The Mortality Doctrine: The Rule of Thoughts Cover Reveal

If you've been following my blog from the beginning, then you should know that one of my favourite books is The Eye of Minds by James Dashner (also know for the Maze Runner, which currently is being made into a film. Trailer here). The second book in The Mortality Doctrine finally has a cover!

I do rather like this cover. It doesn't give away too much about what may or may not happen in this book, but it is rather interesting. The contrast between the warm and cool colours do well to juxtapose the difference between the digital world and the real one (though in this series, the difference between the two is a blurred line). The art itself is brilliant, credit going to Stephanie Moss (At least, I think so. She did the cover for the first book). I can't wait until this book is released!

What's your opinion on the cover? What are you looking forward to most in this book?

THE MAZE RUNNER TRAILER

Finally, after the movie being pushed back months, we have gotten our trailer!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner is the first book in self-titled trilogy. I highly recommend all you cranks to go read it as soon as possible. From what I can tell from this trailer, the movie is going to be highly accurate to the book - an absolute first for a YA book-to-film adaptation in a long while (not naming any names but, erm, *cough* Percy Jackson *cough*). Not to mention the insanely hot Dylan O'Brian, who plays as Stiles in the MTV show Teen Wolf, has the lead role of Thomas. I honestly cannot wait for this film to come out!

The Maze Runner will be released in cinemas in the US on 19th September.

Happy 2014! Overview of 2013

Happy 2014 everyone! Last year was a huge one for literature, with countless series both starting and ending (autumn was extremely busy with so many books coming out – some of which I still have yet to read). You had the Divergent series coming to a close with Allegiant, James Dashner’s new book The Eye of Minds - the first in the Mortality Doctrine series, Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Princess, The Alex Rider prequel Russian Roulette, the US release of Oblivion - the final book in Anthony Horowitz's Gatekeepers... So many books in such a short time! Not to mention all the books that got turned into movies.

Of course, with so many books coming out, you did have the good and the bad and the controversial. The much anticipated Allegiant was one of the greatest flops of the year. Poorly written, it left more than just a few fans unhappy with it. On the other hand, there was Light, the final Gone novel written by Michael Grant and Clockwork Princess, both of which have received overall high reviews.

            One of the biggest biggies of the year was definitely The House of Hades, written by Rick Riordan. He took a huge risk with *mini spoiler* making Nico gay (if you didn’t know that already, you probably haven’t used Tumblr since before October). There was a lot of controversy over that, with many parents upset with the fact that he chose to make that decision. Then again, the book series was about Greek mythology and if someone can’t stand non-heterosexual relationships, they should probably avoid that area in general.

And then there were the movies! I lost count of how many adaptations I had seen. There was The Great Gatsby, directed by Baz Luhrmann, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones directed by Harald Zwart... Let’s not forget The Sea of Monsters, which Thor Freudenthal (hehe... Thor...) directed and ended up with very mixed reviews (hey, I give him credit for working with the mess of a film the first one was and managing to do a fairly decent job). There was also Catching Fire, directed by Francis Lawrence, which was possibly the most successful book-to-film adaption that I ever seen in my entire life. And that was just a few of them.

2014 is going to be a huge year. We have the film Divergent coming out, directed by Neil Burger, first of all. The casting may be a bit iffy, but I have a feeling that it’ll be a pretty decent film. There’s also going to be The Fault in out Stars, directed by Josh Boone, so prepare your tissue stash when you go to the cinema.

And as for actual books, by the gods there will be a lot. We’ll be having the second book in The Mortality Doctrine; The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner, which is supposed to be released in the autumn. The Mortal Instruments will have its conclusion with City of Heavenly Fire, which is planned to be released on 27 May – but don’t worry. Cassandra Clare is planning on writing yet another series in the Shadowhunter Chronicles; The Dark Artifices (The first book is planned to be titled Lady Midnight). Let’s not forget about The Blood of Olympus, the final book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan.

            Finally, there is no way we can forget about the film based around Newt Scamander who had written Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to the Harry Potter universe – with a screenplay written by the brilliant J.K. Rowling. There are also rumours that she may be writing more books based around the HP universe, so keep your eyes peeled for more news about that.

            2013 has been a giant year full of new releases, and I expect nothing less from 2014. Have a happy new year, and don’t forget to keep reading!

The Eye of Minds Review

After waiting weeks, I finally managed to get James Dashner’s new book. I was really excited to get it. I enjoyed The Maze Runner and I was hoping that this book would be just as good.

It was better.

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner is the first book in the new series The Mortality Doctrine. The second book is planned to be released in autumn of next year (Pulling a Rick Riordan, are you Mr. Dashner?). The book takes place in a sort-of futuristic setting where people are spending more time in the virtual work, VirtNet, instead of the real world. It’s one of those books that takes place mostly in a digital world where there is somebody hacking the system of harming people. I have seen this before, at least twice (though I can’t remember the first time I saw this per say), the second being in the Pendragon book The Reality Bug). But even though I have seen this type of setting, this book felt different to read.

Well, the book started off fairly regular. Somebody spending time in the VirtNet, except something weird happens. It’s the type of formula that has been seen before multiple times in multiple books. The book seemed fairly average until about halfway through, when things started to get good. I can’t say what happened because of spoilers, but things got dark and crazy and the book ended with a twist that had me wishing autumn 2014 would come a lot sooner.

Honestly, I just need to talk about the setting of this book. I feel like that is a huge part about what made this book what it was. It was brilliantly done, what with the line between what was fiction and reality. That line being a very, very thin line at times. The way that Dashner talked about the VirtNet made it feel like it could almost be real – like I could go to the corner of the room and there would be my “coffin” (a sort of container-type thing where a person laid while they accessed the VirtNet) waiting for me. And while sometimes the virtual world felt realistic, other times it was written to be very clearly digital. It was brilliantly done, and the book itself kept you, as the reader, guessing as to what was going on.

It wasn't very difficult book to read. Between books that I've been reading for school and some books I've been reading for fun that were a little more on the complex side, this book was an enormous relief for my mind. No, the plot was not obvious nor was it not complex, but there were no crazy symbolisms and there was no fancy language that was akin to Shakespeare. I managed to finish in only a few hours, which is something I haven’t been able to do with a book for a long while. And it was interesting enough to keep my undivided attention for said hours.

Overall, I’d give this book a four out of five. It was very well written, very interesting, and overall just a good read. I’d recommend this book to people who want a break from extreme fantasy or crazy sci-fi. This book is a bit of a cross between those genres, while keeping a very realistic element to it. Like I mentioned before, it isn't a very difficult book to read, but I wouldn't recommend giving it to someone under the age of 12. There are some dark elements that had even me slinking under my blankets once I turned out the lights.