Yesterday was another excellent podcast/book combo day, and it’s all Cory Doctorow, all the time. I’m listening to a podcast of his collaborative novella, “True Names” (co-written with Benjamin Rosenbaum)…it rocks!! I’m up to Part 6 or 7, (Ben and Cory take turns reading), and it’s quite excellent. Really out there…it’s a galaxy-spanning story of artificial intelligences competing for resources on multiple levels of reality; and a love story to boot! *grin*

And on the book front…can I have a “hell yeah”!!? Little Brother is out, and my copy is already in my hands, thanks to my
Amazon pre-order. I’m about halfway finished, and it is EXCELLENT. Neil Gaiman’s comments pretty much say it all, including “…But I’d recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I’ve read this year, and I’d want to get it into the hands of as many smart 13 year olds, male and female, as I can.”

But I might as well throw in my own thoughts, I suppose. *wink* It’s Orwell’s “1984” meets Stephenson’s “Cryptomomicon” meets the young adult stories I remember and loved like “The Three Investigators”. The near-future plot revolves around a group of high school students mistakenly held for military-style interrogation after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. When they’re freed, they discover that the Department of Homeland Security has used the event as an excuse for a massive surveillance crackdown in the Bay area, and they chronicle the resultant affect on civil liberties, freedom, and free speech. Then they fight back, with all the powers next-gen l33t hacker kids can muster. It’s fun, insightful, timely, and it’s Doctorow’s best work yet. It’s sold as “Young Adult” fiction, so don’t look in the SF section.

In addition, Cory’s standard Creative Commons freely-distributable etext will be available in the next few days (Cory’s on vacation right now), and the DRM-free audiobook is already available for purchase. Cory walks the walk, and it’s much appreciated. The ebook will grace my N770 along with all his other work as soon as it’s available.

Thanks to Cory and Ben for the great, great stories.

It’s mine!!

Get the audiobook….