Maze Runner Series

The Maze Runner series. I picked up the first book, the Maze Runner, on audio to listen while on a road trip. A kid wakes up in an enclosed environment with other trapped boys and no memory of his previous life. Each day a wall opens up and selected kids run through a mysterious maze hoping to find a way out. Each day, the maze changes and includes dangers from monsters. Each day there are new challenges among the inmates. And then a girl enters the maze as well.

The first story in the series is a take off of the Lord of the Flies. The kids setup a pseudo government with rules and punishments. The maze challenge makes you think of Hunger Games because there are people watching the kids and manipulating them in a contest type situation. Still, the first book has excitement, adventure, and a bit of a mystery. Worth the time to read it.

The series begins to crumble with the second book, The Scorch Trials. The second book of the Hunger Games lacked in the story department too, so not really a surprise. The Scorch Trials is a bridge to the third book. The kids have to traverse a desert landscape in hopes of arriving at the last "safe" city where people who are immune to the plague live. It's not entirely clear why they must do this, but that is the power center of the remaining healthy humans. They lose a few companions and some become infected by the plague. I found the second book boring, tedious, and rather predictable.

The Death Cure is exactly that. The kids search for a cure for the plague to save one of their own in the city. There are underground movements of people trying to gain safety, others looking for revenge. In the midst of this, will the one person who can save the entire world do so or will he let the corrupt government implode on itself. The ending was better than I expected, though some readers will be disappointed.

I also watched the movie trilogy. Like the books, the second movie was boring and a bit annoying and a bridge to the third. In some scenes you can tell when the director said action and the actors start to run. The first move was great. The third was better than I expected.