Cory Doctorow - Little Brother

Many novelists have tackled parts of the story in Little Brother. Daniel Pinkwater’s towering comic masterpiece, “Alan Mendelsohn: The Boy From Mars”(presently in print as part of the omnibus “5 Novels,”Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997) is a book that every geek needs to read. If you’ve ever felt like an outcast for being too smart or weird, READ THIS BOOK. It changed my life.

On a more contemporary front, there’s Scott Westerfeld’s “So Yesterday”(Razorbill, 2004), which follows the adventures of cool hunters and counterculture jammers. Scott and his wife Justine Larbalestier were my partial inspiration to write a book for young adults — as was Kathe Koja. Thanks, guys.

This book owes a tremendous debt to many writers, friends, mentors, and heroes who made it possible.

For the hackers and cypherpunks: Bunnie Huang, Seth Schoen, Ed Felten, Alex Halderman, Gweeds, Natalie Jeremijenko, Emmanuel Goldstein, Aaron Swartz

For the heroes: Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow, Larry Lessig, Shari Steele, Cindy Cohn, Fred von Lohmann, Jamie Boyle, George Orwell, Abbie Hoffman, Joe Trippi, Bruce Schneier, Ross Dowson, Harry Kopyto, Tim O’Reilly

For the writers: Bruce Sterling, Kathe Koja, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, Pat York, Annalee Newitz, Dan Gillmor, Daniel Pinkwater, Kevin Pouslen, Wendy Grossman, Jay Lake, Ben Rosenbaum

For the friends: Fiona Romeo, Quinn Norton, Danny O’Brien, Jon Gilbert, danah boyd, Zak Hanna, Emily Hurson, Grad Conn, John Henson, Amanda Foubister, Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, David Pescovitz, John Battelle, Karl Levesque, Kate Miles, Neil and Tara-Lee Doctorow, Rael Dornfest, Ken Snider

For the mentors: Judy Merril, Roz and Gord Doctorow, Harriet Wolff, Jim Kelly, Damon Knight, Scott Edelman

Thank you all for giving me the tools to think and write about these ideas.