The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner Series #2) [Hardcover]

James Dashner (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 12, 2010

The second book in the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series—The Scorch Trials is a modern classic for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent.

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Questions for James Dashner

Q: Where was the worst place you’ve ever been lost or trapped? Did you use Thomas-like ingenuity to figure out the problem?
A: Interesting you should ask that, because The Maze Runner saved my life last Halloween! Ok, not really, but close. My son and I went to a corn maze, and we got lost and stuck. It made me realize how mean I am to my characters! I hadn’t been thinking when we entered and I have to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t think I’d get lost in a Halloween corn maze! But as soon as we realized that we had no idea how to get out I used the trick Thomas learned in the first book--turning right no matter what--and sure enough, we got out. I have a lot more respect for corn mazes now!

Q: The Maze Runner has been compared to other popular YA series like The Hunger Games and The Uglies. What do you think of those series? (And what do you think the draw is to post-apocalyptic societies for YA readers?)
A: First, let me start by saying that I love both of those series a lot! I think everyone is attracted to the idea of a post-apocalyptic society because it’s fascinating to imagine what the future could hold, and scary to know that maybe, just maybe, it could really happen. Although we hope not. Or do we?

Seriously, though, there’s so much that teens today have to deal with. Life isn’t as simple as it used to be with media everywhere at all times. And our country has been at war for a huge part of most teenagers’ lives. It’s a reality that kids face these days, and to see that life could go on could be almost reassuring.

Q: How did you come up with the shuckin’ Gladers’ slang? And have you ever accidentally used it in real life?
A: The slang had several purposes, but mainly it was to give the Gladers' language a different flavor. To show how a community can evolve. Not only is it in the future, but they've been isolated as well.

And on a more realistic note, an unsupervised group of boys would definitely be using language that could begin to take over the story itself. I wanted it to be realistic, but not a glossary of bad language. It would have become limiting for the book in terms of readership and, well, I’m a parent!

Q: What made you decide on a solar flare as a catastrophe (vs. all the other apocalyptic scenarios)?
A: I have to admit, I’m somewhat of an apocalypse buff. When I first started working on The Maze Runner I read an article somewhere about solar flares and I was fascinated. Not only were they a unique idea back then, but it seems completely plausible. Solar flares are natural occurrences, and the cycle for larger flares is again approaching. We’ll be seeing larger flares that really do affect things like communication and space travel. I just took things a little farther.

I also didn't want it to be a nuclear holocaust because I think that's overdone. And it doesn’t seem like we’ll need something that violent anymore to cause our own end. We’ve done a great job of making Mother Nature pretty angry!

Q: One thing that always bugged me: Why couldn’t the Gladers climb up and run around on top of the walls? (At least during the day.)
A: There's a part where Thomas asks Minho about that actually. Minho answers that they've tried it and can't get up that far. The maze has a lot of illusion and technology to make it seem bigger than it is. And I wanted the reader to imagine a maze with walls so high that you could never get to the top.

Q: I’ve heard that The Maze Runner might be made into a movie. If it is, what would you like fans of the book to see up there on the screen? Sometimes literary elements can be lost in translation to film--what’s important for you to remain unchanged?
A: I would love to see a movie made! My biggest hope would be that they cast it well, write it well, and really transfer the mystery of it to the big screen, not just the action. Not much to ask, right?

Q: There are a lot of scenes in the first two books with very graphic violence and death both against and initiated by teenagers--why did you choose to make the brutality so prevalent in a YA series?
A: There is a lot of violence, yes. Next question?

Really, though--I wanted to show what a brutal world it has become, and what a desperate situation the Gladers’ are in, so the reader can understand the stakes. If everything is safe, why would the boys want to leave? I also wanted to blur the lines of what is acceptable to survive in such an environment. We’ve been interested in the idea of survival for as long as we’ve been telling stories. And in modern culture, we’ve gone from Swiss Family Robinson, to Lord of the Flies, to Lost...if there’s no law anymore, who’s to say what’s right and wrong?

Q: You ended The Scorch Trials with a cliffhanger to rival the ending of The Empire Strikes Back. What sorts of things can your readers look forward to in The Death Cure?
A: I just turned in the third book, and I'm very proud of it and excited about it. Every last question is resolved, you see much more of the real world, and the ending is not what people may expect but I'm confident they'll be satisfied with the resolution. And lots of twists and action of course!

