Google Hangout with James Dashner - Tonight!

See Brandon Sandersin, James Dashner and Christopher Paolini talk in NYC - or online

If you're in New York City, there's an awesome YA author event coming up this Saturday.  Here are the details from the email I got:

Random House Children’s Books is pleased to announce that three of the biggest name authors in science fiction and fantasy are coming together for an afternoon panel hosted by the 92nd Street Y in New York City on November 16th. James Dashner (The Eye of Minds), Christopher Paolini (Eragon: 10th Anniversary Edition), and Brandon Sanderson (Steelheart) will entertain their fans via an interactive panel discussion moderated by Alexander Zalben of MTV News. One of the first YA events that the 92nd Street Y has hosted, the panel will be livestreamed to viewers across the globe who won’t be able to make it to the New York area to see the event in person. The link for the livestream will be found here: http://92yondemand.org/livecast/

Dashner, Paolini, and Sanderson are all forces to be reckoned with in the children’s literature world. Dashner, best known for his Maze Runner series, has sold over 2.4 million copies of his books in North America alone. Fall 2014 will see the feature film debut of The Maze Runner (20th Century Fox). With a loyal fanbase that has dubbed itself the “Dashner Army” (#DashnerArmy) as well as the publication of The Eye of Minds, the first book in his new Mortality Doctrine series, Dashner continues to gain in popularity amongst both teenagers and adults.
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To purchase tickets to this one-of-a-kind event, visit http://www.92y.org/Event/Paolini-Dashner-Sanderson.aspx. A discounted ticket price is offered to attendees under 35 years of age. The authors’ newest titles—Eragon: 10th Anniversary Edition, Steelheart, and The Eye of Minds—will be available for purchase, and to be signed by the authors, at the event.

Here are all the important details for those who wish to attend in person:

Date: Sat, Nov 16, 2013, 3 pm
Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St
Venue: Buttenwieser Hall
Price: from $22.00

And remember, the free live webcast will be available here.

Book Review: The Death Cure by James Dashner

**Please note, as this is the 3rd book in the series it's impossible to give a synopsis and critique without potential spoilers for the other books.  You can read my reviews for The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials here.**



Pros: fast paced, lots of action

Cons: still don't learn much about Wicked, middle lags, lots of violence

For Parents: a fair amount of violence (by the Gladers as well as against them) including murder; no swearing, no sexual content

It's time for the Gladers to learn why they've been put through hell.  Twice.  But Thomas and a few others decide they don't care.  All they want is to escape Wicked's compund and live their lives.  Things become complicated when it's revealed that someone close to Thomas has the Flare and Thomas may hold the key to the cure.

The Death Cure has the same level of action as the other two books with the exception that in those the teens have a purpose - surviving the trial.  In this book, that purpose is missing, causing a lag in the middle where they're not sure what to do next and simply react to outside forces.

Beyond that, it angered me that Thomas didn't get his memories back because I, as a reader, desperately wanted to know his role in Wicked and how the trials came to be.

Still, it ends with a bang and is a good conclusion to a decent series.

Book Review: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Website: www.randomhouse.com/teens/mazerunner/home.html
Blog: jamesdashner.blogspot.com

Pros: lots of tension, great pacing

Cons: while I still didn't connect with any of the boys, I didn't find them as annoying as I did in the first book

Picking up directly where The Maze Runner left off, The Scorch Trials doesn't let the Gladers relax much before the next round of horrors begins.

While you find out a bit more of the mystery surrounding the boys - including the fact that there was a similar experiment for girls - a lot of mysteries remain at the end of the book.

Look forward to a wild ride of one bad thing followed by another.

This book is definitely better than the first one. All of my complaints for it were dealt with/not applicable here. The pacing is good, there's some downtime to appreciate the situation the boys are in but not enough to feel bored. There's little character development, but the book takes place over two weeks so that's to be expected. And what development there is, follows logically from the events of the story.

While I felt teens would enjoy the first book better than adults, the sequel is a fantastic book for readers of all ages.

Can't wait for the third, when I hope to learn what's really going on with WICKED.

Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Pros: realistic teen male characters, positive reactions from teens under pressure

Cons: frustrating plot

Thomas wakes up in an elevator with no memory of his life. When the elevator stops, doors on the ceiling open and he's helped out by a group of boys living in the Glade, surrounded by a Maze. Once a month a new boy arrives and once a week supplies come up the elevator. The furthest back anyone remembers is two years.

The day after Thomas arrives something unusual happens. The elevator opens again. This time, there's a girl inside.

As I've mentioned in previous teen reviews, there are two types of kid/teen books. Those you read and appreciate only as a youth and those that are equally good when you're an adult. I'd put the Maze Runner in the first category.

I'll start off with the positives, as my complaints contain spoilers to explain my points.

This is a great book for teen boys. As a loner in school I can sympathize with Thomas, both in his desire to learn more of what's going on as well as his need to keep his own counsel on matters of importance.

I especially liked how, despite the problems facing them, the boys set up a community that focuses on hard work and co-operation. Too often visions of boys in solitude show social break downs, pitting each one against the other or banding together in small violent groups (think: Lord of the Flies). In this book, when someone steps out of line they are dealt with. Violently. Not because the boys are incapable of other forms of justice (they have a jail cell) but because they can't afford the break down of order that could arise with rebellion or psychosis. In a tough situation they act with the good of the many in mind. And it works.

The glade was well planned, with the inhabitants utilizing specialized vocabulary to explain their existence and the problems facing them. It also allowed the author to have the kids use realistic language without filling the book with curses, which I thought was clever.

Now for the bad points - from an adult perspective. The Maze Runner is a book of questions. Thomas is teeming with them, and the reader is too. The problem is, no one knows the answers. While Thomas learns more about the glade and the maze, there's no one to answer the more important questions - what is the purpose of the glade/maze and why were these boys sent there. This is a series, with the idea that answers will be forthcoming in future books, but I found it frustrating that so little was revealed, even at the end of this book.

The book depends heavily on repetition. Thomas mentions several times how odd it is that he has memories of a life - movies, school, etc. - but can't remember faces or names of people and places. Another aspect is the repetition of information. Someone would mention something and a few paragraphs later someone else would ask about it. And sometimes the information is contradictory.

***Potential Spoiler Alert (I'll make it as general as I can while explaining my point)***

At the end of the novel a group of characters try a risky plan to escape the maze. They have to reach a certain place and type in a code. Doing so turns off the Grievers - the monsters that inhabit the maze. They know this, but afterwards someone questions what might have happened to those who remained behind and the consensus is that the Grievers got them despite the fact that the Grievers were turned off by the code.

***End Spoiler Alert***

But my biggest complaint was that I never liked any of the boys. There was nothing wrong with them besides being a bit annoying at times. They were all three dimensional characters, with good points and bad points. Unfortunately, we only see them through Thomas' eyes. And as Thomas' opinions of them changed, waffling between liking them and hating them, so too did mine as a reader. It meant that when people started dying at the end, I didn't care. That always disturbs me. Fictional or not, if the author is doing a good job I should feel something when someone dies.

Still, the book had enough positives that I'd recommend it for teen readers, if not necessarily their parents. The book has no sex, a little violence (mostly off screen) and lots of fake swearing.