Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of Cory Doctorow for many years now. He has a blog and is involved with the frontier of real hacking, technological exploitation, and how we are encroached upon. Not only that, but he's also focused on how we can protect ourselves.

In fact, I've been a huge fan ever since Little Brother. It was timely then and it's more timely now to see how tech is used to spy on us. I have yet to read as good a novel that spells out the dangers, the ACTUAL tech, and the consequences... from conception, application, to possible solutions.

And I'm not even talking about tech-based solutions, but real social reform

That takes me to this novel. Attack Surface takes place a decade after Little Brother and while it has Marcus (from LB) as a side character, the main character in (AS) is a fully-fleshed continuation of one of the best side-characters of the original. And she was on the wrong side. :)

Add ten years of updated tech, modern social reform issues INCLUDING racial injustice, riots, police states, how tech turns our current society into a playground for those who would spy and give action points for those already in power, and give us a hard-hitting story of ethical ambiguity, survival, and the BIG QUESTIONS... and THEN give us a novel that out-performs and out-scares me even when propped up against Little Brother.

I'm not joking. This is not a lightweight dystopia. This is our modern world with real tech and yet it reads like an exposé AND a hard-SF novel.

I don't know. I'd have to do a serious comparison between LB and AS to be sure, and this one is definitely an adult read because it deals with all the real complications of living as an adult, but I think this one might be better.

It's certainly timely as hell. The riots in here ARE BLM. The extra complications are the same kind that WE should all be considering.

And so is the solution.

I totally recommend this book.

I received an electronic advance copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. What a time to have this book come out. In my mind, I was thinking trenchant and clairvoyant for this five star book, then I saw the afterword where “trenchant” was used, so you’ll have to take my word for it that I was thinking it independently. This book is timely and incredibly relevant given the events of the past few weeks leading to massive demonstrations against the overreaches of law enforcement in the United States, though as the book makes clear and should be obvious, this isn’t just an American problem. It follows a female protagonist, who is conflicted in her emotions and motivations through much of the novel, and talks about how she interacts with both her ideals, and her desire for security and salary. I think the author meant to portray her evolution as a stand in for most Americans.
As I read this novel, I am amazed at how Doctorow has been able to, in many ways, predict real life, but given his work that I have read so far, this is terrifying. Other reviewers have called it preachy, but I did not find it to be. The character has those moments, but it is in the context of her using her expertise to help assuage some of the inner turmoil she is feeling. I think the thing the author is trying to point out is how, even though security in the hands of good guys is useful, you can’t always be sure only good people will have that technology. You might trust one president, but can’t trust the next. Or as I once heard described, I think on 60 minutes, imagine Richard Nixon in charge of the NSA in 2020.
The character used network analytics among other tools, which struck home as I use network analysis in the course of own job. It is tremendously effective, yet scary if it gets out of control. Doctorow points out that you can’t become a Luddite to accomplish goals, but have to use security and technology responsibly in order to avoid bad actors and state surveillance. He points out that people normally won’t notice until it is too late, especially middle and upper class caucasian people. The story is told from the main character’s point of view, which means you only get to experience other characters through her eyes.
That said, the story is entertaining and I did not find it preachy so much as an interesting warning. The evolution of the main character was engaging, and even divorced from the real world, this is a solid story. Couple it with current events, and this is fire. Five stars and I would recommend this to both Sci Fi AND thriller fans. This might do better in the general fiction section than science fiction.

Cory is an interesting author who bring characters to life in superb detail. He’s got quite a few novels that will grab your by the socks, and this one is one of them!

Reads like some of the non-fiction I've traipsed through recently: Sandworm specifically. Hacking and terrorism has come home to roost, and Masha is locked up inside it intimately. Portends of a harrowing future of computer warfare and innocent casualties. Nonetheless a good read about a topic that will make you go pale.

After ten years in the tech industry Masha is very good at her job. Surveillance tech companies pay Masha a lot of money to use cell phones, cell towers, and all kinds of technology to spy on bad guys. Masha’s special skill is being able to collect tons of data and interpret the information to create information cascades. She knows how everyone is connected. But who are the bad guys?

Sometimes for reasons even she isn’t clear about, Masha, will go out at night and help those she spies on during her day job. She teaches these new friends how to avoid being detected. Eventually, the target of her work hits closer to home and her friends.

This is a stand alone novel set in the same world as Doctorow’s Little Brother and Homeland. In Attack Surface we follow a first person narrative told from the perspective of Masha who is a character in the first two books. The timeline jumps around and it helps fill in the reader on events from the first two novels. It has been six years since I read Homeland and I needed help with the backstory. It would be nice to read Little Brother and Homeland first, but it isn’t necessary.

Without reading the first two novels it’s easy to figure out the setting is an alternate world, but it’s scary close to how things work in the world today.

The main conflict of the novel takes place within Masha. She likes to keep her worlds and people in different compartments. When those compartments begin clashing she has to decide what kind of person she is and who she will help.

