I recently finished the
book The Kill Order by James Dashner. While it was still a good read, it was
not as fantastic as I expected. I had read the three books in The Maze Runner
trilogy, enjoyed them very much, and this was the prequel. I had thought it
would be as amazing as the trilogy was. But it was not. Well…not until the
ending.
To me, The Kill Order was an uninteresting book. It would
be on my list of uninteresting books now if not for an ending that wrapped the
entire prequel in context with the trilogy. Understand this: the reason it was
so uninteresting was that you had been entirely enfolded with the characters in
the Maze Runner series, Thomas and Teresa. To make a prequel to a popular
series after the series is finished
is what a lot of authors do to make the story continue. The Maze Runner series
even sets you up for a prequel, since the characters lose their memory in the
beginning and you want to know what their life was like before the Trials. So
when readers see a prequel has been made, they want to continue Thomas and
Teresa’s story since their story in the Maze Runner series is so popular you
don’t want it to end. To instead open the book and be greeted with brand new
characters like Mark and Trina is confusing and annoying because you don’t want
to hear their story, you want to hear the story of the Gladers and how they
continue to survive.
Yes, it is interesting to learn the story of how the
Flare came to be and see the struggle it took to make it to a safe land in the
time of the first sun flares. And, don’t get me wrong, the author makes it very
clear and precise the amount of strength and courage it took to brave the sun
flare days. He also does a brilliant job of illustrating how mentally insane
the Cranks are, which, in the Maze Runner series, he does a poor job of it,
considering they meet a lot of nice Cranks in the series. In the Kill Order,
the author’s writing is a lot worse than I remembered it was in the series.
But, at the end, it changes everything. It is very
dramatic. The young girl they found in the middle of the book who they picked
up and traveled with, Deedee, Mark finds is immune to the Flare. Then Mark,
Alec, and Trina all start to feel signs of the Flare, which makes their
traveling to the only place that can save Deedee all the more difficult. They
go to the Flat Trans, push Deedee through, and the building collapses and
everyone dies except Deedee. It was very, very sad and dramatic. But that’s not
the best part. In the epilogue, there is a mother and a young boy. These men in
masks walk in and take the boy away from his mother. Then the men say: lets
name him Thomas. This is the Thomas from the series, only many years younger.
So we assume Deedee becomes Teresa. This connecty last bit made the book eons
better.
