The Maze Runner: Book 1: The Maze Runner

            The Maze Runner, by James Dashner, is a great book. A boy named Thomas wakes up in the lift, remembering little more than his name. When he reaches the top and the doors open, he finds fifty to sixty other boys waiting for him. They explain that every thirty days the lift opens and a new boy comes out and that they are in a large football stadium sized room called the glade in the middle of a gigantic maze. If they solve the maze, they think they can leave, but they’ve been trying for two years and no solution has come up. Worse still, if you get trapped in the maze at night, creatures called Grievers kill you.

            I really like this book because it is action packed and is very mysterious. At the end of every chapter you just want to keep reading and finish the book. It has great characters and puts you in a mindset that you are just as confused as Thomas. It plays out very well and I love it. Other books in the series are The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure. There is also a prequel called The Kill Order.

Skyship Academy: Book 1: The Pearl Wars

            Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars, by Nick James, is a great book. On an Earth where most of the planet is scorching hot desert, humanities last chance is the Pearls: small, mysterious spheres that fall from the sky which have the capabilities to power entire cities. The Skyship dwellers–political rebels that live in city-sized ships in the atmosphere–and the corrupt Surface government are fighting for control over them. When Jesse Fisher, a Skyship student, and Cassius Stevenson, a Surface operative, come across each other, they trigger something that could reveal a secret about the pearls.

            I love this book. It starts smoothly and doesn't seem to drag along at any point. It is probably one of my favorite books of all time. I found absolutely nothing bad to say about it. It's just that good. My favorite character is a spoiler, but if you read the book you'll know who I'm talking about. There are two other books in the series, neither of which I've read. They are Crimson Rising and Strikeforce.

The Missing: Book 5: Caught

            The Missing: Caught, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, is a book that continues The Missing. Jonah and Katherine were sitting in class thinking that nothing weird could happen again, when time stops.  They have a short chat with JB, about a couple seconds long, before they go flying back in Time. The source of their problem originates in a bad job of returning Albert Einstein's secret daughter, Lieserl. Jonah and Katherine's situation gets worse though, Einstein's wife seems to have noticed them and will do anything to keep her daughter.

             I like this book. It starts taking shape in the first chapter. It starts quickly and keeps going, and I like books like that. The rest of the story is immersive and interesting. It has several parts were I couldn't stop reading and several parts that were like reading a textbook, but it keeps going throughout every chapter. It stops just before the last chapter, and then sets the scene for the next book just as the previous one did for this book. There isn't anything that I dislike about it. The books in this series are Found, Sent, Sabotaged, Torn, Caught, Risked, Revealed (March 2014), and Redeemed (Fall 2015).

The Missing: Book 4: Torn

            The Missing: Torn, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, is a great conclusion to Sabotaged. Jonah and Katherine must quickly recover from 1600 Roanoke Island in order to face their new situation. They are in 1611 now and are moments before a mutiny on the Discovery, Henry Hudson's ship in the frozen seas of the James Bay. They struggle to survive as they realize that something is wrong. The history they learned in school is different than what they're in. Jonah and Katherine try to save the future as they uncover the mysterious secrets of 1611 and the Hudson Passage.

            I really enjoyed this book, but it had a slow start. It just did not seem like it would turn into an immersive story, but it did. By the end, it was a great book that wraps up Sabotaged. Katherine is really awkward in this book, but it is fun to read. The books in the series are, in order, Found, Sent, Sabotaged, Torn, and Caught.

The Missing: Book 3: Sabotaged

            The Missing: Sabotaged, by Margaret Peterson, is a good book that continues the series The Missing. The person that has to go back in Time this time is the level-headed Andrea, or Virginia Dare, the first English settler born in the "New World." But, as fate would have it, Jonah, Katherine, and Andrea, along with a dog named Dare, lose the Elucidator and have no idea where, or when, they landed. As they struggle to survive with little food, water, or knowledge of the terrain, they discover what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke.

            This is an amazing book that will suck you into the story. The characters have to solve problems that nobody could predict and they ask questions that they didn't know they had. The book sets the stage for the next book, which takes place a few seconds after this one. Sabotaged is just the perfect sequel to Sent–it also continues the story of Jonah and Katherine. The series includes Found, Sent, Sabotaged, Torn, and Caught.

The Missing: Book 2: Sent

            The Missing: Sent, by Margaret Peterson, is a great sequel to The Missing: Found. Sent continues pretty much exactly where Found on left off. Jonah, Katherine, Chip, and Alex land in a different time and place, a time where Jonah and Katherine don't belong, but Chip and Alex do. They experience many things that Chip and Alex would have done if they were never kidnapped from Time. Chip and Alex actually turn out to be princes from the fifteenth century, and people are coming to murder them! Jonah and Katherine have to think fast and find out how to use the Elucidator, a time-travel device, or else Chip and Alex might die.

            I enjoyed reading this book. It flows smoothly and has just the right amount of plot twist that a Sci-Fi book should have. It doesn't have any problems that I noticed. My favorite character is Katherine because she is the bratty little sister that many people have. All of the books in this series are called Found, Sent, Sabotaged, Torn, and Caught.

The Missing: Book 1: Found

            The Missing: Found, by Margaret Peterson, is a great start to the series The Missing.  It is very mysterious and doesn't answer many questions.  That's what the rest of the series is for.  This book is just the one that asks the questions.  It is about adoptees, and others, that must find their way back to where they belong.  If they each don't find their way back, Time may fall apart.  It is a Sci-fi book that doesn't seem like one.  It is based on the fact that the main character Jonah and his friend Chip have no idea who they really are.  They eventually find thirty two other kids just like them.  The book ends with a cliff-hanger, so buy the second book before you finish this one.

            My one problem with this story is that it is more mystery than Sci-fi.  The entirety of the book is just them talking about a thing that they got.  They are pretty creative, but it's not like their getting anywhere.  Most of their theories are debunked at the end of the story.  This makes most of what they do pointless.  If just one of their theories was right, this story would be much better and not as pointless.

            As much as I don't like that, there is a reason for it.  The story of this book is just setting stuff up for the next one, and the author had to show how little they know.  In this series, my favorite character is Jonah's younger sister Katherine.  She is just so weird and she makes fun of Jonah a lot, and vice-versa.  She may not like Jonah that much, but she knows when to get serious and when to tease her older brother.  The rest of the books are called Sent, Sabotaged, Torn, and Caught.