{"product_id":"the-rule-of-thoughts-the-mortality-doctrine-book-two-isbn-9780385741422","title":"The Rule of Thoughts (The Mortality Doctrine, Book Two)","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom James Dashner, author of the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling MAZE RUNNER series, comes the second book in the bestselling Mortality  Doctrine  series, an edge-of-your-seat cyber-adventure trilogy that  includes \u003ci\u003eThe Eye of Minds\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Game of Lives\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIncludes a sneak peek of \u003ci\u003eThe Fever Code\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ethe highly anticipated conclusion to the Maze Runner series—the novel that finally reveals how the Maze was built!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e   Michael thought he understood the VirtNet, but the truth he discovered is more terrifying than anyone at VirtNet Security could have anticipated.\u003cbr\u003e   The cyber terrorist Kaine isn’t human. It’s a Tangent, a computer program that has become sentient. And Michael just completed the first step in turning Kaine’s master plan, the Mortality Doctrine, into a reality. The Mortality Doctrine will populate Earth entirely with human bodies harboring Tangent minds. The VNS would like to pretend the world is perfectly safe, but Michael and his friends know that the takeover has already begun. And if they don’t stop Kaine soon, it will be game over for humanity.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for the Bestselling MORTALITY DOCTRINE Series:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Dashner takes full advantage of the \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMatrix\u003c\/i\u003e-esque\u003c\/b\u003e potential for asking ‘what is real.’” —io9.com\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Set in a world taken over by virtual reality gaming, the series perfectly capture[s] Dashner’s hallmarks for inventiveness, teen dialogue and an ability to \u003cb\u003eadd twists and turns like no other author\u003c\/b\u003e.” —MTV.com\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A \u003cb\u003ebrilliant, visceral, gamified\u003c\/b\u003e mash-up of \u003ci\u003eThe Matrix\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eInception\u003c\/i\u003e, guaranteed to thrill even the non-gaming crowd.” —\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for the Mortality Doctrine Series:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Dashner takes full advantage of the \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMatrix\u003c\/i\u003e-esque\u003c\/b\u003e potential for asking ‘what is real.’” —io9.com\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Set in a world taken over by virtual reality gaming, the series   perfectly capture[s] Dashner’s hallmarks for inventiveness, teen   dialogue and an ability to \u003cb\u003eadd twists and turns like no other author\u003c\/b\u003e.” —MTV.com\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A \u003cb\u003ebrilliant, visceral, gamified\u003c\/b\u003e mash-up of \u003ci\u003eThe Matrix\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eInception\u003c\/i\u003e, guaranteed to thrill even the non-gaming crowd.” —\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"An exhilarating adventure story \u003cb\u003ewith touches of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books and Orson Scott Card’s \u003ci\u003eEnder’s Game\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\"-Booklist.com\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “More realistic and addictive than any video game—\u003ci\u003eThe Eye of Minds \u003c\/i\u003esucked me in from the very first page. \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo \u003c\/i\u003emeets \u003ci\u003eThe Matrix\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e in a vividly rendered world of gamers, hackers, and cyber-terrorists. I    can’t wait to read the next book in the series!”—Kami Garcia, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling coauthor of \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Creatures\u003c\/i\u003e and author of \u003ci\u003eUnbreakable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eA gripping page-turner\u003c\/b\u003e, Dashner’s latest is sure to please.”—\u003ci\u003eBookPage \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Dashner's  descriptions are screenplay-ready...\u003cb\u003eThis book will satisfy\u003c\/b\u003e the author’s  fans...[and readers] in search of an adrenaline rush.\"-\u003ci\u003eSchool Library Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Full of action [and] \u003cb\u003ea rather surprising twist\u003c\/b\u003e that will leave you flipping pages.”—fanboynation.com\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003cb\u003eHigh on concept\u003c\/b\u003e, this is an intriguing read for the digital generation.”—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Dashner once again creates a dystopian world in which \u003cb\u003enothing is what it seems.\u003c\/b\u003e\"-\u003ci\u003eVOYA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Junior Library Guild Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA YALSA Teens Top Ten Pick\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Dashner is the author of the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling Maze Runner series: \u003ci\u003eThe Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Kill Order\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as \u003ci\u003eThe Eye of Minds\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Rule of Thoughts\u003c\/i\u003e, the first two books in the Mortality Doctrine series. Dashner was born and raised in Georgia, but lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains. To learn more about James and his books, visit jamesdashner.com, follow @jamesdashner on Twitter, and find dashnerjames on Instagram.