Double Jump — Jason Glaser

Jeremy Chin is walking home from school. The sky looks strangely clear -- there's no smog. Only a menacing blimp with black dragon wings, dumping out a glimmering dust. Everything it falls on -- the skyscrapers, the trees, and yes, even the people -- begins to disappear. And so begins Jeremy's quest for survival. When he wakes up in a strange hospital, the world Jeremy has known for 17 years is gone. He has landed in the lattice, a collective of remnant world fragments and their survivors. But Jeremy has survived the loss of one world only to join a war in another. As Jeremy and a handful of fellow survivors travel the lattice, he struggles to understand his connection to the Engine, a force that seems to control everything but no one really understands. In short order, Jeremy finds himself drawn into battle against roboninjas and giant insectoids -- just the minions of a much greater enemy determined to rebuild the lattice, even if it means erasing everything and starting from scratch. And as Jeremy discovers that the more he follows video game physics and logic, the better chance he has of survival, he also wonders: Why am I the only one who recognizes this? At once a mind-gripping mystery and an emphatic nod to video game culture, Double Jump will thrill gamers who will recognize archetype characters, leveling, and other gameplay elements as a backdrop for a motley crew of characters with surprising depth who band together to not only survive, but to save what remains of their worlds. Part action-adventure, part science fiction, and part mystery -- even non-gamers won't be able to stop wondering what happens to Jeremy and what holds the secret of the double jump.