We live in a world where things can be easy. Tablet
computers that fit in our pockets and make calls for us and tell us where we
are. Globalized digital networks that connect us effortlessly, all the time.
Modern medicine that works wonders. News that arrives the moment it happens.
Food that stays fresh forever.
This isn’t science fiction. This is reality. And in
the American Union, all you need—for any of it—is the Mark.
So what’s wrong with that? The Pledge unifies us, does
it not? Just as its Mark protects us? No one could argue that it hasn’t brought
us together, that it hasn’t created peace . . . that our allegiance to the
Chancellor hasn’t bound us and given common ground from which all our ideas and
ideologies may grow. Together. Compatibly.
After the years of slaughter, after the decades of
political and environmental devastation that forced more and more of us to
fight over less and less land, water, food . . . was this unity not a welcome
change for all of us?
It isn’t even compulsory. No one has to Pledge. But
who wouldn’t? In the years since its implementation, the Mark has rightfully
become the capstone of a childhood well spent, the crowning achievement in a
young man’s or woman’s life, the opened door to citizenship, adulthood, independence
. . .
Every schoolchild knows that in the wake of the Total
War, this Mark has become the very symbol of our commitment to patriotism and
peace. It is the constant reminder of our loftiest intentions.
To be Markless is to reject these ideals. To be
Markless is to be different.
So why would anyone choose to be different? In a world
of absolutes, of black and white, of right and wrong, why would anyone choose
“wrong”?
My name is Evan Angler. I may have answers to these
questions. But I can’t risk writing them. Not here. Not on the Internet, for
anyone to see.
And you wouldn’t risk reading them.
But if you are determined . . . if you are determined
to learn the truth, no matter the cost, then what I can tell you is this: I’ve
put what I know onto paper. Old-fashioned, obsolete—paper. Where it can’t be
copied and pasted with the stroke of a stylus, where it can’t be sent around
the world at the press of a button, where it can’t be recorded and stored
forever in a million irretrievable pieces across cyberspace and time for any
watchful eye to see. Paper is intimate. It is between you and me. It is
fragile. It can be destroyed.
And when you find it, if you find it . . . once you’ve
read it . . . I do encourage you to destroy it.
Swipe is the first volume in the chronicles of Logan
Langly, Erin Arbitor, and the Dust. Their account is dangerous; the information
within it is forbidden.
I wrote their story for everyone. But if you are not
yet thirteen, if you have not yet Pledged to the Chancellor in exchange for his
Mark of citizenship, if you have not yet made that choice to conform to given
definitions of what may be easy and what may be “right” . . . then I have
written this story especially for you.
For I’m not ashamed to tell you that I’m still afraid
of the dark. And if you too have ever turned out the light only to feel that
tinge of panic, that inkling that someone, somewhere, might possibly be
watching . . . I’m here to tell you that they are.
At its heart, Swipe is a book about friendship against
the odds. It’s a book about a group of boys and girls who stick together to
stand up for one another and for what they believe in.
But why would they choose to be different? Why would
they choose “wrong”?
Are you ready to learn the truth?
/ / /
| Who is Evan Angler? | ||
Evan Angler is safe, for now. He lives without the Mark, evading DOME and writing in the shadows of Beacon.
As a kid he was quiet and well-behaved, having grown up in a town not unlike Spokie, where he enjoyed music, drawing, hover-dodge, astrophysics, hiking, virtual reality . . . None of that matters now. Evan Angler is the author of SWIPE. But if anyone asks, you know nothing about it, and you didn't hear anything from him. Don't make eye contact if you see him. Don't call his name out loud. He's in enough trouble already. And so are you, if you've read his books.  Evan Angler
/ / /
Stay tuned into the blog, because tomorrow I'll be posting my own thoughts on the novel SWIPE by Evan Angler himself. Thanks for reading!
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