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The Rule of Thoughts

(The Mortality Doctrine #2)

James Dashner (Goodreads Author)

3.98 · Rating details · 15,496 ratings · 1,202 reviews

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Maze Runner series comes The Rule of Thoughts, the exciting sequel to The Eye of Minds. Fans of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth and The Hunger Games will love the new Mortality Doctrine series.

Michael completed the Path. What he found at the end turned everything he’d ever known about his life—and the world—complete ...more

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Hardcover, 325 pages

Published August 26th 2014 by Delacorte Press

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Aug 30, 2014 Jacob rated it it was ok

Shelves: youth, science_fiction, from_library

Honestly, I don't know why I read this. And I know I'm going to read the next one, although I can't figure out why I'm going to do that either. Maybe I'm just checking to see whether Dashner's writing got any better; (spoiler) it didn't. Again, the core idea is interesting (and has been done before), but the execution is terrible. On a positive note, there isn't anything more wrong with this than the first one, The Eye of Minds, so if you loved that you'll probably love this.

So, to review: the w Honestly, I don't know why I read this. And I know I'm going to read the next one, although I can't figure out why I'm going to do that either. Maybe I'm just checking to see whether Dashner's writing got any better; (spoiler) it didn't. Again, the core idea is interesting (and has been done before), but the execution is terrible. On a positive note, there isn't anything more wrong with this than the first one, The Eye of Minds, so if you loved that you'll probably love this.

So, to review: the writing isn't very good, particularly the dialogue between the main character kids. In addition, there's even more of a difference between the kids now than there was in the first one and they are still treated interchangeably. Most insights, exclamations, and actions to drive the plot seem to come from a random member of the team so each can feel valuable, but the overall effect is that two of the three are unnecessary (pick your least favorite two). It's sad because there are differences in circumstance that the antagonist could have used to try to split the group and treat them differently, but it just doesn't happen. And the characters desperately need to have different skills or specializations so you can tell them apart, but we'll have to hope that shows up in The Game of Lives.

The programming descriptions still suck. The vocabulary is just as limited (let me double it by adding the terms "API", "interface", and "object"). They say to write what you know, and I'm feeling like that should be extended to "don't write about what you can't be bothered to learn". If you want to read about programming and living in a computer-generated world but you don't actually want to know anything about programming or virtual realities, this is just the book for you. If you would like an author to present a coherent idea about how a virtual reality might happen and how you could program for it, you'll want to look somewhere else (like in my review of The Eye of Minds). I don't think it should be that hard to write a convincing programming scene in a virtual reality: just decide what the code is actually doing when someone takes an action or interacts with a virtual object.

Instead, the author has a lot of beautiful images, scenes, and feelings he wants to express, and the virtual reality expresses them. This policy is pursued to the exclusion of plausibility (already discussed) or consistency of plot (wait, streams of bad guys and good guys just appear from two opposing black holes and start fighting, but for no reason and are promptly forgotten because the main characters just disappear from the scene?). It was also maddening that the main character thinks reality feels exactly like the virtual reality (doubtful that will happen in my lifetime), but then later it doesn't feel the same and then the issue is never brought up again, perhaps because that revision conflicts with where the author wants to take the story (people can't tell the difference). I gotta say, the movie Inception did this better.

And the pet peeve for this book: there are still those bad urgency-inducing cliches like "no time to explain, just do it!" Those don't work when the characters are about to spend 24 hours (or three days in one case) with the character who is claiming there's no time to explain. What, you can't take an hour, or even an extra 15 minutes to explain just a little bit more? When the fate of the world is at stake? When for some never-fully-justified reason you are relying on three kids to do what an entire government agency cannot? And the explanation of how the kids do it is they sift through an ocean of broken code to get a feel for where the bad guy is hiding? 'Nuff said already! ...more

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Dec 11, 2013 Michelle rated it really liked it

Give me this book RIGHT NOW. I NEED TO KNOW.

Besides the fact that i completely fangirl over the first book (i'm contemplating reading it again), you're not allowed to just end there.

Nope, sorry. Not going to happen.

Edit: The cover. *dies*
I picked the wrong book to fangirl over.
Meh. but still.
*dies again*
wow, I died a lot. ...more

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Mar 03, 2014 Lauren rated it it was amazing

I NEED THIS BOOK NOW.

