Alternate Realities: A Scifi Book Club discussion

How did you feel about Thomas and Theresa's psychic connection?

I'm about 2/3 into the book now, and I'm liking it less and less – the voices in the head being one of the main reasons.

Telepathy is a pretty shallow and lazy idea in general, making literature where it appears look shallow and lazy, too. 'The Maze Runner' better have a bloody good explanation for it somewhere in the end.

Finished it, and it has disappointed me (no idea why it has a 4.01 average on Goodreads, the book is in no way this good).

I'm assuming it's somehow explained in the rest of the series, but telepathy here is a particularly smelly entry in the list of unsubtle 'rifles on the wall' and 'this is convenient for me, so it's in the book' that the author uses (another striking example is the Sleeping Beauty which is clearly there 'until the right moment comes').

What's particularly annoying is that the novel isn't independent – the last 15% of it is an excessively long 'watch us next week, same Maze-time, same Maze-channel' sequence. Compare it to our previous book of the month, Oryx and Crake, where the ending is quite full and satisfying, but it still leaves momentum for the sequel.

I agree, I hate when the whole purpose of the book is to set up a series. Series almost always disappoint and usually have one book that just drags along for way too long to take up space until the cool stuff can happen in the next book.

I thought that over all, The Maze Runner was a decent read, but I DID NOT like the psychic connection between Thomas and Theresa. It obviously was meant to force them together, therefore giving the main character the opportunity to create romance with the ONLY girl. It felt forced and fake, so yeah.

Budd wrote: "I agree, I hate when the whole purpose of the book is to set up a series. Series almost always disappoint and usually have one book that just drags along for way too long to take up space until the cool stuff can happen in the next book. "

I personally find series enjoyable sometimes (although I agree completely on the mandatory boring book somewhere in the middle), but 'Maze Runner' aims for a series way too blatantly – the book offers tonnes of questions and provides no answers at all (beyond the obvious) – this is just cheap.

Ashli wrote: "I thought that over all, The Maze Runner was a decent read, but I DID NOT like the psychic connection between Thomas and Theresa. It obviously was meant to force them together, therefore giving the main character the opportunity to create romance with the ONLY girl. It felt forced and fake, so yeah. "

Oh yes, that's right, the Sleeping Beauty is also a Smurfette.

I also wonder how the 'special' connection (not just the telepathy) between Thomas and Teresa is explained later in the series, but I somehow suspect that it's completely unimpressive.