Very young adult

I watched the movie for the Maze Runner and really enjoyed it. I downloaded all of the audible books in the series barring the prequel. I've been listening to all three for days wanting to get to the end to get answers and find out how Dashner would pull it all together. Perhaps I'm too old for this particular series but I found it lacking. The story line - particularly for the death cure was quite cheesy and the writing wasn't very sophisticated. The underlying story wasn't terrible but there are much better books available. It felt like it was written to specifically become a Hollywood action movie. Instead of being a solid story it relied on gore and constant action/suspense that became tedious after a while. Some of the interactions between Thomas and his love interest were particularly cringeworthy and like others have said by the end you just don't feel very invested in anyone. The Maze Runner had some compelling aspects but the story become so outrageous and absurd by the last book that I was mostly just trying to finish it. It wasn't the worst book I've read/listened to but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. Hopefully Hollywood can make something out of the final books. We'll see.

30 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Disappointing effort

I got the feeling that the target age for this series went backward with every book. And the story went with it. What had been a tight story in the Maze Runner completely devolved with this book, a pattern that had been started with the second book but became just unbearable with this one. I thought the second book was just the typical "middle book boring cross-over" that would still set up an interesting finish but it was not to be. It actually got worse. While in the second book there were scenes that at least poignant there is nothing like that here.Characters do things that don't make any sense in this book, there are constant contradictions, they go to places for no good reason, we spend inordinate amounts of time taking about what to eat, and every scene just feels so contrived. The language itself gets more simplistic, along with the scenes and the by now non-story. The narrator, not a great one to start with, does the best he can nonetheless, but even trapped in a truck on a drive from dc to anchorage I still got bored and irritated. Just a really disappointing development of a story that had started quite well in my opinion. If you haven't read the second book I would recommend saving your time and the credits for the second and third book and just stick to the maze runner

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The big let down

Would you try another book from James Dashner and/or Mark Deakins?

I might try another book. The first two books where good. The third book was not bad till about the last 12 chapters, at this point the book train wrecks and I have to wonder if he was coerced to changing the ending by the editor. The ending of the book, and in this case the series was completed incorrectly.

What was most disappointing about James Dashner’s story?

The final book ended in a let down. Some times the hero of the story is not the hero because he stands up against the man. Some times he is the hero because he sees what needs to be done and at cost of his life he saves the world...

Have you listened to any of Mark Deakins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not but I like his voice and I will keep my eyes open for more of his reading

Do you think The Death Cure needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

If it does get a follow up I will be very sketchy about listening to it. The way that the Death cute ends was not at all with the way his other books worked out

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

This book sucks

Would you try another book from James Dashner and/or Mark Deakins?

No. I would have after The Maze Runner but not now. The cracks in this great story formed in The Scorch Trials which I still liked but this book just fell apart. With nothing to add to anything other than "woah, look how crazy this thing is!"

What was most disappointing about James Dashner’s story?

Look, I'm not the target audience on this one. I get it. But a story being good or bad is really independent of that. It felt as though James had no other ideas for the second two books other than bigger, badder, more more more than the book previous. You liked grievers? How about sword pus monsters? Oh, you liked that? How about grievers again? No, James. No more. No more insanity. There were so many things in this book that didn't make any since I was convinced they were in a simulation as the end approached. But no, it was all real... and stupid.

What about Mark Deakins’s performance did you like?

It was fine.

Did The Death Cure inspire you to do anything?

It inspired me to stop recommending The Maze Runner to people.

Any additional comments?

Ug, no.

7 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

A little disappointing!

Any additional comments?

The Death Cure was the book that I hoped would tie it all together. Unfortunately it didn't.

The first two books in this series were interesting, but they're the kind of books that are only good if the final book is good. And maaaaannn...talk about a disappointment. I don't want to give any spoilers, but what the heck James Dashner!? You totally chose the easy way out in writing this book. It felt like the author painted an portrait that he didn't know quite how to finish. Which is probably why he followed up this "trilogy" with a prequel, which I won't be buying.

I don't want to rail on this book or Dashner too much, I just felt like the last book was a let down.

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Sometimes it helps to plan a book before you write

The long awaited Death Cure seemed to have been pulled out of James Dashner's left butt cheek four minutes before publication. I loved Maze Runner, wasn't too thrilled with Scorch Trials. Death Cure made me want to catch the flare. The storyline was all over the place, not once making a darn bit of sense. It felt like Dashner wasn't really ready to write the last bit of the trilogy. He certainly couldn't have planned it this way. If he did, then maybe he needs to check his Kool Aid packets. At the risk of a few spoilers....