EDIT: HOLY MOTHER OF FRENCH FRIES THE COVER!!!!!! *dies*

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Jan 07, 2015 LB rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, sci-fi, cerebral, ai

This review is also posted at http://readingnookandcranny.blogspot....

Oh, James Dashner, what have you gone and done here? Actually, I know exactly what you did. You sat at your desk and thought, 'Hey, what if I take The Eye of Minds and just reverse the plot? Now that Michael is known to be AI, we'll make him human instead of in the first book where he was known to be human and we made him AI. And then, since he thought he lived in the Wake when really he was in the Sleep in the Eye of Minds, n This review is also posted at http://readingnookandcranny.blogspot....

Oh, James Dashner, what have you gone and done here? Actually, I know exactly what you did. You sat at your desk and thought, 'Hey, what if I take The Eye of Minds and just reverse the plot? Now that Michael is known to be AI, we'll make him human instead of in the first book where he was known to be human and we made him AI. And then, since he thought he lived in the Wake when really he was in the Sleep in the Eye of Minds, now we'll make him think he's in the Sleep when he's really in the Wake. And then I can use the same basic plot as the first novel and just change the details around so it feels like a new story'. Suffice to say, to me this sequel feels like it is retelling almost the exact same plot as the first novel. They still spend the entire novel teamed up with VNS trying to chase after Kaine and shut him down, and Michael is still teamed up with his duo of friends.

I tried to give Dashner the benefit of the doubt and go into The Rule of Thoughts with an open mind, but this is a sequel I just couldn't stomach. Since I wasn't all that impressed with the first novel, reading pretty much the same story over again feels like an insult on my intellect. The group still spends way too much time in the Sleep, even though they admit that it makes it about 500 times easier for Kaine to track them that way. And when you reach the end of this novel, you still are completely unsatisfied that you've reached any sort of conclusion, because Dashner just throws another Hail Mary "shocker" of an ending, and once again absolutely nothing has been resolved, even though we are two novels into this series now. I say "shocker" in parenthesis as, since I basically read this novel already, I guessed the ending well before I reached it. In fact, I was kind of surprised the characters themselves couldn't get their heads out of their butts and figure it out, as Michael sees hints along the way, but just seems to ignore them.

I gave it a valiant attempt, but this is the end of the road for me and Dashner. There are so many better written, better plotted novels out there to spend my time on. Sorry Michael. ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Christopher Xia rated it really liked it

The Rule of Thoughts is an amazing follow up to The Eye of Minds book. It showed me James Dashner's imaginative thoughts and how he would picture the future based on his writing. In the book, I was able to connect with Michael having problems trusting other people because he was lied to and betrayed a countless amount of times before. Sometimes, all you need is time to gain the trust back again. Other times, the trust would be lost forever. ...more

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Apr 11, 2014 Pepsi_Cola rated it it was amazing

I NEED THIS BOOK *Looks at release date* *Sobbs* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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Sep 26, 2014 Anna Steele rated it really liked it

The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner is the thrilling sequel to his first book in this series, The Eye of Minds. Having read the first book in September 2013, I was absolutely delighted when I spotted this book on my library's "New Arrivals" shelf. James Dashner's books have never disappointed me so far, so I immediately jumped in and began to read!
The first thing I noticed was how poorly he introduced the book. He seemed to jump right in, which wouldn't be a problem if you had recently read T ...more

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Oct 11, 2014 Nana rated it really liked it

I don't even know what to say. ...more

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May 20, 2018 Siobhan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

When everyone was crazy about young adult dystopian novels, I decided to jump into James Dashner’s The Maze Runner series. If the truth is to be known, it’s my least favourite of the popular young adult dystopian trilogies. I like to think I’m a pretty nice reader, in that I give authors multiple chances before I decide they are not for me. Sometimes I’m surprised and realise it’s just a single series by the author that is not for me, other times I am shown it is the author who is not for me.

Jam ...more

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Aug 28, 2014 Lindsey rated it liked it

Rule of Thoughts was fast-paced and hard to put down. I read it in a day, which is pretty typical for me with Dashner's books.

We didn't learn much in this book. It spent more time on dealing with the final twist of the first book and setting up the next book than presenting many new discoveries. There ARE some though. Dashner knows how to give us just enough to keep us wanting more. (I want to know more! How long 'till the next book?)

