50 Fun Facts About Michael Vey

Which condition does the author of the Michael Vey novels share with his electric teenage hero?

Tourette's syndrome, which shows up as involuntary movements and sounds called tics, is something the writer lives with himself. Classmates at Meridian High know Michael as the kid with tics, never guessing at his powers.

In the Michael Vey novels, which animals do the Elgen breed by the million to run Starxource plants?

Rats made electric power every Starxource plant, and Dr. Hatch nearly feeds the captured Michael to a swarm of them before his friends blow up the cooling system.

Which broadcaster's imprint, Mercury Ink, launched with the first Michael Vey novel in 2011?

Glenn Beck had the author on his radio show and posted a trailer online. On the first day of pre-orders the book hit number one at Barnes & Noble's website.

In Michael Vey, which computer device is the Glow Grace compared to because she stores data?

A flash drive is the comparison, since Grace can copy and carry huge amounts of data. Left behind when Dr. Hatch fled the Elgen Academy, she joined the Electroclan.

In Michael Vey, which of Dr. Hatch's Glows switches sides during the Electroclan's escape from the Elgen Academy?

Zeus, whose real name is Frank, can throw electricity from his body. The Elgen kidnapped him as a small child, and he spent years as one of Hatch's Glows before changing sides.

In which US state does Michael Vey hide his electric powers from classmates at Meridian High School?

Idaho is also where the Electroclan head after escaping the Elgen Academy, only to find the Elgen already waiting for them at home.

In Michael Vey, what can the Glow Abigail temporarily take away from anyone she is touching?

Their pain stops because Abigail electrically stimulates parts of the brain. The Elgen held her captive for years for refusing to follow Dr. Hatch.

In Michael Vey, how is Tara, a Glow raised by Dr. Hatch from age six, related to Taylor Ridley?

Her twin sister, and an identical one: the girls were adopted by different families after birth, so Tara grew up inside the Elgen and Taylor did not.

Besides scrambling brains, what can Michael Vey's friend Taylor Ridley do to a person she touches?

Read their mind is the second trick, and it only works through touch. Her other power is to "reboot" people, leaving them confused for a moment.

Which Utah novelist wrote the Michael Vey series about a teenager who can shock people by touch?

Richard Paul Evans was already a bestselling novelist for adults when he entered the young-adult market with Michael's story in 2011.

Which relative of Michael Vey do the Elgen kidnap after a birthday dinner, setting off his quest?

His mother is seized outside the restaurant by Dr. Hatch and two electric teenagers, moments after Michael shocks a would-be robber unconscious.

Which best friend of Michael Vey has no electric powers but an IQ of 155?

Ostin Liss has an IQ his official profile puts level with the average Nobel Prize winner's, and after the Elgen fall he enrols in advanced maths and physics courses at Caltech.

Before joining the Electroclan, what was Jack Vranes to Michael Vey at Meridian High School?

His bully at first, Jack changed sides when Michael paid him for a lift to California and the rescue. He ended up as assistant head of security at the company that replaced the Elgen.

Which breakfast food does Michael Vey love as much as video games, according to his official profile?

Waffles and video games are his loves and homework his hate, which is how the official site introduces a seemingly ordinary 14-year-old who is anything but.

In which California city were Michael Vey and Taylor Ridley born days apart at the same hospital?

Pasadena General is where a wave of unexplained newborn deaths set the plot in motion, and the city also houses the Elgen Academy where both teenagers are later held.

In the Michael Vey backstory, what killed dozens of newborns and gave the survivors electric powers?

Faulty medical equipment at a single hospital is the Elgen's guilty secret. Seventeen babies survived the accident, and the company has been hunting them down ever since.

What is Taylor Ridley at Meridian High School when she first sees Michael Vey use his powers?

Cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in school, she is later snatched by the Elgen straight from practice.

Which South American country do Michael Vey's Electroclan travel to in the second novel, Rise of the Elgen?

Peru is home to the largest of the Elgen's Starxource plants, at Puerto Maldonado, which the Electroclan infiltrate and wreck.

By what name do Michael Vey and the Electroclan know the anonymous contact who guides the resistance's missions?

The voice first reaches Michael by phone and helps the group slip an Elgen trap. For a long time nobody is sure whether the caller is an ally or bait.

In Michael Vey, which ordinary sense does the Glow Ian lack, relying on electrolocation instead?

Sight is missing, yet electrolocation lets Ian perceive his surroundings the way sharks find their way through murky water. He spent years in the Elgen Academy's prison for refusing to follow Dr. Hatch.

Which real Pacific island nation does Dr. Hatch seize to give the Elgen a land base in Michael Vey?

Tuvalu falls while Dr. Hatch wines and dines its dignitaries: Quentin leads the Elgen forces that capture the country during the banquet.

Which novel, published in 2024, is billed as the tenth and final instalment of the Michael Vey series?

The Colony takes its title from a group of rival electrics who are holding a kidnapped Electroclan member somewhere in South America.

The Elgen flagship Ampere in Michael Vey shares its name with the standard unit of electric what?

Current is measured in amperes, a unit named after the French physicist André-Marie Ampère. Other Elgen ships follow the same naming habit, among them the Watt and the Volta.

In Michael Vey, what can Nichelle, long used by Dr. Hatch to control his other Glows, do to their powers?

Drain them is her speciality, since she acts as an electrical ground. Abandoned by Dr. Hatch at the Elgen Academy, she is later recruited by the very teenagers she once tormented.

