In Cory Doctorow’s wildly successful novel Little Sibling, youthful Marcus Yallow was arbitrarilydetained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack onSan Francisco-an experience that led him to become a leader of the wholemovement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against thetyrannical security state.

A couple of years afterwards, California’s economy collapses, butMarcus’ hacktivist past lands him employment as webmaster for a crusading politicianwho promises reform..LEARNING MUCH MORE about Homeland Shortly his former nemesis Masha emerges in the politicalunderground to present him with a thumb get containing a WikiLeaks-stylecable dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It’sincendiary stuff-and if Masha will go missing, Marcus is supposed to release it tothe world. Then Marcus sees Masha becoming kidnapped with the same authorities agentswho detained and tortured Marcus years earlier.

Marcus can drip the archive Masha gave him-but he can’tadmit to getting the leaker because that will cost his employer the election.He’s surrounded by friends who remember what he did a couple of years ago and regardhim like a hacker hero. He can’t even attend a demonstration without beingdragged onstage and handed a mike. He’s not at all sure that simply dumping thearchive onto the web, before he’s gone through its an incredible number of phrases, isthe right thing to do.

Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people wholook like they’re utilized to inflicting discomfort until they get the answers they need.

Fast paced, passionate, so that as current simply because next week, Homelandis just the equivalent of Little Brother-a paean to activism, tocourage, towards the drive to help make the world an improved place.