The Maze Runner is an exhilarating, thought-provoking book series by James Dashner. The books in order of release are The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, The Kill Order and The Fever Code. The setting is a future dystopian world, where deadly sun flares have ravaged the Earth and created a harmful, rapid-spreading disease called the Flare. An organization called WICKED is supposedly doing anything possible to find a cure for this disease, but they are doing this in malevolent ways, including taking innocent, very young kids away from their families in order for brain analyzing and testing.

The Maze Runner is about a courageous boy named Thomas who is sent to a mysterious place called, “The Glade.” The Scorch Trials, the sequel to The Maze Runner is about Thomas venturing through the world destroyed by sun flares, with mysterious thunderstorms. A follow-up sequel, The Death Cure, describes a heavenly place called “The Safe Haven” in which Thomas and the rest of his friends will be forever protected from the sun flares if they reach it, and also describes Thomas’s epic battle with WICKED. The storyline of the series then traces back to before the Maze Runner, with two prequels. The Kill Order delves into the horrifying state of the world ravaged by sun flares. The latest release, The Fever Code, takes place between the events of The Kill Order and the Maze Runner. In the book, Thomas was forced into WICKED’s hands and was forced to build the mazes in which he was placed.

 The Maze Runner

In the The Maze Runner, Thomas is sent to a mysterious place called the Glade. There are 12 other boys at the Glade, each special in their own way. Thomas’s closest friend is a boy named Chuck. There’s a labyrinth inside the Glade called the Maze, created by the evil organization WICKED that no one has been able to solve for 2 years, containing Grievers, abominable and deadly creatures. When every other test subject was sent to the Glade by WICKED, they started bawling their eyes out because of terror and fright. However, when Thomas arrived at the Glade, he sporadically had this surge of hope, adrenaline, and recognition. It’s as if he longed to venture through the extremely dangerous Maze and solve it. He wasn’t scared, even in the slightest.

I found this book interesting because it depicted a boy suddenly waking up, practically in the middle of nowhere, not knowing what to do or where to go. I found it amazing how Thomas was eventually able to survive on his own with only a small number of friends to help him.

The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials takes place after Thomas has shut down the Maze. Thomas and the rest of his of friends (the test subjects), think that WICKED is finally done for and powerless, but they are totally wrong. WICKED has fabricated a whole new realm called the Scorch, located on a scorching hot desert, which Thomas and the other test subjects have to trek through to reach the ‘safe zone.’ During their treacherous travels through the Scorch, Thomas and the other test subjects are forced to suffer through intense heat, starvation, and dehydration. This may already seem like an impossible journey, but there’s more. The weather is frantic and destructive in the Scorch, so every once in awhile there are terrible lightning storms, but without rain. Also, Thomas and his friends meet two Cranks, who are people that are infected with the Flare virus, named Brenda and Jorge. They agree to ally with Thomas on his travels because of his conviction that there is a cure for the Flare. Apparently, Brenda and Jorge have not turned totally unstable, or at least not yet.

One reason I liked this book was because it described WICKED coming back stronger than ever with new terrifying trials for Thomas and his friends to complete.

The Death Cure

In the The Death Cure, the trials generated by WICKED are at last complete. Thomas has perceived that WICKED is downright evil; they are the ones who spread the Flare disease, and are not trying to find a cure for it. Instead, they are just claiming that to reassure the test subjects. The only primary goal for Thomas and his friends now is to completely overthrow the WICKED organization and make sure they can never do what they did to innocent teenagers and families again. Every test subject agrees to get their memories back by a man named A.D. Janson, the assistant director of WICKED, except for Thomas and two of his close friends, Minho and Newt. Thomas, Newt, and Minho refuse to have their memories restored because they know that if they do, they will remember the terrible effects of the Flare virus. A.D. Janson is about to force Thomas, Newt, and Minho to enter the brain operating room by threatening them with a weapon called a Launcher, but suddenly, they make their move. They punch Janson and his assistants in the face in unison, grab the Launchers from their hands, and then shoot them with the harmful weapons, making Janson and his deputies convulse on the floor. After that, they escape WICKED’s headquarters, and fly away on Jorge’s ship, where they are safe from WICKED. While they are in Denver, Thomas, Newt, Minho, Brenda and Jorge join a group called the Right Arm, devoted to taking WICKED down once and for all.

I found this book compelling because towards the end of the book, during Thomas’s final epic battle with WICKED, I could not put the book down. It depicts Thomas and the rest of his friends as truly heroic.

The Kill Order

The Kill Order, which is in my opinion the most interesting book in the series, is actually a prequel to the The Maze Runner. The book is essentially about how life was before the Glade was formed. Lethal sun flares struck the Earth, filling people with an uncontrollable murderous rage. People lost all of their hair, and sores, gashes and scars began to cover their bodies. Darts that infected humans with the Flare virus flew everywhere. Alec, Lana, Mark and Trina were all there to witness it, and miraculously, Mark and Trina survived, thanks to the military skills of Alec and Lana. Before the sun flares ravaged the Earth, they were in the defense department together

The reason why I found this book the most intriguing was because I thought it depicted a dystopian setting the most accurately. The Kill Order is in a post-catastrophe setting with a world completely devastated by extreme weather. WICKED had actually created the horrible Flare virus, essentially in an attempt to become known worldwide after finding a cure. I found it fascinating how Alec and Lana somehow managed to protect Thomas and Teresa throughout the whole book, which allowed The Maze Runner series to continue on.

The Fever Code

 The latest release, The Fever Code, takes place before Thomas is sent into the Maze, and after the world is ravaged by sun flares. In the storyline, this book is set after the events The Kill Order but before the events of The Maze Runner. It describes how the evil organization WICKED captured him and took him away from his parents. Thomas, only five years old, is brought to WICKED’s headquarters where he learns that he’s going to play a major role in helping WICKED design the Maze along with another girl, Teresa, and will eventually be sent into the Maze. WICKED claims that their purpose for designing this dangerous labyrinth is to, “analyze test subject brain patterns and how they react to certain environments.” Thomas and Teresa begin to form a strong bond together while working on the Maze. As they grow up and mature, they meet and make friends with many other kids who had been captured by WICKED, named Newt, Alby and Minho. They begin to become suspicious of WICKED’s intentions, and when Thomas and Teresa’s friends are sent into the Maze, they realize they must free them and try to escape WICKED once and for all.

I found this book is intriguing because it shows how even the youngest kids, if held prisoner or against their will, will still devise a plan of rebellion.

Overall, The Maze Runner series is very engrossing and interesting. I recommend this series to any avid science fiction fans who enjoy dystopian novels.