The Maze Runner Trilogy

The Maze Runner series by James Dashner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009), 375 pgs.
Imagine waking up in a dark elevator, ascending to God-knows-where, with no memory of how you got there or--more importantly--who you are. That is what happened to Thomas when he entered the Maze. After arriving in "the Box," as the other boys called it, Thomas stepped out into a world entirely new to him, but somehow slightly familiar. The group of guys who greeted him explained that he was the newest member of the Gladers, a group of teenagers who lived in the center of a huge maze with no memory of why they are there. Thomas knew he must have a purpose, and when the newest arrival came up in the Box, that purpose became all the more clear: he must escape the Maze. 

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (2010), 360 pgs.
After the dramatic conclusion to The Maze Runner, Thomas and his closest friends find themselves once again trapped in another large test, grasping for ways to survive. This time, the team of teenage boys--and some new friends--are given a mission: cross the desert and receive the cure for a deadly disease to which they have all been exposed. As the friends fight their way across the "Scorch," encountering other desperate, infected people, they begin to see more clearly the terrible state of the world outside of the Maze, and they start to uncover more about the mystery of why they were put there.

The Death Cure by James Dashner (2011), 325 pgs.
In this third and final installment of The Maze Runner series, Thomas faces all that has happened. He must finally confront the corporation which has been running experiments on him and his friends in the name of scientific discovery. He must determine what his role will be going forward, and how he will save his friends--those who are still alive--and the rest of society. It all comes down to Thomas, and after the trials he has been put through, he better be ready.

This series very much runs in the same vein as other YA dystopian novels-turned-movies from the early 2010s like Hunger Games and Divergent, but beyond similarities in terms of setting and overall themes, The Maze Runner books are nowhere near as good as those other genre legends. The first book is the strongest, with the most interesting and well put-together plot, but after that the series loses focus and wanders in different directions, seemingly without a point or destination in sight. The characters and their relationships are pretty shallowly written. The main character especially is also reallllyyy annoying in my opinion. Dylan O'Brien plays him much more likeable in the movies than he is written. I was not a big fan of this series on my re-reading, but the first one is still a fun pick if you're craving a nostalgia read from that era of YA dystopia (although you would be much better off just reading The Hunger Games).

Everything for Everyone

 

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (2022) 256 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Charli Burrow and Soneela Nankani. The authors have written this as if they are the oral history interviewers. This is speculative fiction about the near future, but it is in the style of nonfiction. It feels a bit dry, but very real. With the current developments of late-stage capitalism the future presented here is very probable. Many of the people interviewed about their part in the growth of communes in New York city are people of color or queer. We hear from many people who understand activism, abolition, collectivism, and mutual aid as tools to survive the collapse of the old systems. If you are interested in dystopian fiction that is closely tied to reality like Octavia Butler's Parable books or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, you'll probably enjoy this. It has a hopeful message.

A selection of May graphic novels

 The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (2005) 498 pages

The original publications of the three books in this set were in 1978, 1987, and 1995. Not a fan of the first three short stories in A Contract with God, even though they each have good moments. Loved "Cookalein" with its strong literary characterizations and bringing multiple threads with adult themes together in a satisfying way. Eisner explains in his preface that Cookalein is a Yiddish-English word that means "cook alone." Instead of bed and breakfasts, farms in upstate New York offered summer holiday stays with bed and kitchen. Multiple families had access to the kitchen so the mothers could cook for their own families. The second novel in this graphic novel trilogy, A Life Force, is excellent! It starts in the Great Depression and explores the meaning of life through Jacob Shtarkah's family and neighbors as well as his observations of a cockroach. Again Eisner is brilliant at probing the depth of characters. He brings the novel to graphic novel with many subplots on the side and real history affecting the characters at the center. All of these stories take place around the fictional Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx, NY. The third novel, Dropsie Avenue, traces the history of this neighborhood beginning in 1870 when this part of New York was still farmland. The story moves quickly through all the changes of ethnicities that call this neighborhood home throughout the century. It is an immigrant story and a microcosm standing in for many small towns that turned into big cities. The story is full of tearing down and building up, politics and business deals, tragedy and celebration, biases and prejudices. Year after year, decade after decade, with certain characters getting older, Eisner again illustrates our very real world.

Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice by Eddie Ahn (2024) 208 pages

This memoir covers a lot as indicated by the subtitle. The author/artist strangely is a bit distant in revealing his personality. It comes through in certain moments, but in describing the facts of day to day work and repeatedly trying to explain his career to his parents, who do not understand, Eddie remains elusive. I liked the realistic art, which is like a photo album. The different color tints help distinguish different times and places. I wish the book went even more in depth about environmental justice efforts.

