Monday, January 28, 2013

Sneak (Swipe #2) by Evan Angler

I have to say thank you to both Netgalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for allowing me to read this e-galley.  This book actually came out last September, so when I saw it was still available on Netgalley a couple months ago, I jumped at the chance to read it, the same way I had read the first one in the series, Swipe.  I actually think I may have liked this book a bit better than the first.  Which as I've commented  before, the 2nd book in a series often seems like just a bridge to the 3rd book, and I usually am not as happy with.  But I feel like this one, although still kind of an "on the road" book, as Logan and the rest of the Dust are on a search to find Logan's sister Lily, really had a lot to it.
Logan goes to try to find her on his own at first, as he kind of got the rest of the markless kicked out of where they'd been staying, and made their lives harder.  So he figures they won't be happy to see him.  And so because of this he tries to make sure he goes unknown to the smaller groups.  He gets to one group and is turned in.  It is because of this that he is almost caught.  His old friend Erin, who is the daughter of one of the high ranking officials, is glad to hear of where he is, and she wants to help them catch him and convince him to come back and get marked.  The next place that Logan gets to, with the help of his friend Hailey, is where Erin and her father catch up with him.  Unfortunately, one of the people that has been helping them is killed, and Logan just sees Erin as a traitor now.
Erin still really just wants to get her whole family back together, and it comes true when her father gets demoted for all the failures he's had in capturing Logan and the other kids and markless.  Turns out the Markless have their own way of communication.  They've begun using what is an extremely old form of technology, radio, including foxhole radios.  I really enjoyed reading about this, as I'd had several students create one this school year for one of their projects.
Logan and The Dust are looking for Acheron, the prison where the markless are taken.  Where Logan was told at the end of the first book that his sister had been taken.  So he is on a mission to rescue her and bring her out safely.  Things may not be quite as they seem though.  The prison is well hidden, and the stories of how people are punished there are many and seemingly far fetched.  Or are they?
You'll have to read on to find out.  And as usual, we're left hanging, waiting for the next book to come out.  We do get more with the religious part of the mark in this book.  And I'm glad to see it done the way it is.  I love how much more realistic this seems to me than the Left Behind series seemed.  Not that I didn't love those books as well, this just seems more realistic.  And at times, some of it seems to be getting closer and closer to happening.