High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Maze Runner is the first book in a young-adult dystopian science fiction trilogy of the same name by James Dashner. The novel was published October 2009 by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House. The book is currently being shopped as a possible film project. James Dashner announced in November 2011 that he was writing a prequel to The Maze Runner titled The Kill Order, which was released August 14, 2012.