Review Detail

I’m a big fan of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction and it’s even better when I find both in the same books so Storm and its predecessors are right up my alley. It also doesn’t hurt that Evan Angler is a good writer and reading his work is no hardship. Besides being a more than decent writer, he knows what’s important in a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel.

Plot and character development are crucial to good fiction but not necessarily equally, depending on the story. As examples, a good romance depends more on character than plot but a mystery really needs both. The element that’s so critical to speculative fiction, especially dystopian and post-apocalyptic, is worldbuilding, because the story revolves around a society or world that’s very different from our own. Evan Angler does his worldbuilding so well that I felt I was right there with Logan and everyone else. It should be no surprise that the Swipe series relies heavily on the biblical Book of Revelations; readers who avoid Christian fiction can still take pleasure in this, first because it’s a terrific action adventure tale but also because the author has a pretty subtle hand with the religious connections. It’s interesting to compare what goes on in this book and the others in the series with changes in our own world such as the global economy that could easily evolve into one world currency and, eventually, one world government.

Taking things a step further, the author does not neglect the plot, which is full of twists and turns, nor the people we want to know. I already liked Logan and some of the others and now I’m really intrigued by Lily. I also appreciate the fact that both boys and girls are pivotal.

Some readers don’t like cliffhangers but I do, particularly with this kind of story. I’ve always felt that a cliffhanger can leave a reader with something to think about. After all, if we get all the answers in one book, how would we get excited about a series? Mr. Angler started out with a really strong tale in Swipe, then Sneak, and he hasn’t let us down with Storm.