YA Weekend: The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

Series: Book 1 of The Mortality Doctrine

Publisher: Delacorte (October 8, 2013) 

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

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 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. The VirtNet system is very well described, especially with 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 friends’ 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 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 will pick up the sequel which is slated for a summer 2014 release. I very well may end up checking out The Maze Runner before I get a chance to read book two of this series.