The 13th Reality

The 13th Reality: The Hunt for Dark Infinity by James Dashner

Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Shadow Mountain (March 4, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1606410342

 

Amazon Review: It s been a quiet summer for Tick, Paul, and Sofia, but the latest message from Master George changes everything. The Realities are in danger and from something more terrible than Mistress Jane and the mutated Chi karda of the Thirteenth Reality. People from all Realities are unexplainably going insane. Worse, some Realities are fragmenting, disintegrating into nothingness. Master George has learned that Mr. Chu from the Fourth Reality is working on a mysterious new weapon called Dark Infinity. But no one has any idea how to stop the weapon or even if it can be stopped. To make matters worse, Tick and his friends have been kidnapped, forced to wink from Reality to Reality, solving impossible riddles in order to survive the deadly traps surrounding them. Mistress Jane and Tick find themselves in a race to reach the weapon first but who will destroy it and who will become its master?

Well.. to begin with.. SQT gets a point for me reading this book! 

This is book 2 of a series by James Dashner, book one being: The Journal of Curious Letters. This book comes up with a tree called Prime Reality, with twelve branches, or alternate realties, or versions of Prime, growing off it. Master George and Mistress Jane both have instruments that make travel between the realities possible, but only one of them supports diversity.

Book 2 brings another opportunity for the kids to be off on another world saving (make that: reality saving) adventure .

Atticus "Tick" Higginbottom...  great name don'tcha think?  I do !   Tick, as he's better known as, and his friends are winked off to another reality by Reginald (the bad guy) and wind up having to survive his tests to see if he is worthy to become his assistant in the Dark Infinity.  To make matters worse Reginald tries to pit Mistress Jane against Tick and tells them one must win, the other must die.

Anyone who read and enjoyed book one will be glad to see their favorite characters back and off on another adventure.  One of the good parts of these books is that each adventure "ends" without a cliffhanger of some sort, (at least so far).  And yet they also "advance", so things certainly change with each story told.

These books are good for both boys or girls and for adults like me, when you want something a little easier to read. The book is set up to my liking: double spaced, good clear fonts, and short chapters.   When this is integrated into any book (YA or otherwise,) I tend to enjoy the book a whole lot more !

I'm not sure where these books are headed, but I feel sure that Mr Dashner will keep the adventures coming for some time to come. 

I do not have any reservations saying that I would recommend his books to my own grandson (and have sent him the books).  The age group 9-12 seems about right for the age that would enjoy these books the most... but.. I enjoyed them too.