First, they say that Thomas has the flare. Then they tell him he's immune. Then they say they'll give him his memory back. And after all this time of wanting his memory back, he suddenly changes his mind. Huh? Wasn't that the whole point of the first two books? What's worse is that his friends got their memories back and never reveal their findings. All the kids are with Wicked. Then they decide to have a lovely trip to Denver. Nothing happens in Denver, so they go back to Wicked. I mean, it was like Dashner was making it up as he went along. The characters didn't even know what to do. That is one of my pet peeves, when a character stands there saying "I didn't know what to do....I knew I should do something but didn't know what." Characters should ALWAYS know what to do. They have an author to tell them. If the character doesn't know what to do, then the author failed. I mean, figure it out BEFORE you write the book. Anyway, I felt like Dashner just gave up, like he got bored with his own story and just wrote whatever to get it over with. He even ended it with a happily ever after scene, which added perfect ambiguity to an already senseless storyline. It was a major disappointment. I almost hope for a fourth book just so the author can make ammends to his loyal fans.

On a positive note, however, Mark Deakins did a fabulous job as narrator.

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A very unsatisfying end

I said that the first book was satisfying despite being formulaic and that was mostly due to the wonderful characters. I guess while writing, Dashner decided to chuck all those great character beats out the window and give us this? I feel like Dashner didn't know how to end it at all. It really is a shame and everyone on this publishing team is responsible for letting it happen. I hope the movies take great liberties and deliver us a much better conclusion than this book did.

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Ugh ... Totally Disappointing Conclusion to Series

** THIS IS A REVIEW FOR THE AUDIO VERSION OF THE BOOK ***

BOOK DESCRIPTION

SPOILER ALERT: This review assumes you have read the first two books in this trilogy. If you haven’t, then I wouldn’t read this review.

With the Maze Trials and the Scorch Trials finished, WICKED (personified by The Rat Man) is ready to give Groups A and B their memories back and finish the blueprint for a cure for the Flare. Yet Thomas and his friends (most notably Newt and Minho) are so distrustful of WICKED that they opt to attempt an escape instead. With Teresa and the others ready to get their memories back and trust WICKED, Thomas, Newt and Minho find themselves on their own, accompanied by Brenda and Jorge. As they flee WICKED and head to Denver, more details about this new Flare-infested world begin to reveal themselves, and Thomas has some difficult decisions to make.

MY THOUGHTS

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN AFTER I READ THE BOOK BUT BEFORE I FOUND OUT SOME CRITICAL INFORMATION:

Shame on you, James Dashner! I was disappointed with how you chose to conclude the series. I kept waiting and waiting for Thomas to get his memory back and tell us everything about his involvement with WICKED and then you copped out! Color me disappointed. Perhaps you weren’t too sure yourself and decided to just skip over the nitty-gritty details, but, as a reader, I wanted to know the full back story, and it annoyed me when I didn’t get it.

About two-thirds of the way through, when I realized that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted in this book, I’ll admit that I kind of checked out. The format of one close call after another started to annoy me. Ending almost every single chapter with a cliffhanger began to grate on my nerves, and I realized that I didn’t care all that much about Thomas or his friends anymore. And when you started dispatching characters left and right, I let them go with nary a tear. In the end, this was a trilogy that started strong and got steadily weaker. Blech.

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN AFTER I FOUND OUT SOME CRITICAL INFORMATION:

OK, James Dashner. Now I’m really pissed. At first when I finished your trilogy, I thought you just couldn’t come up with the back story about Thomas’s relationship with WICKED. You kept teasing us and teasing us but never delivered the goods. Then, Alyce at At Home With Books filled me in on WHY we didn’t get the payoff promised throughout the trilogy: You’re writing a prequel (The Kill Order) and doing a money grab and stretching out the “trilogy” with another book! Shame shame shame!! I really feel that you copped out and saw that, once The Maze Runner was a big hit, that you could stretch this all out and get another book out of it. That is why Thomas never chooses to get his memories back, isn’t it? Well, I think that sucks. And I won’t be buying The Kill Order. I’m done with this series. You owed us the full story and you held it back and gave us a mediocre, unsatisfying third book and I say “Boo on that.” Harumph.

P.S. I don’t know if you can see it, but the book cover for The Death Cure says “The Final Book of the Maze Runner Trilogy.” To which I say, “bulls**t!”

About the Narration: Mark Deakins was the narrator and did an OK job. He did a good job giving various characters different voices (Newt with an Irish accent??) I didn’t have any real problems with the narration … just the book itself.

28 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Disappointed

I gave it three stars because I like the first two books. Wow. This book was a snore. I really liked the first two books but this one lost me. By the end I had lost all investment in the characters. He could have killed them all off and I would not have cared.

18 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

so so

What did you like best about The Death Cure? What did you like least?

I liked nothing in this one they seem to be getting worse and worse...

Did The Death Cure inspire you to do anything?

yes give up on the series...

Any additional comments?

Couldn't get through it... Will never know the ending and really don't care.

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