From the New York Times bestselling author of Little Brother, Cory Doctorow, comes Pirate Cinema, a new tale of a brilliant hacker runaway who finds himself standing up to tyranny.
Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household's access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.
Trent's too clever for that too happen. Except it does, and it nearly destroys his family. Shamed and shattered, Trent runs away to London, where he slowly learns the ways of staying alive on the streets. This brings him in touch with a demimonde of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize even more harmless internet creativity, making felons of millions of British citizens at a stroke.
Things look bad. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But, the powers-that-be haven't entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people's minds...
"Doctorow is indispensible. It's hard to imagine any other author taking on youth and technology with such passion, intelligence, and understanding."
Booklist, starred review on For The Win
"Generally awesome in the more vernacular sense: It's pretty freaking cool... He's also terrific at finding the human aura shimmering around technology."
The Los Angeles Times on Little Brother
"A believable and frightening tale of a near-future San Francisco… Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions…within a tautly crafted fictional framework."
Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Little Brother
