There’s been big news in the world of Infinity Ring this week! First, USA Today ran an exclusive excerpt and book 2 cover reveal –and now, we have James Dashner himself, the author of Infinity Ring Book 1: A Mutiny in Time, here to tell us why he’s so excited about the series! As a reminder, Infinity Ring launches this August, and it’s a 7-book, 7-episode interactive game series in which history is broken and kids must travel back in time to fix the “Great Breaks.” Infinity Ring readers will interact with the story through the books, of course, but also through a “Hystorian’s Guide” map and an online game. (Check out what the New York Times had to say about it last December for more info!) And now…here’s James Dashner!

I think people might be sick of hearing me say the word excited. But I can’t help it! That’s what I am. It’s been almost a year and a half since Scholastic first approached me about heading up the Infinity Ring project, and I’ve been . . . wait for it . . . EXCITED ever since.

I’m a history dork, much like one of our main characters in the series, Dak. (Only dorks are allowed to call themselves dorks.) I’m also a huge fan of asking myself, “What if?” I love to speculate and wonder and ponder, and with this series I was able to do all of that. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to take the history that we all know and shake things up a bit. What if Christopher Columbus had never crossed the Atlantic Ocean? What if Abraham Lincoln had never become president? How would things have changed?

All kinds of questions like that will be explored in the Infinity Ring series, and I think kids are going to be highly entertained while experiencing the story. And experience it they will . . . in more ways than one. With the added dimensions of the 3-D role-playing game and the Hystorian’s Guides, it’s my hope that the series will help some reluctant kids out there to associate READING with FUN. And that’s always a good thing.

James Dashner (photo credit: Maria Wood)

When I thought about what point in history to “shake up” in the first book, Christopher Columbus seemed a natural fit. I mean, what name could be more iconic to a kid learning history in elementary school? It’s Christopher Columbus, for crying out loud! It was a lot of fun for me to research his story in depth and think through all the ways things might be different if he’d never made his legendary voyage.

So, yes, I’m very excited, and can’t wait for the first book to come out. I can’t wait to hear what kids think of the story, the game, and the guides. I really think they’ll have a lot of fun with it. And to all of you amazing educators out there, THANK YOU for everything you do—all the blood, sweat, and tears shed to change these kids’ lives for the better. I was one of them, once, and needed you. So thank you.

If you’d like to learn more about me or have any questions, please check out my brand-new-and-improved website. And in the meantime, get excited! Soon you’ll be traveling through time with the Infinity Ring.

– James Dashner