Book stats (from Amazon):
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Ember; Reprint edition (July 22 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385741405
ISBN-13: 978-0385741408
Amazon rating: 4.4/5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.84/5 stars
Summary (from Amazon):
From James Dashner, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, which includes The Maze Runner—now a #1 movie worldwide—and The Scorch Trials—soon to be a major motion picture from Twentieth Century Fox that hits theaters on September 18, 2015—comes an all-new, edge-of-your seat adventure. The Eye of Minds is the first novel in the Mortality Doctrine series set in a world of hyperadvanced technology, cyberterrorists, and gaming beyond your wildest dreams . . . and your worst nightmares.
Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?
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 there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.
I am not ashamed to admit that I have loved video games for a long time - I was and still am a 'game geek'. Just a few years ago I went through a massive Minecraft obsession where the game consumed most of my free time. I still play it (and I also still own a Creeper t-shirt, a stuffed Baby Mooshroom, and a Minecraft edition of a gaming magazine), but it's taken more of a backseat to my writing and other obligations. Other video game obsessions of mine include or have included The Sims (I played the original for years, never played 2, finally managed to get 3 to work, and also own 4 which is awesome, but slower and harder to get immersed in that 3, I feel (although it might be my lack of expansion packs for 4, which always made 3 better in my opinion), Legend of Zelda games (I'm currently playing Twilight Princess on the Wii), Kirby (GameCube Kirby was my life for a while), and almost any racing game. Whether it's cars, go-karts, horses, whatever, I'm a sucker for racing games.) That was a lot of words that were all basically to say this: I love video games, and so when I saw this book, it instantly piqued my curiousity. Even before I noticed it was by James Dashner (I love him as an author. His Maze Runner series was amazing, and overall I think he's a really cool guy and great with his fans), I was hooked in by the novel's concept.
The Eye of Minds is written in first person from the perspective of Michael, an experienced gamer and advanced hacker. With his best friends, Bryson and Sarah, Michael manipulates the Virtnet - the gaming network accessed by the player connecting to their Coffin, the virtual reality simulator - largely for his own benefit. Small things like hacking a restaurant to get free nachos are all the three really use their abilities for. When Michael witnesses another gamer rip out her Core - the device that ensures that, no matter what happens in the Virtnet, the player wakes up safe in their Coffin with no lasting injuries - and commit suicide by diving off a bridge, he realizes that something is very wrong.
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned...
I don't often use the term 'a twist you will never expect' because I feel it's overused and doesn't often deliver on its promise, but in my opinion, the ending of this novel really does deliver a twist that I, at least, never saw coming. The entire plot is largely unexpected and extremely well-executed.
Michael, Bryson, and Sarah's quest through 'The Path' was unpredictable and exciting, especially with the added condition: if they die within The Path, they will not be able to re-enter it. This forces the three characters to rethink their strategies and carefully think through their actions, as their current philosophy - if you mess up, you can always try again with no consequences - will not be good enough to get them through.
Like in the Maze Runner series, Dashner creates a complex and believable, although fantastical and futuristic, world. While the slang used is sometimes confusing, it quickly becomes evident what the meanings are. The characters are also realistic and interesting. One of my favourite parts of this novel was how interesting and three-dimensional the minor or side characters were. Like NPC's in a video game, they are sometimes bizarre and often more frustrating than helpful. I felt that this gave a lot of realism to the novel and made it feel almost as if it were a guide to a video game.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I can't really point out anything specifically bad about it or anything I didn't particularly like, so I'll stop before I spoil anything else. I'd recommend this book for an older teen, as it tends toward being a bit violent, but I wasn't bothered by it and I don't think many people would find it too bad, but be warned that the story does get violent, especially during the 'Devils of Destruction' segment.
5/5 stars!