\u003c\/p\u003eMichael was not himself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He lay on the bed of a stranger, staring up at a ceiling he had seen for the first time just the day before. He’d been disoriented and sick to his stomach all night, catching sleep only in fitful, anxious, nightmare-fueled jags. His life had blown apart; his sanity was slipping away. His very surroundings--the foreign room, the alien bed--were unforgiving reminders of his terrifying new life. Fear sparked through his veins.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And his family. What had happened to his family? He wilted a little more every time he pictured them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The very first traces of dawn--a gloomy, pale light--made the shuttered blinds of the window glow eerily. The Coffin next to the bed sat silent and dark, as foreboding as a casket dug from a grave. He could almost imagine it: the wood rotting and cracked, human remains spilling out. He didn’t know how to look at the objects around him anymore. Real objects. He didn’t even understand the word real. It was as if all his knowledge of the world had been yanked out from under his feet like a rug.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His brain couldn’t grasp it all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His . . . brain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He almost burst out in a laugh, but it died in his chest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Michael had only had an actual, physical brain for the last twelve hours. Not even a full day, he realized, and that pit in his stomach doubled in size.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Could it really all be true? Really?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Everything he knew was a result of artificial intelligence. Manufactured data and memories. Programmed technology. A created life. He could go on and on, each description somehow worse than the one before it. There was nothing real about him, and yet now here he was, transported through the VirtNet and the Mortality Doctrine program and turned into an actual human being. A living, breathing organism. A life, stolen. So that he could become something he didn’t even understand. His view of the world had been shattered. Utterly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Especially because he wasn’t sure if he believed it. For all he knew, he could be in another program, another level of Lifeblood Deep. How could he ever again trust what was real and what was not? The uncertainty would drive him mad.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He rolled over and screamed into his pillow. His head--his stolen, unfamiliar head--ached from the thousands of thoughts that pounded through it, each one fighting for attention. Fighting to be processed and understood. And feeling pain here was no different from feeling it as a Tangent. Which only served to confuse him more. He couldn’t accept that before last night he’d just been a program, a long line of code. It didn’t compute. That did make him laugh, and the pain in his head intensified and spread, slicing down his throat and filling his chest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He yelled again, which didn’t help, then forced himself to swing his legs off the bed and sit up. His feet touched the cool wooden floor, reminding him once again that he was now in a strange land. Lush carpet had blanketed the apartment he’d always known, which seemed homier, warmer, safe. Not cold and hard. He wanted to talk to Helga, his nanny. He wanted his parents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And those were the thoughts that almost did him in completely. He’d been avoiding them, pressing them back into that pulsing swirl of thousands of other thoughts, but they weren’t going anywhere. They stood out and demanded attention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Helga. His parents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If what Kaine had said was true, they were as synthetic as Michael’s programmed fingernails had been. Even his memories. He would never know which ones had been programmed into his artificial intelligence and which ones he’d actually experienced within the code of Lifeblood Deep. He didn’t even know how long he’d existed--his true age. He could be two months old, or three years, or a hundred.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He imagined his parents and Helga as fake, or gone, or dead, maybe never there in the first place. It just didn’t make sense.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The ache that had crept its way into his chest filled his heart, and grief overtook him. He slumped back onto the bed and rolled over, pushing his face into the pillow. For the first time in his existence, Michael cried as an actual human being. But the tears felt no different than they ever had before.","brand":"Ember","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302775771365,"sku":"NP9780385741422","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385741422.jpg?v=1767741295","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-rule-of-thoughts-the-mortality-doctrine-book-two-isbn-9780385741422","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}