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    Gunner Skale: An Eye of Minds Story
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    Gunner Skale: An Eye of Minds Story
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    Gunner Skale: An Eye of Minds Story
    Audiobook58 minutes

    Gunner Skale: An Eye of Minds Story

    Written by James Dashner

    Narrated by Erik Davies

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From James Dashner, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling MAZE RUNNER series, comes an original audiobook returning fans to the fast-paced, high-tech world in the Mortality Doctrine series that includes The Eye of Minds, The Rule of Thoughts, and The Game of Lives.

    Find out how Gunner Skale, the best gamer on the VirtNet, becomes a legend.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9780399566554
    Unavailable
    Gunner Skale: An Eye of Minds Story

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    Reviews for Gunner Skale

    3.5/5

    209 ratings28 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Really good.
    • 5/5
      This book was amazing! I really liked the plot and didn't really expect that little twist in the end.
    • 4/5
      Non stop action. Not my taste, but if you love action movies and games or suspense, then you will love this series by the author of the Maze Runner. Great characters and a plot that keeps you guessing until the very end, check this out if you are looking for an intense sci fi thriller. Grade 6 and up.
    • 5/5
      eye of minds is a great book if you like futuristic books. this book has a great story line. the characters were great such as michael, etc
    • 3/5
      I picked up this book to pass my lunchtime and was pleasantly surprised. Action packed, the book leads the reader through a series of adventures, full of twists and turns. There is little character development but the thread of the story is strong enough to carry the plot without being stiff or superficial. It ends in a cliffhanger. I'm not likely to continue on but I'd recommend picking up this first of the series, especially if the genre is of interest.
    • 4/5
      Personally I found this to be slightly better series than Maze Runner :} It's a cool not-so-distant kinda future reading where Michael enters the VirtNet where it's a *duh* virtual world where you can manipulate to your desire. Michael and his friends, Sarah and Bryson, were sucked into an unexpected albeit sometimes scary journey to go further into the VirtNet to find Kaine, the supposedly evil gamer who is offing of other gamers. Nearing to the end was an unexpected twist which now makes me look foward to the next book in the series *waiting with bated breathe*
    • 2/5
      I loved "The Maze Runner" series by this author, so was keen to read his latest novel. However, while the concept was clever, the story was slow and tedious. It was only in the last third of the book that I started to really enjoy it, with all its twists and turns. The ending was great (and not only because I finally finished!), but I will not be continuing the series.
    • 4/5
      Riveting read about good guys and bad guys in a futuristic virtual reality.Probably appeal more to boys than girls.
    • 5/5
      Michael is a teenage games and hacker who likes to spend all his time in the VirtNet. The VirtNet provides total mind and body immersion without the risk of death. One gamer-Kaine-decides to take this to the next step. Kaine figures out how to take hostages and lives. The VNS (VirtNet Security) recruits Michael and his friends to find and stop Kaine. Can Michael out think the best programmer to grace the Grid?This fast-paced sci-fi thriller will have you on the edge of your seat. The characters are intense, and likable. With no purple prose (fluff scenes), every scene has a purpose in the book. With a well-developed plot that has twists that keep you guessing, this must-read novel will go down in history with Ender’s Game. Too bad you’ll have to wait until October to read it.
