Friday, March 09, 2007

What Mrs. N's Been Reading - Sleeper Code

I just finished Tom Sniegoski's Sleeper Code. Will it win any major literary awards? Not likely. Did it have plenty of action and a decent story line? Yes. It's a little violent for younger middle school kids, but for older middle school or high school kids who watch Bond movies this will be fine. The beginning is a little slow, but you learn more than you ever thought possible about narcolepsy. Tom, the main character has a fictional (I believe) form called Quentin's narcolepsy, where the person can be unconscious for days at a time. He comes to find out that he is the result of a secret government project that inserts a second personality into the mind of a child who has Quentin's. The second personality is trained as an assassin. The person has a chip implanted in them that controllers can use to activate the second personality and send them on a mission. When it's over the original personality comes out and just thinks that he or she has been asleep for a few days. The scientist who unknowingly gave the government the information it needed to start the program, finds a way to bring Tom's second personality to the surface and start the process of melding the two personalities. Of course that means that Tom now knows what's going on and is a liability. The book closes at a point that screams sequel, and the sequel, Sleeper Agenda is available. If you have finished series' like Robert Muchamore's Cherub and are looking for something to read next, this one's not bad. I may get the sequel just to see how it wraps up, and those of you who know me, know that I almost always only read one book in a series and move on.

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