctorow’s own political beliefs, but this is where the book turns from discussion to manifesto—I never felt like I was reading about a character whenever Marcus was attending the various protests and I was really taken out of the story. And for as much as Marcus rants on big corporations ruining the economy and forcing people to lose their jobs, it’s an extremely privileged ranting. There is never a discussion on poverty nor homelessness or what cash-strapped families are actually like, and if renting out driveaway space is considered drastic measures by Marcus’s standards, that is not even lower middle-class. My family’s income is about the same as Marcus’s and dude, that’s not what being cash-strapped is like. (Allow me to say that I’ve been very fortune with my family’s financial situation, and I acknowledge that.)

      This is not completely disagreeing with Doctorow’s points, but in Little Brother, Marcus did come to a conclusion at some points that his knee-jerk reactions are probably not the best way to go about starting a revolution. There’s none of that here. Marcus is (rightfully) more jaded in this book, but even when he tries to work within the system, he ultimately throws up his hands and goes “Nope, can’t work. I’m done.” There is a bit of middle ground with his working with independent Senator Joseph Noss, but by the end of the book, even that’s been chucked.

      Homeland’s main strength, however, is showing us how the central core of Marcus and his friends have evolved since the events of Little Brother. I liked that Jolu was ready to help Marcus after years of minimal contact, and that Marcus was willing to reach out to Darryl and Van. And while Ange is still a largely supporting character that doesn’t do much aside from help out Marcus, I do like that she finally calls him out on a lot of his faults and ultimately breaks up with him. As I mentioned above, I liked that Marcus is confronted with a bunch of immature hackers who try to rile him up and post damning files about Marcus’s former foes. (I actually liked that the self-proclaimed master hacker of the first book gets hacked; it’s a nice touch of hubris.) But unfortunately, a lot of this takes a backseat to the larger political discussion at hand.

      While I’m not completely opposed to the idea of a Little Brother sequel in general, Homeland doesn’t make as good as a follow-up. It’s not to say that it’s a bad book overall—as I said, I liked how Marcus’s PTSD was handled and how he’s still haunted by his past. But the message just didn’t work for me at times, and it felt like a retread of the first book at points.
    • 4/5
      I always learn a lot when reading one of Doctorow's books and find myself doing extra research on the ideas and theories mentioned. Homeland is the sequel to Little Brother, where Marcus is entrusted with a flash drive full of documents that expose several government secrets and disturbing (though not far fetched?) conspiracies. He must decide what to do with this information after seeing Carrie Johnstone (his captor and torturer from Little Brother) kidnap his old nemesis Masha. Marcus must balance the exposure of these secrets with his work on a campaign for an independent Senate candidate in California. I'm always just a little more paranoid after finishing one of Doctorow's tech-rich books. The author spoke at my school this fall and was fascinating. I found themes from our conversation and his talk with students woven throughout the book. While it's tech heavy in parts, the story line and characters are compelling and thought-provoking. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the book and catching up with Marcus and co. again.
    • 5/5
      4.5/5 stars. I didn't think Doctorow could top himself in terms of perfectly blending social commentary with important issues that more YA readers should be looking at with "Pirate Cinema", but I was wrong. "Homeland", the follow up to the 2008 release, "Little Brother", absolutely blows everything else out of the water. And yes, while he gets a bit didactic in this and his other works, it's stuff we need to be reading. It's stuff that's firmly rooted in reality that is absolutely frightening, and something that needs our attention. So much so that Jacob Appelbaum from Wikileaks and the dearly departed Aaron Swartz did afterwords. If that doesn't get your attention about activism and rights, I don't know what will.Since the technical areas of this book are more or less flawless (though I took off some points for didactics when it came to certain things like 3D printers, which kind of slowed things down in some areas), I won't be talking about them. Instead, I'll be talking about why this book matters so very much to us right now as a society, and why YA readers, regardless of age, should be paying attention.You may or may not have heard about the story of Aaron Swartz. For the sake of brevity, I won't be telling his story here - just check out his wiki page for more information. But much like Doctorow's fictitious main character Marcus, he was prosecuted, to be made an example of for his online activism about privacy, piracy, and beliefs about an open, transparent internet by the government and other entities. To the point where he became so depressed that he hung himself earlier this year - January 2013. While Marcus never goes that route, the depression of being hounded by the very people we put into office and are supposed to trust is no less than haunting. I had no idea Swartz was going to be writing one of the two afterwords, and reading it now, a month after his death, actually brought tears to my eyes. When we lose people like Swartz, we lose a lot. We lose bravery. We lose so much more than just one life.To say this is a paranoid book is an understatement. It will teach you how to make a darknet, how to encrypt your files, and how to cover your ass when it comes to your own privacy and online rights. But it's a paranoid book we desperately need. And while a lot of "Little Brother" and "Homeland" are very, very exaggerated, if you do your research after reading, you'll find that some of it isn't so far off. Swartz's death just brings home that fact all the harder. It will make you pay attention, and want to do something. If there's anything to be said about Doctorow's books, it's the way he writes, the way he prods at you, making you want to do something, to help in the cause. Some people feel that this is too much sociopolitical commentary for the YA market, and I can see why they'd say that. But at the same time, it's the kick in our asses that we really need. But this book is also full of hope. Hope that we're still able to stop in our tracks, turn around, and demand change. Demand what's ours, what's been taken away from us, what needs to be restored. Any and all of the above, Doctorow makes you want to get up, get angry, and do something. Whatever your cause may be, this book urges you to take up the fight. Don't be passive. Do something. Because in the end, that's how things get accomplished these days - you have to be the squeaky, annoying, loud wheel in order to get the grease. This book asks a lot of us - to have faith. That using our hope will make things change. And that's the hardest thing of all to do (if it weren't, it wouldn't be called faith, right?). So, final verdict? This book is very dear to me, and I hope it finds a place in must-read YA fame. Enough with the paranormal romance. Enough with the love triangles. This is a book that truly matters. Pick it up, read it, and pass it along to someone you know. "Homeland" is out now from Tor Teen/Macmillan in North America, so be sure to check it out once you get the chance.(posted to goodreads, shelfari, librarything, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com)