The politics and problems of technology are fascinating. I enjoy Doctorow novels the most when I am learning something new about technology. In this novel I learned about zero day exploits. I also laughed when the author casually mentions how Internet of Things are stupid. I have used the app Signal for years, but now I want a faraday bag for my phone.

This would be a fun book to talk about with other people who are interested in tech security. I highlighted so many paragraphs that would make great conversation starters. There are also a lot of discussions in the novel about the purpose and effectiveness of protesting.

If you are already a fan of Doctorow or slightly alternative realities then you will like this book. My hope would be that more people read this and it would make them think about how their data is being used, because everyone who uses a mobile device is impacted.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Attack Surface in exchange for an honest review.

Cory Doctorow writes with the simple intelligence of the fine educator he is, especially when discussing complicated technologies and digital capabilities. This book is no different and the technologies described are done well enough that even the non-technical can follow the point. I teach digital security and this book is right up my alley, like Doctorow's other work.

Doctorow is excellent and creating voices for his characters that draw you in and while many might be all about snappy comebacks and wit, they're wit and comebacks are usually unique. to that characters voice. This book is no different; Masha is witty and acerbic in a way that Marcus never was and the tone of her beliefs is just that much darker than Marcus's that you can understand the different choices she made along the way.

All the things that Doctorow does well are in this book, but the problem is that he did them well in previous books too. Masha was an antagonist in Little Brother and not exactly a protagonist in Homeland. Consequently Masha was despicable yet understandable in Little Brother and a bit better in Homeland. That means that he's got to somehow make her relatable and likeable in Attack Surface.

I have not finished the book. In fact, I'm only a bit over one-third finished, but it feels like the story hasn't really gotten started. Events have occurred but no obvious first doorway has been crossed. Doctorow tries to deal with the need to make Masha relatable if not likeable by giving her noble goals and making her competent, but he has to spend so much space going back and forth in time that the start of the story feels like a delayed creep.

I am not putting this book into my "did not finish" pile, but I am putting it into my "may not finish" pile. I'm writing this review with the intention of updating it if things change. I'm still giving it a 3 because it is easy to read and full of character, it's just too slow to get moving at this point.

In many ways this is a book about social justice and change. Masha, the main character, spends her professional life working for defense contractors who aim to maximize surveillance and disrupt unsought change, whether the "objects" be terrorists or peaceful demonstrators. Masha deals with the resulting moral quandary by compartmentalizing and trying to help those demonstrating through peaceful means. This is a story about her work for the "bad guys" and her friendships with the "good guys," and how that tears her apart. Along the way the narrative provides commentary on surveillance technology, hacking, class, and how change can be achieved.

We're back in the world of Little Brother and Homeland, where the state has assumed enormous powers and, aided by contractors, has developed tools that enable them to monitor and nudge all human behavior. Only this time, we're behind the screens and in the world of the high-tech contractors who design these systems - and, sometimes, on the streets with protestors whose dissent is being crushed by the police. Masha is the skilled hacker who floats between these two worlds, advising activists in an East European country on how to protect their privacy (while making it clear there's really no way to defeat the powers of the state's surveillance systems) while also working for the massive company that provides systems for clients worldwide.

Before we're done, she's back in the United States meeting up with her old friends who are fighting police repression in Oakland. One of them remembers the trauma of being interrogated by Homeland Security all too well, but they are determined to somehow defeat the impressive powers arrayed against them. Meanwhile, Masha continues to work for a global corporation while her previous employer, the very scary Carrie Johnstone, tries to win her back. She's that good at her job, and it's the joy of code and, let's face it, the money that keeps blinding her to the moral catastrophe she's enabling. The conflict between her cynical side and her more idealistic side is the heart of the story, as she helps friends dodge the surveillance and control systems she creates. Meanwhile, there are some personal relationships that unfold in a time-syncopated fashion as we learn Masha's past and watch her decide what side she's on.

This novel isn't aimed at pleasing everyone. For some readers, the technical detail will get in the way of the story, but for nerds, it's fascinating to see Masha think through the challenges and then help her dissident friends find work-arounds. This third book in what could loosely be considered a trilogy offers a meaty ethical challenge right up to the final pages. There's no need to have read the previous books, but if you have, this one is a treat. And it may make you feel differently about autonomous vehicles.

Many years ago I read the two other novels by Doctorow which are connected to this new one, LITTLE BROTHER and HOMELAND SECURITY, and although I have other stuff by him, have recently lost touch with what he has been up to recently. Straight away I picked up on the same problem I had with his other novels - it goes over the top in gadget/IT detail to the expense of the plot. Do we really need to know which type of modem portal PC uses? I got bored of this techno-jargon very quickly and felt there was too much technology thrown as the author, and not in the way which makes the reader go "wow!" which you might get in a more conventional thriller.

I realise 'tech' is this author's thing, but he also comes across as very preachy in his writing and this novel is no exception, so perhaps I am just too old to be reading about counter-terrorism experts, hacking and the dangers of police states. I enjoy fast paced thrillers, but this dragged and never really sucked me in.