The forth Pendragon installment #4 The Reality Bug proved to be the ultimate sci-fi future or more specifically the ultimate vault of virtual reality where the human mind is so caught up in the imagination that it does not want to process reality.So here is how the summary goes like:VIRTUAL REALITY?The territory of Veelox has achieved perfect harmony. Fifteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon arrives on this territory in pursuit of the evil Saint Dane, but all is peaceful on Veelox -- because it's deserted. The inhabitants have discovered a way to enter their own personal dream worlds, where they can be whoever they want, wherever they want. Their bodies lie in stasis while their minds escape to this dream realm. Fresh from his battle with Saint Dane in 1937 Earth, Bobby is confident that they can defeat whatever Saint Dane has planned for this world. But once Bobby enters the virtual world will he be able to resist the lure of the ultimate in escapism?Like the 3 previous books of the series that happen on a different dimension.....oops sorry territory this one takes place on the territory called Veelox. Veelox is peaceful. There are no wars on Veelox, because it is totally deserted. Almost everyone is living in their own virtual reality, which is a lot like a very long, perfect, dream.People don't communicate with real people anymore, they're too busy living inside their own heads and creating characters to act in their own personal dramas. Nothing is happening. Nothing is moving forward. Nothing is real. Veelox is dead. Prophecy about our own future? Possible if we are not to careless. Description of what happens to a world that is so engrossed in their own fantasies that reality is ignored and the world deteriorates. Definitely a dystopia.So, Saint Dane has definitely outdone himself on Veelox. Aja Killian, the Traveler from Veelox, believes she has the answer to defeat Saint Dane and resents the appearance of Bobby who we find out in this edition has been designated the "lead Traveler"........okay so one question that I had raised at the end of my last post for the Pendragon book 3 review"why must Bobby flume to all the territories to maintain the peace?" Aja is very smart, but she is also arrogant and naive. A bad combination when you have to fight the ultimate evil. Veelox is a world in neglect. The inhabitants spend their lives "jumping" into a fantasy world within their minds using a technology called "Lifelight". A jumper lies down in a bed of sorts, is connected to Lifelight, is fed via electrodes attached to their skin and enters a perfect world of fantasy where all their dreams can come true. The perfect fantasy is something everyone wants and gets. It is also something Saint Dane has been planning to use to bring down his first territory. When everyone is jumping, there is no one to fight a takeover. To fend off Saint Dane, Aja realizes that she must make the fantasy world a little less appealing so that people will jump less and return to their deserted homes and back to reality. To do this, she has developed a "reality bug", a software program that injects just a bit of reality into every jump. They agree to load the reality bug and, hopefully, save Veelox. Unfortunately for them, Saint Dane is not only evil, but, he is patient(often setting up the path to destruction years and years in advance) and clever. Once the reality bug is introduced into Lifelight something terrible happens. The bug is far more dangerous and lethal than Aja meant for it to be (...........guess who had a hand in helping Aja design it?). Fantasy crosses over into reality. The reality bug feeds on the jumpers fears and grows into a monstrous killer as it is fed by millions of jumpers. While Bobby, Loor, and Aja struggle to save Veelox, Mark and Courtney on Second Earth find out that they have been pre-ordained (Bobby's journals are sent to them) to be acolytes (people who help the Travelers by providing clothing, food and other assistance in each territory). And Gunny has followed Saint Dane to Eelong to try and head off his attempts to bring down that territory. Although I'd say it again this series is not meant for my age group but so far i had only like the #2 & #3 books of the series but yes their is some room for improvement that is definitely needed in the series to make it much more interesting but yes what I like about this book is that Pendragon isn't the superhero that everyone expects, being able to save each and every territory like other authors would have done. It makes him feel more real as a person to me.
I love when series continue to improve with each book. So far my experience with this series is each book is better than the previous books. It’s not that the previous books were bad or inadequate, it’s more like the next book is bringing more to the table in its level of awesomeness.Veelox is a radically different territory (but then again that can be said about any of the territories). The physical world is fairly similar to our own. It’s the virtual world that sets it apart. They have the technology to allow people to essentially to live out their dream life in a virtual world. Imagine your perfect life. All of your relations go smoothly, you have your ideal job, nothing ever goes wrong. That sounds great right? That’s the problem. People are so much more interested in living in this fantasy they spend all their time in there and now the real world is falling apart around them.I liked that the Travelers fail in this book. Okay I don’t like the fact that they failed, that’s bad. I like that the author is making it a hard road. He’s not taking the easy way out. It brings it to the next level and steps it up from being just a kid’s book.Mark and Courtney’s story is progressing nicely as well. They’ve taken the next step and want to help Bobby (and the other Travelers) as much as possible. It adds another dimension to the story. We aren’t seeing Bobby’s story first hand. We’re hearing him tell the story after the fact. Mark and Courtney’s story is more in the here and now. It feels like we’re reading it as it happens. So having them be more involved with the Traveler stuff makes it a bit more real since it’s not as removed.The bottom line? Awesome installment! I guess I need to continue with the series after all!
What do You think about The Reality Bug (2003)?
This was a bit of a letdown. This one promised to be more scifi and futuristic and looked really cool, buuut I think I may have expected too much.Bobby Pendragon travels to the territory of Veelox, where most of the inhabitants are in a fantasy world called Lifelight. Plug yourself in and you can live the perfect, but fake, life.I think I was expecting it to be more scientific, which isn't Pendragon's style. This isn't a hardcore scifi series, it's scifi/fantasy/adventure/whatever, so the technobabble is limited. I tried to console myself with that, but the more involved they all got in the world of Lifelight, the harder it was to be okay with the situation. I feel like D.J. MacHale could've pulled it off, but the whole Reality Bug becoming corporeal and breaking out of Lifelight just...didn't work.I'm hoping that the next Pendragon book won't tackle scifi, since that seems to be a sore spot for me. It's my favorite, and when it's not just right I'm left with an unsatisfied feeling.
—Dexter
OMG What an ending is all I can say!! St. Daine wins!! I never expected that to happen in a million years. A totally great twist to through in there at the last minuet. I can't wait to read the next one and I hope that Loor and Bobby get together. I think this book is really well written like all the other books in the series but I think that this one is the best so far because of the twist at the end and the fact that reality was so stretched to the limit in this one. Each book just gets better and better and I haven't been disappointed at all yet.
—Corrin Bulmer
I didn't think it was as good as the third. Ironically, I didn't think the premise was as interesting. Which is weird, since this book was actually pretty creative. I didn't like the side characters as much in this one. They didn't really interest me.The book spent WAY too much time with Mark and Courtney. To be honest, I could care less about those two. I also didn't like the overall atmosphere in this book as much. It wasn't as gripping as the third.This doesn't mean it was bad. It was still a good book, it was just a disappointment.
—Yawz
