Review by Booklist Review
This adult follow-up to Doctorow's YA Little Brother novels (starting with Little Brother, 2008) shifts perspective from the idealist Marcus Yallow to his sometime antagonist, sometime friend Masha Maximow. Masha has spent her life compartmentalizing, keeping her work as a surveillance contractor to repressive regimes separate from her friendship with--and clandestine support for--people attempting to hide from said regimes. When a protest in the Eastern Bloc country Masha works in goes awry due to her interventions, she is let go from her job, and her carefully crafted internal compartments begin breaking down. The narrative leaps back and forth between Masha's present, as she returns to Oakland and attempts to help a friend evade police surveillance, and her past as a teen wunderkind for the DHS and contractor under the chilly and possibly psychotic Carrie Johnstone. Doctorow explores his earlier novels' idealism and anti-authoritarian politics from the deeply conflicted point of view of someone on the inside. He remains a strong and passionate storyteller, capturing all of Masha's internal and external conflicts while also debating the real-world concerns of surveillance, counter-surveillance, and the limits of both. Highly recommended for those interested in near-future sf with a politically aware bent.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Doctorow returns to the dystopian, all-too-near future of Little Brother for this gripping cyberthriller. Doctorow's potty-mouthed protagonist, Masha Maximow, a technological wunderkind fans will recognize from the earlier novels, is morally conflicted: at her high-powered, high-paying job with Xoth Intelligence, a gigantic cybersecurity firm, she uses her hacking skills to help malignant regimes spy on dissidents, while in her free time she helps the same dissenters escape the regimes' repressive wrath. The narrative alternates between flashbacks to her various adventures with Xoth and its rival Zyz, and her present-day involvement with a group of San Francisco radicals, as Masha gradually learns the price for all the luxury that spying on people has provided her. In Doctorow's chilling world, technological marvels turn on their users on a dime: the indispensable cellphone annihilates privacy, the self-driving car goes berserk and kills, and the internet is the world's most powerful surveillance tool. Doctorow lays the tech-talk on a bit thick, which may overwhelm a casual reader, but the high stakes and believable world keep the pages turning. Doctorow's fans will be pleased. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Following the best sellers Little Brother and Homeland, Doctorow introduces a new cast of characters in the same world who contend with the ethics of technology and surveillance. Masha Maximow recognized her special skills early, hacking her way into high-paying jobs with black ops firms while still in her teens. She tries to balance her work for these nefarious companies by helping her friends and their causes disrupt the very same systems. First overseas and then in her home town of San Francisco, her bosses go too far when they aim autonomous vehicles at protesters. Can Masha continue to compartmentalize what she does and who she works for or will she fully embrace trying to bend the arc of history toward justice? VERDICT Thriller readers of all ages will enjoy the cool tech (sunglasses that fool facial recognition software and blurry texts that evade screen shots), Masha's international exploits, and the impassioned arguments for privacy, transparency, and justice. [See Prepub Alert, 4/1/20]--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.
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