Fans pick 89 books like Maze

In this science fantasy novel, humans, like horses, are used as riding mounts by a race of weak-legged aliens who have taken over Earth centuries earlier. Charley is a mount and, like most other humans, content with his role, prideful even. However, when he meets his father, an escaped mount leading assaults on the human stables, he is forced to confront the slave/master relationship he has always relied upon. Unique and utterly fascinating, The Mount is guaranteed to keep readers entranced.

Part graphic novel, part brain teaser, The Lying Carpet is about a statue of a little girl that awakens in a grand, strange house. Her name is Faith and she wishes to know how she came to be, and the only one who can tell her is a lying carpet in the shape of a tiger who offers her numerous and confounding possibilities. A great introduction to philosophy and a story for readers of all ages, a book to be opened again and again and again. A timeless classic.

My son’s a young adult now, but I treasure the memories of the hours we spent reading together. We went down all the well-trodden paths and shared countless joyful hours with J.K. Rowling and Dav Pilkey and The Mysterious Benedict Society, but the creativity of this book is exceeded only by its humor. Also, it clocks in at around 700 pages, so it’ll entertain you and your children for a good while. I always enjoy a laugh as a reader, and if my work elicits a chuckle from you, then I feel my mission is complete.

This was the first fantasy recommendation I ever got from my dad. He saw me taking an interest in stories with castles, knights, wizards, and kings and knew just the book from his favorite author to put in my hands.

I hadn’t had any experience with Stephen King before this, and I found that his prose was friendly and familiar to me; the story itself is good, a solid entry into the genre, and I found the intrigues of the villain to be the most interesting part of the story. It turns out that the King (ha) of horror can write a fine fantasy story, too.

You can always rely on a children’s book published by Usborne, the Big Maze Book by Kirsten Robson is no exception. It offers 50 different mazes to solve, each charmingly illustrated. The mazes themselves are nice and varied, incorporating different settings, different subject matter, and slightly different visual treatments, which all helps to keep solvers interested. As a whole, this book would probably appeal more to younger children who still enjoy picture books. That being said, the mazes do get progressively harder through the book, so there is something there for the slightly older ones too.

While Jumbo Book of Amazing Mazes lacks the high-end production values of my other recommendations, it does offer a whopping 175 colourful illustrated mazes, enough (probably) to last the whole summer holidays! The mazes are varied, with many of them incorporating other puzzle techniques, so you’ll find code-word mazes, quiz mazes, number-logic mazes, and riddle mazes in the mix, this is something I like a lot, and one of the reasons it made my list. This book is great value for money and better than many, if not most, of the similarly priced alternatives (many of which only include black and white mazes, something to be aware of).

Good things normally happen when passion and talents combine. That’s certainly true of this book by Sean C. Jackson, an experienced maze creator and lifelong Star Wars fan. There are 30 lovingly illustrated mazes that take you through the Star Wars universe, from the Death Star to Jabba’s Palace and beyond. I love the style of the mazes, they are detailed and fun to look at, and while they live together as a family, Sean manages to add plenty of variation to keep young people engaged. Also, because the maze paths are depicted as roads and paths within each setting, it is very clear where you can and can’t go, an important consideration for a maze.

Here’s another maze book by Usborne, Around the World Mazes by Sam Smith (as I mentioned previously, Usborne publishes great children’s books!). Unlike The Big Maze book this book has an overarching theme linking all the mazes, ‘places around the world’, also, each maze covers the entire double-page spread, so there are fewer mazes but with greater visual impact. While the delightfully illustrated mazes will appeal more to younger children, they do playfully bring to life the different locations they depict, whether that be the Australian Outback or coast of Vancouver, and so provide educational content along with oodles of fun!

An amazing book, a completely original book, about a world emerging from the gorgeous dreams of mythology into the light of history. This "autobiography" of the mythological creator of mazes and artifacts, the father of technology, and the first human (with his son Icarus) to fly, Daedalus speaks to us across the millenia in his own voice, through the man uniquely qualified to bring it to us. Michael Ayrton was an English sculptor is the mid 20th century. He studied the techniques of his great predecessor and duplicated for the first time many of his feats, thought to be impossible. This book is a meditation on the themes of creation, innovation, and the dangerous and exalting contact of human beings with the Divine.

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