Gunner Skale

The Mortality Doctrine #0.5

by James Dashner

   From James Dashner, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Maze Runner series, which includes The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials—both #1 movies worldwide—comes an original thirty-page e-short returning fans to the fast-paced, high-tech world from The Eye of Minds and The Rule of Thoughts, the first two books in the Mortality Doctrine series. Find out how Gunner Skale, the best gamer on the VirtNet, becomes a legend in this story available exclusively online.

Praise for The Rule of Thoughts, book two in the Mortality Doctrine

"[An] excellent sequel...smartly paced and paired with well-balanced characters that feel real."-Kirkus Reviews

"An exhilarating adventure story with touches of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game."-Booklist.com

"Dashner's descriptions are screenplay-ready...This book will satisfy the author’s fans...[and readers] in search of an adrenaline rush."-School Library Journal

Praise for The Eye of Minds, Book One in the Mortality Doctrine series

“More realistic and addictive than any video game—The Eye of Minds sucked me in from the very first page. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets The Matrix 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 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of Unbreakable
 
“A gripping page-turner, Dashner’s latest is sure to please.”—BookPage
 
“Full of action [and] a rather surprising twist that will leave you flipping pages.”—fanboynation.com
 
“An adrenaline rush.”—School Library Journal

“In typical Dashner style, this is quick and involving, with the main frustration being the wait time until the next book.”—Booklist

“High on concept, this is an intriguing read for the digital generation.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Dashner once again creates a dystopian world in which nothing is what it seems."-VOYA

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A YALSA Teens Top Ten Pick

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia, Fiction, Short Stories, Ebooks

70 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

James is the author of THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy and THE 13TH REALITY series. He also published a series (beginning with A DOOR IN THE WOODS) with a small publisher several years ago. He lives and writes in the Rocky Mountains.

Reviews

[Kelly Brigid ♡]

I give up! A 20 page short story isn't even entertaining! *sigh*

[Melissa Noël]

Once again, I'm tricked by the page count. It was very short with about half of the allotted pages merely being previews for "The Eye of Minds" and "The Maze Runner". It doesn't tell us much except for how Gunner Skale ended up where he is, so it's not necessary to read in order to understand or explain anything confusing from EoM. But hey, it's a little something to read until the next book in "The Mortality Doctrine" arrives!

Book #6 of the 2014 Reading Challenge.

[Jesse]

Started this thinking it was another book but like a prequel with Gunner as main character. After a few very short chapters I was like 'wait I'm almost finished😅'

I did enjoy this very short story, but I think it would've been fine to just include this in Eye of Minds as a story that Gunner told Michael and Sarah

It is nice for the yearly reading goal though ...

[Nancy The book junkie]

Review coming soon!

[Tito Mejia Martinez]

it was a good little story to give more info on a character but it didn't do much to help the actual plot of the main story

[Tiffany]

I liked this added piece of information to the Mortality Doctrine series. I devoured the first book and this deeper look into the most famous gamer in this series was awesome. There is a lot to this series and this book certainly opened up my mind to a lot of questions I hope get answered!

Suggest this book for the Geek and Gamers.

[Shelbi]

I don't really see the point of this book. Dashner wrote a prequel novella to the Mortality Doctrine series, so I expected this really cool origin story. I was severely disappointed with an anticlimactic tale of something already mentioned in the other books. All it offers is a different perspective.

[Drew's ambitious reading]

This book was a enjoyable read. Definitely not one of my favorite books of the year though! Overall rating: 3.5/5!(:

[Nico]

Oh man, I'm still in pain, trying to assimilate what happened to GS. I guess the only way to take that out of my mind, will be when James Dashner publish a new book.

This was a fantastic book, and power of synthesis was made clear, since despite being shorter than what's frequent, A LOT of things happened!

Plus, I love how disconcerting is reading Dashner's turns of events, almost as much as his endings. When you think you know everything, he makes you realize that oops, you got it all wrong, actually!

[Lani HP]

It’s better than some other short stories from other authors I listened to the audio for this one so maybe that’s why I felt like the world descriptions were so vivid I loved the mortality doctrine series and it was interesting to see more of gunner Skale his irl story outside of the game. That and his sad ending which in inevitable

[Michele]

This was an interesting read for me as I haven't read the rest of the series. I like to read books in their chronological order even if they aren't written that way. It kind of seems like a rip off of Ready Player One but reading the actual series instead of just the prequel will give me a better idea of that. It was intriguing enough for me to continue in the series.

[Candra Hodge]

Read after Eye of minds

I'm glad I read this after I Read Eye of Minds because there are spoilers included. It was nice to learn more about Gunner Skale but the story ended too abruptly in my opinion.

[Naim Fazrin]

I finished it in a day lol... 52 pages or I would say 17 or 18 pages or less 😂😂😂. It's just short introduction of Gunner Skale...
Lucky I didn't buy it but reading in online...
It's an okay book for me... Didn't expect it would be this short tbh...

[Stiles]

Kind of wish it gave us more insight on him as a gamer and why he's so good than immediately in his adult life for .3 seconds and a brief overview of what the Mortality Doctrine is and how it got taken

Man, the ideas of the series aren't that bad, it's just executed so poorly

[Medha]

This was good with great imagery and characterization, but Gunner Skale had such a small role in the book that this backstory didn't hit like most backstories do. Got one extra star for the ending paragraph being really good.

[Elise]

This didn’t really add much.

Gunner Skale barely appeared in the first book and didn’t leave enough of an impression to justify a prequel.

You can easily skip this, especially if you didn’t enjoy the trilogy.

[Josie Walz]

Only half is the story

The story itself was an interesting peek into the mind of Gunner Skale...but all the other previews seemed unnecessary, so that was annoying

[Rianonne]

3,5 Sterne

[Carol]

In case you were wondering what happened to Gunner Skale, here it is.

[Meredith Dennis]

Was okay. Hopefully the full book will be more intriguing.

[Stefanie Schu]

Hier habe ich meine Meinung zum Buch niedergeschrieben: http://ohlookitsabook.com/2015/12/07/...

[Lise]

Great little story to clarify about gunner

[Timothy]

Very short

The ending was so sudden. There were parts that were good, but overall it was pretty pointless. There was very little character or plot development

[Michael Yapriadi]

It's extremely short and has no correlation to the main trilogy.

[Vidhi]

This was a really short & incredibly sad story illustrating Gunner Skale’s life. Not a completely necessary novella to read but interesting nonetheless.

[Shana]

Wasn't one of my favorites in this series, but a definite stepping stone for the other books.

[Karen Hornyak]

It was very short and sad!

[Jamie]

QUESTION!
Should I read this one before The Eye of minds or after the whole series?

[Tina]

An interesting set-up for a series.

[jaded star]

reading the synopsis reminded me of sao so i’m interested