    • 3/5
      Michael is an excellent gamer who has been recruited by VirtNet to help stop an evil and dangerous man named Kaine who is trapping people inside a game called Lifeblood Deep. But things are not what they appear to be and Michael might be in for something he's not prepared to handle. This would be a great book for a decent reader who is a serious gamer but I wouldn't recommend it to weak readers who love gaming because I think they'd get really impatient while reading the trials of Michael along the Path.
    • 3/5
      Interesting premise and story. But the hyperbolic, over-the-top writing got to me after a while. It seemed like someone had brainstormed a series of increasingly horrible experiences and strung them together as a sort of obstacle course for the characters. I didn't really connect with any of them and don't feel any desire to read the next book in the series.
    • 2/5
      The Eye of Minds is book one in James Dashner's new series.Michael is the main character who has two best friends whom he has never met in person: Sarah and Bryson. They met and know each other from the VirtNet. They put themselves in what is called a "coffin," hooked up to feeds that make the body feel like you are physically experiencing what you are going through in your mind in the VirtNet. The VirtNet is a computer game where you can do all sorts of things--hang out at a cafe, play various games, etc. Michael is obsessed with getting to Lifeblood Deep, the highest level of the VirtNet but only the best gamers can get there. When Michael has to save a girl from suicide, he discovers that she is truly committing suicide and not just as her "gaming" self. She tells him about Kaine, a guy trying to take over the VirtNet and he is an evil guy.People from the VNS (VirtNet Security) recruit Michael to work for them and capture Kaine. He's allowed to get Sarah and Bryson to help him. The three must work together to discover where Kaine is hiding in the VirtNet and try to "kill" him. As they go deeper and deeper in, they learn about the secrets of Kain, the VirtNet itself, and the VNS. If you like The Matrix movie or the book Ready Player One, you will like this. I greatly enjoyed The Maze Runner, but I have to admit this novel was painful for me. I do not like science fiction unless it's a really good story that pulls me in. I hate novels/movies about living inside a computer that is hooked up to your mind. it's so stupid to me. I cannot suspend disbelief and think that lying still and living in your mind is better than living in real life. Why doesn't Michael go meet Sarah and Bryson? It seems silly to only meet in a computer game when they live in the same town. The twist at the end didn't surprise me nor did I particularly care. This novel is not for everyone by any means.
    • 2/5
      Eye of Minds reminded me of The Matrix and Avatar. In this futuristic story, people spend a lot of time in the VertNet, which is a virtual reality internet where people get into a "coffin" in order to experience realistic game play. It seems as though everyday lives are lived only to earn money to buy game time. The main character, Michael's only friends are Sarah and Bryson, who he has only met through game play but not in real life. Everything in Michael's life changes when he is contacted by the VNS - a kind of VerNet police force - to help them track down a programmer named Kaine who has become a security risk. Reluctantly, Michael agrees and with the help of his two friends goes on a harrowing VertNet quest to lead the VNS to Kaine. The huge twist at the end of the book almost made it worth the read. James Dashner is obviously an excellent science fiction writer, but for me, stories succeed or fail based on character development, and in this one there is almost none. I didn't really enjoy reading this book, so it is unlikely that I will read the sequel, The Rule of Thoughts.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars.