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From School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up–This dystopian novel begins where The Maze Runner (Delacorte, 2009) ends. Thomas and the rest of the group's escape from the Maze and the horrifying creatures called Grievers has proven to be short-lived because WICKED, the group behind it all, has another trial in store for them. Sun flares have destroyed most of the Earth, and a virus called the Flare has ravaged its population. Infected people turn into zombies called Cranks that attack and eat one other. The kids are told that they have the Flare but if they succeed in surviving the second trial, they will be cured. With few supplies, they must travel across 100 miles of hot and scorched land within two weeks to reach a safe house to receive the cure. When Teresa, Thomas's best friend and the only girl in the group, disappears, and he loses the ability to communicate telepathically with her, he and the other guys determine to find her. As they trek across the barren desert encountering crazed Cranks, the teens' loyalty to one another and the group is tested. The fast-paced narrative and survival-of-the-fittest scenario is reminiscent of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008). Although these characters aren't quite as compelling and their made-up slang takes a little getting used to, each character's personality is distinct. The unresolved ending will leave readers impatiently waiting for the conclusion to the trilogy.–Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780385738750
• ISBN-13: 978-0385738750
• ASIN: 0385738757
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (401 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Dashner is the New York Times bestselling author of The Maze Runner trilogy and The 13th Reality series. Learn more by checking out his website, www.jamesdashner.com.

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#12 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Jaw-Dropping Thriller October 20, 2010

By Nikki (Wicked Awesome Books)

Format:Hardcover

The Scorch Trials picks up right where The Maze Runner left off and it certainly starts with a bang. James Dashner incredibly makes this installment even better than the first. There is non-stop action and unexpected twists and turns in every single chapter. Thomas is once again thrown into this crazy environment, fighting for his life, as well as the lives of his friends.

WICKED is more involved in this one, but we still don't really know much about them. Is WICKED good or is WICKED bad? That really is the question to ask throughout this entire book. Dashner really made me question everything and everyone. Like Thomas, I wasn't sure what to believe.

Be prepared for more than a little creepy action going on because the Cranks sure are terrifying. Dashner vividly describes the pure nastiness that exudes from the zombie-like creatures. The short chapters kept me completely enamored with the story. It was more than a little difficult to put the book down because things just keep on happening. Whenever the action seemed to slow, Dashner did something that had my jaw hanging open. I frequently found myself asking what? How? Why? Why? Why?

Nothing is what it appears in this book and Dashner perfectly captures Thomas' confusion, his anger, his fear, his every emotion about being thrown into this hellish world and trying to come out of it alive and relatively unscathed. His dreams about his memories were one of my favorite aspects about the book and the tiny clues they offered made me want more and more.

The Scorch Trials is a jaw-dropping thriller filled with the most insane and unexpected twists. Dashner will blow your mind with everything that WICKED puts the Gladers through and for every question raised, we get the teeniest insight into what is really going on. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you begging for the final installment.

Opening line: She spoke to him before the world fell apart. ~ pg. 1

Favorite line(s): He didn't care about the others anymore. The chaos around him seemed to siphon away his humanity, turn him into an animal. All he wanted was to survive, make it to that building, get inside. Live. Gain another day. ~ pg. 136

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Killing Time Until The Third Book... December 9, 2010

By Ana Mardoll TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The Scorch Trials / 978-0-385-73875-0

As full disclosure, I wasn't a huge fan of The Maze Runner - gave it 3 stars, if I recall correctly - but I really love dystopia fiction and I really hate not finishing a series, so my curiosity got the best of me and I picked up The Scorch Trials at my local library, prepared to dive back down into the futuristic mind games perpetuated by W.I.C.K.E.D.

First impressions were initially good - the book starts off a lot faster than "The Maze Runner", with disaster setting in almost immediately after the daring rescue of the first novel. It's nice to see a dystopian future come up with a creative merge of massive global climate change and zombies, and it's especially good that we start the first chapters off with a strong and steady dose of creepy-bordering-on-terrifying.

