Gunner Skale: An Eye of Minds Story: The Mortality Doctrine

Gunner Skale is a short story that introduces us to "super gamer" Gunner Skale and the birth of the mortality doctrine. Gunner is the best gamer around. However, he regrets publicizing this. He is mobbed whenever he goes out in public. He also feels he can't game with his significant other because it will district from his prestige. In spite of this, he is fairly content with his life. He spends his non-gaming hours working with sponsors and others who desire his name for their cause. One group he encounters has created the "mortality doctrine". They are old school and use VR goggles instead of immersive "coffins" to show the experience. He feels misgivings upon meeting them, however, he becomes enthralled with it and really want to meet in the "coffin" virtual world. He goes there and lose their life and the mortality doctrine to rouge AIs.
This story opens up more questions than it answers. Who were these people that created the "mortality doctrine"? How did the virtual world know that it was something valuable that could be taken? How could virtual creations so easily "kill" real world creations? You wonder if the author had some ideas for the background but just couldn't quite flush them out.

The Game of Lives (The Mortality Doctrine, Book Three)

In the third mortality doctrine book, the good guys become bad guys, then good guys, then who knows what. The bad guy loses control, then saves the good guys, only to be upset and try to thwart their plan. It gets confusing. It is also unclear what the motives are of some of the characters.
The mortality doctrine provides "immortality" by allowing people to live some of their lives in the real world and some in the virtual world. It would seem to have a bunch of holes in it. What would happen if the real world population spiraled beyond carrying capacity? Or what if the "tangent" population got so great that there not enough bodies to inhabit? Or what if some of the "real" people decided to just pull the plug on the virtual world? And what if people just decide they don't like this immortality thing? Lots of things to explore. But, most of the time is just spent with people fighting and getting saved at the last minute. In the end, the real world is saved from the virtual and makes a quick trip back to normalcy. (Really? Wouldn't there be a call to ban the virtual world after all that had happened?) Could artificial intelligence one day decide it did not want to be subservient and take over our world? Alas, this was a thriller, leaving the metaphysical as a backdrop. The action is nonstop, even as the character development is lacking. (The character of Gabby seems especially undeveloped.)

The Rule of Thoughts (The Mortality Doctrine, Book Two)

"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?"
The opening to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody pops in my head as I read Rule of Thoughts. The three kids love playing in a virtual reality world. However, a artificially intelligent "tangent" has implemented the "mortality doctrine" to allow virtual beings to inhabit the bodies of real people. The "virtual" has spilled over to the "real".
The kids see parents kidnapped and try to hook up with a "VirtNet Agent" to try to stop the destruction in the real world. However, when they thought they were destroying it in the virtual world, they were actually in the real world.
This feels like a rehash of the Maze Runner series. The kids are part of some elaborate game controlled by adults. They are trying to figure it out and "solve" it in order to save the world. However, they have trouble figuring out what is real and what is not. They almost always feel some sort of "unease" when going down a path that seems right at the time, but ends up being bad in the long run. There are also a few deaths on the way.
There is a tingling of romantic tension in the story, with Michael and Sarah seemingly on the verge of a relationship, but never quite expressing their feelings. (Though that does leave the other boy as a third wheel.) There is also the interesting tension of Gabby, the "real" girlfriend of Michael's adopted body. She traces him down and makes a few appearances. It feels like she should be more important than she is.

The Eye of Minds: Mortality Doctrine, Book One

In a near future world, a "Vritual world" is extremely popular. People enter "coffins" that stimulate there nerves and provide a full immersive experience. As part of it, they have a special "core" that prevents them from receiving lasting harm from the virtual experience. People play the games, while advanced users hack the system to get special abilities. Alas, there is something gone awry in the system that is resulting in people being harmed in the real world. Kaine seems to be "powerful gamer" that is leading to problems in the system. Not only is he creating issues in the virtual world, he is leading to deaths and potential destruction of the actual world. Three kids were tasked with undergoing a quest to find Kaine. They needed to complete many "video game" activities to eventually find Kaine and discover the "mortality doctrine" that enables Artificial Intelligent "tangents" to take over the body of a real human. The book ends up with an unexpected twist that sets it up for a sequel.