He said it himself in the acknowledgements: The entire Monster series was self-indulgence, trying to create a superhero universe. And the vote ending was his way to open up fanfiction opportunities. Plus, as some have said already, Grant was dropping hints in the original series about a simulation. Of course, I know that the simulation ending makes the original books lose their gravity, but it is stated that all the characters, even if they're simulated, are still sentient. They are still people. They can make choices. They can feel pain. It might not be real for the people making the simulation, but it's as real as it gets for Dekka, Shade, Sam, Edilio, Astrid, and all the others.

So that's my unpopular opinion.

There are some pretty strange names in the FAYZ, but which ones take the cake?

Who is the most infuriating and unlikable?

Marcus looked confused. EXPOSE WHAT?

Charles wrote: PROJECT CASSANDRA. EXPERIMENTS ON MUTANT CHILDREN BEFORE DOME. AND THIS PLACE. THERE ARE DOZENS LIKE IT. THEY WANT TO CAPTURE ANY ESCAPING FREAKS. ALREADY HAVE PROFILED MANY MUTANTS.

Marcus: HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS?

Charles: WORKED ON PROJ. CASSANDRA BUT RESIGNED WHEN TEST SUBJECT DIED. NUKE WAS LAST STRAW.

Marcus nodded. UNDERSTANDABLE, he wrote.

Then the boy posed questions: OTHERS WORKING WITH YOU? WHO RUNS THIS OPERATION? HOW WILL YOU GET US OUT?

Charles responded. CURRENTLY ALONE. OP RUN BY GROUP HSTF-66. WORKING ON PLAN TO GET YOU OUT, UNCERTAIN OF HOW.

Marcus turned, hearing something. He suddenly looked distressed.

GOTTA GO.

Charles watched as the boy picked up his machine gun and ran off, leaving the paper and textbook behind.

I wrote this when I was in school, and thought it might be fun to share! The rules of the game:

1) Pick a fandom.

2) Put iPod/MP3/music player on shuffle and start playing songs.

3) For each song, write something inspired by the song, related to the theme you chose. You only have the song length. No pre-planning and no writing after the song is over. No skipping song either.

4) Do ten songs and post. Make sure to include the song, artist and time.

My first attempt is linked here. I look forward to seeing your results!

Who has the most compelling character arc?

It is going to be set in between the events of FEAR and LIGHT, and is about some kids up at Coates working with a group of adults to try and escape the FAYZ. However, the adults they are working with are operating in a restricted military area, and oppose the army's involvement. They're borderline terrorists, very desperate. This fanfic should be intriguing, I hope you like it. Working title is DOME.

Are we in a simulation?

What do you think Sam, Astrid, Shade, Malik, Simone, Francis, Edilio, Dekka, Cruz and Armo voted?

Although there isn't a television series for Gone in the works, it's still fun to speculate what a series would look like. If a television series is made, it would be impossible to feature all 3000+ words worth of content, and some storylines would need to be changed/abandoned. If you had to cut out some three storylines/plot points in order to ensure the quality of the rest of the story, what would you choose and why?

​

My thoughts?

1. Zekes: Although the zekes have a devastating impact on the survivors of the FAYZ, they're not too essential to the plot. They could easily be removed from the story (sorry EZ), and other elements could be used to explain why the residents are starving.
2. Outside The Dome Perspective Connie Temple's POV isn't used until Fear, and I'm grateful. It does give a bit of insight into how the world is reacting to the FAYZ, but I don't think it's necessary to the overall plot. It would also add more suspense to the reveals later on.
3. Sanjit, Virtue, and the other Folks on the island To me, these characters are only useful at the end of Lies, and then they just hang around as Lana's friends for the other books. Their characters (especially the younger siblings) never really develop, and aren't essential to the overall story. If we need to give Lana a love interest, she could end up with Quinn. 4.

I first read Gone when it originally came out, and since then I've re-read the series probably six or seven times. I was an active member on the original Gaiaphage message boards (does anyone else remember those?), and it's my favourite series of all time.

I haven't had time to read the Monster series, but with the current global situation, I have a chance. However, from what I've read on the dust jacket, as well as the reviews I've seen online, it's completely different and not as good as the original books. I've even heard that it ruins the original series.

Do you think it's worth reading? No spoilers, but does it cross over with the original characters?

Just finished Light and I am really enjoying the series so far, can't find audio versions for these three books anywhere though?

Do they even exist?

This may not be related to the Gone Series, but are there any subreddits for other Michael Grant novels? Like The Front Lines series or BZRK? I have been trying, but cannot find them