Orbiter by Warren Ellis with art by Colleen Doran (2003) 104 pages

Short and intriguing. Perhaps too short to let you really get to know the characters. Set in a dystopian near future that imagines NASA's space program ended after shuttle Venture burned up on launch. Inspired by the loss of Challenger. But 10 years later the shuttle reenters the atmosphere and crash lands near the Kennedy Space Center. Scientists whose careers ended are put on the case by the military to solve the mystery. There is a lot of science-y speculation to explain the condition of the shuttle and the one surviving astronaut. Pretty fun adventure like a Michael Crichton thriller. Somewhat dark and gritty art.

And Mankind Created the Gods: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Pascal Boyer's Religion Explained by Joseph Behe (2024) 368 pages

This is dense with a lot of complex ideas. Fascinating to think about. It is based on Pascal Boyer's book Religion Explained. Pascal appears in the graphic novel leading a philosophical dialogue. Picture Plato exchanging ideas with a group of people. For visual learners the black and white illustrations of the dinner party conversation, world cultures, and the workings of our minds are very helpful. It is difficult to sum up. You just have to dive in and explore with Pascal's dinner guests yourself.

Sunrise on the Reaping

 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, 387 pages.

Haymitch Abernathy makes the most of a hard life: doing chores for is Ma, spending time with his girl, and hoping not to make enough trouble to be noticed by the peacekeepers. Then he makes himself too visible and ends up in the 50th Hunger Games, sentenced to fight to the death with 49 other kids. Haymitch is determined not to let them turn him into their propaganda, but some things are so much bigger than him.

This was a very solid edition to the Hunger Games series, and I liked it much better than the last prequel. It was very thematically consistent, and felt sharp and cutting. Collins was considering very literally the political principles of David Hume, in a way that still made a compelling novel. This book did, however, suffer from a problem common in prequels of popular series. It felt like it was filled with as many characters from the original books as possible, which often creates connections that strain believability to believe weren't mentioned in the original source material. That being said, none of these cameos cause any problems at all within the novel itself, and I almost like this book more in isolation than as part of a series. I would definitely recommend this novel for fans of the original series, but also for anyone who's looking for some less than subtle criticism of tyrannical government. 

The Hunger Games Trilogy

 The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, 1155 pages.

Every year two children are selected from the twelve poor and exploited districts that surround the luxurious capital of Panem. These 24 children are then sent into televised death matches where one winner will receive fame and fortune, and everyone else will just die. Katniss Everdeen volunteers, not because she thinks she will win, but to save her little sister from having to go. Acts of survival are interpreted as acts of rebellion until they become exactly that, and Katniss finds herself the figurehead of a long-overdue revolution. A revolution that may still cost her everything. 

I first read these books fifteen years ago, and I was a little surprised how remarkably well they still held up this much later. Suzanne Collins had a lot to say about systems of power and control, as well as plenty of other political issues, on a more complex level then you would expect from books written for teenagers, and especially books that are regularly marketed as a girl caught between two boys. Also, on a narrative level, these books are still emotionally devastating on a reread. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who passed them up because they're outside of their usual genre, or because they were unimpressed by the many imitators that came later. 

Sunrise on the Reaping

 

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (2025), 400 pgs.

Haymitch Abernathy is up before the sun. He has chores to complete if he is going to see his girl before the reaping, and she is the main thing on his mind. At first glance, this day is just like the reaping day of last year, and the year before that one, but today will change Haymitch's entire life. Before the sun sets, he will be carted off to the 50th annual Hunger Games, where he and forty-nine other teenagers will fight to the death until one "victor" prevails. Haymitch will soon learn that nothing is certain, and as much as one may try to mold their future (and past), outside forces are constantly trying to change its shape.

We have heard part of Haymitch's story before, told second-hand in the original Hunger Games trilogy, but his first-person account adds so much depth to what we already know. As readers, we come to realize that our prior knowledge is largely based on the Capitol-sponsored version of events, and we see how Haymitch's experience was twisted and misrepresented. Suzanne Collins has done it again.

Wool

 Wool by Hugh Howey (2011) 528 Pages

I watched "Silo" on Apple Tv, which is based on the first half-ish of this book. I was blown away by the production of the show, we blew through it in a week. I just as quickly devoured this book! If you like thrillers, dystopian novels, post-apocalyptic-esque...etc...this is for you! Really well written. There are a number of differences between the book and the show, I recommend watching the show first. 

