Cover artist Philip Straub Language English Originally published 8 October 2013 | Country United States Publisher Dell Publishing | |
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Media type Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book Characters Newt, Minho, Teresa, Fry Pan, Gally, Ava Paige, Janson Genres Adventure fiction, Science Fiction, Utopian and dystopian fiction, Young adult fiction Books The Maze Runner, The Kill Order, The Scorch Trials, The Fever Code, The Death Cure Similar The Death Cure, The Scorch Trials, The Fever Code, The Kill Order, The Eye of Minds | ||
The Maze Runner series is a series of young adult dystopian science fiction novels written by American author James Dashner. The series consists of The Maze Runner (2009), The Scorch Trials (2010), and The Death Cure (2011), as well as the two prequel novels, The Kill Order (2012) and The Fever Code (2016), and a companion book titled The Maze Runner Files (2013).
Contents
- The Maze Runner
- The Scorch Trials
- The Death Cure
- The Kill Order
- The Fever Code
- The Maze Runner Files
- Critical reception
- Film adaptations
- References
The series, revealing details in non-chronological order, tells how the world was devastated by a series of massive solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The scorched planet can no longer cultivate enough food for the survivors, so authorities engineer a virus (the Flare) as a form of population control, believing it kills quickly and will stop spreading after a while. When the Flare escalates beyond control, killing many but turning others into mindless Cranks capable of further spreading the Flare, the remaining authorities create WICKED (World In Catastrophe: Kill-zone Experiment Department) to try to find a cure. WICKED soon realizes that some children and newborns are Immunes, performing a "Swipe" of their memories and experimenting on them to find a cure. WICKED eventually understands that there is no cure and the world will crumble, focusing their final efforts on giving a settlement of Immunes their memories and all remaining resources to rebuild society and restore the human race.
The Maze Runner
The Maze Runner is the first book in the series and was released on October 6th, 2009.
A number of teenagers, who call themselves "The Gladers", are left in a strange place which they call "The Glade". Beyond the walls of the Glade is the ever-changing maze, with its horrifying creatures, the Grievers. Every month a newcomer, or greenie, joins the Gladers, sent by a lift with all past memories (except language and other common things) wiped out. The only thing that they really do remember is their name. The ultimate goal of the remaining Gladers, is to find a way out of the Glade. To do so, the runners venture into the maze everyday, to map it in an attempt to find a pattern in the maze that would lead them to find an exit. When Thomas, a curious newcomer, arrives at the Glade and ventures into the maze, unusual things begin to happen.
The Scorch Trials
The Scorch Trials is the second book in the series and was released on September 18, 2010.
The Gladers thought that getting through the maze was it; except they did not know that their world was scorched by the sun. The Gladers did not know that they would have to fight for their lives another time. Burning and naked, the earth is a wasteland, its people driven mad by an infection known as the Flare. Instead of freedom, the Gladers must face another trial. They must survive the scorch trials to find their happy ending.
The Death Cure
The Death Cure is the third book in the series and was released on October 11, 2011.
Thomas is locked up in solitary confinement for four weeks. He is then released, and Assistant Director Janson (Rat Man) reveals to him and the other subjects (including Group B) that there is no cure for the Flare but that most of the Gladers and Group B are immune. He warns them that many people in the outside world hate them because of their unnatural resistance to the Flare, and that if they escape they will most likely be in more danger. Later, all Gladers and Group B members have memory restoration and escape. Thomas, Newt and Minho refuse. They later escape with Jorge and Brenda. They then go to a city and have WICKED's devices in their brain disabled. They join forces with Right Arm, an organization against WICKED.
The Kill Order
The Kill Order is the fourth book in the series and was released on August 14, 2012. It is the first prequel in the series, set prior to the events of The Fever Code and 13 years before The Maze Runner book. It is followed by The Fever Code.
Of the novel, Dashner stated that he wanted to expand the world, but not focus on the main characters of the main Maze Runner trilogy. He also stated that he had originally planned to write a prequel for the series, but that the plans did not become official until he had completed the third book in the trilogy.
Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, Sun Flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease. Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there’s something suspicious about its origin and it’s mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees. Mark and Trina are convinced there’s a way to save those left living from descending into madness.
The Fever Code
The Fever Code was released on September 27, 2016. It is the second prequel in the series and the fifth installment overall, preceded by The Kill Order and followed by The Maze Runner.
The book is chronologically set in between the events of The Kill Order and immediately before The Maze Runner. The novel is written from the various points of view of the Gladers. The book primarily focuses on the training that Thomas and the others undergo before being sent into the Maze, however, it also explores the relationships between the Gladers before they underwent the "Swipe", the "Purge" that is briefly mentioned in The Death Cure and the lives of the Gladers in Thomas' absence, as he is working with WICKED at the time. The book ends with the final moments of Thomas entering the Box ready to be sent to the Maze, leading to the beginning of The Maze Runner.
The Maze Runner Files
The Maze Runner Files is a companion book to The Maze Runner series. It was released on January 1, 2013 in e-book form. It is 50 pages long. The book is divided into three parts: Confidential Files, Recovered Correspondence, and Suppressed Memories.
It contains information about the Flare, WICKED and some of the Gladers. It also reveals events such as Thomas and Teresa's first conversation, Minho's Phase Three Trial, Frypan's past, e-mails between WICKED correspondents, and more.
Critical reception
Book retailer Barnes & Noble included The Maze Runner book as part of its showcasing of new writers for the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Hard to put down, this is clearly just a first installment, and it will leave readers dying to find out what comes next".
Jessica Harrison of the Deseret Morning News labeled The Maze Runner as "a thrilling adventurous book for kids ages 13+ that will get readers' hearts pumping and leave them asking for more." She noted that it "starts out a bit slow" but as it matched Thomas's confusion and picked up pace as he became more accustomed, she wrote that "it's almost as if Dashner is easing the reader into what becomes a fast-paced, nonstop action." However, she thought the "only drawback" was the "fictionalized slang" that although it "feels realistic and fits with his characters, it gets old pretty fast. On the plus side, however, it's used so often that the reader almost becomes desensitized and learns to ignore it."