BY KIYAN HARRIS
If you're looking for another perspective on a science-fiction, post-apocalyptic, dystopian universe, then you'd find it in James Dashner's The Maze Runner. Unfortunately, however, you may not like what you find. Spoilers ahead, for those who care.
The protagonist is introduced, disoriented and confused, when he wakes up in a rapidly elevating metal Box of Doom, with no personal memory other than his first name, Thomas. Despite my personal opinion being that the novel came across as a bit unprogressive and boring, Dasher's take on memory loss in the novel did interest me -- particularly the fact that all of the people who suffered memory loss seemed to remember the concept of what things are, but recall nothing that belonged to them personally. For example, they could remember what pizza was, but couldn't remember a time when they had any. (Obviously this was a cool concept to me, as I am a huge science fiction nerd.)
When the metal Box of Doom finally comes to a stop, Thomas is greeted by a brigade of about fifty teenage boys ranging in age from 13 to 18. Thomas is told briefly that he has arrived to a place called the "Glade," an expanse of land the size of several football fields set in the middle of a giant maze, conveniently infested with giant killer monsters called "Buggers."
Anyone so unfortunate as to encounter one of these half-cyborg, half-bug creations becomes sick, their skin turns green and scaley, and they develop a high fever. (Then death, obviously.) BUT LUCKILY! There is a cure, which does a whole bunch of weird things to the person who gets injected. They call this unappetizing process "The Changing." (Ominous, right?)
"The Changing" consists of going completely insane (depending on the person), undergoing a complete personality change (as in, turning into a complete *word that is inappropriate for a school paper), and, apparently, getting some of your memories back? For instance, (spoiler alert? Although if you're still reading at this point...) some of the boys who go through "The Changing" say they saw Thomas in a lot of the memories they retained, and apparently they weren't the best memories, either. Obviously, this puts Thomas on a couple of boys' bad sides.
Thomas is in the Glade all but a day before everything goes to, well... everything.
He finds out about the Runners -- boys who run through the maze trying to solve it -- which in the long run (no pun intended), you don't really see a lot of despite it being, you know, the name of the book. Thomas develops a kind of obsession with them and feels like he belongs in the maze (Yeah, I don't know either). He also nearly dies twice, someone is exiled to certain death in the maze, and your stock Mysterious Girl shows up, apparently very important, even though she barely does anything (cue inner sigh of disappointment in weak female character construction).
It is weird that she shows up though, given that she is the only girl that has ever been sent in the maze and she is also the first person that has showed up immediately after someone else has. (That didn't make sense. You wanna know why? Because IT DIDN'T IN THE BOOK, EITHER.) The author doesn't tell you that one boy shows up per month, or that supplies appear weekly, until the book is halfway over. Had Dasher told us this earlier in the novel, I might have been able to let my mind ponder the possibilities of why they are in the maze. I might have gotten hooked. (I mean, it could be a sort of Hunger Games deal, and these boys are being used for entertainment! Or maybe it's some kind of sick science experiment! But none of this matters because the author left the things that pull people into a story until the very end of the book!)
Another thing that really bothered me (spoiler alert, blah blah, you don't care so don't pretend) is the random telepathic connection he gives Thomas and Teresa / Mysterious Girl (at least she has a name!). It felt like he finished the book, re-read it, and thought, "You know what this needs? UNEXPLAINED MAGICAL POWERS."
To be honest, the plot could have done without it. Maybe it'll mean something in the sequels, but for right now, it's just a mess.
So, yeah, a few more things happen: the sky turns gray, supplies stop coming, Thomas is put in time-out for a day, a few people die, there's some discoveries, Teresa continues being useless. In the spirit of generosity, I won't spoil anything else for you, but I think you know what to expect from the ending -- excitement, action, Various Ominous Things, some deaths. Thank you, post-apocalyptic world-ending, dystopian-sci-fi teen books.
If you're looking for another perspective on a science-fiction, post-apocalyptic, dystopian universe, then you'd find it in James Dashner's The Maze Runner. Unfortunately, however, you may not like what you find. Spoilers ahead, for those who care.
The protagonist is introduced, disoriented and confused, when he wakes up in a rapidly elevating metal Box of Doom, with no personal memory other than his first name, Thomas. Despite my personal opinion being that the novel came across as a bit unprogressive and boring, Dasher's take on memory loss in the novel did interest me -- particularly the fact that all of the people who suffered memory loss seemed to remember the concept of what things are, but recall nothing that belonged to them personally. For example, they could remember what pizza was, but couldn't remember a time when they had any. (Obviously this was a cool concept to me, as I am a huge science fiction nerd.)
When the metal Box of Doom finally comes to a stop, Thomas is greeted by a brigade of about fifty teenage boys ranging in age from 13 to 18. Thomas is told briefly that he has arrived to a place called the "Glade," an expanse of land the size of several football fields set in the middle of a giant maze, conveniently infested with giant killer monsters called "Buggers."
Anyone so unfortunate as to encounter one of these half-cyborg, half-bug creations becomes sick, their skin turns green and scaley, and they develop a high fever. (Then death, obviously.) BUT LUCKILY! There is a cure, which does a whole bunch of weird things to the person who gets injected. They call this unappetizing process "The Changing." (Ominous, right?)
"The Changing" consists of going completely insane (depending on the person), undergoing a complete personality change (as in, turning into a complete *word that is inappropriate for a school paper), and, apparently, getting some of your memories back? For instance, (spoiler alert? Although if you're still reading at this point...) some of the boys who go through "The Changing" say they saw Thomas in a lot of the memories they retained, and apparently they weren't the best memories, either. Obviously, this puts Thomas on a couple of boys' bad sides.
Thomas is in the Glade all but a day before everything goes to, well... everything.
He finds out about the Runners -- boys who run through the maze trying to solve it -- which in the long run (no pun intended), you don't really see a lot of despite it being, you know, the name of the book. Thomas develops a kind of obsession with them and feels like he belongs in the maze (Yeah, I don't know either). He also nearly dies twice, someone is exiled to certain death in the maze, and your stock Mysterious Girl shows up, apparently very important, even though she barely does anything (cue inner sigh of disappointment in weak female character construction).
It is weird that she shows up though, given that she is the only girl that has ever been sent in the maze and she is also the first person that has showed up immediately after someone else has. (That didn't make sense. You wanna know why? Because IT DIDN'T IN THE BOOK, EITHER.) The author doesn't tell you that one boy shows up per month, or that supplies appear weekly, until the book is halfway over. Had Dasher told us this earlier in the novel, I might have been able to let my mind ponder the possibilities of why they are in the maze. I might have gotten hooked. (I mean, it could be a sort of Hunger Games deal, and these boys are being used for entertainment! Or maybe it's some kind of sick science experiment! But none of this matters because the author left the things that pull people into a story until the very end of the book!)
Another thing that really bothered me (spoiler alert, blah blah, you don't care so don't pretend) is the random telepathic connection he gives Thomas and Teresa / Mysterious Girl (at least she has a name!). It felt like he finished the book, re-read it, and thought, "You know what this needs? UNEXPLAINED MAGICAL POWERS."
To be honest, the plot could have done without it. Maybe it'll mean something in the sequels, but for right now, it's just a mess.
So, yeah, a few more things happen: the sky turns gray, supplies stop coming, Thomas is put in time-out for a day, a few people die, there's some discoveries, Teresa continues being useless. In the spirit of generosity, I won't spoil anything else for you, but I think you know what to expect from the ending -- excitement, action, Various Ominous Things, some deaths. Thank you, post-apocalyptic world-ending, dystopian-sci-fi teen books.