What does Michael Vey secretly arrange for Taylor Ridley on the eve of the Jade Dragon mission?

A prom, staged with help from the parents, was his answer after he overheard her regret at never getting to live an ordinary teenage life.

In Michael Vey, what can McKenna, a Glow freed from the Elgen Academy's prison, produce from her body?

Light and heat pour out of her on demand, and she can raise her own temperature to more than three thousand kelvins.

In Michael Vey, which vehicles does the Glow Tanner cause to crash by scrambling their navigation systems?

Airplanes fail when he interferes with their electronics, and he can do it while standing on the ground. Rescued from the Elgen, Tanner later died in the battle of Hades.

Which Glow does Michael Vey meet living with the Amacarra tribe in the Amazon after she fled the Elgen?

Tessa spent six months in the jungle with the Amacarra, and her gift is to strengthen the powers of the other Glows.

In Michael Vey, where do the Elgen hold the prodigy Jade Dragon inside a guarded Starxource plant?

Taiwan's plant looked so impenetrable that the Electroclan chose to snatch her during a transfer to an Elgen research boat instead.

Which Elgen ship, a floating treasury, must the Electroclan capture in Michael Vey: Fall of Hades?

The Joule holds the Elgen's money, and the resistance reasons that stealing it is the surest way to wipe the organisation out.

In Michael Vey, which kind of radiation can Torstyn create, making him one of the most lethal Glows?

Microwaves were all Torstyn needed to hunt anacondas and jaguars in the jungle, armed with nothing but his powers.

In Hunt for Jade Dragon, Tara disguises Dr. Hatch as which supposedly dead relative of Michael Vey?

His father seems to step in and stop the torture, and the trick works: Michael gives away the location of the resistance's ranch.

In Michael Vey, what is the Elgen Academy's basement prison for defiant Glows known as?

Purgatory held Ian, Abigail and McKenna, three Glows who would not obey Dr. Hatch, and Taylor was thrown in with them when she refused too.

Which novel revived the Michael Vey series in 2022, five years after the seventh book appeared?

The Parasite finds the Electroclan trying to live normal lives, only to learn that beheading the Elgen has bred a crop of new enemies.

In Michael Vey, why do the Elgen kidnap the child prodigy Jade Dragon?

To make more electric children is Dr. Hatch's dream, a whole army of them, and the nine-year-old has worked out how it could be done.

In the Michael Vey novels, which country hides Timepiece Ranch, the resistance safe house the Elgen destroy?

Mexico hides the ranch until Michael is tricked into giving its location away. The resistance evacuates everyone before the Elgen strike.

Which Elgen security chief does Dr. Hatch condemn to death after Jade Dragon escapes?

Welch is broken out by Quentin, Torstyn and Tara, three of Hatch's own Glows, and goes on the run. The Electroclan later set out to bring him over to their side.

Which friend of Jack Vranes is killed by an Elgen guard in the jungle in Battle of the Ampere?

Wade West is caught by surprise by a lone guard. Jack later had a monument put up where he fell and goes back every year to lay flowers.

Which self-published novella made the Michael Vey author a bestseller before he wrote for teenagers?

The Christmas Box began as a story for his own kids and was self-published in 1993. It later topped the New York Times list in hardcover and paperback at the same time.

What do the Elgen offer Michael Vey and Taylor Ridley to lure them to the Elgen Academy?

Scholarships arrive for both of them out of the blue, proof that the company had been tracking the two teenagers all along.

For which family member, who shares the hero's first name, did the author write the first Michael Vey novel?

His son Michael was the reader he was writing for. About twenty years earlier, his first book had likewise started out as a story for his two young daughters.

On what charge do Michael Vey's friends face trial after wrecking the Elgen's largest plant?

Terrorism could carry the death penalty, and with the army working alongside the Elgen, Michael was the only member of the group still free.

In Michael Vey, Dr. Hatch cages a conquered nation's former prime minister with which animals?

Monkeys share the cage as a punishment for disobedience, and when Quentin's betrayal is discovered he is given exactly the same treatment.

In which country was the Glow Cassy raised and trained in secret, hidden from the Elgen, in Michael Vey?

Switzerland kept her hidden because the resistance rescued her before the Elgen knew she existed. She can freeze muscles from more than two kilometres away.

In Michael Vey: The Traitor, which elite Elgen guard unit holds Tara captive under the Sovereign Amash?

The Chasqui are tied to the Elgen's South American power plant and, like the other elite units, answer to nobody in the Elgen command.

In Michael Vey: Fall of Hades, which resistance strategist dies in the battle for the island?

Gervaso falls as the Electroclan and the island's freed prisoners push the Elgen off, the heaviest price of their victory.

In the fifth Michael Vey novel, which branching marks does Michael burn into his skin fighting a gang?

Lichtenberg figures are the fern-like patterns a powerful electric discharge can leave on human skin, and here they show how far Michael's own power has grown.

In Michael Vey, Kylee, one of the last Glows loyal to Dr. Hatch, is described as a human what?

Magnet is the word, because she was born able to generate electromagnetic force. Her official profile adds that she spends most of her time shopping.

The prisoners Michael Vey releases after seizing the Elgen Academy's control room had been kept as human what?

Guinea pigs, shortened to GPs, is the Elgen's name for them. Once released, they help the Electroclan clear the remaining guards out of the building.

What was the Michael Vey author's day job when he wrote his first book as a story for his family?

Advertising executive was his title, and the trade came in handy: he promoted the self-published book in local stores himself until it became a regional bestseller.