The Coffin opens, the LiquiGels and Air Puffs have receded as the blue light comes into focus and Michael prepares himself to leave the world of the Nerve Box and return to reality. He's just spent time in the virtual world, the Sleep, separate from the reality of the human world known as the Wake.
In the Sleep Michael and everyone else can live through virtual video games experienced as real world with real people. This time Michael hoped to break through to a new level of Lifeblood... to earn some experience points and move on to levels few gamers ever see.
But this girl, Tanya, this girl who is hanging precariously balanced from the Golden Gate Bridge is putting all of Michael's plans in jeopardy. She's talking nonsense about a gamer named Kaine who is after her and who has killed others in the VirtNet. Tanya has decided she has had enough and she is ripping the Core out of her head, scraping away the skin and hacking the code.
Michael watches in horror as she destroys the Core, the device that enables everyone to move back and forth between the two worlds. She's talking nonsense, isn't she?
Back in the real world, Michael's world shifts him to a new level of danger and fear ...not a game any more. Who are these people who have kidnapped him? What do they need from him? What can he do that others cannot do for them?
Gripping, suspenseful and mindblowing action make this a real pageturner. Suddenly Michael is thrown into a fight for his life battling in the supertechology that is being manipulated by some who seek ultimate power and thrill with the potential to kill at will.
For those who love to be challenged by the possibilities of the darkest potential of technology in our future this will be a visceral experience. Tense, demanding and mindbending action await. Could you survive? Could you stand up to the challenge?
323 pages 9780385741392 Ages 13 and up
Good read-alike for Cory Doctorow books and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Sequels: Rule of Thoughts; Game of Lives
Recommended by: Barb
