Little Brother downloads are live!

I've just put up my site for Little Brother, my young adult novel about hacker kids who use technology to reclaim the Bill of Rights from the DHS after a terrorist attack on San Francisco. Included on the site are:

Creative Commons licensed downloads of the whole book
An easy way to donate copies of the book to school classrooms
Links to buy the book from various etailers (and an offer to get a signed, inscribed copy shipped direct to you by Borderlands Books in San Francisco)
A place to put your remixes of the book

Still to come: the tour schedule, more Instructables HOWTOs, and lots of other news. Link

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Jeff

I would like to know what Re-mixes are about. I can see mixing music, but why would anyone do that to a book? I would see that as being rude. I mean, can you imagine meeting the author and telling them that you changed their story and expecting anything but a cold stare in return? I could see writing a story set in some other author’s universe/s, or using another’s characters, but that’s just fan-fic, right?
Aaron

If I rewrite a book as, for exaple, a movie script, or a play, or a comic, then thats a Re-mix too.

As for your specific example, I’m pretty sure that Cory wouldn’t see that as rude, quite to the contrary he’d probably be happy about it.

But if YOU think it’s rude, then, well, don’t do it, you know? ^_^
Hazridi

Hey Cory, you need to change your link for the PDF download. It has a .PDF extension and the real file has a .pdf extension. If you click the PDF download, it will take you back to your blog’s main page. If you change the link to .pdf, it will work properly.
Merlin Silk

I opted to buy the physical book a week or so ago and just got my copy on Friday. I had the idea that this was a book that I could read with my little son as soon as he gets old enough to grasp the concepts. After reading a few pages I realized that he is probably a tiny bit too young – but I also realized that I am definitely not too old ;-)
So, today, after dropping him off at school and getting my joe at my local coffee stop I settled in at the park, cracked open the book and got back to my desk way too late – why – because the book was so captivating that I could not stop.
No, I am way not through but I am certainly looking for my next coffee break in the park.
I will report about my progress on my blog http://www.MerlinSilk.com but that might contain spoilers, so don’t go there if you never look at the last pages first.
tinman2k

I am also having issues with the pdf file. Foxit reader says it is invalid or corrupt.
N8UP

Cory, First of I am 31 and should not be trusted

This is the most enjoyable book I’ve read since
On The Road when i was fresh out of high school

It was a little akward though towards the end when i was tearing up at my monitor and my girlfriend thought i was watching porn

Thank you very much for the wild ride
I’ve told everyone I know to check this book out
Aaron

#3: I think the pdfs not even up yet. I sent my pdf version to Cory but I actually assume that somebody else has done so before and it will be put up in time. For those who want a pdf before that happens, you can find my version also here.

Have fun!
_PeterB_

Hey Cory,

Congratulations – one of the best and most provocative books I’ve read this year. I just finished reading it in a massive binge – got so hooked on the electronic version I read it all on screen. I’ll be ordering a dead tree copy asap.

My only quibble is you seem to infer Irish whiskey is the best – the drink of the gods is Scottish Whisky!!

Cheers,

Peter
Cory Doctorow

The PDF’s fixed now — thanks!
Tenn

Thanks Cory. I make it a practice of reading books online and if I can’t bear to keep it electronic, going out and buying them (or if I just love it enough to want a copy.)

From all the positive reviews, I imagine I’m going to be shelling out some lunch money. :D
grayman23

Wow, just… wow.
I also read it in one huge binge, glued to the screen. Got down a good slug of caffeine in me to get that good jumpy teenage feeling and plowed through. Definitely going to be buying it(including extra copies to give to others)
Antinous

it puts forth the idea that fictions that become so popular and beloved actually become real places.

I didn’t know that he wrote about that. I’ve believed that to be true for some time, or at least the idea that characters become ensouled.
Jeff

Aaron,
I wasn’t counting plays or screen treatments, or screenplays. I guess you could do one, but if it has no commercial application I don’t know why you would bother.
Aaron

Jeff, I’m tempted to say “If you have to ask, chances are you’re not going to get it”, because it feels like there is some fundamental disconnect between us.

