The Eye of Minds (The Mortality Doctrine, Book One) Paperback – July 22, 2014

Since I am a bit of a nerd (ok, maybe a big nerd) I really enjoyed the ideas behind this book. It was interesting, as I read it, to see parallels with our dependency and fascination with technology and the internet. With the advent, and more universal acceptance, of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality devices (think Oculus unit and Microsoft's HoloLens) it is not too much of a stretch to believe we could someday find ourselves spending more time in a "virtual" world than our own. That is the case for Michael and his friends in this story. They find themselves more attached to the VirtNet, as it is called, and less attached to the real world.
James Dashner does a great job of making the reader care about his main protagonist right off the bat and we begin to get caught up in Michael's "adventure" pretty quickly. Its hard to explain the entire book without getting into too many spoilers. The pace is nice, but at times gets bogged down with too much technical information about the VirtNet and its "worlds". But, I was never bored and looked forward to getting back to reading about what would happen next.
In all honesty I was not a big fan of the Maze Runner Series. I actually prefer the movies over the books on that one, which is a rarity for me. But The Eye Of Minds really captured my attention and kept me wanting for more. I have moved on to the final book in the series and have enjoyed each one a little more than the first, which is saying something. The second book was really great.
This is a great launching pad for the series though and if you like the YA type of books with a technical and "futuristic" twist then you can't go wrong with this series. Give it a try!

KO High School English PreAP Book Review

I definitely would recommend this book! It’s extremely intense and suspenseful, similar to The Maze Runner trilogy. As the first in this series, this sets up an unconscious decision of commitment. Once you start reading, you’ll be hooked.

Reading the introduction of the book, I was instantly drawn in. My favorite hobby -- gaming, and an interesting storyline about a virtual world being corrupted by an AI, what could be better in my interest? The book takes place in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic setting, with an underlying, surprisingly positive setting. There is a virtual world (VirtNet) that people can connect to, to distract them from the real life. It is akin to the real world, with all feelings and experiences feeling real, but nothing actually happens, so even death is non-existent, you would just be sent back and "reset".
The main character, Michael, accompanied by friends Bryson and Sarah, are assigned the task of tracking down Kaine, a cyber-terrorist who has been trapping people inside the VirtNet.

It may or may not be all too interesting at first glance, especially to people who are not that into virtual reality novels or ones about gaming. However, in addition to having a general appeal to gamers like me and alike, this novel actually should appeal to almost any teen, any lover of a dystopian novel, which could in the future end up turning into a movie.

Although Michael gets most of the attention, Sarah and Bryson are equally treated as very important characters. I always hated rooting for the outcast or underdog in a book, movie, or TV show, and just having them get cut off, or not enough attention, but this book does not do that and it makes me love it even more.

Personally, I am not too into love relationships when it comes to movies or books, and this novel in particular (at least so far as I have read) does not seem to have one. It is pure drama and action.

The reason I gave this 4 stars is because of the one flaw that constantly pestered me was the lack of the "gaming" aspect. Yes, admittedly, the whole plot takes place in a gamer's virtual world, however the only real gaming aspect to it was the constant scanning of the environmental code. Aside from the tracers and hiders, there could be a lot more "gaming" to it. It's hard to explain unless you're a gamer. There's something missing. They needed more weapons, more fire, more magic, more abilities implemented into the storyline. Stuff like that.

The Eye of Minds is a real page-turner, and is the type of novel that even though you may be discouraged to even pick up a book, once you start up again, you'll be hooked and not want to put it down. That sounds like a cliché thing to say, but I’m serious. This is coming from an avid fan of all dystopian books.

I'll have to be honest, the reason I picked this book up was because of the cover and the title. I've never read Maze Runner (James Dasher's other series) so I didn't know what to expect.
So I'll start off with the basics and give no spoilers to the best of my ability.
The book setting is in the future where technology for the younger generation (and the younger at heart) run around in a Virtual world, VirtNet for short, doing everything and feeling everything one could ever imagine. That's right, they can FEEL it too, after all what's the point of a game if it isn't realistic?
Now the main character, Michael has the dream of being the best gamer in the world and is one of the many after the notorious "Life Blood Deep", an even more realistic dimension of "Life Blood" where, as mentioned above, you can do and be whatever you want (so long as you have money). So in the present age it would be like going to a local casino, and after pulling so many slots, you get a free all access pass to Las Vegas! Cool Right? Well bad news there's a cyber terrorist who has the VNS (VirtNet Security) going mad! Seriously, this organization makes the Secret Service look like punks and they still can't get a hold of this one terrorist. However, for some reason the VNS believe Michael and his two friends can and they send them on the mission of hunting the cyber terrorist down. The reward, being set for life and not getting in trouble for doing anything illegal in the VirtNet (sweet!), the penalty for refusing, no technology access (heavens above not that!) and suggestive death threats to friends and family.
Now, all of this opens up the book and the rest is laid out in a typical quest format that James Dashner does well, although, fair warning it is extremely graphic! I won't go into detail but I found myself just wanting to skip ahead to see if the characters actually got anywhere. And another thing I didn't like was the fact that the main character always seems to be in pain. I mean geez this kid could take a beating, both physiological and physical.
On a good note the world building and settings of "Life Blood" were simply incredible! The world seemed so large and detailed that it just exploded out of the book. It was hard not to get sucked in and see what the character saw down to the neon wire. This includes the characters. I loved all of them and they were developed in such a way that I felt an attachment, meaning I wanted what they want and were rooting or boo-ing them when they did something good or bad.
The villain (cyber terrorist) is done really well too, with enough mystery to keep the reader going. Now villains come in two varieties, ones you love to hate or ones who you can relate but still believe they are going about things the wrong way. The cyber terrorist is a unique blend of both where at first you love to hate him but then, once you get a closer look, you realize he does have a compelling purpose.
So to conclude the book is really easy to get into but once there you find the story stalls a bit from the constant violence and graphic scenes. It picks up though and the ending is well worth it! The twist is truly one that makes the readers think and ingeniously wants one to go back and re-examine the beginning where all the clues are flashing in our faces.
I'm looking forward to book 2 to see what James Dashner will do with this twist he leaves with us.