Bestseller Anthony packs his fourth and concluding volume set in the Mode multiverse (Virtual Mode; etc.) with a huge variety of characters, a brisk, episodic plot, plenty of sex and some superficial emotional heft. A trio of cat-based androids from DoOon Mode accepts a challenge posed by the evil Emperor Ddwng to find clinically depressed, suicidal 14-year-old Colene and her loving, stable husband, Darius, to force them to hand over the powerful Chip. With the Chip, Ddwng will be able to travel the multiverse and raid it ruthlessly for supplies and genetic material. Surprisingly, Darius agrees to turn the Chip over (could it be he knows something that Ddwng does not?), and he and his telepathically linked friends, now counting the cat androids among their number, traverse the alternative realities of the Modes to Darius's home Mode, finding adventure and solving problems along the way. In so doing they grow closer, eventually forming a hive a mentally joined group of beings that shares thoughts and emotions. Feeling she must separate from the hive to conquer her fears, Colene faces in the highly disturbing last chapter her greatest fear sex and discovers what happened in her past that has scarred her so terribly. Unwary readers who get this far may feel as Colene does, "deeply buried in awfulness, with no way to escape," but Anthony's legions of adolescent fans should be immune to what others may consider bad taste and bad writing.

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