After the first few chapters, though, the paces slows drastically, and the novel starts to suffer from "middle series syndrome". Despite being out of the Maze and immersed in the "real" world, we actually learn very little of the details of this dystopian future, which makes it very difficult for the reader to connect to the global problems that W.I.C.K.E.D. is supposedly trying to solve, which makes it hard to get attached to these increasingly nebulous "experiments" that are somehow supposed to come up with some kind of cure...for something. Around the halfway mark, it starts to feel like we're killing time to get to the end of the book so that we can then get the THIRD book and find out some actual answers, and after awhile one starts to wonder if the ending will be worth it. And then the reader actually does get to the ending, only to find that really one could skip over this second novel entirely and be none the worse for wear - just like the first book: nothing is explained, everything is a mystery, please buy the next book, kthxbye.

Some of the things I didn't like about "The Maze Runner" the first time around crop up again here. Thomas continues to have more than a whiff of Mary Sue about him; way too much angst is expended on the designated love interests (and, really, I think Thomas has more romantic chemistry with Newt than with either of the two girls provided here); and almost the entire "cast" of Gladers are anonymous red-shirts - in fact, whenever anyone other than Minho, Newt, or Thomas is suddenly granted a name and/or minor personality, it's pretty much a given that they're about to die horribly for insta-angst. I understand that it's difficult to write a group of 20+ well-rounded individuals, but Thomas' continued insistence on not learning the names or personalities of the people fighting and dying around him starts to inadvertently make him seem like a psychopath or - immersion-breakingly - the only important character in a story.

I guess a recommendation for The Scorch Trials depends on your reaction to The Maze Runner; if you loved the first book and want more of the same, this sequel delivers. If you were less than completely enthralled with the first novel, however, and are more interested in answers than in dragging out the Thomas/Theresa love shipping, I'd recommend giving this book a pass and skipping over to the third book entirely. I didn't feel like it was a waste of time reading this novel, and there were definitely several high notes in the first half, but I just can't help but feel that it could be a lot better with a little less ham-handed "mystery" and a little more character development.

A word about the audiobook for this novel: The audiobook is fairly well-narrated. The reader paces and pauses well, although his voice could perhaps be a little more animated during the "action" scenes. My favorite parts are when he speaks as Newt, because he brings out this wonderfully outrageous accent that I suppose is meant to be Scottish. Overall, though, the audio is well done and worth listening to.

~ Ana Mardoll

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Leaves you scratching your head and chomping at the bit to read on. October 18, 2010

By Christy

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Food to eat while reading: Scorched Crème Brulee ([...])

I am not usually a fan of middle books in a series, but this middle book in The Maze Runner series reads like a great beginning--all over again.

What I liked:

The setting kept changing and with each new place came dangers, creatures and people that kept me on the edge of my seat.

The main characters remained consistent and believable, yet they changed and grew from their experiences, like good little characters should. In fact, I almost cheered at the end for Thomas on the last page when he makes a difficult decision. Hooray for characters that change and show us that we can too.

Brenda, and Jorge are a great addition to the cast. They throw more variables into the equation and complicate the trials. And I love that Dashner introduced a second love interest for Thomas. Let the cat fights begin!

The balance of intrigue in this story is perfect. The questions and answers are braided together so that I am always wondering what will happen, but satisfied by the questions I have already received. Dashner has gained my trust, and though I still have unanswered questions, I am willing to read through quite a bit before I get the answers because I know that he will deliver.

I am eager to see why all of these horrible things are happening to these kids and how Thomas had a hand in creating the trials that he now is subjected to. I have an idea of why the variables are there and what the patterns are for, but I am content to wait until 2011 for The Death Cure.

I can't wait to see this on the movie screen-it will lend itself easily to media.

What I would have changed:

The Scorch Trials is quite a bit more violent than The Maze Runner. My son is currently reading the first book and I am unsure about giving him the second one just yet.

It bothered me that Aris' character is so underdeveloped. He mozies along with the Gladers, only showing spunk when he is required to act out a role for WICKED. Perhaps the author has hidden Aris from us for a reason and we will see his character unfurl in The Death Cure.

Much of the jeopardy was killed for me by a scene in the middle of the book. I just didn't worry so much for Thomas' safety and that led to a loss of intensity.

The verdict:

The Scorch Trials is an excellent addition to the very popular dystopian genre. It will leave you scratching your head and chomping at the bit to read on.