Spill

Little Brother

by Cory Doctorow

In a new Little Brother novella, there is no security in obscurity. But there can be redemption in mutual aid.

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

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Politics, Audiobook, Speculative Fiction, Cyberpunk

111 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 24, 2024

About the author

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and Little Brother and novels for adults like Rapture Of The Nerds and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[S.A Reidman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am once again asking Goodreads to give us our damned 0.5 points. C'mon you cowards give us the halves. Not for this one, I'm good with a solid 3 points but I just give us this while you rip the in-mailing system/DMs from our lives

Okay so you can't convince me America today isn't already a dystopia. Turning the pages of this near-future sci-fi and let me see, I'm pretty sure all of this has happened in some iteration. Maybe that's why Dystopian books with pretty heroes (ala that one from Hunger Games) get adapted and become blockbuster box office annihilators. We love them because we can see ourselves headed in that direction like a decommissioned concord flight.

Crypto is like a swear word ISTG. I went into this blink. I just recall the author's cool last name and said, well why not. I'll tell you something for nothing - this is scary realistic.

I learnt so much I had to check to make sure this was fiction. And then I came to the repeated realization (which can become background noise) that humans are a horror show.

That Character:  I would say the character is the not-so-distant future.
That scene:  nothing stood out but the culmination of each scene was impactful
Favorite /Unique Quotes:
🖤  Attribution is really, really hard. But sometimes, that’s a feature, not a bug. (Marcus on being hacked)
Curious/Unique Concepts:
■ scrambling algorithm, rainbow tables and salting hashes
■ Water Protectors OK movement
■ Gathering Of Nations 2.0
Cover Cause I'm a Bird: oh the Author's name stood out rather than the cover, I thought the writing style would be something entirely different. But fist in a star and red x really does match the style, story and overall tone.
Re-readability: nope because it's too real
GR Rating: 3⭐
CAWPILE: 6
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2027
Challenge Prompt: 150 Science Fiction Realism by 2027

[owlette · Rating 5 out of 5]

[added links to my other favorite writings by Cory Doctorow, 2024-12-03] I first heard of Cory Doctorow when he was on On the Media to talk about enshittification, his word for our zeitgeist where platforms have put scams everywhere (aka grift economy), everything is ugly (the literal title of an n+1 editorial), companies skimp on their products and services (ever heard of "skimpflation"?), everything is horrible but somehow there's more to hate (titles of Noah Berlatsky's and Kate Manne's Substacks respectively). I'm saying all this to make a point, which is that Cory Doctorow has his finger on the pulse of today's technoculture and can write good fiction. A total package, in short. In "Spill," he demonstrates his ability to write punchy sentences with personalities and weave a thrilling plot line while explaining how your personal data is commodified and used for stalking for better or for worse. Go read his novellas on Tor.com (for free!) or his equally awesome blog, Pluralistic.net .

**other writings by Cory Doctorow that I like**
- "You Should Be Using an RSS reader", October 17, 2024.
- "No One Is the Enshittifier of Their Own Story" for Locus Magazine, May 6, 2024.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Marcus Yallow's private server is hacked, he uncovers a wider conspiracy to smear environmental protestors.

An interesting plot, which is a good way to introduce hacking terms into the wider vocabulary. Doctorow keeps his story clear and exciting from beginning to end.

[C. Steinmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-read if you are familiar with little brother.
Oh what a stage...

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

A jump back into the atmosphere of Little Brother, where we find Marcus and Ange and all the causes they have always fought for.

Un salto indietro nelle atmosfere di Little Brother, dove ritroviamo Marcus e Ange e tutte le cause per cui lottano da sempre.

[David Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read to me by Cory Doctorow.

[Andy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good!

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story starts with a hacker discovering his server has been hacked. From there, it grows as a protest against a pipeline going through Native American land gets violently broken up, as the protestors are investigated from sabotaging the pipeline. The hacker discovers who the real saboteurs are, and the trail leads back through his hacked server.

[briz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I basically mainline Cory Doctorow stories at this point. How many have I read? How many times have I gone to see him speak? It has been 0 days since I last quoted Cory Doctorow to a friend?