      This was interesting, and the ending was surprising to me. But I felt the writing tended to skew younger than the intended audience, although the subject would probably be beyond younger readers comprehension.
    • 3/5
      Like The Maze Runner series, we have teens running an amazingly complex and seemingly reasonless obstacle course to serve a purpose they only learn of at the end. Michael is a teen who is totally involved in the VirtNet, a virtual world with every type of adventure conceivable. He is approached, or rather kidnapped, by an organization and asked to hunt down someone only known as Kaine because he was supposedly causing people to lose their real minds in this virtual world. He talks two online friends (who he had never met FTF) into joining up with their hacker skills to hunt down this entity.Lots of running through various peril-filled scenarios ensue.After a while I was tired of the paces these kids were put through. Enough already! I get it!Fans of The Maze Runner will enjoy this story. Having already read TMR, I didn't want to repeat the experience again just with different scenery.
    • 4/5
      Honestly I thought I was going to rip this book apart but nope it was pretty cool. The Eye of Minds follows Michael a true gamer at heart. He lives in a world where gaming simulators are so realistic they can transport your mind into a virtual world (known in the book as the VirtNet) and basically simulate a SIMS life but you actually get to feel it and play some other cool games too. This Michael kid has the best simulator his parents could buy and hops in any chance he gets, in fact he has never even met his best friends in real life because they're always on the VirtNet. His online world is suddenly threatened by the presence of a evil genius known as Kaine who threatens to kill minds inside the game so that their physical body will remain in a vegetative state with no mind controlling it. The online version of the CIA recruits Michael and his friends Bryson and Sarah to help them capture Kaine and put an end to his plan. But along the way, there are a few things that Michael discovers about the VirtNet and Kaine that would change his life (online and offline) forever.I LUV James Dashner, I really enjoyed The Maze Runner series so if you haven't read those books run and go get them now and read them all even the prequel....ANYWAYS, so I liked this book.The gaming world is near and dear to me because I have brothers who spend a good chunk of their days glued to the screen watching/playing/interacting with the darned games kids play these days. Although I'm not into the computer I do love me some Wii and Xbox time. For me, the world that Dashner created reminded me a lot of the world in that third Spy Kids movie with the Toy Maker and Carmen being lost...Oh god I feel old. If you don't know that movie, basically it's a world where kid's minds are placed into the game but the simulation is real to them. In the movie the Toy Maker threatened to imprison the minds of those kids in the game but in the novel Kaine threatened to kill the minds of the players in the game and with some tinkering that could lead to the brain death of a person in real life.The book had an interesting start with Michael having his first encounter with a Kaine victim who threatens suicide just to escape his mind games but I felt something was missing in the middle when Michael and his friends start their adventure. It was like they gave in too easily to taking on the task of bringing Kaine down. Not a single question was asked like "why were you approached Micheal? and not one of us?" or "are you even sure it was an agent for the VirtNet security? What if it was Kaine who was secretly recruiting you because he want you to find him on purpose?". But worry not the adventure takes them to places only a handful of gamers had ever been before.I personally liked Sarah the best, Michael wasn't really that relateable a character for me but once I reached the end it all clicked for me and now I have a new light for him...if that makes any sense which doesn't until you read the book *hint hint* there is plenty of action and for the soft at heart there are also hints of romance but not too much to distract from the bigger picture. And the final twist at the end....I'm still mad at myself for not figuring it out long before my two seconds before it was revealed.It's a compelling start to a new series, Dashner didn't disappoint in this one and I'm strongly hoping he's learned from his finale to The Maze Runner series and doesn't make the same mistake with The Death Cure.
    • 4/5
      An interesting concept of a future civilization where most of our lives are spent living in virtual reality... takes gaming to a whole new level. Three friends are hired on by a government agency to discover who is behind a series of mysterious deaths taking place within a virtual computer game but transferring over into reality for the actual players. This is a great suspense novel with surprising twists. A recommended read for fans of dystopian and science fiction.
    • 3/5