Thousands of people live in a sequestered community inside a massive silo underground. The organization consists of the up-top (higher class people like sheriff, the mayor, etc), the mids (middle class jobs and systems such as doctors, farms etc), and the down deep. There are no elevators, and each floor is traversed by a Grand Staircase, a spiral staircase within the middle of the silo. The Down Deep consists of mechanical  and the trash separators. All the people know is that the silo has always been there, it may have been created by a god. The history before 140 years was destroyed by a previous uprising, so nobody knows the history of people or why they are in the silo in general. The outside world is desolate and poisonous, and the only way to "get out" is to request to do so, a grave sin and highest crime in the society. The people follow "The Pact", a set of doctrines written by their predecessors. When someone commits a grave crime, or they request to "go out" they are sent out to "clean". Cleaning means the wiping of the sensor lens which gives the people inside a view of the outside world. There is a hill surrounding the land above the silo, and the people who go out to "clean" always end up wiping the lens. However, the air is so toxic that every single person who goes out to clean will eventually succumb to the toxicity of the outside air. There are numerous bodies within view of the sensor, never to move again or change. 

Because there are ideas and various ways of thinking that are forbidden, a conspiracy is born among various people within the community. Throughout the book we uncover the various lies between the "higher-ups", who have sworn to keep the community safe from creative thinking at all costs. Why are they there? Who put them there? Can they really not survive outside? are various questions some characters attempt to get to the bottom of.

The Q

 The Q by Amy Tintera, 352 pages

You're probably thinking--why in the world would I want to read a novel about a horrible pandemic right after a horrible pandemic? Well, I love dystopian science fiction, so that doesn't bother me. However, if you do not want to read about people getting sick and dying, skip this one for now!

This young adult novel takes place in what used to be Austin, TX. It is now known only as "The Q," the quarantine zone where a horrible virus first started spreading, and the United States reacted by walling everyone in the city inside. No one can leave, and no one can enter. The citizens inside who survived the virus have limited immunity, but most of them stay alive due to artificial organs. The main characters are Maisie Rojas, a daughter of the family who controls the South Q, and Lennon Pierce, the son of the Democratic nominee for president. He is kidnapped and dropped into the middle of the quarantine zone at the beginning of the book, and Maisie is tasked with helping him cross the North and escape through the only exit.

This novel was fast-paced, sometimes violent, and blessed with two likable main characters. I especially liked Maisie and her fiery personality. The world they inhabit is not black-and-white, but there is always a reason behind their actions. I'm also a big fan of banter in my young adult novels, and this one had some great moments. I actually would have liked for it to be longer, because I wanted to know more about this place and these characters, but the ending was satisfying. If you are a fan of young adult dystopia, then give this title a chance!

Upright Women Wanted

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, 176 pages

After years of admiring the roving librarians of the Southwest, Esther has finally stowed away in their wagon in the hopes of becoming one of them. But as she soon finds out, being a librarian is a lot more complicated than delivering Approved Materials to the small towns of Arizona and New Mexico. Instead, the community of librarians is full of subversive lesbians and non-binary folks who are not accepted elsewhere, and must fight for their existence against bandits and sheriffs alike.

I love the idea of casting librarians as subversive agents against the state, and I dug the characters Gailey created. But they were a bit heavy-handed on the belonging-to-a-community elements. I get it — Gailey was reflecting on their own journey to self-acceptance, and I certainly don't begrudge them the mission to make sure others see themselves — but I also felt like it was hammered in so hard that I have a bit of a headache now. All in all though, I enjoyed the book, and I'd love to see Gailey continue with these characters in future novellas.

Future Home of the Living God

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich, 269 pages.

Erdrich's dystopian novel of a near future is a departure for her, at least as far as I know. As human births become more and more rare, and governments fracture, pregnant women become targets of various groups, some seemingly official and some of more nebulous affiliation. These groups claim to be working to ensure the safe delivery of the increasingly rare newborn, but on closer inspection their true aims are unclear. Mary Potts, a woman who has recently found out that she was adopted, finds herself running and hiding from these groups when she finds that she is pregnant. Mary tells the story in a series of journal entries to her unborn child.

Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, 390 pages

In this final volume of the Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss finds herself yet again stuck in a dangerous political game of which she wants no part. She's recovering from her second trip to the Hunger Games, she's worried about her friends and family, and the rebel forces are asking a lot of her... more than she can (or wants to) give. Mockingjay is a study in PTSD, both from the point of view of the person experiencing it and from the point of view of a PTSD sufferer's friend. It's by no means a cheerful book, but it's incredible. I know a lot of people aren't happy with how this book (and series) ends, but I thought it was perfect the first time I read it, and I still stand by that assessment.

