The Rule of Thoughts

James Dashner is just such an amazing author, every book I read I feel connected to the characters, to the story, to everything. He has the ability to do that with his words. That's why I chose to start reading his new book called "The Rule of Thoughts" which is the sequel to "The Eye of Minds" both of these books take place far in the future where lives are ruled by the VirtNet, a virtual reality, where you the player, literally live the game. You meet Michael the main character and you see him as he goes on his journey, he is a master hacker and coder for the VirtNet, altering the games in his favor and making it easier for him and his friends, Bryon and Sarah, which remind you. He has never met either of them in the real world. Strange things start beginning to happen in the VirtNet, people committing rouge suicide and Michael notices the people who commit the bad decision have had their code altered by someone by the name of Kaine. You then begin to learn that Kaine will be the bad guy in the series. Michael and his friends then must go on and use their skills to try and stop his plans from controlling everyone. At the end of the book Michael learns something very shocking after facing off with Kaine and his minions and Sarah disappears and Bryon falls into a pit of lava placed there by Kaine.

Then Eye of Minds comes to a halt and I had to wait a WHOLE 10 months before this book came out. Michael then is awoken after being in the VirtNet for so long after his face-off with Kaine and he has no recollection of how he got to where he is. He has somehow taken over a body by the name of Jackson Porter and he learned from Kaine that he is tangent...which is a computer program. That sends Michael into a somewhat short-depression because how can be living if you weren't a living being. After this is over, he codes himself a new identity and sets out to find Sarah...in the real world.
This book has so many twists and turns, its absolutely incredible, Michael is such a captivating character with his actions that you think he is predictable at one point because he is a computer program but now that he is human he is both predictable and unpredictable. With this book always will be wondering what will come next.

Rule of Thoughts

        I liked this article because it does a very good job of describing what is going on and why everything seems different to Michael. I also felt it was a nice addition to my writing above. Enjoy, I would suggest this book to anyone who liked the Maze Runner!

Would you like to live in this world with the VirtNet? (not necessarily saying you're Michael but would you like this available in your life?)

Unbroken

-(Louis Zamperini)

Today i will be doing another post on the amazing book called Unbroken. The book has taken so many turns and at some points i had to rethink what i just read because its such an involved book with the reader and you just don't want to put it down. Louis has had some twists and turns. You get to learn about how they lived their lives back then and how crazy it was. Louis has a rough life ever since his plane crashed down in the Pacific, he has miraculously survived, while his buddy Mac...wasn't so lucky. During his journey they are constantly being attacked by sharks...food shortages, and they also encounter a Japanese plane that shoots one of their rafts and all 3 grown men are stuck inside a tiny little WII raft. After all this madness...there is more to come, he is found on his Life Raft with Phil and they are taken into Japanese custody and taken to many POW camps.



Louis then meets his match, he is taken to a POW camp where the "Warden" is nicknamed The Bird and this man is just out to burn Louis to the ground. He constantly beats Louis everyday, tells the guards to forget about giving Louis his food. the odds just aren't in Louis favor.The Bird then learns that Louis was an Olympic runner and it just so happens that The Bird likes the Olympics. So what Bird does is arranges for Louis to race against a well known Japanese runner.You have to remember Louis has lost a significant amount of weight and has not done anything physically active since before the Plane crash. To Louis surprise...and mine, he run like the wind and he says because he weighs less he can easily glide even thought he wasn't in shape, he ends up beating the Japanese guy and that infuriates Bird. He has one of his men go and beat Louis with a club until he can't walk.
The bird gets much more harsh and people just look the other way. The Bird then gets transferred to another POW camp and Louis so grateful but then Louis is told he is going to be transferred to a much nicer camp...yet it ends up that he is just transferred to the Birds new camp.

Unbroken Article

     I found my article to be very interesting because it first talks about how Louis still has a positive outlook on life as he is nearing an old age. I was also not aware that Unbroken was based off of another book called "Seabiscuit" I did not know that and it would be interesting to read both of them farely close to each other and see their similarities and differences.

Maze Runner

I didn't recently read this book but the other day I was thinking about the books I have read and this one just kinda stuck out in my mind as such a great book. The main reason is because I love dystopian novels and the plot in the books keeps the reader on the edge of their seat and not knowing what to expect next. I think the setting and characters are the biggest supporters to the plot. The Glade is just such a fascinating place like who put them there, why are they there?
The Glade is also like a mini-ecosystem they survive there and thrive based on the cards they are dealt and they make the most of it.

Next, the characters are huge contributes because they are divided up into classes kind of like we are today and they each play their role in their society. Also while they are fighting for their lives within the Maze and within the Glade. They also have Person to Person conflicts where somebody isn't happy with another person so they act as a vigilante and take matters into their own hands which can lead to even more troubling matters withing the group. Sometimes it appears as the group is getting  to their breaking point. The book also starts out with Thomas, the main character being woken up as he is riding up an elevator shaft and he has no recollection of who and where he is. Then the next week the first girl is sent up in the elevator shaft and she screams "THOMAS" really loudly and by that point he knows his name but not hers. Then after the girl yells that she falls into a coma for the next few weeks. At that point in the book i was so confused but i just wanted to keep reading and not put it down. I read all 4 books of the Maze Runner series. Maze Runner-Scorch Trials-Death Order and then the prequel to all the books-The Kill Order in about a week while i was on vacation on a houseboat. Since there was no wifi I had lots of time to read and  I instantly fell in love with this book series because it was just such a page-turner.

Maze Runner Article

                          I found this article very interesting because it is an interview with James Dashner, the author of the Maze Runner and entertainment weekly and they were interviewing him about the relation between the book and the Movie produced by Wes Ball. To my surprise, most movies aren't much like the book at all, but to my understanding James Dashner is saying it is alot like the book and how close it is to how he wrote it and imagined it.

Maze Runner is soon to be a major motion picture and I can't wait to see it!

Unbroken

Unbroken has few characters but Laura Hillenbrand does an amazing job of letting you know so much about these characters. The main character Louie Zamperini is a thief as a young age, always manipulating people to get what he wants. He was always that kid that could take another punch and get right back up and take another one. For a few years he goes about his life living like that, his parents knew that he was a trouble maker but their best to try to fix him was not enough. Until his brother stepped in, because in the end his brother was the only one that truly cared enough to fix his brother. To fix his brother, they started running together, since Louie was a thief he was good at running and getting away from people. When Pete, Louie's brother, first saw Louie run, he knew that Louie had the ability to be great. Pete was a runner, he got a scholarship to USC for track. Louie started running every single day and eventually he broke many records and got his record down to a stunning 4.08.11 seconds which stunned me. (At that pace, that is basically 1.2 seconds around the Mason Track field and I've done track in the past and that is basically a full sprint around the track all 4 laps going all out). Louie meets many great people along his running journey and then he joins the Army. The book then goes through all of his World War II stories as a gunner and what is was like to be in a B-24 and how many of his friends were killed and it is truly an amazing book and has impacted me in many ways. Then at where i'm at in the book, his plane crashes. I'll leave it to your imagination to think about what happens after that.

Unbroken Article

               This article describes how the man behind the legend unfortunately passed away last summer on July 2. Everyone who was around this man learned truly what it meant to be strong. It made them realize their problems are minuscule compared to what he lived through.

Unbroken is soon to be a major motion picture so check out the trailer below!