      I'll start by saying that I've never read James Dashner before this, but I know his name is well known in the world of Young Adult science fiction with his books in the Maze Runner series. Why I chose to tackle this book instead of starting with The Maze Runner is simple: I was initially drawn to the gamer culture aspect in the description, and it sounded enough like Ernest Cline's Ready Player One (which I loved) to make me even more curious.There are definitely some similarities; the book follows Michael, a young man who spends most of his time in the VirtNet, a virtual reality network that offers total mind and body immersion so that anyone plugged in can experience any one of thousands of fantasy worlds like they are actually there. That's pretty much where the resemblance ends though. In Michael's VirtNet, a new cyber terrorist known as "Kaine" is purportedly hacking the code and trapping people inside games, so that in-game deaths lead to real life casualties and victims becoming brain-dead.The best part about being in the VirtNet was never having to worry about risking your life, but now all that has changed. VirtNet Security forcibly recruits Michael, a talented and skilled gamer and hacker in his own right, to hunt down this dangerous enemy threatening the whole system. From here on out, the rest of the book is laid out in classic action and adventure format, where the hero and his two friends set out on a quest to find Kaine, picking up clues and investigating leads along the way.The beginning had me pretty interested. VirtNet system is very well described, especially the setting of the game "Life Blood" serving as the opener. I loved the idea of how realistic and immersive these worlds are, and the infinite possibilities they present. The novel had a great intro, and a quick subsequent build-up to the main part of the story. I really thought this was going to be a winner.But then something stalled along the way. The tight focus that was maintained throughout the first part of the book gradually unraveled, so that by the time we're in the middle chapters I felt that the story had lost its steam. It almost feels like the author had a clear vision of how the book begins and how it ends, but didn't really plan well for everything that needs to go in between. Michael and his friend's journey felt far too prolonged and lost its direction, leading me to ask myself several times while reading this, "Wait, what are they supposed to be doing again?"To the book's credit, the ending did indeed hook me back in, but by then it was a little too late for me to feel the full impact. In any case, the big shocking twist at the end was certainly well worth it, though like I said, at that point it did not have the effect that it should have had. I also can't help but wonder if this novel would have been better served told in the first person; I think that would have given me a deeper connection to Michael's feelings, especially during that final revelation.All in all, not a bad book, but I'm still debating whether or not I would pick up the sequel which is slated for a summer 2014 release. I may end up checking out The Maze Runner before I get a chance to read book two of this series.
    • 5/5
      It has been a very long time since a book has caught me by surprise. I won't put in any spoilers, but only to say that I had a sense something was going on in the book that I couldn't quite put my finger on and it kept me reading till the reveal at the end. Then, I palmed my forehead and said "OH! That's it, why didn't I see it coming?I don't usually get into books that center on computer gaming and virtual reality, but The Eye of Minds sucked me in and kept me reading into the wee hours. Well written. My only criticism would be that the violence is very intense in places. You have to keep telling yourself it's all in the game, It's not real. It's all in the game, It's not real . . .
    • 3/5
      Michael is a skilled internet gamer in a world of advanced technology. When a cyber-terrorist begins to threaten players, Michael is called upon to seek him and his secrets out.
    • 4/5
      I had a lot of fun with Dashner's Maze Runner series so I've kept an eye out for new projects from him. I was intrigued by the premise between The Eye of Minds (even if the title left me a little confused). To some degree the story shares commonality with quite a few books and movies that have come out over the years. While it leverages a lot of similar ideas in terms of the way the technology works the book still takes the plot and the mechanics in a fresh and fun new direction.The high level plot puts us in a future where technology has advanced to the point of having a hyper-real virtual reality game called VirtNet. The VirtNet involves gamers lying down in a technologically advanced sort of sensory deprivation box (lovingly called the "coffin" by gamers). Once inside the box, the gamers are locked away from the real world and are quite literally plugged into the VirtNet via a series of tubes and wires. The technology directly plugs into the gamer's mind and provides very realistic sensations to the point of literally triggering muscle