I loved The Maze Runner. In fact, I haven't enjoyed a book as much since Catching Fire, book two of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. And for anyone that knows me, that's about as high of a review as I can give a novel.
For the rest of you, The Maze Runner is a dystopian story that is one part Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and one part the aforementioned Hunger Games. It is a tightly-written, intense book that is full of tension and surprises. Author James Dasher does an excellent job of parsing out the mystery to readers, who are kept as much in the dark as the characters of his futuristic tale.
The Maze Runner begins when Thomas awakens in a mysterious elevator. He knows his name, and that's it -- he doesn't remember his age, where he came from or where he is. He is welcomed into a strange, controlled community called The Glade, inhabited by 50 teenage boys who live and work together in the confined environment, trying to stay alive and find a way out of the massive, changing maze that surrounds their safe haven. None of them remember much about their past, either, and none of them know where they are, or why they are there.
Thomas is strangely drawn to the maze, and quickly decides he wants to be a maze runner -- the boys selected to venture into the maze each day to try to map and solve the puzzle. The maze is miles long and full of dangerous creatures alled The Grievers, and no one has ever found a way out. But the boys have created a life and a society centered around cracking the code of the maze and getting back to their homes -- wherever they are. They follow the rules, do their jobs, and stay the course.
Unfortunately, things quickly begin to change in the Glade. First, an elevator arrives carrying a beautiful and unconscious teenage girl -- the first female to join the community. Then, the sun goes dark. Supplies stop arriving. The gates protecting the Glade from the monsters in the maze don't roll shut at night. And suddenly, solving the secret of the maze -- and who created it -- becomes more urgent than ever.
I was totally engrossed by The Maze Runner, and completely thrown for a loop by the genuinely surprising twist at the book's conclusion. Dashner has set the stage for a fantastic series that I predict will be the next big thing in young adult fiction. I will be counting the days until the release of book two, The Scorch Trials, in October 2010.
For the rest of you, The Maze Runner is a dystopian story that is one part Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and one part the aforementioned Hunger Games. It is a tightly-written, intense book that is full of tension and surprises. Author James Dasher does an excellent job of parsing out the mystery to readers, who are kept as much in the dark as the characters of his futuristic tale.
The Maze Runner begins when Thomas awakens in a mysterious elevator. He knows his name, and that's it -- he doesn't remember his age, where he came from or where he is. He is welcomed into a strange, controlled community called The Glade, inhabited by 50 teenage boys who live and work together in the confined environment, trying to stay alive and find a way out of the massive, changing maze that surrounds their safe haven. None of them remember much about their past, either, and none of them know where they are, or why they are there.
Thomas is strangely drawn to the maze, and quickly decides he wants to be a maze runner -- the boys selected to venture into the maze each day to try to map and solve the puzzle. The maze is miles long and full of dangerous creatures alled The Grievers, and no one has ever found a way out. But the boys have created a life and a society centered around cracking the code of the maze and getting back to their homes -- wherever they are. They follow the rules, do their jobs, and stay the course.
Unfortunately, things quickly begin to change in the Glade. First, an elevator arrives carrying a beautiful and unconscious teenage girl -- the first female to join the community. Then, the sun goes dark. Supplies stop arriving. The gates protecting the Glade from the monsters in the maze don't roll shut at night. And suddenly, solving the secret of the maze -- and who created it -- becomes more urgent than ever.
I was totally engrossed by The Maze Runner, and completely thrown for a loop by the genuinely surprising twist at the book's conclusion. Dashner has set the stage for a fantastic series that I predict will be the next big thing in young adult fiction. I will be counting the days until the release of book two, The Scorch Trials, in October 2010.
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