The Eye of Minds, Dashner wanted to avoid creating a world that was too similar to his earlier work, the Maze Runner series. Dashner's goal was for the book to feel different, unique, surprising. "I wanted the Path to have the feel of levels within a game, but have the stages vastly different from each other and meant for varying purposes." Dashner enjoyed employing the virtual reality setting, as it allowed him an "endless" amount of worlds and settings for the novel. He drew inspiration for the book from multiple book and film sources, particularly The Matrix and Inception. Dashner has stated that he plans for the series' story arc to only span three books, as he felt that it "really [works] out well for what I want to happen overall" but that he does view the series as being more open to sequels than his earlier work Maze Runner. Reception Critical reception has been mostly positive. The School Library Journal and Booklist both gave The Eye of Minds a positive review, as both compared it positively to Dashner's Maze Runner series, with the School Library Journal stating that it "delivers an adrenaline rush." The Christian Science Monitor remarked that while they occasionally grew frustrated with "Dashner’s love affair with his own slang", they enjoyed the book greatly and thought that it would have a wide appeal. The Deseret News cautioned that The Eye of Minds had "relentless violence, blood, injury and mayhem", but that it was also "constant tension for a debatable end reward." Sequels Two sequels to The Eye of Minds have been published, including The Rule of Thoughts and The Game of Lives. A short story has also been published, titled "Gunner Skale". References External links 2013 American novels Books by James Dashner American young adult novels American science fiction novels Delacorte Press books