response. It accounts for necessary bodily functions, provides a certain degree of nutrition and support but also allows the gamer to physically experience the sensation of many of the virtual events they experience. In other words, the gamer will feel pain. The only limitation is that within the VirtNet if the gamer "dies", they respawn in the system and their body does not die.As the book opens and we fall into the plot, we learn that a cyberterrorist named Kaine is hacking his way through the VirtNet to capture and manipulate gamers and has found a way to remove the failsafes and cause serious real world physical damage to players ranging from severe brain damage to actual death. The hero of our story is a teenage gamer named Michael. Michael and his three gamer friends are expert gamers and are also adept at hacking through the code of the game to manipulate elements within VirtNet to their advantage such as providing themselves with extra armor or weapons during gameplay and other such cheats. Michael and his friends are recruited by a covert agency to hack their way through the VirtNet and track down the cyberterrorist. The book did a great job of quickly hooking and drawing in the readers. We very quickly learn about some of the ins and outs of VirtNet as well as the nature of the cyberterrorist/hacker threat. We are kept off balance alongside Michael as he tries to figure out the new game rules set by Kaine as he works towards something called the Mortality Doctrine. The pacing of real world versus game world left me a little unbalanced at first especially when the lines between real and virtual begin to blur. The world building done here was very well done. We don't spend a lot of time in the "real world" but what interaction we do have there felt natural and believable. When in the game world I really enjoyed the creativity and vibrance of the elements Dashner creates. Within the VirtNet there are a variety of unique and complex worlds and games for players to enjoy. While some were more fleshed out than others. The characters and situations presented inside the game world just provided for a wide breadth of creativity and adventure. As much as I enjoyed the book, there were a few things that pulled me back and made the experience less than perfect for me. As an worker in the software and technology world, I really had to stretch my "suspension of disbelief" with regards to the way the gamers interacted and hacked through the code. Similar to the behavior in the Matrix, these super hackers just sort of close their eyes and can "see" the code (whether as 1s and 0s or as actual written functions is unclear). Upon seeing the code they are able to notice vulnerabilities and can also manipulate the code somehow. The whole concept is fun and intriguing but from a person who deals with code on a daily basis, the process seemed a little odd. The other point that caught me a little off guard was that this government/corporate agency approaches Michael and his friends to help find this ultra-hacker Kaine. Now, I fully acknowledge that kids are very tech savvy. And I also acknowledge that this is a YA book targeted at teenagers. But to convince me that with a giant threat like this the agency turns to a random, albeit smart, teenager for help seemed a little far fetched. Dashner did account for this skepticism a little bit by having Michael suspect that he wasn't the only person hunting down Kaine and assuming that other people were doing the same thing and he just wanted to be the one to succeed.On the whole I found the story to be compelling and a lot of fun. It was a thrilling technology filled ride with a lot of great creativity and a lot of variety in tone and theme due to the expansive world opened in the realm of the VirtNet. Throughout the story we are given glimpses of a deeper mystery as Michael tries not only to find Kaine but to determine his motivation. When the full implications of the Mortality Doctrine are revealed I can definitely say I was pleasantly surprised at the trajectory of the story and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series to find out what happens next.****4 out of 5 stars
    • 5/5
      This is a great new young adult book in which three teenaged "gamers" are asked to enter a virtual reality game to try to help destroy an evil entity named Kaine who is reeking havoc on players. I am an old coot and a book of this nature would almost almost always leave me flat as I am a "gamer" in no sense of the word. The writing is so clear and the plot so well developed that I was drawn right in. I loved the book and the ending totally took me off guard in a positive way.. I think this series is really going to take and this should be a must read for any young person who enjoys video games.
    • 3/5
      I picked this book up because of two things: the synopsis was very creative and unique, and James Dashner wrote it. I read the Maze Runner series, and I adored it very much, so, seeing that James Dashner wrote another series, I had high expectations that this series would be equally as fantastic. Much to my dismay, my expectations were not reached.