My biggest problem with this book, was, ah, spoiler.
(view spo ...more

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Sep 29, 2014 Ryan S rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult

I instantly started The Rule of Thoughts after finishing The Eye of Minds. The revelations at the end of The Eye of Minds drove me crazy, wanting to understand what it was all about.
I think the first 100 pages of The Rule of Thoughts are alright. It got only worst later on. I liked how Michael tried to figure the life of Jackson out. Tried to deal with his host's girlfriend and to get in touch with Sarah again.
Talking about Sarah .. What the hell Dashner really? How long are you gonna make us w ...more

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Mar 24, 2014 jus rated it really liked it

COME ON I NEED THIS BOOK LIKE RIGHT NOW. I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT ANYMORE [VIOLENTLY CRIES]

[REAL REVIEW]
THE PLOT TWIST AT THE END THE FREAKING PLOT TWIST, dude all i want now is the game of lives. ...more

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Jul 21, 2015 Chayse Sundt rated it it was amazing

Many of you might know James Dashner by his series The Maze Runner and may not notice his other series which I started out, a little rocky, but thankfully he worked his magic and wrote a brilliant sequel in The Mortality Doctrine and it brought my interest back into the series.

We follow the main character Michael as he finds out that completing The Path was all part of Kaine’s plan. Now in a new body with a new life, Michael must find a way to defeat Kaine and decide on whether he wants to risk ...more

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May 20, 2016 ♫✯Em loves Hollenstein✯♫❤the summertime and butterflies all belong to your creation❤ rated it did not like it

Shelves: ya, love-triangle, yolo-i-guess, 2016-read, 2016-june, annoying-romance

found it very hard to enjoy this one, which sucks as the first was great. i'll read the third, just because i'm a stubborn person. tons of needless plot and wasted time. bryson is literally the only character i don't hate. ...more

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Feb 22, 2014 Julianne rated it liked it

Hmm. I'm not really sure I understand what happened at the end but then again maybe I'm not supposed to yet. ...more

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Aug 30, 2014 Drewthereader20 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I loved this book! Now I get to start on the third & final book!(:

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Oct 02, 2018 Aly rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, 2018

This was a quick, interesting read.
I love James Dashner and the first book of this series was really good so of course I enjoyed this book as well. The plot was interesting and just gets crazier as it goes. It flowed very well and there weren't boring parts. Seeing Michael navigate being a human for the first time was cool, even the idea that you can put a computer program in a body and make it a real person is crazy! I kept wondering if the people helping Michael were actually good or bad and ...more

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Dec 29, 2016 Nicole Alycia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars
I was a little confused when I started this one, it had been a while since I read the first book and I didn't quite remember the ending.
But that quickly changed and everything that happened at the end of the previous book was more or less rehashed so I was no longer confused and then the story got really good from there.
I'm not a gamer but this whole world that was created is just so cool to me. It's kinda like an inception but in video games. I also really enjoy the characters, they ...more

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Dec 11, 2014 Virginia rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, read-2014

Welp, Dashner did it again. What is with authors who break trust with their readers over and over again nowadays? Why do we bother reading if in the pursuit of "the ultimate twist," nothing we read is real or makes sense?

It is beyond annoying. Why should I bother reading and investing time and energy in books that keep pulling the rug out from under me? Of course, I have to find out what happens, so I guess he wins again. But this is only because I am a Completist. ...more

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Feb 04, 2017 Clyde rated it really liked it

can I really trust agent Weber?

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Jun 23, 2014 Ghazal Radwan rated it it was amazing

SOMEONE HAND ME THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW *CRYINNNNNNNNNNNGGG*

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Nov 20, 2016 Josiah rated it it was ok

