{"product_id":"minecraft-the-island-isbn-9780399181771","title":"Minecraft: The Island","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER • The first official Minecraft novel! The author of \u003ci\u003eWorld War Z \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of a hero—stranded in the world of Minecraft—who must unravel the secrets of a mysterious island in order to survive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A rollicking adventure yarn; \u003ci\u003eRobinson Crusoe \u003c\/i\u003efor the digital age.”—NPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWashed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. \u003ci\u003eWhere am I? \u003c\/i\u003eWho\u003ci\u003e am I? And why is everything made of blocks?\u003c\/i\u003e But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe top priority is finding food. The next is not \u003ci\u003ebecoming\u003c\/i\u003e food. Because there are others out there on the island . . .  like the horde of zombies that appears after nightfall. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCollect all of the official Minecraft books:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: The Island\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: The Crash\u003cbr\u003eMinecraft: The Lost Journals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: The Survivors’ Book of Secrets\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Exploded Builds: Medieval Fortress\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to Exploration\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to Creative\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to the Nether \u0026amp; the End\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to Redstone\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Mobestiary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to Enchantments \u0026amp; Potions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to PVP Minigames\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Guide to Farming\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft: Let’s Build! Theme Park Adventure\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinecraft for Beginners\u003c\/i\u003e“A rollicking adventure yarn; \u003ci\u003eRobinson Crusoe \u003c\/i\u003efor the digital age.”\u003cb\u003e—NPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMax Brooks \u003c\/b\u003eis an author, public speaker, and nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point. His bestselling books include \u003ci\u003eThe Zombie Survival Guide \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e World War Z,\u003c\/i\u003e which was adapted into a 2013 movie starring Brad Pitt. His graphic novels include \u003ci\u003eThe Extinction Parade, G.I. Joe: Hearts \u0026amp; Minds, \u003c\/i\u003eand the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Harlem Hellfighters\u003c\/i\u003e.CHAPTER 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNEVER GIVE UP\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrowning!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI woke up underwater, deep underwater, and this was my first conscious thought. Cold. Dark. Where was the surface? I kicked in all directions, trying to find my way up. I twisted and turned, and then I saw it: a light. Dim, pale, and far away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInstinctively I shot for it, and quickly noticed that the water around me was growing brighter. That had to be the surface, the sun.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut how could the sun be . . . ​square? I must be seeing things. Maybe some trick of the water.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWho cares! How much air do I have left? Just get to it. Swim!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy lungs ballooned, little bubbles escaping from my lips, racing me for the distant light. I kicked and clawed the water like a caged animal. Now I could see it, a ceiling of ripples coming closer with each desperate stroke. Closer, but still so far away. My body ached, my lungs burned.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSwim! SWIM!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCrack!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy body writhed as a sudden jolt of pain shot from toes to eyes. My mouth opened in a choked scream. I reached for the glow, grabbing for breath, for life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI exploded into the cool, clean air.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI coughed. I choked. I wheezed. I laughed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBreathing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a moment, I just savored the experience, closing my eyes and letting the sun warm my face. But when I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe them. The sun was square! I blinked hard. The clouds, too? Instead of round puffy cotton balls, these thin, rectangular objects floated lazily above me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou’re still seeing things, I thought. You hit your head when you fell off the boat and now you’re a little dazed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut did I fall off a boat? I couldn’t remember. I couldn’t remember anything, in fact; how I got here, or even where “here” was.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Help me!” I shouted, scanning the horizon for a ship or a plane or even a speck of land. “Please, somebody! Anybody! HELP!” All I got was silence. All I could see was water and sky.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlmost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSomething splashed inches from my face, a flash of tentacles and a thick, black and grayish head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI yelped, kicking backward. It looked like a squid, but square like everything else in this strange place. The tentacles turned to me, opening wide. I gazed right into a yawning red mouth ringed with white razor teeth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Get outta here!” I hollered. Mouth dry, heart pounding, I splashed clumsily away from the creature. I didn’t have to. At that moment, the tentacles closed, blasting the squid in the other direction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI floated there, frozen, treading water for a few seconds, until the animal disappeared into the deep. That’s when I let out a long, throaty, tension-­draining “ughhh.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI took another deep breath, then another, then a whole lot more. Finally, my heart settled down, my limbs stopped jerking, and, for the first time since I woke up, my brain switched on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Okay,” I said aloud. “You’re way out in a lake or ocean or whatever. No one’s coming to save you, and you can’t tread water forever.