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Ben Oliver

Ben Oliver

Ben Oliver is a young-adult science-fiction author whose publisher biography recorded him as a high-school English teacher when his debut, The Loop, was scheduled for publication in 2020. His work grows from long-incubated premises and a discovery-driven drafting process, with questions of institutional power, survival, and young people's capacity to challenge inherited failures running through the trilogy.

Photo: Chicken House Books · Source: Ben Oliver — Chicken House Books ↗

Titles2
Editions12
Media8
Years covered2020–2021

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Cover of The Loop

The Loop

2020 · Dystopian

10 editions: Print · 2020 | Print · 2021 | Print · 2022 | Print · 2023 | eBook · 2020

About this work & edition details

"A terrifying futurescape at the heart-stopping intersection of The Matrix and The Maze Runner , kicking off a trilogy sure to prove dystopian sci-fi still has more to offer." -- Booklist Life inside The Loop--the futuristic death row for teens under eighteen--is one long repetitive purgatory. But when news of the encroaching chaos in the outside world reaches the inmates and disorder begins to strike, the prison becomes the least of their worries. Perfect for fans of The Fifth Wave and The Maze Runner. It's Luka Kane's sixteenth birthday and he's been inside The Loop for over two years. Every inmate is serving a death sentence with the option to push back their execution date by six months if they opt into "Delays", scientific and medical experiments for the benefit of the elite in the outside world.But rumors of a war on the outside are spreading amongst the inmates, and before they know it, their tortuous routine becomes disrupted. The government issued rain stops falling. Strange things are happening to the guards. And it's not long until the inmates are left alone inside the prison.Were the chains that shackled Luka to his cell the only instruments left to keep him safe? In a thrilling shift, he must overcome fellow prisoners hell-bent on killing him, the warden losing her mind, the rabid rats in the train tunnels, and a population turned into murderous monsters to try and break out of The Loop, save his family, and discover who is responsible for the chaos that has been inflicted upon the world.

Print · Média Diffusion · 2020-05-28T00:00:00+02:00 · fr
ISBN 9782732491769

Print · Carlsen · 2020-10-01 · de
ISBN 9783551521187

Print · Chicken House · 2020 · English
ISBN 9781912626557

Print · 2020-05-28 · fr
ISBN 9782732491752

Print · Scholastic Incorporated · 2020 · English
ISBN 9781338589306

Print · Scholastic Incorporated · 2021 · English
ISBN 9781338589313

Print · 2022-07-27 · de
ISBN 9783551320568

Print · Carlsen · 2023-08-30 · de
ISBN 9783646938968

eBook · Scholastic · 2020-04-02 · English
ISBN 9781912626618

eBook · Scholastic Inc. · 2020-04-07 · English
ISBN 9781338589320

Cover of The Block

The Block

2021 · Dystopian

2 editions: Print · 2021 | eBook · 2021

About this work & edition details

Après s’être échappé du Loop, prison ultra-sécurisée pour adolescents, Luka a fait une découverte macabre : Happy, l’intelligence artificielle qui dirige le monde, est responsable de la diffusion d’un virus qui a décimé la population. Et manifestement, elle ne compte pas s’arrêter là. Désormais, Luka n’a plus qu’un objectif : retrouver ses amis résistants et, avec eux, détruire Happy avant qu’elle n’étende encore son pouvoir. Mais dans une société ultra-connectée où une intelligence artificielle peut s’immiscer dans chaque cerveau, comment être sûr que ses pensées lui appartiennent ? Et si Happy se jouait de lui dans le seul but de débusquer et détruire les derniers membres de la résistance ? Ses amis, son courage et son amour profond de la liberté seront les seules armes de Luka. Lui suffiront-elles à déjouer les plans d’une machine devenue folle ?

Print · Scholastic Inc. · 2021 · English

eBook · Scholastic Inc. · 2021 · English

Podcasts & Discussion (7)

News & Coverage (1)

More About Ben Oliver

Ben Oliver began writing creatively at seven, briefly gave it up after being placed in his school's lowest reading and writing group, and returned after a teacher responded enthusiastically to a later assignment. By the time his debut novel, The Loop, was scheduled for publication in 2020, he was working as a high-school English teacher.

The Loop places sixteen-year-old Luka Kane in a future prison controlled by artificial intelligence, where young people can postpone execution by submitting to medical experiments. Oliver has said that the seed of this arrangement stayed with him for about two years before the larger plot and characters formed. He writes for readers around the age when books mattered most to him and has framed the younger generation's habit of questioning inherited systems as an influence on the novel's message.

Oliver describes himself as a discovery-driven writer: he began The Loop knowing he wanted more than one book but without having plotted the second and third volumes. He has also described the less visible stages of publication—successive drafts, editorial notes, proofreading, final polish, cover design, and foreign editions—as a series of endings rather than a single finish. His working practice is similarly mobile; instead of a fixed writing room, he often writes wherever he can settle with notebooks and a laptop.

Genres

Links

Sources

  1. Ben Oliver — Chicken House Books ↗
  2. The Loop — Chicken House Books ↗
  3. An Interview with Ben Oliver — author of The Loop trilogy! — Chicken House Books ↗
  4. The Loop — Scholastic Canada series page ↗
  5. Core Announces the 2021 Excellence in Children's and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Lists — ALA ↗
  6. 2021 Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers — YALSA ↗
  7. Author Ben Oliver discusses new book The Loop on Conversations LIVE — Spreaker ↗
  8. Ben Oliver: 'I'd say the younger generation are inspiring the message of my book rather than me trying to inspire them' — The List ↗
  9. The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre: The Case Of James Oliver Huberty ↗
  10. CLASSIC: How Oliver Cromwell Got Executed Several Years After His Death ↗
  11. Almost Famous OGs: Back to the Beginning with Shannon Oliver ↗
  12. Jamie Oliver, Tim Minchin, and Wasabi Vodka! #387 ↗
  13. Inside The Power Numbers & Tech It Takes To Race Paris-Roubaix With Ben Oliver ↗
  14. Oliver Peck and Ben Nichols (Lucero) - What In The Duck Podcast Ep.18 ↗
  15. Ben Oliver — selected portrait asset ↗