Waiting long to start The Rule of Thoughts after finishing The Eye of Minds is hard to do in light of the mind-blowing revelation at the end of that first book of the Mortality Doctrine series. Michael, who collaborated with his hacker friends Sarah and Bryson in an effort to bring down the rogue Tangent known as Kaine, turned out to unknowingly be a Tangent like Kaine all along. Michael isn't human; he's a complex strain of computer code designed to think of itself as a teenage boy. None of th Waiting long to start The Rule of Thoughts after finishing The Eye of Minds is hard to do in light of the mind-blowing revelation at the end of that first book of the Mortality Doctrine series. Michael, who collaborated with his hacker friends Sarah and Bryson in an effort to bring down the rogue Tangent known as Kaine, turned out to unknowingly be a Tangent like Kaine all along. Michael isn't human; he's a complex strain of computer code designed to think of itself as a teenage boy. None of the life Michael knew was real, but more distressing yet is that he's been injected into the body and brain of a real teen named Jackson Porter, Jackson's consciousness ejected and possibly destroyed in an illegal experiment performed by Kaine. The master villain intends to download other Tangents via the VirtNet into the brains of young people and over time amass a large enough number of biologically enabled Tangents to assume control of the world. Stunned as he is, Michael has only minutes to adjust to his devastating new reality before he's swept back into the action. The VNS agency's plan to permanently disable Kaine's programming has changed, but Michael, Sarah, and Bryson are still the centerpiece. Michael dreads meeting his friends for the first time in real life, outside of the VirtNet. How will they react to his admission that he's a series of numbers that only thinks it's human? What if Sarah and Bryson want nothing to do with a being who is organically similar to their Tangent nemesis?

There isn't time to dwell on that as Kaine resumes fanatically pursuing the trio of teens. Their hacking powers are nowhere near Kaine's, but if anyone poses a threat to his takeover of the VirtNet, it's them, and Kaine plans on getting them to join forces with him in his quest to implant Tangents into unsuspecting gamers. The VirtNet is a perilous place for Michael and his friends with Kaine after them, but the real world holds sobering threats of its own once Michael, Sarah, and Bryson meet in real life. Sarah's parents are kidnapped, the teen who Michael is living in (Jackson Porter) is a fugitive from justice for alleged terrorist activities, and if the police manage to put them behind bars, they'll probably never be freed. The VNS is their only safe haven, but even Agent Weber is acting peculiarly, suggesting that untrustworthy components have risen to power in the VNS and not everyone in it can be trusted.

With the authorities closing in and Michael and his friends accused of a growing list of serious crimes, shutting down Kaine immediately becomes the only option. His central coding has to be stored somewhere, but locating it within the VirtNet is a tough job even for the world's three brightest hackers, and if Kaine discovers what they're doing, he'll take measures to end their existence immediately. It's a life-or-death race to rid the VirtNet of Kaine's insidious presence so that gaming can be safe again for one and all. Kaine possesses a devious mind, however, that VNS and its hackers can't keep pace with, and their best intentions may go awry under the Tangent's brilliant misdirection. Now they're in a bigger mess than ever, but there's still time for one last strategic offensive against the seemingly omnipotent Kaine. How will the great virtual war end in the final Mortality Doctrine book, The Game of Lives?

When Michael's true nature as a Tangent was revealed at the end of The Eye of Minds, his feelings came through so strongly that I felt sick to my stomach. How do you deal with the fact that your entire life as you perceive it is a fraud, and you can never become what you believed you were? How do you come to terms with being less than human, despite feeling as human as you imagine it's possible to feel? The disquietude of pondering what that would be like is profound, and spills over into The Rule of Thoughts in Michael's anxiety over coming clean to Sarah and Bryson about his identity. They've been best friends on the VirtNet for years, but how will they react to hearing that Michael is subhuman? How would he react in their position? But Sarah and Bryson allay his fears, coming through each in their own way. "I'm not even real. I'm a computer program. How can you say that a string of code is your best friend?" Michael asks Sarah. "Because I can," she responds. "I don't understand what's happening. All I know is you are you...We are our thoughts and memories and personalities. I'm Sarah and you're Michael." That's what he needs to hear at this troubling time, when he's doubting the legitimacy of his own existence. Bryson concurs with Sarah's opinion. "You're sitting right in front of us...Who's to say we're not all computer programs, layers upon layers upon layers? Or in a dream? Maybe I'm an ugly old hag in Iceland daydreaming while she drools into her oatmeal...I don't give a crap if you're a Tangent or a really smart llama. You're my friend and that's all that matters." Bryson's somewhat tongue-in-cheek take on Michael's essence as a Tangent foreshadows the deep, cold oceans of absolute uncertainty we plunge beneath as the nature of reality is brought more and more into question in this story. Game design has become so advanced that it's impossible to know for certain what's real, or if our concept of "real" even makes sense in an existence that's infinitely more complex and multilayered than we could ever recognize. An ominous stranger who visits when Michael is languishing in a jail cell asks him to mull these unanswerable questions of consciousness. "When mankind can create a world that is so like our own...then how can we possibly ever know what's real and what's not real again? I could Lift you right now, pull you out of a NerveBox, and then you'd say, 'Ah! I'm back in the real world!' And then I could Lift you again, and you'd be surprised, but feel for certain that this time you're in...the Wake...I could Lift you a hundred times. A thousand. How, Michael, could you ever know again that you are truly, truly in the real world? For that matter, who's to say there even is a real world?...Think on that...Think about whether someone is evil because they want to bring immortality to humankind. Think on all these things and more." Is Kaine a depraved entity that must be stopped, or the gateway to eternal life for humanity? Is the goal of Michael, Sarah, and Bryson's mission right or wrong? Does Michael exist as a Tangent, a human, or something else, and is there any difference between those forms? The Game of Lives promises to delve into these eerie questions further, and I wouldn't miss it.

