THE GODHEAD COMPLEX

The Flare virus continues to exact a heavy price, as multiple characters discover in this sequel to Maze Cutter (2022).

In a mosaic assemblage of short or multipart chapters that series readers will tolerate without frustration, Dashner sends groups (including no fewer than seven point-of-view characters) on various quests. As Ximena heads north from her Baja village in hopes of finding her tardy mother, escapees from the island of immunes reach the coast and split up so that Sadina can get her ominously sick mom to Villa doctors. Meanwhile, Minho and others make their way to the opener’s titular ship and then on to Alaska to kill (or maybe join) the sacerdotal trio dubbed the Godhead. Meanwhile, said Godhead—Nicholas, Alexandra, and Mikhail—is down to two, as one is left as a decapitated head in a glass box, and the survivors wrestle with different flavors of creeping madness. Presaged by encounters with corpses and the odd stabbing, a horrific medical procedure, and a climactic battle with an army of diseased, zombielike Cranks, the unwieldy company is scattered and on the run: Stay tuned for more rousingly icky developments. The main cast largely reads white, with the exceptions of Ximena, Minho, and Frypan, a long-continuing character who has aged here into Old Man Frypan and was previously described as dark-skinned.

Crowded and pointillistic: still readable but best for confirmed fans.