Fortified with their overwhelming verbal support, Megog dipped his muscled shoulder and shot forward. Quickly I dodged to the right, but he had anticipated my very move and crashed straight into my chest. He had guessed my path of escape. With a loud thud, my back slammed the mat and my head bounced off the hard rubber surface. Starbursts of pain rocketed through my brain like a meteor shower. I lay there dazed, unable to move.

The crowd jumped to their feet and cheered Megog had executed a brilliant combination move. This society's love of violence in sport was particularly keen.

Pulling myself to my knees, I couldn't breathe. My eyes refused to focus and all I could see was a colorful kaleidoscope of fuzzy objects. My head felt like it was in a hot steel vice that someone was tightening. Again, I gasped for air, but none came. I knew what would happen next and tried to raise my arms to defend myself, but my body rebelled. My brain couldn't activate my muscles. "Dear Jesus," was all I could say before I fell to the mat in an unconscious heap.

In the year 2010 a cataclysmic event on Earth renders maps and governments obsolete. All technological gains enjoyed at the beginning of the twenty-first century are lost, and life on Earth reverts back to the Middle Ages. Over the next couple centuries, kingdoms fielding medieval armies sprout where governments once flourished, and barbarians rule both ocean and land with iron fists.

Four hundred years after the world is changed forever, hope burns brightly on a small inaccessible island in the middle of the New Ocean. Within the confines of a ring of fourteen thousand foot mountains, a few hundred children live in what appears to be a utopian paradise. Unaware of the evil lurking just over the mountains, they naively enjoy technological gadgets only dreamed of at the end of the twenty-first century.

The driving force behind all of the technological advancement on the island is the once-in-a-millennium genius named George. With two friends, George sets out from the island in search of lost comrades. Their simple mission quickly morphs into much more after they befriend the good people of New Wales and become entangled with the evil king Tabour.

It's a tale of incompetence in the face of adversity.

Or is it a story of adversity in the face of incompetence?

Well, anyway, there's a robot, a giant monster, a line of evil toys, a mind control plot, sub-orbital death beams, kidnappers, bad movies, a super powered gang, an usurper, and a maniacal villain hell-bent on world domination.

Not all at once, though. I mean, really, could you imagine coordinating the fight scene? Or reading it? You'd have to take notes just to keep track of who hit what and why.

A prequel to the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series - now a series of major movies starring Dylan O'Brien! SEE THE FILMS. READ THE BOOKS. ENTER THE MAZE ... When sun flares hit the Earth, intense heat, toxic radiation and flooding followed, wiping out much of the human race. Those who survived live in basic communities in the mountains, hunting for food. For Mark and his friends, surviving is difficult, and then an enemy arrives, infecting people with a highly contagious virus. Thousands die, and the virus is spreading. Worse, it's mutating, and people are going crazy. It's up to Mark and his friends to find the enemy - and a cure - before the Flare infects them all .. A prequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling MAZE RUNNER series! Can be read as a prequel to the series, or as a standalone Maze Runner novel The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure are all major films available to stream on Disney+ High-octane, dystopian YA adventure, perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent Five pulse-pounding books in the series! Loved The Kill Order? Check out The Fever Code - a direct prequel to The Maze Runner!

By the twenty-second century, human heedlessness and natural disasters have led to a world where the air is unsafe to breathe, the soil will grow nothing but kudzu, and wars will never end. Crowded together in domed communities, growing food in greenhouses, and living under martial law, people go about their lives, working at their jobs and caring for their families while striving to make the world a better place for their children.

Hundreds of young volunteers come together for a dome-raising project in South Carolina. It's love at first sight for seventeen-year-old Michael Travis when he sees a graceful weaver floating lightly in her antigravity belt above the giant dome. When he learns that she was born on the far side of the Moon, he is determined to meet her and share his dreams of living on Mars.

More than a tale of survival, "Weavers of the Crystal Domes" is a salute to the resilience and ingenuity of our species, a coming-of-age story set in the world of the future.

Grandfather Frog has a hard time keeping a straight face -- for Buster Bear has outsmarted that rash Little Joe Otter! But then along comes Farmer Brown's boy, and --

"'Twas just a sudden odd surprise"
"Made Farmer Brown's boy's hair to rise!"

And now who's outsmarting whom?

Readers will take joy as their familiar friends -- Billy Mink, Blacky the Crow, Jerry Muskrat, and Sammy Jay -- tangle and cavort in the magical woodland of Thornton Burgess.

It's graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. All Cia can think about-hope for-is whether she'll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization. When Cia is chosen, her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing. Armed with his dire warnings ("Cia, trust no one"), she bravely heads off to Tosu City, far away from friends and family, perhaps forever ...

Cia Vale is now seventeen and has everything she ever dreamed of: a boy she loves, a place at the University and a future as one of the leaders of the United Commonwealth. The Testing should be nothing more than a blank space in her mind; an achievement to be celebrated, and then forgotten. But Cia remembers. As further evidence of the government's murderous programmes comes to light, Cia must choose whether to stay silent and protect herself and her loved ones, or expose The Testing for what it is. Above all, the University is a dangerous place, and Cia must remember the advice her father gave her: TRUST NO ONE. Second instalment of this critically acclaimed futuristic trilogy.