Cory Doctorow's Little Brother was a riveting SciFi novel, with a brilliant plot, some fantastic characters and nonstop action that kept the pages turning, all the while educating the readers about the technical and ethical aspects of IT security. Third in the series is Attack Surface, playing out about ten years after Little Brother, with the same main characters now older, and maybe wiser.
Here, Masha Maximow, the hacking wizard who had lent her considerable talents to the government intelligence agency out of patriotism in Little Brother, has the centre stage. She has moved on to working for private surveillance contractors who, for filthy enormous fees, help government agencies of all varieties spy on whoever they consider their enemies – even their own innocent citizens. She seemingly has no qualms being on this side of the surveillance apparatus and, whenever her conscience wakes up, does just a little something to coax it back to sleep. Her assignment now is to help an authoritarian regime somewhere in the east of Europe spy on, and suppress, those protesting against it. True to form, Masha educates the protesters during her off-work hours about how to evade the systems she herself has put in place. Eventually her extracurricular activities come to light and she is kicked out of her job. Back home at San Francisco, Masha's childhood friend Tanisha is at the forefront of a movement against the racial profiling and persecution of non-white people and needs her help. Now, with the issue too close for comfort, she has to finally choose, amidst deadly persuasion by powerful organizations including her former employers, between staying on the side of the persecutors and moving over to the other side, where the few people she cares about are.
Attack Surface is presented as a first-person narrative by Masha who, in addition to relating the present happenings, also tells the story of her rise from being a talented immigrant without a father to earning uncountable amount of money by helping powers that be in their quest to spy and control anti-establishment activities at various places across the world. She explains the circumstances and the thought processes through which she has convinced herself that she was on the right side while many things point in the other direction.Doctorow has turned up the threat of malicious usage of technology by oppressive regimes by several notches and makes the reader look at all electronics with a scared, suspicious eye. In addition to being a technological thriller, Attack Surface is also the story of Masha’s inner conflict, having to choose between a comfortable life aiding the authorities persecute unsuspecting masses and a fugitive life helping those spied on. The overload of technological details, though for the most part flying over my head, does not deter the reader; it rather pulls one deeper into the plot. Doctorow does the voice of the impudent female tech wizard so well that it is very easy to visualise Masha, and the people and situations she describes.The major difference between Attack Surface and Little Brother is that there is less of action and more of discourse, about the usefulness of surveillance in fighting terrorism and its harmfulness to individual freedom, that drags down the novel’s pace at times. That apart, Attack Surface is a gripping, terrifying read that will stay in the reader's thoughts for a long time!I had reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of Attack Surface here... https://www.netgalley.com/book/188950/review/670189