The Reality Bug

infobox Book |
name = The Reality Bug
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = D. J. MacHale
cover_artist = Victor Lee
country = USA
language = English
series = Pendragon
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Aladdin
release_date = September 1, 2003
media_type = Print (Paperback & Hardback)
pages = 384 pp (first edition, paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0-7434-3734-9 (first edition, paperback)
preceded_by = The Never War
followed_by = Black Water

"The Reality Bug" is the fourth book in the Pendragon series by D. J. MacHale. The world is all about imagination. People create their own fantasy worlds and live inside their dreams. That is wonderful until their dreams become nightmares and their only hope of survival is to escape to reality.

Plot

Bobby begins on the territory of Veelox, with Gunny, where they land in the dark room outside the Veelox flume. Bobby and Gunny encounter Saint Dane and believe they have him cornered, however, four realistic holograms of the villain suddenly appear around him, allowing the actual Saint Dane to escape (to a territory called Eelong) amidst the confusion. Bobby and Gunny decide to split. Gunny will immediately go to Eelong and report back later with news while Bobby stays on Veelox because Saint Dane had mentioned that it is on the verge of destruction.

Bobby hates the darkness and is worried if the inhabitants of Veelox are floating giants after meeting Aja Killian, the local Traveler, in the form of a massive holographic face. Bobby doesn't know if the huge hologram is life-sized. He meets up with a very ordinary, humanoid Aja in a city much like those on Second Earth, called Rubic City. The only differences are that it is deserted, and there is a huge structure called the Lifelight pyramid looming over the town.

Aja explains that Lifelight is a virtual reality world-- a computer that gives people's desires the appearance of being real. Almost everyone on Veelox is in it, living out their own perfect virtual lives.

She takes Bobby through it, and he is amazed at the vedders, who are the "physical" caretakers of the bodies, and the phaders, computer geniuses running the place. She is one of the latter.

Bobby experiences his own fantasy "jump"; a basketball game wherein he and his team simply cannot lose.

Aja then explains that, because Lifelight is so perfect, hardly anyone leaves. No food is being made. The territory is dying. However, she has a way to stop Lifelight....a Reality Bug that preys on your fears to make it all less-then-perfect. She then takes Bobby to where he left off in his fantasy, but uses her virus to make it different. The players are taller, his coach has a heart attack, and he is injured.

While in the locker room Aja tells him is this is how to save the territory. However, a Saint Dane hologram appears and tells them that the bug is working "far better than you could imagine".

Saint Dane is right. The Reality Bug has become far too realistic; its use of fears to dilute the jumps has a placebo effect on people, in that if they die in their fantasy, the death is real. Only one man can stop the rapidly evolving virus; Dr. Zetlin, who invented Lifelight and all its manifestations.

Zetlin is in Lifelight. Thankfully, he is in the alpha grid, which can be brought online independently of the rest of Lifelight. However, he can't simply be pulled out. They need to jump into Zetlin's fantasy to get the origin code. Bobby goes to Zadaa and convinces its Traveler, Loor, to come along to help him defeat the nightmares. She agrees, and they start the alpha grid up again, with Aja acting as phader-vedder. They plan to get the source code from Dr. Zetlin and destroy the Bug.

However, the software is malfunctioning. Rather than send them into Zetlin's fantasy, it sends them into a "Wild West" and thence into Aja's own residence. They meet Saint Dane twice therein before they are pulled out.

Aja takes them to Zetlin's fantasy, where Zetlin resides in a massive building called the 'Barbican', which can either stand upright or on its side. The first level of its structure is a tropical jungle filled with plant-animal life forms. The second level is a sort of large pool, with racing motorboats following lights. The level after that is a snow covered landscape, where Bobby has to finish a race called slickshot in which six skaters need to pick up red balls and put them into buckets. Unfortunately, only four people can finish the race. Bobby finishes the race (with a bit of intervention from Loor) and sees that Zetlin is actually one of the racers, a popular sixteen-year-old called the "Z" in his fantasy. Bobby, Loor and Aja convince him to spill the code, which turns out to be "zero." When Aja enters the code, it turns out that Saint Dane sabotaged it. The Reality Bug takes physical form( a black ameoba-like shapeshifter), and chases Zetlin, Aja, and Loor around Zetlin's fantasy home, and even into the real world when it grows too powerful to be contained by Lifelight. They leave Zetlin's jump and shut down all of Lifelight, and the Reality Bug is destroyed. The Travelers feel they have beaten Saint Dane--again.

But at a ceremony congratulating Aja and explaining the loss of Lifelight, Dr. Sever, prime director of the program, steps up. She turns out to be Saint Dane in disguise, and she stirs up the crowd, promising to bring Lifelight back online. He/She succeeds, everyone reenters Lifelight, and Saint Dane receives his first victory.

Saddened, Bobby sets off alone for Eelong, leaving Aja behind to seek some avenue of hope. Aja trusts him.

Characters in "The Reality Bug"

*Robert "Bobby" Pendragon - The main character of the story, a teenager. The Lead Traveler trying to stop Saint Dane and save Halla (everything that ever was or will ever be).

*Saint Dane/ Dr. Kree Sever - An evil demon of a man, trying to destroy the ten territories and have Halla for himself/ A woman who has stayed in lifelight for nearly three years.

*Aja Killian - The Traveler from Veelox. She is the lead phader and very important to Lifelight.

*Evangeline - The Acolyte from Veelox. Aja's guardian and relative, based of D.J. MacHale's wife.

*Mark Dimond - Bobby's best friend from Earth; a science nerd.

*Courtney Chetwynde - Another of Bobby's friends from Earth; described as being very attractive, and good at sports.

*Loor - The Traveler from Zadaa, a very strong warrior and one of Bobby's closest allies.

*Dr. Zetlin - The creator of Lifelight.

*Andy Mitchell- A bully in Mark and Courtney's school.

External links

* [http://hallawiki.wiki-site.com/index.php/Main_Page HallaWiki, a Pendragon wiki]