E-book
The eye of minds / James Dashner.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780375984631 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 0375984631 (electronic bk.)
- Physical Description: 1 online resource.
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Delacorte Press, [2013]
- Copyright: ©2013
Content descriptions
| Source of Description Note: | Description based on print version record. |
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| Genre: | Young adult fiction. Electronic books. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2013 September #1
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. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2014 Spring
Michael and friends Bryson and Sarah are caught up in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game when a secret agent tasks them with helping to stop a cyberterrorist. Reminiscent of sci-fi classics Bladerunner and The Matrix, this novel's mind-bending twists and turns, action, intrigue, and a bit of philosophy will keep readers turning the pages. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2013 May #1
Digital nightmares lurk in this Sleep. Now that the Internet is a completely immersive experience, gamers like Michael find themselves drawn to the real-life simulators that make daily living seem so much more real than outside the Sleep. But when a young woman disables the safety measures and kills herself in front of him, Michael is forced to help VirtNet Security hunt down Kaine, a dangerous gamer who is wreaking havoc in the digital world and is targeting the physical one as well. Michael heads off into the Sleep with two virtual friends and quickly finds that the safety he had previously found there no longer exists. Dashner's matryoshka vision of digital worlds is oddly limited by realism--despite the impressive tech setups and the nod to the infinite creative possibilities of virtual reality, both Michael's home life and real-world simulator lack presence. That absence carries over to Michael and his friends as well. They have few defining features or preferences, seemingly nothing but an immersion in a virtual world and some skills at coding. Secondary characters are much more defined through names, vivid descriptions, actual personality traits and more. While the pacing is mostly solid, Dashner goes overboard in the setup for the plot twist, revealing it too soon and making the last 50 pages a bit of a slog. High on concept, this is an intriguing read for the digital generation. (Science fiction. 12 & up) Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2013 September #1
Digital nightmares lurk in this Sleep. Now that the Internet is a completely immersive experience, gamers like Michael find themselves drawn to the real-life simulators that make daily living seem so much more real than outside the Sleep. But when a young woman disables the safety measures and kills herself in front of him, Michael is forced to help VirtNet Security hunt down Kaine, a dangerous gamer who is wreaking havoc in the digital world and is targeting the physical one as well. Michael heads off into the Sleep with two virtual friends and quickly finds that the safety he had previously found there no longer exists. Dashner's matryoshka vision of digital worlds is oddly limited by realism--despite the impressive tech setups and the nod to the infinite creative possibilities of virtual reality, both Michael's home life and real-world simulator lack presence. That absence carries over to Michael and his friends as well. They have few defining features or preferences, seemingly nothing but an immersion in a virtual world and some skills at coding. Secondary characters are much more defined through names, vivid descriptions, actual personality traits and more. While the pacing is mostly solid, Dashner goes overboard in the setup for the plot twist, revealing it too soon and making the last 50 pages a bit of a slog. High on concept, this is an intriguing read for the digital generation. (Science fiction. 12 & up) Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Media Connection : Library Media Connection Reviews 2014 May/June
In a virtual reality interactive gaming world where it is difficult to tell the difference between humans and robots, Michael is a talented hacker. He meets a girl in the VirtNet who plummets off a bridge to her death, and the VirtNet is no longer a game. Michael is forced to hunt down a man who has been holding gamers hostage. In true Dashner form, there is a twist in the end that not even Michael saw coming. Fans of Dashner's The Mazer Runner books will be pleased with this new series. It is an exciting adventure filled with high tech gadgets that will fascinate teen readers. The ending leaves readers wondering what will happen to Michael, and hopefully those answers will be revealed in the next novel in this series. Jennifer Regel Parker, NBCT Librarian, Magee (Mississippi) High School [Editor's Note: Available in e-book format and paperback.] RECOMMENDED Copyright 2012 Linworth Publishing, Inc. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2013 August #4
This first book in the Mortality Doctrine series from Maze Runner author Dashner offers an irresistible premise: three teens must track down a dangerous rogue player in a popular virtual game. Michael, Bryson, and Sarah live for their hours in the VirtNet, where they seek out the wildest adventures possible without any risk to their physical selves. Then Michael encounters a player so haunted by a gamer named Kaine that she disables her safety device in order to kill herself. Michael is drafted by VirtNet Security to root out Kaine, and a violent quest ensues. Though the plot makes this an easy sell, some clunky writing and weak characterizations diminish the story (Michael notices the VNS agent's "long pretty legs" and remarks, "It was clear that she was manipulative, that she used her beauty to melt men's hearts"). The protagonists are fairly interchangeable, though when Michael explains what the VNS wants, it's Sarah who wonders, "Why would they ask three teenagers to solve their problems?" A smart question that presumably will be answered in the next installment. Ages 12âup. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Oct.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2013 September
Gr 8 UpâMichael 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.âMaggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX
[Page 155]. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews : VOYA Reviews 2013 December
Michael lives to connect to the virtual world that everyone lives in, the VirtNet. He spends countless hours with his friends, Bryson and Sarah, in the Sleep, completing missions, hacking code, and amassing experience points. An encounter with a girl named Tanya, who removes her Core (the program that prevents her from dying in real life if she dies in the Sleep) and who then commits suicide to escape from an evil gamer named Kaine, throws everything off. Kaine has taken over the VirtNet and is sending Killsims against other gamers, destroying their characters in the VirtNet but also causing psychosis in the Wake. When approached by VirtNet authorities to chase down Kaine, Michael and his friends at first think of it as another game. But it quickly turns deadly. Kaine is rumored to be unleashing the Mortality Doctrine, and they must find his hideout on the Hallowed Ravine before Kaine's evil plan comes to fruition. Can the three teens prevent both a virtual and a real catastrophe before it is too late Dashner once again creates a dystopian world in which nothing is what it seems. In this first book of a trilogy, the main characters are fleshed out and have complex motivations for completing this mission. Reminiscent of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One (Crown, 2011), the boundaries between virtuality and reality become blurred as Michael wanders off into dark corners where no humans have tread before. Fans of Dashner will enjoy this new world but will have to wait for the second installment.âEtienne ValleeThe plot and scenario of this novel are completely far-fetched, but enjoyable. From the beginning, Dashner hooks the reader right into the plot. He gives readers characters with whom to relate, along with a few realistic situations. Though the novel is reminiscent of SyFy's mini-series Caprica, anyone who enjoys an old fashion group of heroes fighting an all powerful villain in a futuristic, virtual world will enjoy this novel. It is like Harry Potter (just replace magic wands with hacking skills) meets Caprica. 3Q, 2P.âJayme Horne, Teen Reviewer 4Q 3P J S Copyright 2011 Voya Reviews.