      WHAT I DISLIKED:
      It was confusing, extremely confusing. The first chunk of the book, I was struggling with the terminology and the way everything worked. I was confused with what tangents were supposed to be, and all things technology. I was not enjoying the book, at all.

      Another thing I disliked was all the descriptions. I know many people love it when authors describe things in great detail so that the reader can picture in their mind what things looks like, but for me, it didn't work as well. I know you must feel like I'm horrible for doing this, but I found myself constantly skimming the details and descriptions until I reached conversations or until something interesting caught my eye. After I started skimming through the boring parts, I found myself appreciating the complexity of it much more.

      WHAT I LIKED:
      After I got over my initial boredom of this book, and started only reading the parts that interested me, (don't worry, I still read at least 80% of the book, so I know most of what I'm talking about :D )I started understanding the book, and enjoyed it a lot more. I liked the originality of this book, since I've never read anything like this before. Although it did take some getting used to.

      Friends. Michael's friends, Bryson and Sarah, were great additions that made the book that much better. I liked that Michael wasn't hiding things from his friends, and they were mostly all on the same page.

      I don't usually leave a series unfinished, but I don't think I'm in a rush to read the next book, although I will read it, eventually. Overall, not too bad, but I really wished it could have been better.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure what to expect from James Dashner's The Eye of Minds. After all, I liked The Maze Runner well enough after listening to it on audio, but I was hazy on the details and never felt especially compelled to read the next two books in the trilogy. Now, after getting sucked into and genuinely enjoying this first book in The Morality Doctrine, I'm wondering if his first trilogy doesn't deserve another try.The Eye of Minds is set primarily in a virtual world called VirtNet, a world much preferred over the boring reality of most peoples' normal, everyday lives. Daily, people slog through their necessary jobs and responsibilities with the promise of slipping into their virtual lives at the end of the day. The main character, Michael, is one of these people. He's one of the best, a talented hacker, and determined to make it the next coveted level in the game. Michael's normal, laid-back life of exploring and having fun in VirtNet with is best friends, Bryson and Sarah, is thrown off-kilter when Michael witnesses a suicide within the game - a true suicide, not a simple thrown-back-into-reality-to-begin-again death, a normal occurrence. Reports of suicide and other malfunctions are becoming more and more common and the cause of it all seems to be a mysterious and deadly hacker named Kaine. After witnessing the suicide, Michael and his friends are recruited to track down Kaine, before he's able to strike again. The stakes are high and the lines between the game and reality are becoming dangerously blurred.The Eye of Minds starts with a bang and never truly slows. From one thrilling situation to the next, the pressure is on for Michael, Bryson, and Sarah and, when I reached the final chapter, I was a bit in awe of how much happened in just over 300 pages. If readers appreciated the action in The Maze Runner, they'll be happy to see that Dashner doesn't drop the ball in this new trilogy - in fact, he stepped it up.I really liked Michael, Bryson, and Sarah as a team. In my opinion, there aren't enough examples of true, supportive friendships in YA literature, especially between guys and girls. While I could see some type of romantic relationship developing later in the series, there was nothing to hint at it in this first book and I really appreciated that. I liked that the three were just friends with similar interests who trusted and relied upon one another. The banter between them felt genuine and I quickly became invested in their friendship.I'm by no means a gamer, but I soon became immersed in the world and concept of VirtNet. I could definitely understand how a person could feel the urge to spend large amounts of time in something like VirtNet, where they could look any way they wanted and experience virtually anything. For kids like Michael, who are skilled hackers, it'd be even harder to stay away. Imagine a world you can change in substantial ways at your whim. Being able to eat anything you want and never gaining a pound. Doing crazy and dangerous stunts without any fear of dying. That kind of experience could be addicting and drawing the line between what's real and not could become increasingly difficult. This first installment of The Mortality Doctrine is delightfully twisty. I was never sure what would happen next because the characters were never sure. Normal rules don't apply within VirtNet, so Dashner was able to throw some crazy twists and turns in and all I could do was try to brace myself for the next surprise.I'll definitely be reading the next Mortality Doctrine book, especially after the cliffhanger of an ending in The Eye of Minds. The last few pages of the book left me spinning and anxious to know what happens next.
    • 4/5
