The 13th Reality:The Blade of Shattered Hope by James Dashner

The 13th Reality: The Blade of Shattered Hope by James Dashner

"Things have changed for Atticus Higginbottom. After the near catastrophe in the Fourth Reality, Tick’s being homeschooled in the fields of science, trying to master the mysterious Chi’karda. But just as he begins to make progress, Mistress Jane reappears, now hideously scarred and much more powerful. She has tapped into the universe’s darkest secret to create the Blade of Shattered Hope, and in her quest to attaia Utopian Reality for the future of mankind, she’s ready to risk billions of lives—including those of Tick’s parents and sisters—to set her plan in motion. Her vengeance knows no bounds. When rumors begin to circulate about the secret scientific experiments taking place at the Factory, Tick and his friends Sato, Sofia, and Paul are faced with their most dangerous task yet. And they must not fail; the entire universe could cease to exist." (summary from publisher's website)

This is the third book in James Dashner’s 13th Reality series, and his troop of characters have to save the world from Mistress Jane again. One thing that I didn’t really like about this book was that it was kind of a downer. It doesn’t seem like Tick has fun being a Realitant anymore. He is always scared, or stressed out, or being exposed to bad things. It seems the experience of being a Realitant is really negative and so I don’t know why the characters continue being them. I mean they get to help people and stuff, but there isn’t much to balance out the horrible parts. At least in the Pendragon series you get to see some really cool settings and places, and meet some really awesome new friends. The Blade of Shattered Hope didn’t seem to have much of that balancing magic, and so I didn’t find it as fun to read.

I think this book did much better at having an interesting beginning, as the action starts out right away. There were some parts during the book that I got bored, and put the book down for a while, but I wanted to finish reading the series, and so I continued to read. I got to say that Sato has turned into a really cool character. I think he is one of my favorites. He turns into a real hero in this book, I think. Dashner also managed to slip in another riddle, keeping up with the tradition of the previous books. I was totally surprised, but then was surprised that there was only one riddle. I thought it would have been cool if there were more. It was also interesting to see that Tick’s family got more involved in this book, and it looks like they will be more involved in the next book too.

So, for me this was an okay read. It hasn’t been my favorite read of the summer, but it still had some pretty cool scenes, and some cool character moments.
The series Website
James Dashner's Blog