Topic 3: The Maze by Will Hobbs

Hobbs, Will. 1998. The Maze. New York: Avon Books, Inc. ISBN: 038072913x.

Will Hobbs’ novel THE MAZE takes a young man into an isolated area of the desert to discover “who he is.” When fourteen year old Rick Walker escapes from Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center, he hides in the back of a pick up truck that takes him deep into the Utah desert. In a remote area of canyon known as “THE MAZE,” Rick finds Lon Peregrino, a mysterious scientist studying California Condors. In the bird biologist, Rick finds a kindred spirit, but trouble soon finds both. When two strangers wander through Lon’s camp, it becomes evident that both the birds and the scientist are in danger. Between studying the condors and learning to fly Lon’s hang glider, Rick has to find a way to stay hidden from anyone looking for him and to keep the endangered condors safe.

Will Hobbs uses impressive settings, detailed research and fast paced sentence structure to heighten the emotion and drama of his novel, THE MAZE. The “labyrinthine series of canyons and spores in Utah’s Canyonlands U.S. National Park calls to mind the maze that imprisoned the mythical Daedalus and his son Icarus—characters that Rick has read about while at Blue Canyon.” (Taxel, 82.) In the book, Lon offers the idea that Daedalus actually built “two devices, very much like modern hang gliders.” (Hobbs, 139.) Lon’s theory is that Icarus actually fell out of the sky after flying into and up a thermal. The reason that this detail sticks with the reader is that the condors use the thermals to carry them far from their canyon home. “Hobbs also effectively develops parallels between Rick’s Efforts to master the intricacies of hang-gliding and the struggles of the young condors to fly.” (Taxel, 82.) The chapters are relatively short and easy to read, which helps keep the pace of the story quick and invigorating.

Hobbs also uses names to advance the characterization of the main characters. For example, condors are usually called by numbers, but one of the condors seems to stick out more than just a little. M4 is a male condor who from the time he hatched was just a little of a “maverick.” Deemed unpredictable, Rick suggested that he be called “Maverick” (Hobbs, 64.) Lon stays that to give birds human names is to assign human traits to a wild animal. It is interesting that Rick is a bit of a maverick as well. Lon Peregrino is another example of a name that holds a clue to the characterization of an important person in the story. When Rick finds a picture of Lon as a young man, but the young man’s name is not what he was given. Lon, it turns out, chose his own name after becoming a bird biologist. He chose to name himself after a peregrine falcon. Peregrine means “traveler.”(Hobbs, 146.) Lon is a hang glider who travels over the land using the same thermals that his feathered subjects do, which can carry him for miles over the landscape.

Reference List:

Hobbs, Will. 1998. The Maze. New York: Avon Books, Inc.

Taxel, Joel. 2002. Review of The Maze. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Vol. 46, issue 1 (Sept): 82.