James Dashner's marvelous storytelling is more a product of artfully built tension than beautiful writing, but he's capable of turning a smart phrase. I like Agent Weber's description of the VNS bigwigs, who aren't prone to acting without much careful consideration first: "These people will think their way around an ice cream cone before ever giving it a lick." I do believe I'm going to start saying that. The Rule of Thoughts isn't nearly as emotionally intense as The Eye of Minds, but it's engaging for the middle book of a trilogy, and I'd give it two and a half stars. I'm excited to see how James Dashner closes the series out. I'm confident The Game of Lives will be an awesome conclusion, and I hope you'll be there for it, too. ...more

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Oct 31, 2020 Shannon O'Flynn rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: people who like maze runner or hunger games

Shelves: read-it-and-eat-it

I loved this book just like the 1st on in this series! It is so jam packed with action as they are battling through a video game (and even in the real world). I really enjoyed the end of this which included a major plot twist I could've never thought of.

I love this series so much and cant wait to continue it :) ...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Logan Chaput rated it really liked it

Really good book. lots of things cleared up from the first book and near the end making whole new mystery. great story in general.

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Dec 09, 2020 StormBlessed Fox rated it liked it

Shelves: 3-stars, ya, 2020

3 star out of 5

Not as good as the first one,started good but went downhill from there for me,specially the ending didint worked for me at all in contrast to the endinf of the first book.

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Jul 14, 2016 Daniel rated it liked it

Oh NOOOO, it's happening again.

Once again, after falling in love with the first installment of a James Dashner series, the sequel has me very worried about where the last book is ultimately going to go. It's safe to say I was grossly underwhelmed by The Death Cure, so the outlook for The Game of Lives is admittedly pretty bleak. You get this sense that Dashner comes up with all of these brilliant ideas, but when it comes time to develop these ideas into multiple-book series, he loses his way a l Oh NOOOO, it's happening again.

Once again, after falling in love with the first installment of a James Dashner series, the sequel has me very worried about where the last book is ultimately going to go. It's safe to say I was grossly underwhelmed by The Death Cure, so the outlook for The Game of Lives is admittedly pretty bleak. You get this sense that Dashner comes up with all of these brilliant ideas, but when it comes time to develop these ideas into multiple-book series, he loses his way a little. It's really a shame.

The Rule of Thoughts was not by all means a terrible book. Once again, like all Dashner books, the pace was very fast and there was rarely a dull moment in the story. That being said, I thought it lacked a little bit of suspense and thrill that The Eye of Minds was so good at conveying. I attribute this mostly due to the fact that this book caught a nasty case of MBS- Middle Book Syndrome. The first two thirds of the book consisted of our main characters wandering around the real and virtual worlds aimlessly, not really sure what they were supposed to do or where they were supposed to go. The plot lacked structure and clarity, and for those reasons, I couldn't get emotionally invested in the story.

I also found the climax and conclusion to The Rule of Thoughts severely lacking. After spending most of the book not having a clue what was going on, I expected some answers. I get that Dashner wanted to leave readers hanging to make the last book more appealing, but there were no answers at all. Instead, all we got were ominous visits from people we'd never met before who shared even more cryptic, confusing statements before walking away. I'm starting to get more than a little bit annoyed at the incredible inability of every single character in this book to give us some goddamn clarity every time they open their mouths.

I think the characters were just as bland as they were in book 1. The cheesy and lame dialogue was ever-present, which again made me wonder if the dialogue was that bad in the Maze Runner series, Bryson and Sarah remained largely uninteresting, formulaic sidekicks, and I don't really think anyone grew as characters as the novel progressed.

