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.

More Minecraft Videos

My husband's done some incredible things in our world. He made a program to calculate where blocks should go to create some nice geometrically designed structures. If you only watch one video, pick the glass elevator/floating island. There's a log cabin and some trees up top and a surprise in the basement.

Cold Earth - Book Review

By Sarah Moss

Pros: well realized characters with unique voices

Cons: plot elements under-utilized, lack of tension, unnecessary drama

Six graduate students converge in rural Greenland to participate in an archaeological dig. Internal and external forces threaten them and the job they've come to do.

The novel is narrated by the characters, one at a time. This style of writing allows the personalities of the characters to show, from Nina's prejudice against Americans to Ruth's preoccupation with a past trauma.

The narration starts with Nina. Dreams of the people who once lived in the settlement they're excavating plague her from the first night. She starts believing the ghosts don't want their remains moved. Her convictions start to disturb the other members of the team.

Meanwhile, there's news of spreading illness in the world, possibly an epidemic. And the team's contact with the outside world is severely limited.

While I found it an interesting, quick read, I feel the book didn't realize it's potential.

***Spoilers***



The story doesn't really succeed because the author tried to do too much without knowing how to tie it all together. The ghost thread could have made a good horror novel, but half way through the book it changes POV and that thread isn't as important afterwards.

Similarly, I got the feeling the author threw in the pandemic scare simply because apocalyptic ideas are popular right now. The isolationist fear could have been compounded in other ways (the internet crashes on me a lot without pandemics). Similarly, the tension about whether or not the plane would pick them up didn't require their belief that they were the last people alive on earth in order to succeed. There could be many reasons a plane might be late or not arrive - pandemic not being the first that comes to my mind.

The ending didn't use the plot threads, nor were important issues clarified (like the plane).

Violette Malan Signing in Toronto

If you're in Toronto Saturday November 6th, Violette Malan will be signing books at the World's Biggest Bookstore from 1-4 pm. If you haven't read her books, now's a great time to give them a try.

Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars

(If you saw the original version of this post where I got the book title wrong, please excuse it! I'm obviously not thinking clearly this morning. :P )

If you haven't heard, Stephen King's new collection of novellas, Full Dark, No Stars, is coming out November 9th. Here's a trailer for it:



And the cover copy from the book site:

“I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger…” writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up “1922,” the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerizing tales from Stephen King. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness.

In “Big Driver,” a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself.

“Fair Extension,” the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil - never a stranger from most people with something to lose - not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

To celebrate the release, Simon and Schuster Canada is holding a sweepstake. The winner gets a Stephen King library, including Full Dark, No Stars, and his two most recent DVDs (Mist and 1408).

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Remake)

Director: Scott Derrickson ,2008

Imdb listing.

Pros: good message even if it fails in the delivery, great special effects, the US reaction to an alien landing was well portrayed

Cons: Jacob as a character is annoying and unconvincing in his change of heart, the ending ignores the premise of the film

As with the original, the premise of the movie is that of an alien coming to earth to give a message. The message is different, and in this case, goes unheard. The alien, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), proceeds to the second part of his mission, to destroy humanity so that the Earth - one of only a few inhabitable planets - isn't destroyed by pollution and global warming.

While the original film focused on the alien and his interactions with people on earth, building suspense as to what his message was, in the new film the focus is on the relationship between Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) - one of the experts brought in to deal with the lifeform - and her step-son Jacob (Jaden Smith).

The opening sequence is incredible. Given the technology available today, the fanfare surrounding the arrival of the alien ship is much bigger. But that's the only thing the remake did better than the original.

Bottom line: go see the original. It's brilliantly made and has a message that's still worth listening to today.

***Spoiler Alert***

Jacob is a very annoying character. He doesn't listen to his step-mom and complains endlessly. When he turns Klaatu into the officials and his mother is taken instead, his sudden change of heart towards the alien is unconvincing. As is Klaatu's sudden desire to stop the human's destruction.

Another difference was this Klaatu's casual disregard of violence. He smashes a car into a cop who's holding them up, and then heals the man. You'd think with the power he has he could have come up with another way of disarming the guy that wouldn't have required so brutal an action.

