The Game of Lives

Dashner, James. The Game of Lives. Book 3 of the Mortality Doctrine trilogy. 2015. 336p. ISBN 978-0-385-74143-9. Available at FIC DAS on the library shelves.

Following the destruction of the VSN firewall in Rule of Thoughts, Michael and his friends Sarah and Bryson face new threats. More and more Tangents are using the Mortality Doctrine to take possession of human bodies, downloading into them while their users are imprisoned in a virtual reality universe. The Tangents have fractured, however, with those who oppose Kaine and those Kaine leads towards his ultimate goal of immortality. 

At the same time, Agent Weber’s plans of making VSN the world power and destroying all Tangents are coming to fruition. And now more than ever Michael doesn't know who he can trust, what is real and what isn't Armed with only code he can manipulate, can Michael stop both Weber and Kaine before it’s too late?

The Rule of Thoughts

Dashner, James. The Rule of Thoughts. 2014. 336p. ISBN 978-038574145. FIC DAS on the library shelves.

In Eye of Minds, Michael has become the first Tangent to become human. He was unaware he was a computer program until Kaine, himself a Tangent villain who controls the VirtualNet, told him. Now in Jackson Park’s body in the real world, Michael is hunted down by Kaine’s agents. His only hope is in reuniting with Sarah and Bryson so that together they can put an end to Kaine’s plans.

But when artificial intelligence and virtual reality are so good that they are indistinguishable from the real deal, whom can the trio trust? Is reality even “real,” or is it simply another computer simulation? Michael is running out of time to discover the truth, and it may very well cost him the human life he just gained.

The story continues in The Game of Lives.

Game Slaves

Skinner, Gard. Game Slaves. 2014. 336p. ISBN 978-0547972596. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Phoenix leads a team of highly specialized and efficient non-player characters in the Blackstar gaming console environment. When people play a computer game, the bad bosses they encounter are Phoenix and his teammates. There is a difference between other computer games and Blackstar’s, however. They can adapt, listen in on the players’ communications, and anticipate their every move. Phoenix and the others are self-aware that they are computer programs created for the enjoyment of people who escape their otherwise bleak lives. They are corporate property.

But when Dakota joins the team, everything changes. As the newest model, she is faster and more accurate. She is also full of doubt that she is a computer code. How else could she remember details like swimming in a lake? In her quest to discover the truth of what, or who, she really is, Dakota leads Phoenix and his friends on a deadly game against Blackstar and its agents, who are bent on restoring the five to their place as best gaming villains and not as individuals.

If you enjoyed this book, consider Phoenix, a space opera adventure with similar questioning of what it means to be human.

Eye of Minds

Dashner, James. Eye of Minds. 2013. 336p. ISBN 978-0385741392. Available as a book on the library shelves at FIC DAS and as an eBook on Overdrive.

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 real catastrophe before it’s 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, the boundaries between virtual 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 and will want to read The Rule of Thoughts. Other books by Dashner include the Maze Runner trilogy (Maze Runner, Scorch Trials, and the Death Cure).