Jean, 39, lover of sci-fi, horror and fantasy, reader of comic books, conqueror of genre fiction.
Good that! The extremely rare sequel that far outshines its predecessor. While I saw the promise and potential of The Maze Runner, I thought the execution was lacking. Just a bit. That was fixed her. Perfectly suspenseful, paced and characterized, The Scorch Trials moves the series along dramatically without feeling like a middle installment, a bridge to hold up the first and last part of the entirety of the story.
I admit, the setting was more my aesthetic: a burned out city turned into a desert, zombie-like infected, and a personal sense of shifting alliances and heartbreak. It does what almost no sequel, in my opinion, has done successfully and introduces new characters that I actually like and care about, and am able to read about without resenting the fact that they're taking up space and time.
Tight, from beginning to end, and surprising in its gray-area morality and decisions. Quite excellent.