I loved this series....I may have liked it more than The Hunger Games series though I would probably have a pretty good fight on my hands if that information go out....so keep it to yourself. I listened to The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials, but was not prepared to wait for my library to acquire The Death Cure to find out the fate of Thomas, Minho (my favorite), Newt, Teresa, Brenda and the others. The first book opens with Thomas waking up in a box from which he is soon released finding himself without a memory and surrounded by teenage boys. The premise of the protagonist in a new place with no memory that puts him on equal footing with reader is not new, but Dashner's dystopia (Inquirey: Why doesn't spell chcek recognize the word dystopia?) is certainly unique. Before I read these, people had said they were similar to The Hunger Games books, but not so. Outside of living in a dystopia a few other superficial details, I did not really see much they have in common.
As I am a purist, I do tend to get a bit upset when my core group of characters is infiltrated by a stream of newbies, which happened in both books two and three. Luckily most of these characters fit well into the story and did not feel like "add-ins." There were some elements of The Death Cure (book 3) that did not thrill me, but I was more than satisfied with the ending. There was no slow down and wrap up, Dashner kept the action and suspense high right until the very last moment.