American War

American War by Omar El Akkad, 333 pages.

When she was five, as the second American Civil War was about to begin, Sara T. Chestnut became “Sarat” due to a mistake made by her kindergarten teacher, reading her first name and middle initial all together. She stays Sarat because she likes the harsh sound of it. Sarat’s father Benjamin dies at the beginning of the war, as the red states of the deep south violently secede from the blue northern states over the banning of fossil fuels.  The book follows Sarat, her mother, sister and brother as they flee purple Louisiana into the deep red MAG (Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia), into the refugee camp, Camp Patience, that will be their home for several years. When the family is torn apart in the violence in that border camp we next see Sarat during her stint as a feared guerilla fighter, her subsequent incarceration and torture in a Northern prison, and her terrifying turn away from any possible peace with a horrifying final act. Akkad’s clear and believable story-telling shows a young girl coming of age in a time of unrelenting warfare. We see her turned into a weapon by her circumstances, her beliefs, and by those around her.  A harsh fable about the inevitability of revenge and terror; it is also about family and the stories we tell about ourselves. Dion Graham does an incredible job of narration.

The Private Eye

The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente,
A very imaginative, colorful, and fully-realized tale of a semi-dystopian future wherein the internet has been abandoned, everyone leads a masked existence with their own secret identity, and journalists have taken the place of government authorities.
A private investigator (now an illegal occupation) reluctantly seeks to uncover the truth of the murder of a former client. Aided by the victim's sister, his own grandfather, and a gung-ho assistant, P.I. becomes involved in something much larger than a simple murder, and must confront his own secrets as well as those of the society in which he lives.
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The Core of the Sun

The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo, 306 pages. Translated by Lola Rogers.
Vera and Mira are born into a dystopian alternate-Finland, where the gender rules from H. G. Wells's The Time Machine hold sway; women are either dim-witted elois, suitable for subservient breeding, or truculent morlocks, kept out of the gene pool and destined for life of drudgery. It's also a flavorless world where alcohol, nicotine, and even chili peppers are forbidden and almost impossible to find. This is a particularly difficult world for Vera (renamed Vanna), a savvy, attractive morlock who is passing for an eloi, and who is looking for her lost sister. She is burdened, at the same time, with a strong addiction to illegal capsaicin. When Vera and her dealer / fake boyfriend meet up with the members of the Gaian Transcendental Capaicinophilic Society, some of their problems are solved, but new problems explode.
Creepy in places, and a fairly taut thriller, this Finnish genre crossing novel is one of those read-in-one sitting books. Disturbing and fun.
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The Dead Lands

The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy, 401 pages.
A post-apocalyptic re-imagining of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The bulk of the story moves with tough-girl Mina Clark and psychically gifted archivist Lewis Meriweather as they lead a group from the shattered remains of St. Louis, now a walled city called Sanctuary, westward in the hopes of finding a flourishing civilization. Mutant carnivores, armies of slavers, and a psychic menace are all in their way. Sort of a mash-up of King's The Stand, McCarthy's The Road, and Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Read it if you love a good post-apocalyptic, dystopian tale, but ones without zombies.Or read it for the St. Louis connection.

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell  530 pp.

I have to admit I almost quit this book early on. I had a lot of trouble getting into the story/ies. I'm glad I stuck with it since it is unlike anything else I've ever read. My first introduction to David Mitchell's work was Black Swan Green. This novel is nothing like that one. There are six different stories in six different periods of history including a dystopian future. The stories appear disconnected but a theme eventually emerges as the reader passes through time, first forward, then backward to an ending that takes place in the past where the book began. During the temporal journeys we travel from Polynesia to Europe, California, England, the Far East, Hawaii and back again. The main characters include a government clerk, a composer, a journalist, a publisher, a clone/slave/revolutionary, and a Pacific islander. These diverse characters face conflicts and dangers fitting their place and time. And then there is the birthmark that some of the characters share.... If you can stick with it this one is well worth the time. P.S. I haven't seen the movie.

Batman: No Man's Land vol. 3

Batman:  No Man's Land volume 3, by Greg Rucka, Chuck Dixon, and various others; graphic novel; 480 pages

This volume is a mixed bag.  It contains, without a doubt, some of the most poorly-written comics (of any kind) I have ever read.  But it also contains some really great stories (The Code, featuring the Joker and Harley, was lots of fun, and Underground Railroad was superbly written).  The art was also incredibly spotty:  some of the minor characters were almost unrecognizable from one scene to another, but then you have some really great surprises (did anyone else know Michael Zulli did a Batman story???).  The editors at DC clearly had a plan:  if the stories had both bad art and bad writing, it would be easy enough to skip to the next issue in the collection, but they seemed to be deliberately pairing their weaker writers/artists with stronger counterparts.  So nothing was so bad that it was completely skippable, but it wound up leveling out to a generally "blah" book.  Which is disappointing, when you consider the names getting writing credits for about half the book:  Rucka, Dixon, O'Neil...all of them do well with their parts--it's the unknowns who fumble the dialogue and narration. 

