Stampede! The enormous cattle herd, large enough to make the ground shake, is dashing up a deep and narrow canyon. Trapped in the canyon, only seconds from a certain and horrible death, is Our Hero, Bobby Pendragon, and his fellow Traveler, Loor. Fortunately, a vine dangles from the canyon wall nearby, and Loor grabs hold of it and Bobby and pulls them both out of harm's way. Saved! But will the vine hold the weight of both Travelers? Watch out for those horns, Bobby Pendragon!
The Reality Bug is book four in D. J. MacHale's
Pendragon series. The story mostly takes place on a territory named "Veelox" and in Stony Brook, Connecticut. Readers of the
Pendragon series will by now be familiar with many aspects of the overarching story: Bobby Pendragon is a Traveler, chosen by some greater force to save Halla, which is made up of ten "territories," or alternate universes. Fifteen-year-old Bobby travels to these territories in an attempt to thwart the evil plans of Saint Dane, the villain of the series and the force attempting to destroy Halla. Bobby has already matched wits with Saint Dane on Denduron in
The Merchant of Death, Cloral in
The Lost City of Faar, First Earth in
The Never War, and continues that trend on Veelox in
The Reality Bug. To assist him in his adventures, Bobby has fellow Travelers, one from each territory, and his two best friends -- the beautiful and athletic Courtney and the nerdy and smart Mark -- who follow Bobby's adventures from the seemingly safe territory of Second Earth, right here in the good old U.S. of A.
But
The Reality Bug is in many ways a better book than the previous ones in the series. There is more depth here, both in characterization and in underlying meanings. The characters of Courtney and Mark especially become rounder. They are entering high school, for one thing, and even the traditionally perfect Courtney has some adjustment issues, while Mark's usual phobias are proven well founded. And Bobby's story on Veelox, a world where the people are addicted to virtual reality to the point of sacrificing their true reality, offers some interesting questions along the lines of image versus reality, a good topic for teenaged readers to ponder.
Veelox itself is an interesting world. It is a territory where the majority of residents have attached themselves to pyramid-sized computers programmed to simulate perfect and individualized but completely believable fantasies. A select support staff assists the "jumpers" -- people immersed in virtual reality -- but even the staff is addicted to jumping. The economics of this process are not well explained by MacHale (who is footing the light bill for all of this?), but the danger is made clear: Veelox is falling apart from lack of interest. It is an imperfect existence where a seemingly better one is easily available.
The Traveler from Veelox, an officious young woman named Aja, is aware of the danger and, in her support staff position, is working to solve the problem. But Aja is overconfident in her abilities and, despite Bobby's warnings, largely discounts Saint Dane's threat to Veelox. Much of the action in the novel -- and there is action aplenty -- takes place inside various virtual realities, from the Old West to a junior high gym and points in between. Bobby encounters Saint Dane both inside and outside the jumps.
It is not giving too much away to state that both Bobby and Saint Dane consider their battle on Veelox a victory for Saint Dane. As in all
Pendragon novels, there are plot twists that make it impossible to explain how Saint Dane wins (if, indeed, he does) without spoiling the story. But the results of their Veelox encounters are certain to have far-reaching ramifications for the
Pendragon series.
Similarly, Courtney and Mark's activities on Second Earth are bound to be significant to the series. They have decided to take a more active position in Bobby's adventures, and begin to become "acolytes," or people who assist Travelers on each territory. Their quest might be, to many readers, as compelling as Bobby's story, if for no reason other than that Mark and Courtney are fellow readers, a sort of fictionalized extension of the Pendragon audience. Their decision to take action largely makes sense within the "get outside and do something" theme of
The Reality Bug.
Because of the additional depths to the story,
The Reality Bug is a notch above the previous additions to the
Pendragon series. It remains mostly a fun science fiction book for Tween and Teen readers, with an emphasis on page-turning action, but there is enough of an improvement here to raise it from the three star level of the previous titles to the four star area. Furthermore, it is good enough to assure a continued audience for the series, which already had a devout following.
My
Pendragon Reviews:
Book One:Merchant of Death
Book Two:Lost City of Faar
Book Three:The Never War
Book Four:The Reality Bug
Book Five:Black Water
Guide to the Territories of Halla
Book Six:The Rivers of Zadaa
Book Seven:Quillan Games
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