The Maze Runner (novel)

Dashner, James. The Maze Runner. New York City: Delacorte Press, 2009.[1] First of a series of YA dystopian SF novels[2] (some made into films).[3]

Wikipedia entry on the series sums up the initial premise:

A group of teenagers, who call themselves the "Gladers" are left in a strange place which they call the "Glade". The Glade is surrounded by four doors, leading to the Maze, that close every night at sundown and open in the morning. Beyond the walls of the Glade is the ever-changing Maze, populated by horrifying, biomechanical creatures, called Grievers. Every month, a newcomer[...] joins the Gladers, sent by a lift they call the Box. Each newcomer has all past memories (except language and other common things) wiped out. The only thing that they remember is their name. They are watched by mechanical beetles, called 'beetle blades' which belong to their 'creators'. Each beetle blade has the word "WICKED" stamped across its back. The ultimate goal of the Gladers is to find a way out of the Maze. To do so, certain Gladers called "Runners" venture into the Maze every day, to map it in an attempt to find a pattern in the Maze that would lead them to find an exit.[4]

Discussed by Carl Grafe, "Information Science in Latter-day Saint Theology," in SFRA Review 51.3 (Summer 2021).[5]

The story begins as [... the] protagonists, the teenage “Gladers,” awaken without their memories inside a giant maze world. The maze world is populated by killer cyborg “Grievers” that harass Gladers on a daily basis. Both the maze world and Grievers were obviously constructed by unseen, God-like technocrats. Their motives are unknown, but they clearly intend to impose extreme hardships on the Gladers.

Glader survivors escape the first-book maze only to discover the larger world outside is just another, larger hellscape, full of disease, more danger, and more death. There the Gladers meet other ordinary people trying to survive in that world, and they also meet the God-like technocrats [...].[6]

Cf. and contrast CUBE for initial situation of arriving or awakening in threatening confinement, and THE RUNNING MAN (film) and novel for the runs. See for common motif of cyborgs[7][8] and less common theme of technocracy.[9] For biomechanicals, note Giger's Alien in the ALIEN (film) series[10] and the sentinels in THE MATRIX movies. For insects and mechanism, see Dunn and Erlich on "The Ovion/Cylon Alliance" and related works cited in this wiki.[11]

RDE, finishing, 10Nov21