Ever wonder what it would be like to be the NSA or another government surveillance agency?
In Watched Sweeper, a new HTML5 game about surveillance, players must observe a crowd and arrest people who don’t look like true Patriots.
As that old saying goes: “Patriots are the true. Heretics are the damned.”
Once you’ve given it your all to separate the Heretics from the Patriots, you’ll want to check out my novels WE, THE WATCHED and DIVIDED WE FALL (where the above quote appears). If you submit a high score, you’ll be treated to a discount on the price of the eBook version of WE, THE WATCHED.
Screenshot from Watched Sweeper
You’ll need a recent browser capable of rendering HTML5 to play. I programmed Watched Sweeper in Clickteam Fusion 2.5 and used the HTML5 exporter.
Please leave any feedback on the game in the comments below.
It’s easy to feel a bit of information overload when you first learn about an information leak revealing that the NSA has spied on regular American citizens and that major Internet companies like Microsoft and Facebook have helped them do it.
Glenn Greenwald is the reporter who read through countless documents provided by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and wrote the first news articles bringing that information to the public’s attention.
Now, with his excellent book No Place to Hide, Greenwald offers an insightful and comprehensive discussion of the controversial documents. Greenwald clearly lays out the most significant revelations and why they matter to everyday people.
The first part reads like a spy novel, grabbing the reader from the first page with an exciting account of how Snowden first contacted Greenwald, their secret meeting in Hong Kong, and the ensuing behind-the-scenes drama to get the information into the newspapers. While some have criticized the Snowden leak as threatening national security, the book highlights the care and scrutiny with which Greenwald and his collaborator Laura Poitras handled the classified documents, seeking to shine light without putting anyone’s lives in danger.
The next two sections contain less narrative, spending more time explaining the most significant revelations and why surveillance is harmful to society. While they don’t read quite as fast as the thrilling opening, these parts are great for anyone who had trouble keeping up with the Snowden leaks and what they meant.
Greenwald closes with a critical and thought-provoking discussion of the American media and what he perceives as journalists’ growing sympathy to the government. In Greenwald’s view, journalism has lost its investigative edge, giving too much power to the government to decide what information is published — and perhaps more critically — what information is not.
As a journalist, I found this section fascinating. While it paints a dismal picture of corporate media, the book’s existence provides optimism for the rise of independent journalists to maintain the mantle of the Fourth Estate.
Adam Bender is a tech journalist and the author of two dystopian novels about government surveillance. You can find his books WE, THE WATCHED and DIVIDED WE FALL at most major online bookstores.
The war has come home. The mission has failed. Eve just wants Jon back.
Divided We Fall by Adam Bender
Agent Eve Parker refuses to accept Jon’s change of heart when he loses his memory and becomes a revolutionary known as Seven. But when Eve learns more about the President’s plan to broaden citizen surveillance, she begins to question what she’s always believed to be right.
Hey, Adam here — I am super excited to announce the release of my new novel, DIVIDED WE FALL in paperback and eBook. Writing this book was a long labor of love. It was crafted in the late hours after the work day and in spare moments of the weekend. But in my mind I was working on it always, inspired by news about government surveillance and my day job at the time reporting on the U.S. Congress.
This novel brings to an end the journey that Seven began in WE, THE WATCHED. However, for those who have not yet read that story, I encourage you to read these books in any order you like.
This is also a self-published work and I thank you in advance for your support.
The paperback costs $13.99 and the eBook is $3.99. Also, if you buy the print book on Amazon you can get the digital version for free through Kindle MatchBook! Below is a list of stores where you can buy DIVIDED WE FALL. There may be a delay in some stores posting the book — I will update this list as more stores come online.
Okay, so a lot has been happening behind the scenes on my new novel, Divided We Fall.
But let’s start with the release date: May 10, 2014. As in, less than two months from now. Get hyped.
What’s that? How should you get hyped? Well, a good place to start might be the brand-spanking-new website for the novel! If you didn’t already click the link above, here it is again: www.wethedivided.com.
The paperback proof has arrived!
Preorders for the eBook will open soon at select online book stores including Apple iTunes, Barnes & Noble Nook and Kobo. On release day, you’ll be able to buy the paperback and eBook from Amazon.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me take a step back. Divided We Fall is a dystopian love story about surveillance. An elite agent of the Guard finds out that her fiancé has become an Underground revolutionary and tries to win him back. Complications ensue.
It’s also a sequel to my first novel, We, The Watched. Should you read We, The Watched before Divided We Fall? Well, of course you should, but you don’t have to. I’ve written the new book so you won’t get lost without reading the first. You will gain a more full experience reading both, but really, I don’t mind about the order.
A sneak peak at Chapter One of Divided We Fall.
Anyway, we’re almost there, people. The cover and book layout is complete for both the eBook and the paperback. I’ll soon be getting the paperback proof in the mail (UPDATE: It’s here! See above photo) and will just have to do a check to make sure everything looks all right. Then it’s just a matter of getting it into the stores!
I avoided print for years, not because I was on a crusade for eBooks or anything, but because I knew there was a lot more formatting and appearance details to consider.
Finally, this year, I decided to go ahead and pay a few professionals to help me with that. It turned out not to be as expensive as I thought, and the result is amazing! Much thanks to Belinda Pepper for the cover design and Lis Sowerbutts for interior formatting.
Ever wonder what it would be like to be the NSA or another government surveillance agency?