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI did a slow, 360-­degree turn, hoping to see some thread of coastline I’d missed before. Nothing. In desperation I tried one last scan of the sky. No planes, not even a thin white trail. What sky doesn’t have those trails? One with a square sun and rectangle clouds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe clouds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI noticed they were all moving steadily in one direction, away from the rising sun. Due west.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As good as anywhere,” I said, giving another deep sigh, and started swimming slowly west.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt wasn’t much to go on, but I figured the wind might help me along a little bit, or at least wouldn’t slow me down. And if I went north or south, the breeze might slowly blow me in an arc so I’d end up swimming in circles. I didn’t know if that was really true. I still don’t. I mean, c’mon, I’d just woken up, probably with some kind of massive head injury, at the bottom of an ocean, and was trying really, really hard not to end up back there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust keep going, I told myself. Focus on what’s ahead. I began to notice how weird my “swimming” was; not the stroke, pause, stroke motion, but the sense of gliding across the water with my limbs along for the ride.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHead injury, I thought, trying not to imagine how serious that injury might be.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne good thing, I noticed, was that I didn’t seem to be getting tired. Isn’t swimming supposed to be exhausting? Don’t your muscles burn and quit after a while? Adrenaline, I thought, and tried not to imagine that emergency gas tank running out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut it would. Sooner or later, I’d lose steam, cramp up, go from swimming to treading water, then from treading water to floating. Of course, I’d try to rest, bobbing up and down to conserve energy, but how long could I keep that up? How long before the cold of the water finally got to me? How long before, teeth chattering, body shivering, I finally sank back down into the darkness?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Not yet!” I blurted out. “I’m not giving up yet!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShouting out loud was enough to perk me up. “Keep focused! Keep going!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I did. I kept swimming with all my might. I also tried to be über-­aware of my surroundings. Hopefully I would spot the mast of a ship or the shadow of a helicopter, but at the very least, it would take my mind off my current predicament!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI noticed that the water was calm, and this gave me something to feel good about. No waves meant no resistance, which meant I could swim farther, right? I also noticed that the water was fresh, not salty, which meant that I had to be in a lake instead of an ocean, and lakes are smaller than oceans. Okay, a big lake is just as dangerous as an ocean, but c’mon, you got a problem with me trying to look on the bright side?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI also noticed that I could see the bottom. It was deep—­don’t get me wrong, you could sink a pretty decent office building and never see the top—­but it wasn’t bottomless like the ocean is supposed to be. I could also see it wasn’t level. There were tons of little valleys and hills.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat was when, off to my right, I noticed that one of the hills had grown so tall that its top disappeared beyond the horizon. Did it break the surface? I turned north, northwest, I guess, and swam in a straight line for the hill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd before I knew it, the hill grew into an underwater mountain. And a few seconds later, I actually thought I saw its top sprout above the water.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat’s gotta be land, I thought, trying not to get my hopes up. It could be a mirage though, a trick of the light or some mist or . . . ​\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat’s when I saw the tree. At least I thought it was a tree, because, from that distance, all I could make out was a dark green angular mass perched atop a dark brown line.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcitement propelled me like a torpedo. Eyes locked forward, I soon saw other trees dotting a tan beach. And then, suddenly, the green-­brown slope of a hill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Land!” I shouted. “LAAAND!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’d made it! Warm, firm, solid ground! A few strokes and I’d be there. A wave of total relief washed over me . . . ​and just like a real wave it washed right back out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI barely had a second to celebrate before the island came into full view. By the time I reached the shore, I was just as confused as the moment I’d woken up.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe island was square. Or, rather, it was made of squares. Everything: sand, dirt, rocks, even those things I first thought were trees. Everything was a combination of cubes. “Okay,” I said, refusing to believe what I was seeing. “Just need a minute is all, just a minute.” Standing in waist-­high water, breathing, blinking, I waited for my eyes to clear. I was sure that any minute, all those harsh right angles would return to soft, curvy normalness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey didn’t.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Gotta be that head wound,” I said, wading ashore. “No problem. Just make sure you’re not bleeding too bad and—­”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInstinctively, my hand went up to find the supposed injury, and as it came up in front of my face, I gasped.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Wha . . . ?” There was a fleshy cube at the end of my rectangular arm, a cube that wouldn’t open no matter how hard I tried. “Where’s my hand!?” I shouted, my voice rising in panic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHead swimming, throat closing, I looked nervously down at the rest of me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrick-­shaped feet, rectangular legs, a shoebox-­shaped torso, all covered in painted-­on clothes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What’s wrong with me!?” I hollered to the empty beach.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This isn’t real!” I screamed, running back and forth, trying to tear the painted clothes off my body.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHyperventilating, I rushed back to the water, desperate for the calming reflection of my face. Nothing greeted me. “Where am I?” I shouted to the shimmering sea. “What is this place?