I mean, there are loads of stuff I do that I’ll never get payed for. I’m “lobbying” to get Indie rpgs into local gaming stores. Other people spend hours writing fanfiction. None of us are payed for that, but we do it because it’s fun for us.

So the idea that just because it has no commercial application nobody will do it seems … weird to me. Look out there, all over the world (and internet) people are doing stuff for free, because they enjoy it and get stuff other then money out of it. (recognition, satisfaction, …)

Like I said, I think there’s a fundamental disconnect there, somewhere. You don’t get why people do it and I don’t get what’s so hard to get there. ^_^
Qozmiq

@ Jeff and Aaron…

‘I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you…’
Brian Boyko

I read the first couple of chapters before heading to work today — This is by far the most depressing thing I’ve ever read.
jjasper

Totally awesome.

I note that it’s available on eMusic.com as a 2-credit audiobook download, which is about $20 if you’ve got the 2 credit monthly subscription.

If you want it for $10, you can sign up for a trial emusic subscription, sign on for an audiobook trial, buy one credit in audiobooks (you get 1 free), download the book, download your 50 free tracks, then cancel if you don’t want to spend on whatever monthly subscription plan you chose (you ahve to choose one to get the book). It’s complicated, but it gets you the book a bit cheaper, and 50 tracks of decent indie music in non DRMed MP3. Mind you, you can only do this with a CC that hasn’t been used on eMusic before.
Jeff

Aaron, I can understand fan-fic, and I do enjoy writing, although not fan-fic, but still what I spend my time on has no monitary value for me. I just find it odd that the anyone would take the story itself and remix it. I can see using settings or characters, so if that is coverd by re-mixing, then I understand. For an artist to say, “do what you want with my original material and see what you come up with,” is an interesting idea.
NiagaraSailor

Just finished this book after staying up late last night to plow through the last 2/3rds! What an amazing book. As someone going into Information Systems as a profession, I found this book inspiring and thought provoking. It made me proud to be part of this geeky-technological generation, even though I am only 2 years away from being 25 myself. T_T I am even going to read all the sources you listed at the back of the book because I really would love know more about securities. I hope this book gets a lot more press and I will be recommending it to everyone I know at the public library I work at. Great job Cory!
Xopher

Added the free download link to my review on LiveJournal.

Brian 10: The first couple of chapters are, yes. The rest isn’t very comforting, but it’s not as horrific (there are a couple of horrible scenes further along, but not as depressing). I struggled with it too, but got through, and I’m very glad I did. Well worth it.
Antinous

I don’t know that you would call it a remix so much as fan-fic, but think of Wicked and The Wizard of Oz. That’s the most successful example that I can think of, but other commercial examples exist. Susan Pevensie of the Narnia books is a character in a Neil Gaiman story and in a comic book series that also includes Alice, Dorothy Gale and Wendy Darling. Comic books/graphic novels are a great example of possible remixes of a text only book.
Luis

Hurra!

Just downloaded the pda version in to my Treo. Fresh material, yum yum!
Jeff

Antinous, Heinlein’s Number of the Beast borrows stuff from Oz. If you don’t know this Heinlein story, it puts forth the idea that fictions that become so popular and beloved actually become real places. So, although an author creates a univese, it’s there for all to visit if they dare to. Maybe there is a copyright issue there somewhere. I know Charles Stross is doing something wih some of Heinlein’s characters (Saturn’s Children), very respectfully I’m sure.
Tuxedosteve

Many thanks to Cory for this. I have a paper edition on its way over to the UK but it was very nice to get out of bed this morning and find I could start reading on the way to work. I’m a few chapters in and it’s gotten very nasty indeed.

If anyone needs a more obscure format than provided here Manybooks.net has the book up in a wide range of formats. I’m using the Iliad PDF version.
help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread

Never again will I gorge myself on 10 hours worth of free reading by Doctorow on a computer screen. Never again… My eyes are dead tired from all the comp rays… I wanna shout TAKE IT BACK and BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE at the other people in this computer lab… Never before have I read anything so relevant to our times and this atmosphere of fear… I want to get this into the hands of my middle school English teacher, into my old school’s library, into the hands of every Republican sheep who’d gladly give up liberty for freedom. I’m prolly rambling right now… Going to sleep.