Who wrote The Maze Runner, the first novel in James Dashner’s young-adult series?

James Dashner wrote The Maze Runner, the first novel in his young-adult science-fiction series. Published in 2009, the book opens with Thomas arriving in a mysterious enclosed area called the Glade, where other boys have lost their memories.

The Glade is surrounded by enormous stone walls that form a shifting maze. The boys, known as Gladers, send Runners into the maze to map it and search for an escape route. The arrival of Teresa changes the pattern of events and helps reveal that the situation is part of a larger experiment.

The series continues with The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure, followed by prequel novels. The Maze Runner was adapted into a 2014 film starring Dylan O’Brien as Thomas. The novel is sometimes confused with the film series when discussing dates, but Dashner’s book appeared five years before the first movie.