Author fights for electronic rights with his teen hero

by Jim Higgins

Moving briskly through a hotel lobby in his gym shoes and white ear buds, writer Cory Doctorow could pass for an older version of Marcus Yallow, the propulsive teen hero of his new novel, "Little Brother" (Tor, $17.95).

Like Marcus, Doctorow thinks fast, explains often, breathes online networks and cares deeply about privacy, freedom and electronic rights.

In a near-future San Francisco, Marcus and some friends have ditched school to play an alternate-reality game, scavenging for a clue in the city. When a big explosion goes off nearby, the teens are fingered as possible terrorists and swept into a soul-crushing ordeal with Homeland Security.

When Marcus finally wriggles free of custody, he is determined to take down what he sees as a paranoid bureaucracy, using ingenuity and like-minded hackers as his arsenal.

Doctorow, 36, has a big footprint in the adult world as a sci-fi writer ("Overclocked," "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom"), co-editor of the blog BoingBoing and electronic rights activist. "Little Brother" is his first book of fiction for teens.

"Someone called it `Ferris Bueller' Meets `Neuromancer,'" Doctorow said during an interview at a downtown Milwaukee hotel, where he was warming up for a bookstore appearance.

While "Little Brother" depicts a world that is relentlessly digital, with perfidious arphids (radio frequency identification tags) and guerilla Xbox networks, Doctorow's literary lodestar is an analog fellow.

"I call it George Orwell fan fiction sometimes," Doctorow said. "I read `1984' when I was 12 for the first time. It made a really big impression on me."

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