The Eye of Minds

Michael is the protagonist of The Eye of Minds. Michael is a teenaged gamer who, funded by his wealthy but neglectful parents, has the best technology available to explore the VirtNet’s virtual reality. In the novel’s final chapter, however, Michael learns that what he knows of his background is based in false memories and that he is actually a Tangent, or an artificial intelligence creation originally designed to populate video games for the benefit of human players. His self-awareness (as an independently thinking consciousness, not as someone who knows himself to be AI) led to Kaine and the VNS targeting him.

The two entities, though apparently at odds, both prompt Michael through the various challenges found on the Path, which tests Michael’s suitability as a subject of the Mortality Doctrine. At the end of the novel, Michael ends up being the doctrine’s inaugural subject, which leaves his consciousness inserted into a human body whose brain Kaine has “cleaned” of all memories and consciousness of the original inhabitant. The novel ends on a cliffhanger, with Michael uncertain of what to make of his newfound embodiment. He doesn’t know whether to trust the VNS, who encourages him to wait for further contact and begin impersonating the person whose body he has taken over.