      The characters are in the Vert Net. The Vert Net is not reality but a game the only way to kill yourself is by hacking to your core,and you don't just commit suicide in the game when you rip out your core, you do in real life.The reason why i liked the “Eye of the Minds”, it caught your attention right at the start. It caught your attention by the book jumping straight into action. . It jumped straight into action by the main character trying to save a girl’s life when she was trying to kill her self or committing suicide. One of the other reasons why I liked it was it was always in action and at the end of every chapter it has a cliffhanger, for example at the end of chapter 11 in the last paragraph it says, “In the late afternoon of the third day, Sarah found the Portal”.The “Eye of the Minds” is about a group of teenagers named Sarah, Bryson and Michael.They go on a crazy adventure inside the Vert Net.They were trying to seek out Kaine. Kaine is a gamer just like them but he has been trapping people in the Vert Net to where they can’t get out. The VNS hired the Sarah, Bryson, Michael to seek out or find Kaine. On their adventure they found out about The Path to find where Kaine is. When they got onto the path it was hard they finally found the portal in three days in the game. When they got onto the path they were in a endless hallway. They finally decided to bust through the wall, when they did they found just darkness and a stairwell. when they got to the bottom of the stairwell they found a door.when they opened the door there was a pale man and a pale woman staring at them against the wall not just one but thousands.Every time they made any noise the pale people would twitch. When they got closer to the door Bryson whispered in Michals ear “What if Kaine isnt a person?”. It came out louder than expected and all the pale people came after Bryson killing him. Sarah and Michael ran through the door and slammed it behind them and Bryson was screaming in pain as he died. Their surroundings was now a forest with a strange man. THe man lead them to his house and let them eat , but what was strange was the talking animals that prepared their dinner and cooked it. THe strange man woke them up and said the demons are coming so he lead them to the living room. and the strange man said I will go get my friends. He went and got the animals and gathered them all together and he said “Demons arise”. THe animals flesh went inside out and started attacking them. They went to the steeple and found a weak spot and found a portal. When they went through the portal they were in a black round tunnel. They started walking down the tunnel and starting to see magma and molten rock. Sarah died by the volcano shooting lava at her. Michal then found a portal and went through. On the other side was a white room with a man but not a man a silver robot. The robot said that this was the point of no return. hands started to come out of the ceiling grabbing ichal and ripping out his core. Then the robot said if you die now its for real. Then the room turned dark and two signs above doors one saying EXIT THE PATH and the other saying HALLOWED RAVINE. Michael then went through the door named hallowed ravine. Hallowed ravine is where Kaine is. After MIchael dies he wakes up in a place that is not his own. A person tells him that you were not human but now you are you were just part of the game playing with real people.
    • 4/5
      *Spoiler Alert!*The Eye of Minds, by James Dashner, is a very intriguing book which involves Michael (a gamer), his two friends, Sarah and Bryson, Kaine (a mysterious hacker who traps people inside the game), and the Vitrinet (the gaming system itself). The Vitrinet is Michael's whole world. Inside it, you can experience adventures that only superheroes can, or just hang out with your friends. The story opens up where Michael, for experience points that move him to the next level, is trying to talk a girl out of committing suicide so that Kaine cannot get to her her any longer. Despite his efforts, he actually makes the girl want to do it more, and she rips out her core, a chip inside her brain, that makes deaths in the Vitrinet not real. A few days later, Michael is "kidnapped" by the Vitrinet security and told that he and his two friends are to help track and capture Kaine. Michael seeks information and discovers that there is a hidden portal in the game Devils of Destruction which will lead him to the path; it is dangerous yet the only way to find Kaine. They try to enter the game but figure out that it is rated AO - Adults Only. Michael, being who he is, hacks and forces his way in… and eventually finds the portal. After the long and hard fought travel on the path, Michael is the only survivor. He tries to defeat Kaine, but Kaine reveals his power of taking the brain-dead victims and giving the bodies to tangents, computer programs which act like people. Suddenly, Michael wakes up and realizes that he is not himself. -- he was and always had been a tangent. The worst part is that Kaine is still alive and is not yet finished with his work.The Eye of Minds is a lightning-fast novel. It took me less than two days to read it. It was indeed a little too violent for my taste. Nevertheless, it was a very riveting book. It had a healthy dose of action mixed in with suspense. I suppose there will be a sequel because of the way it ended. I am now interested in reading another of the author's books, The Maze Runner.
    • 5/5
      Michael is a teenage games and hacker who likes to spend all his time in the VirtNet. The VirtNet provides total mind and body immersion without the risk of death. One gamer-Kaine-decides to take this to the next step. Kaine figures out how to take hostages and lives. The VNS (VirtNet Security) recruits Michael and his friends to find and stop Kaine. Can Michael out think the best programmer to grace the Grid?This fast-paced sci-fi thriller will have you on the edge of your seat. The characters are intense, and likable. With no purple prose (fluff scenes), every scene has a purpose in the book. With a well-developed plot that has twists that keep you guessing, this must-read novel will go down in history with Ender’s Game. Too bad you’ll have to wait until October to read it.
    • 5/5
       Michael (a gamer), his two friends, Sarah and Bryson, Kaine (a mysterious hacker who traps people inside the game), and the Virtnet (the gaming system itself). This book was just as amazing as his other series, The Maze Runner. The plot was awesome and its clear that this book took a while for the author to write and I have to say that I'm so glad that he did. Can't wait to read the next one!