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The Eye of Minds
Author:
Dashner, James
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Series:
Mortality doctrine, #1
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 12-19
Language: English
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LC: PZ7.D258
Grade: 7-12
Print Run: 200000
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ISBN-13: 9780385741392
LCCN: 2012050779
Imprint: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Delacorte Press
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Pub Date: 10/08/2013
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $18.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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310 pages ; 22 cm.
H 8.63",
W 5.81",
D 0.93",
0.9625 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Mortality Doctrine series
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Teen
Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles
Brodart's YA Reads for Adults
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Bibliographies:
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Booklist High-Demand Hot List
New York Times Bestsellers List
New York Times Bestsellers: Children's Middle Grade and Young Adult Books
New York Times Bestsellers: Children's Series
Publishers Weekly Bestsellers
Teens' Top Ten (YALSA)
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Awards:
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Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Young Adults' Choices Reading List
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Science Fiction
Suspense/Thriller
Computers/Computer Programming
Toys and Games
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BISAC Subjects: |
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Computers & Digital Media
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Action & Adventure / General
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Boys & Men
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LC Subjects:
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Computer games, Fiction
Computer games, Juvenile fiction
Cyberterrorism, Fiction
Cyberterrorism, Juvenile fiction
Science fiction
Terrorism, Fiction
Terrorism, Juvenile fiction
Virtual reality, Fiction
Virtual reality, Juvenile fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Computer crimes, Fiction
Computer games, Fiction
Science fiction
Terrorism, Fiction
Virtual reality, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
5.5
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Points: 11.0
Lexile Level:
790
Reading Counts Level:
5.2
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Points: 18.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles | 10/01/2013 |
| When gamers literally start going brain-dead in the world of the VirtNet, hardcore gamer Michael is hired by the government to enter the VirtNet and stop the psychotic gamer who's holding brain-dead players hostage within the VirtNet, itself. Mortality doctrine series, 320pp. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 09/01/2013 |
| Grades 7-10. 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. Petty, J. B. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 01/01/2014 |
| R. Gr. 7-10. Like most people in his world, sixteen-year-old Michael spends nearly all of his free time in the VirtNet, an immersive virtual reality that offers the best of both reality and fantasy without any of the consequences. Now, though, a cyber-terrorist named Kaine is trapping players in the Sleep, wiping their brains and leaving their real-world bodies comatose. Unable to stop him, the government has turned to talented hacker/gamers like Michael to fight Kaine's skills with their own. Their curiosity piqued by the challenge, Michael and his two best friends follow a trail of underground gossip to the Path, a set of challenges that leads to Kaine's virtual hideout. Just as they begin to succeed against the Path's obstacles, Michael realizes that Kaine is hiding an important secret that connects them, one that might convince Michael to change sides. Strongly reminiscent of Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk classic Snow Crash, this high-intensity science fiction adventure emphasizes suspense from its very first scene and never lets up. Fans of video games, especially quest and puzzle-platforms like Portal, will revel in the mission-based narrative, while readers enjoyed Doctorow's Little Brother (BCCB 2/08) or Falkner's Brain Jack (BCCB 9/10) will find themselves at home in the hacker-friendly cyber-setting. Characterization isn't deep, but the relationship between Michael and his friends provides plenty of playful banter. A last-minute twist subverts everything the reader knows about Michael, provides the perfect set-up for expected sequels, and makes for a bombshell ending that will have readers rereading and then coming back for more. AM. 310p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2014. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2014 |
| 3. 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. amt. 311pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 09/01/2013 |
| 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). 336pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 08/26/2013 |
| Ages 12-up. 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. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Oct.). 320p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| School Library Journal | 09/01/2013 |
| 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, TX. 304p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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| ~VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine - Retired Journal) | 12/01/2013 |
| 4Q 3P J S. 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.--Etienne Vallee. The 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.--Jayme Horne, Teen Reviewer. 320p. VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, c2013. |
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9780385741392,dl.it[0].title
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