And, once again, we have evidence that DC did a terrible job of collecting this arc. At the end of the book in the extras section, there's character profiles for some of the recurring roles in this arc.  The profiles mention background info and stories that I certainly haven't seen collected here.  On the plus side, DC seems to be reissuing this arc, so I hope they're taking a page from Knightfall and doing a more comprehensive edition. 

Batman: No Man's Land, vol 1

Batman:  No Man's Land volume 1 (various authors and artists); graphic novel; 200 pages

Following the devastating earthquake from Cataclysm, Gotham is struggling to get back on its feet when the unthinkable happens:  the US government declares the city unsalvageable, orders and evacuation, and seals the remains off.  Of course there are a fair number of people who chose not to leave the city, including most of its crime bosses, police force, and masked vigilantes.

Reading this arc requires a little suspension of disbelief.  I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that the government would disown the DCU equivalent to New York City, however bad the damage from the quake (this is especially had to fathom after seeing how the whole country pulled together after Hurricaine Katrina).  But they don't just disown it--they actually seal it off, trapping the remaining residents inside and turning away any kind of food or supplies that humanitarian groups try to send in.  It doesn't make any sense, but when this book opens, Gotham has already been shut down, so we don't' get to see the rationale behind that decision (this is another case where I think someone has fallen down on the job of collecting these titles; clearly SOMETHING pretty big happened between Cataclysm and No Man's Land, but that wasn't included in the trade for some reason.  I feel like this a scheme from someone else's villain--it has a Lex Luthor vibe to it--but it would have been nice to at least get an explanation in the summary at the beginning). 

So when this book opens, Gotham has already become a classic dystopia in the three months since the quake.  The city is divided between gangs and crime bosses who rule like kings over their respective territories, while the residents just struggle to survive in a city with swiftly dwindling resources.  There are two arcs in this volume:  one just introduces the situation as it currently stands, and follows GCPD (now little different from any of the other street gangs) as they try to take back the city one block at a time; the second arc is more psychological, and follows Scarecrow as he insinuates himself into a church-run refugee center and starts to plant the seeds of chaos.  This volume also marks the first appearance of the new Batgirl, though her identity has yet to be revealed (I'm guessing this is the Cassandra Cain incarnation, since she seems way to competent to be Stephanie Brown). 

The Unwanteds

The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann, 416 pgs.

A 2013 Mark Twain nominee, The Unwanteds has been described by Kirkus reviews as “The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter.”  When Alex finds out he is Unwanted, he expects to die. That is the way of the people of Quill. Each year, all the thirteen-year-olds are labeled as Wanted, Necessary, or Unwanted. Wanteds get more schooling and train to join the Quillitary. Necessaries keep the farms running. Unwanteds are set for elimination. 
It’s hard for Alex to leave behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted, but he makes peace with his fate—until he discovers that instead of a “death farm,” what awaits him is a magical place called Artimé. There, Alex and his fellow Unwanteds are encouraged to cultivate their creative abilities and use them magically. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it’s a wondrous transformation. 

Central to the story is the unique occurrence that twins have been divided between Wanted and Unwanted.  As Alex and Aaron’s bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artimé that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate magical battle.

Crewel

Crewel by Gennifer Albin, 360 pages

Annie did a great job summing up this story here, so I'm not going to rehash what she said. I wasn't quite as taken with it as she was (but then again I'm not the knitter that she is either!). Parts of it seemed really hard to visualize, and unfortunately, those were the parts that were pretty instrumental to the storyline. As Annie mentioned, this book definitely has elements of other sci-fi/dystopian novels, including The Hunger Games and I saw some definite nods toward Matched and even Ender's Game. The strongest points were the misogynistic culture and the handling of some pretty tough subjects, which I thought was both surprising and admirable.

One additional note: I highly recommend the ebook version of this, which includes an interview between Albin and Caragh O'Brien, author of Birthmarked, another female-centric YA dystopian series. It's a great interview, and it's not in the traditional print version of the book.

Oh, and I hate the cover of the book. I know what it's supposed to be, but looks like a perfume ad.