Idlewild » (Unabridged)

Nick Sagan has been steadily writing for Hollywood since 1992, crafting screenplays, teleplays, animation episodes and computer games. He has worked for a variety of studios and production companies including Paramount, Warner Brothers, New Line, Universal, Disney, actor/producer Tom Cruise and directors David Fincher and Martin Scorsese. Writing credits include the award-winning computer game, Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands, television's Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as Star Trek: Voyager, where he worked as a story editor.

A young man is suddenly startled awake. He has no memory. He knows only one thing for certain: Someone is trying to kill him.

Unsure of whom to trust, he is reacquainted with eight companions-trainees of an enigmatic figure known as Maestro. As he attempts to unearth his past and outwit an unseen enemy, skills he never knew he had come into play. And it soon becomes clear that there is far more than his life at stake...

Booklist - Sally Estes

The tension is palpable from the first page as a young man recovering from a powerful electrical shock realizes that all he knows is that he's about 18 and a student of some kind--and that Lazarus is dead. Halloween, as he is known, becomes certain that someone wants him dead, too. He is one of 10 students attending an exclusive Immersive Virtual Reality boarding school while their bodies lie in a hospital attached to IVs and virtual-reality equipment. Add to the mix a hard-nosed virtual schoolmaster, virtual nannies, and sophisticated computer hacking as the teens try to manipulate the system. In his first novel, the son of Carl Sagan captures perfectly the voice and actions of a rebellious, extremely intelligent teenager. Though its appeal is much wider, recommend this mesmerizing, multilayered futuristic tale to fans of Card's Ender novels.