F****rom James Dashner, author of the #1 New York Timesbestselling Maze Runner series, comes the first book in the bestselling Mortality Doctrine series, an edge-of-your-seat cyber-adventure trilogy that includes The Rule of Thoughtsand The Game of Lives**.**
The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and the more hacking skills you have, the more fun it is. Why bother following the rules when it’s so easy to break them? But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And one gamer has been doing exactly that, with murderous results.
The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker. And they’ve been watching Michael. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid, to the back alleys and corners of the system human eyes have never seen—and it’s possible that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.
Praise for the Mortality Doctrine Series:
“Dashner takes full advantage of the Matrix**-esque** potential for asking ‘what is real.’” —io9.com
“Set in a world taken over by virtual reality gaming, the series perfectly capture[s] Dashner’s hallmarks for inventiveness, teen dialogue and an ability to add twists and turns like no other author.” —MTV.com
“A brilliant, visceral, gamified mash-up of The Matrix and Inception , guaranteed to thrill even the non-gaming crowd.” — Christian Science Monitor
From School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up–Michael doesn't mind spending time in his NerveBox, aka “Coffin,”–it protects his physical body while he's in the VirtNet, a virtual world where he can meet friends, rack up Experience Points in games, and occasionally is killed. When that happens, he is Lifted to the Wake, where he emerges sore but otherwise physically unharmed. When Michael witnesses a true suicide on VirtNet, he is troubled by the fellow gamer's last words and her warnings about a man named Kaine. Days later, Michael is kidnapped by VirtNet Security agents, who make him an offer he can't refuse: track down the cyber-terrorist Kaine so the virtual world will again be safe. Michael enlists gamer/hacker friends Bryson and Sarah, and they set off through the dark underbelly of virtual spaces. The center portion of the book focuses largely on imaginative adventures in VirtNet. Readers familiar with online gaming will identify with the heroes as they query characters for information, look for Portals, and rewrite code to bring weapons over from other games. The final chapters find Michael alone in the level “the Deep,” with the safety measures disabled. Like Dashner's action-packed “Maze Runner” series (Delacorte), this title is fast paced. Cory Doctorow's For the Win (Tor, 2010) is more realistic, and Ernest Cline's Ready Player One (Crown, 2011) is slightly more sophisticated, but this book delivers an adrenaline rush.–Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TXα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
From Booklist
In Dashner’s futuristic series starter, virtual life offers Michael opportunities to escape the real world. He spends most of his time on the Virtnet, playing Lifeblood Deep with his virtual friends Bryson and Sarah. Now, haunted by his daytime experiences, he needs them more than ever. What Michael fears most comes true: Virtual Network Security tracks him down, but not to chastise him for wrongdoing; rather, they want his hacking skills to get to Kaine, a gamer who is causing terrible tragedies. Michael and his friends begin the trek into the hand-to-hand combat warfare game Devils of Destruction, but with the virtual death of his friends, Michael finds himself alone in his quest. Harrowing evil and dastardly demons place themselves in his path, and he almost capitulates to the pain and exhaustion. What awaits him in the bowels of the game hangs over readers’ heads with each page turn, raising a constant question: Who is human and who is not? In typical Dashner style, this is quick and involving, with the main frustration being the wait time until the next book. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Dashner’s Maze Runner trilogy was huuuuge. With a video game, author tour, and major outdoor advertising, this could be even huger. Grades 7-10. --J. B. Petty
Review
Praise for the Mortality Doctrine Series:**
“Dashner takes full advantage of the Matrix-esque** potential for asking ‘what is real.’” —io9.com
“Set in a world taken over by virtual reality gaming, the series perfectly capture[s] Dashner’s hallmarks for inventiveness, teen dialogue and an ability to add twists and turns like no other author.” —MTV.com
“A brilliant, visceral, gamified mash-up of The Matrix and Inception , guaranteed to thrill even the non-gaming crowd.” — Christian Science Monitor**
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"An exhilarating adventure storywith touches of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game**.** "-Booklist.com
“More realistic and addictive than any video game— The Eye of Minds sucked me in from the very first page. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets The Matrix in a vividly rendered world of gamers, hackers, and cyber-terrorists. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!”—Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of Unbreakable
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"Dashner's descriptions are screenplay-ready...This book will satisfy the author’s fans...[and readers] in search of an adrenaline rush."-_School Library Journal
_ “A gripping page-turner , Dashner’s latest is sure to please.”— BookPage
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“Full of action [and] a rather surprising twist that will leave you flipping pages.”—fanboynation.com
“High on concept , this is an intriguing read for the digital generation.”— Kirkus Reviews
"Dashner once again creates a dystopian world in which nothing is what it seems. "-VOYA
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A Junior Library Guild Selection**
A YALSA Teens Top Ten Pick
About the Author
James Dashner is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series: The Maze Runner , The Scorch Trials , The Death Cure , The Kill Order and The Fever Code , as well as the bestselling Mortality Doctrine series: The Eye of Minds ,The Rule of Thoughts, and The Game of Lives. Dashner was born and raised in Georgia, but now lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains. To learn more about him and his books, visit JamesDashner.com, follow @jamesdashner on Twitter, and find dashnerjames on Instagram.