Marcus, a highly individualistic and very tech-savvy teen,
lives in the interface between his “real” life of school and parents and real-world
friends and his extensive virtual life. Then terrorists attack his city—and he,
along with three of his friends, are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They
are detained and interrogated (read: tortured) by the DHS; one of his friends
is "disappeared" and the other two are too afraid to act after
they’re released.
Marcus is afraid, too; he's not stupid. Nevertheless he vows
to bring down the DHS and, once he learns his friend is still alive, to rescue
his friend, whatever it takes. Aided by the powers of friendship, Bayesian
probability, and a community of like-minded hacker types, Marcus puts his
freedom, his love, and his life on the line to restore civil liberties to his
fellow San Franciscans and to bring his friend safely home to his family.
Every young person, and everybody who values their freedom
in this society, should read this book. It’s about how technology can be used
against us *and* against those who would use it against us; it’s about growing
up immersed in this kind of technology; and it’s about not lying back and just
accepting what we’re told about what’s really going on and what we can or can’t
do about it.
It’s also an extremely compelling story about a city, a
group of friends, and one boy in particular who grows up very suddenly but
manages to retain his youthful fire and idealism. And who pays a terrible price
for that idealism… but buys, for that coin, something incredibly
precious.
