What if you could live another life while you sleep?

Here are some fun tidbits about the dream world of MindsBase, as explored in  The Neverending Maize.

The Cast

The Axehandle Hound

Meet the Axehandle Hound. He’s the first critter we meet in MindsBase, and he is a prog (a Program of Regulations, Order and Generality.)

His function is to keep MindsBase tidy. Make sure you don’t leave something lying around that you’re still using, or he may come by and snatch it up.

Door-Mat

Door-Mat is an object prog… can you guess what kind? His job is to guard the Refugium Palace, to keep out any unauthorized humans — or anything else. He is a bit quirky, like most progs, his biggest quirk being sarcasm.

Guardian Eagle

The Guardian Eagle, she is a watcher prog, keeping an eye on the many goings-on across the base. When she soars overhead, she’s generally not seen for what she is. Most basers don’t even know about her. But with the Guardian Eagle, help is just a call away.

The Humans

MindsBase book 1: THE NEVERENDING MAIZE, starts when eleven-year-old Ruby meets fourteen-year-old Aegean — in real life. But before long, they meet again inside MindsBase and discover that they are in the same gen (the makeshift family groupings) along with several other teens. Their gen leader is the overworked Sagamo, who doubles as one of the MindsBase High Council. Sagamo is a close associate of a woman who is a bit of a mystery in MAIZE, and as Ruby and Aegean start uncovering this, they find a tangled web of progs and people that may jeopardize MindsBase for everyone.

The World

First and foremost, Mindsbase is a school, but without the bricks and mortar. A school for the mind. Now, we’re not talking about times tables and essays — you’ve had more than enough of those, right? Mindsbase uses the limitless imagination of the human mind for it’s schoolrooms.

Maze Design

In book one, for instance, one class we visit is Maze Design, run by the Kernel, a stocky balding man who prides himself on his crisply pressed trousers and his richly challenging — but not unsolvable — mazes. He believes that a great maze is not only the work of a skilled craftsman, but it is also an art, a thing of beauty to experience.

And experience it, we do. Put down your pencils. We’ll be walking these mazes deep inside the cavernous classroom. We’ll work in teams, solving other teams’ mazes. We’d better hurry — but make our decisions well — for there are two other teams right on our tails, and we’re vying for the lead in the class standings.

We watch the other teams struggle through our maze, but.. Oh no! If none can solve it, we’ll lose points. We’re supposed to challenge them, not obliterate them!

When the day’s classes are over, we pack up our bags and head to Agora Café, or perhaps to the Aqua Lounge deep under the bay, to hang out with our friends.

Pilaqua

When it comes to classes, though, one of the cast favorites is Pilaqua. Played in the water sports arena, Pilaqua is an action sport that crosses kiteboarding with ball playing on an immense tropical bay.

Aegean is on the Windhawks’ team, but they’ve had a rough season since their star player, Rosco, graduated out of the minor league. Even so, Aegean’s gen mates enjoy taking in the games atop the vast floating stands.

Visual Guitar

Visual Guitar is an individual class, one where students use solitude to open their minds and souls to the power and beauty of music. Often called “synesthesia” in real life, visual classes combine sight experiences with the sounds of the instruments.