Anyway, this is a short story/novella. It starts with the protagonist from Little Brother (the best Cory book fwiw! great entry into the worldview!), now grown-up, building his homelab so he can get his data off of Big Tech. Be still, my heart, that has literally been my 2025 project (I just got 300GB of photos off of Google Photos and onto Immich, AMA). Anyway, that guy's homelab gets hacked (horror of horrors), and it turns out to be - as per Cory Doctorow usual - something political, at the frontlines between the battle between corporate-fascists and progressive/anarchists. In this case: the various tar sands pipelines (Dakota Access, etc).

As usual, as always, I enjoyed this.

[Gerd Leonhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

great story by Cory

As always it’s the style I really like :) keep it coming and keep surprising us with your imagination! Thanks

[Ken Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not exactly science fiction, but is beorderline 'cyberpunk' in the 'Little Brother' timeline.

Marcus Yarrow is grown up and married to Ange. He is still obsessed with coffee and computing.
It is the computing obsession which sets up this novella when Marcus' wonderful new server gets hacked via a staggeringly dumb security error by the owner (and Marcus' friend) of the data centre where it was housed.

Marcus knows how his server was hacked, but is curious as to who did the hacking and for what they use the pwned server.

Meanwhile his friend Tanisha is assisting Native land owners to resist and delay the Keystone Pipeline.

Of course, these seemingly disparate strands are connected. But how?

Doctorow mines his motherlode of knowledge about computer and network security and melds it with experience of police and private security misbehaviour, violence and malfeasance to make a satisfying story.

The novella is available to read here - https://reactormag.com/spill-cory-doc...

[Joshua Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to [hack the stooges who] blow up a pipeline

About every other story from Doctorow becomes my favorite—Spill now holds that spot. Cory’s latest drop was inspired by a Kickstarter backer from the last Little Brother novel and weaves Marcus (and Tanisha) into a hack that turns into a multi-perspective indigenous landback fight against corporate oil and the feds. If Cory’s deep research, security background, and penchant for fully empowered characters applied to the fight against an oil pipeline doesn’t get you excited than feel free to keep enjoying your blue-pilled ribeye and Chianti.

[Pedro L. Fragoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a hard world, but there is hope in solidarity (because "the revolution is a homeland and a family")... Hope springs eternal, they say, I just don't believe it that much, I'm cynical that way... Anyway, a comforting reading, and it's very interesting, in the bleakness, the hacking and, yes, the hope (I do understand the need to assure the happy ending, but sometimes, it does seem a bit forced).

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I really wanted to like this, but it came across as a little bit preachy and performative at times. And I really enjoy Cory Doctorow's fiction.

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia un poco meh, pero tiene algunas reflexiones interesantes y movidas técnicas que a mi me molam para que engañarnos a estas alturas de la vida ya cagoen

[Kris Freedain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent read from Cory in the Little Brother universe

[David Woodcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only real life worked like this

Another C.D. exposé of the underbelly of the USA. Gritty and all too believable (except the good guys win in the end).

[Bill Philibin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 Stars)

This was a fun little story set in the Little Brother universe. It was read by the author and released on his podcast.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story about fighting the forces that consider destroying the world acceptable.

[Ben Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

good and a little too real

[Celene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish a lot of kids would read this YA book. Come to think of it, a lot of grownups, too.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at myreadinglife.com.

As I am sure I have said before, I am a big Cory Doctorow fan. I read his blog. I also have alerts that notify me when he publishes anything new. This book came up on one of those alerts, so I grabbed it right away and read it soon after.

The story takes place in the world of his previous series of novels that start with Little Brother . This one centers around a group of indigenous protesters trying to prevent an oil pipeline from being built through sacred land, potentially fouling the people's water supply. This intersects with a cyber attack on a large company. Two main characters from the Little Brother universe working on these separate issue learn how they are related.

This novella is a quick and interesting read. Like all of Doctorow's work, it includes simple descriptions of complex technical issues. Then he spins a story that shows you how that technology affects characters that could be anybody. This book is both entertaining and educational. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.5/5

[Cory O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read two of Cory Doctorow's "novellas" back to back, and of the two, this was the one I definitely enjoyed more. It's shorter than a full book, but still takes the time to dive fully into the story, which is interesting, engaging, and a well-written look into what actually goes into 'hacking' in the modern tech ecosystem. Worth a read!