So in essence, The Rule of Thoughts is very similar to its predecessor- it has excellent pace, but weak character development and an increasingly frustrating inability to provide any answers to pressing questions. The only difference is that in the sequel, the storyline felt choppy and aimless, like Dashner didn't really know where to take the second book. Based on the conclusion of the book as well as my previous experiences with Dashner books, I don't expect too much from The Game of Lives. However, I've been wrong many times before, and I'm hoping Dashner pulls a rabbit out of his hat and delivers a stunning finale to this once-promising series. ...more

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Oct 10, 2016 BRANDON SCHEER rated it it was ok

PERSONAL RESPONSE:
This book is very hard to follow along with because it is fiction and does not make any sense to real life. There are programs that are made into real people with a heart and a brain. They go into a Coffin and that takes them to the Sleep, which is a digital world that they can do anything in like play games, hang out, and work. It is in the future because everyone has technology built into them like holograms and phones. I did not like this book as much as I thought I would ha PERSONAL RESPONSE:
This book is very hard to follow along with because it is fiction and does not make any sense to real life. There are programs that are made into real people with a heart and a brain. They go into a Coffin and that takes them to the Sleep, which is a digital world that they can do anything in like play games, hang out, and work. It is in the future because everyone has technology built into them like holograms and phones. I did not like this book as much as I thought I would have because of the confusing, unrealistic parts.

PLOT:
The plot of this book is there are three friends who all met through the Sleep. They have been extremely close for several years. They have a general idea of where each other live, but they have never met each other in real life. Mike is not even a real person. He is just a program that is in the sleep. He is a very long and advanced binary code. He can still think and make his own decisions though so he is thought of as a human by his friends. He is very smart with using binary code to change things and knows how things work, but Kaine is even more knowledgeable and even more powerful. Kaine figured out how to get Mike, who at this time is just a string of codes, to go inside a human and come to life. Now Mike has a brain and a heart and everything a normal human has. He is in trouble with Kaine though because he ran away and Kaine is mad at him. Kaine wants to make everyone immortal, but he is not doing it for the right reason and this could be a very bad thing.

CHARACTERIZATION:
Michael is the main character in this book. He is only a set of binary codes in a programmed world, but a more intelligent program named Kaine. Kaine is an interesting character even though the author only talks about him a small handful of times. He is a program just like michael, yet has an enormous impact on the Sleep and on the real world. He is extremely smart which doesn’t make sense, because he does not have a brain. Sarah is the third and final main character. She is very nice, but can be stubborn and does hold back from what she has to say.

SETTING:
This book takes place very far into the future, but there is no set dates.It is key to the story that it is in the future because the people have technology like radios and halograms built into them. It also does not take place in a certain spot in the world, but they do move around a lot. This is a key part because they are always on the run from Kaine. The setting could also be considered to be in the Sleep and in the Wake.

RECOMMENDATION:
I would recommend this book to upperclassmen because the book is difficult to follow. It has a broad vocabulary. I also feel males would be more interested in this book than females, because the main characters and narrator are males.
...more

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Sep 08, 2014 Jennifer rated it it was ok

I guess the more I read of James Dashner, the less I like his forumlaic books. At first glance, the premises are interesting but beyond that, I find myself rolling my eyes a lot. First of all, he has these corny throw in lines (in the middle of an intense scene "let's skedaddle" says a lead character, REALLY?) I find his representation of female characters to ring less than true and often a little ridiculous. He creates a whole other worldly language without much explanation leaving the reader t ...more

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Nov 10, 2015 Rose rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This was an average middle book in a trilogy. We had the big reveal about one of the characters at the end of book 1. Book 3 will be the very exciting conclusion. Book 2 is rarely as good as either and TROT lives up to the formula.

Michael, Sarah and Byron are on the hunt for Kaine again, although this time Michael is now living in the body of Jackson Porter (Pinnochio became a real boy). This portion of the story is based more in the real world than the virtual world so it was a little less fun ...more

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May 04, 2014 Age Yglesias marked it as to-read

Shelves: books-i-have

I NEED THIS BOOK I LOVED IT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!!!
WHY JAMES DASHNER, WHY?!?! THAT ENDING! :,( I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO COME OUT!! ...more

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About James Dashner

James Dashner

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James is the author of THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy and THE 13TH REALITY series. He also published a series (beginning with A DOOR IN THE WOODS) with a small publisher several years ago. He lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains.