Michael Grant is an American novelist with forte in young adult novel writing. He has prolifically published more than 150 books over the years. Most of the books he wrote are in collaboration with his wife. He is famous for his Gone and The Magnificent 12 series.
Grant was born on July 26, 1954 in California. He belonged to a military family who travelled a lot. Thus, he was educated not only in United States but in Europe as well. He studied at five different schools in U. S and three schools in France. In fact, he travelled to fourteen states and had been accommodated in fifty homes. According to Grant, his restlessness was caused by his short attention span that had him bored quickly with one place.
Eventually, Grant settled down as he took up writing. It was the only thing that kept him from moving for years. He got married to Katherine K. A. Applegate with whom he co-authored a number of books before writing on his own. They had been together for over twenty-nine years and now live with their two children in Tiburon, California. Their co-written works include the bestselling the Everworld and Animorphs book series. Grant began his serious writing career with Gone in 2008. The series contains six novels. It is a conventional young adult sci-fi series set in a dystopian universe. Besides that it is a curious cross between the classic The Lord of the Flies and Stephen King’s horror books.
Gone illustrates a town of Perdido where everyone aging fifteen or above have mysteriously disappeared. There are only teenagers left to deal with the aftermath of their disappearance. In the absence of adults’ supervision, food provision and loss of connection from the outside world, the whole town full of teenagers goes haywire. On top of that the youth began to develop uncanny supernatural powers, which threatens to break out a war between different divisions of town. The ingenious plot and multidimensional characters of the novel earned great praise from the readers and critics. It instantly became a raging success as it topped the New York Times bestselling list. The growing popularity had Grant write its sequels. The other five installments in the series include the titles, Hunger (2009), Lies (2010), Plague (2011), Fear (2012) and Light (2013).
Subsequent to publishing Gone, Grant began with a new humorous children’s fantasy series. The first book in The Magnificent 12 series, titled The Call, was published in 2011. It revolves around an average preteen Mack MacAvoy, whose mundane life is suddenly interrupted by a mysterious event. The series is a parody of the conventional YA fantasy novels in which the protagonist is set out on an adventure to defeat the evil and save the world. Other titles in the series include The Trap, The Key and The Power.
Recently, Grant has published a new series BZRK in the same young adult genre. The series deals with the terrifying advancement of technology that can control the human mind. An evil corporation with an aim of turning world into their idea of utopian empire tries to deprive human race of their free will. The only thing is standing in their way is a group of teenagers, known as BZRK, who try to save people from this madness. The author has crafted a clever plot that envisions the future where human will be at the mercy of diabolical technology. The upcoming writing projects of Michael Grant include, Messenger of Fear and Soldier Girl Trilogy.