Oh, and the title no longer applies. In the original, Klaatu disrupts electricity, so the world is brought to a stand still. Nothing like that happens in this one. At no point does the earth stand still.

The ending ignores the premise that Klaatu came to tell humans to stop destroying the planet or they themselves would be destroyed. After stopping the destruction he simply leaves. There's no announcement telling the world they've got a reprieve, but they'd better shape up or the aliens will be back to wipe them out. Nope. He just leaves. So only a handful of people know why he came and only they know why he left. The rest of humanity - including those in charge who could set into motion the changes required - have no idea what happened.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Coming in December 2010

Hardcover:

The Silent Land – Graham Joyce

Seer of Sevenwaters – Juliet Marillier

Songs of the Dying Earth – George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, Ed.

Catacombs – Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

The Bards of Bone Plain – Patricia McKillip

Crossing Over – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Star Wars: Red Harvest – Joe Schreiber

Back to the Moon – Travis Taylor & Les Johnson

Atlantis and Other Places – Harry Turtledove

Trade Paperback:

Sir Dominic Flandry – Poul Anderson

Yarn – Jon Armstrong

Polity Agent – Neal Asher

Dragons Deal – Robert Asprin

Demonstorm – James Barclay

People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy – Peter Beagle, Ed.

Darkwar – Glen Cook

Swordbearer – Glen Cook

Winter Witch – Elaine Cunningham

Star Trek: Stone and Anvil – Peter David

Stoneweilder – Ian Esslemont

Star Trek: Vulcan's Glory – D. C. Fontana (reprint)

The Castings Trilogy – Pamela Freeman

The Stranger – Max Frei

Chicks Ahoy – Esther Freisner, Ed.

Legend – David Gemmell (reprint)

Chicks in Capes – Lori Gentile & Karen O'Brien, Ed.

Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light – David George III

Enemy of my Enemy – Christie Golden

Beloved of the Fallen – Savannah Kline

Cowboy Angels – Paul McAuley

Catalyst – Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Elric: Swords and Roses – Michael Moorcock

Hawkmoon: The Runestaff – Michael Moorcock

Merlin's Ring – H. Warner Munn (reprint)

Army of Shadows – Stan Nicholls

The Topless Tower – Silvina Ocampo

The Witches of Chiswick – Robert Rankin

The Rats and the Ruling Sea – Robert Redick

Galileo's Dream – Kim Stanley Robinson

Forgotten Realms: The Sellswords Omnibus – R. A. Salvatore

The Markhat Files – Frank Tuttle

Battle in the Dawn: The Complete Hok the Mighty – Manly Wade Wellman

Mass Market Paperback:

The Spirit Eater – Rachel Aaron

War Hammer 40K: Prospero Burns – Dan Abnett

The Bone Palace – Amanda Downum

Chaosbound – David Farland

Shadow of a Dark Queen – Raymond Feist

Amortals – Matt Forbeck

Crimson Wind – Diana Pharaoh Francis

Dragon's Ring – Dave Freer

Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Rough Beasts of Empire – David George III

Mad Skills – Walter Greatshell

The Good the Bad and the Uncanny – Simon Green

Taken by the Others – Jess Haines

Starbound – Joe Haldeman

Black Magic Sanction – Kim Harrison

Hellforged – Nancy Holzner

The Iron Palace – Morgan Howell

Dungeons & Dragons: The Seal of Karga Kul – Alex Irvine

Warhammer: Giantslayer – William King

Alien Tango – Gini Koch

The Age of Odin – James Lovegrove

Uprising – Scott Mariani

The Conqueror's Shadow – Ari Marmell

Suicide Kings – George R. R. Martin

Warhammer: Time of Legends: God King – Graham McNeill

Law of the Broken Earth – Rachel Neumeier

Man-Kzin Wars XII – Larry Niven

Dark Waters – Alex Prentiss

The Tuloriad – John Ringo & Tom Kratman

Soul Hunt – Margaret Ronald

The Dracula Tape – Fred Saberhagen

Dungeons & Dragons: Hand of the Hunter – Mark Sehestedt

Engineering Infinity – Jonathan Strahan

The Dark Griffin – K. J. Taylor

Walking the Tree – Kaaron Warren

Torch of Freedom – David Weber

Warhammer: Wulfrik – C. L. Werner

Demon Underground – S. L. Wright