Previous book: Story Maze (Series, Book 4): The Golden Udder.

Next book: Story Maze (Series, Book 6): The Obelisk of Eno.

The fifth book in the "Storymaze" series follows the surfing adventures of Nico, Claudia, and Mikey through parallel worlds and across the universe. The story begins with the trio winning a holiday to the tropical planet of Knossos. The story diverges into two paths at this point, as it has in the other episodes, whenever the trio attempt time travel. Their time travel device fractures times leaving them in two alternate realities. One puts them at a weight loss spa and the other at a weight gain spa. The first reality becomes the main story when they meet King Minos who owns the spa and he hosts the holiday they have won. After a few days Nico and Mikey are so desperate to eat meat that they sneak out of a nearby burger place and while eating are told about the Minotaur’s Maze. The Minotaur, a bull-headed man born to the Queen has been trapped in a nearby maze, built by the legendary Daedelus for the protection of the Kingdom. The trio decides to try and find out why the minotaur is imprisoned and discover it is because he is incredibly handsome, something the ugly Knossians find disturbing. Claudia is determined to rescue the Minotaur and the three attempt the maze, but are unable to find their way through. All attempts to go over, around, and through fail. Nico quits to go surfing, but Claudia and Mikey meet a talking spider named “Charlotte” who offers to lead them to the center of the maze. Nico nearly drowns and has to be rescued by Ariadne, the King’s daughter. The two of them follow the spider’s web and meet Claudia and Mikey in the center of the maze just as they find the minotaur. The creature is angry but calmed by Ariadne who speaks for her new friends. After they calm the beast, they convince him to leave the maze and explore life outside, but they realize that they no longer know how to get out of the maze. Nico remembers another story from his schooling – that of Icarus and Daedalus – and the group plan an escape out and out over the maze by building their own wings. The group flies out of the maze and while the trio of heroes escapes unharmed to a nearby island, the Minotaur flies too close to the sun, melting the wax on his wings and plummeting into the ocean. He is unable to swim and is attacked by killer dolphins and man-eating sardines. He does not survive. The story finishes with the narrator describing the various broken hearts left behind after the story – those who have loved and lost because of the maze.

Graphic novel for children, with a science-fiction and comedy approach to classical myth and antiquity. 

The Minotaur’s Maze is similar in style to the other books in the "Storymaze" series in its engagement with myth, in particular Greek myth. In this case, there are two levels of mythological storytelling - the subverted Minotaur myth with its tenuous connection to the original tale; and the Icarus tale, which is a direct re-telling of the original myth. The story is once again fractured by various “choose-your-own-adventure” options and there are various endings to the choices the reader makes. 

This particular story has a greater focus on tragic love than the others, though it has been a recurring motif. Many of the characters love someone who does not or cannot love them back and the narrator makes comment on the nature of tragedy and broken heartedness. The overarching story is that of the Minotaur who is imprisoned because of his physical appearance but who, when he finally braves the world, is unable to cope (flies too high) and ends up drowning (or being eaten, it is not clear). It is a fusion of two myths and the final product, while manic and convoluted, has a clearer arc than many of the other Storymaze tales. It features again the chorus-style narrator who comments on the action but also makes judgments about the characters and their choices.