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI thought of the water, of how I’d woken up . . . ​but had I?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a dream!” I said, relief breaking into my panicked voice, reaching for the only thing I could think of. “Of course!” And for a second I almost pulled myself together. “Just a crazy dream, and soon you’ll wake up and . . .”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd what? I tried to imagine waking up in my home, in my life, but it was all gone. I could remember the world, the real world of soft, round shapes, of people and houses and cars and lives. I just couldn’t remember me in it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy vision narrowed as an invisible fist closed around my lungs. “Who am I?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTension pulsed up through the veins in my neck. I could feel the skin on my face, the roots of my teeth. Dizzy, nauseous, I staggered back against the base of the hill. What was my name? What did I look like? Was I old? Was I young?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLooking down at my boxy body, I couldn’t determine anything. Was I a man or a woman? Was I even human?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What am I?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe thread snapped. My mind collapsed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere? Who? What? And now the final question.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Why!?” I screeched up at the bright square sun. “Why can’t I remember? Why am I different? Why am I here? Why is all of this happening to me? WHYYY!?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll I got back was silence. No birds, no waves, not even the rustle of wind through those angular excuses for trees. Nothing but pure, punishing silence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then . . . ​\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrrrp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sound was so small I wasn’t sure I’d heard it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrrrp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI definitely heard it that time, and felt it, too. It was coming from inside me. My tummy was rumbling.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’m hungry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat was all I needed to break my downward spiral. Something to do, something simple and clear to focus on, and next to breathing, there’s nothing clearer or simpler than eating.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrrrp, growled my stomach, as if to say, “I’m waiting.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI shook my head violently, trying to get the blood back in my cheeks, and looked down at my body to see if I had anything to eat. I’d been so shocked the first time I’d seen myself that I might have missed something earlier. Maybe I had a waterproof phone in my pocket, or even a wallet with my ID.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI didn’t have either, or even pockets. But what I did find was a thin belt, painted the same color as my pants—­another reason I’d missed it the first time—­with four flat pouches on either side. Each pouch was empty, but while going through them, I suddenly realized I could feel the slight pressure of something resting gently on my back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI call it a “backpack” but it didn’t have any straps or hooks or anything that should have held it in place. It was just stuck there, and like the belt and my painted-­on clothes, I couldn’t take it off. All I could do was reach back and swing it to the front.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Crazy dream,” I said, coming back to the only mental crutch I had. The pack’s inside was lined with twenty-­seven small pouches, just like those on the belt, and also totally empty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo much for taking inventory, I thought, as the feeling of hunger grew constant. That meant foraging for food. I looked around for something, anything, that looked remotely edible. At first, the only thing I could find appeared to be one-­block-­high blades of rectangular grass. They grew in ones and twos on the green-­covered dirt behind the beach. I reached down to one sprouting right at my feet, but somehow I couldn’t pick it up. Instead I just swiped clumsily in a rapid punching motion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnxiety welled up in me again. It was one thing to have a strange-­looking body, but a whole new crisis to discover that that body wouldn’t obey! I tried again, missing the grass, and again, and when I finally connected, my fist smashed my target to oblivion. And I do mean oblivion. The tall green stalks didn’t just fall over or break, they disappeared. One quick crunching noise and poof, gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Aw, c’mon!” I pouted, looking at this angular appendage. “Just work, will ya?” For some reason, pleading with my hand wasn’t the answer. Neither was trying to repeat the same fruitless motion on another identical clump of grass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’ve heard, although I can’t remember where, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. I don’t know if that’s true for some people, but for me, it was pretty darn close.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Just work!” I grunted angrily, punching the grass like it had swung first. “Work. Work. WORK!” It was starting again, the mental slide. My mind was balancing on a thin tightrope at that moment, and I really needed some kind of win.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI didn’t get one, exactly, but I did break the cycle by accidentally, literally, breaking the ground. On the fourth try, I hit so hard and for so long that I didn’t only destroy the little green blades, but also knocked away a whole block of dirt beneath them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Whoa . . .” I stammered, frustration replaced with curiosity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first I didn’t see the block, just the block-­sized hole it’d disappeared into. I peered into the divot and saw a cube floating at the bottom—­actually hovering off the ground—­and much smaller than it had been. I reached in to pick it up and didn’t get halfway there before it flew up at me.Bestselling author of World War Z","brand":"Random House Worlds","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304893796581,"sku":"NP9780399181771","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780399181771.jpg?v=1767732744","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/minecraft-the-island-isbn-9780399181771","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}