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I'm looking for a story I read when I was younger that was of the style where it is in first person, with the main character recounting it and saying it's a true story. It was set in the modern world, where there was a conspiracy of people that I think had something to do with librarians or the illuminati. They that had convinced the normal world that new weapons like guns were worse than old ones like swords, and also hid the fact that there was another continent in the middle of the pacific, although I think the second thing was mostly mentioned as an aside. The main character is recruited by the opposition, who also uses old stuff, although I think one of them uses guns but calls it archaic tech. I think it was somewhat magic related, and I remember there were glasses that had some sort of laser effect

I think it was children's fiction, and also at the end I remember there were reading comprehension questions

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This is most likely the Alcatraz Smedry series, from Brandon Sanderson. The first book is Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians.

It's about a teenage boy who has a talent for destroying/breaking things, which he later finds out is supernatural in origin. All of his family has similar talents, with things that generally sound humorous, awkward or useless (his grandfather's is arriving too late), which turn out to be extremely useful (his grandfather tends to arrive too late for bullets to hit him, for example).

Magic in this world (though members of the free kingdoms don't see it as magic) takes the form of Silamatics, with special forms of sand creating glass with various abilities, with some individuals being able to use lenses made from this glass to cause various effects.

The primary conflict is between the Librarians and the Free Kingdoms, with the Librarians engaging in massive information control to prevent the ordinary world from finding out about the Free Kingdoms, and, if they conquer an area, the inhabitants get mindwiped and it gets presented as a newly discovered piece of land.

Edit: The swords being more advanced than guns line is said by Bastille, a knight who is working together with Alcatraz. I can't fully remember the reasoning, but it does make sense to some extent, since Smedry Talents work better as complexity increases, so making a gun jam is far easier than breaking a sword. (Also, their swords are magic. IIRC they were grown from a type of crystal).

Similarly, there's also a remark that stairs are more advanced than escalators, since they provide proper exercise and are better for your health.

That said, it's the Librarians that spread newer tech like guns, with the Free Kingdoms being the ones that consider older stuff like swords better.

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