The Kill Order by James Dashner (The Maze Runner # 4)

Young Adult. Science Fiction. Prequel. Dystopian. Survival. 

Rating: 3/5

Pages: 384

Started: 11 February 2024

Finished: 15 February 2024

Summary:

    Mark thought he had survived everything that could have been thrown at him: deadly solar flares, the death of his family the toppling of civilization as he used to know it. Living in a small community in the woods, including Alec and Lana, two ex-soldiers, and Trina his girlfriend from before the solar apocalypse changed everything, survival isn't easy but it is possible. 

    Then, a high-tech jet shoots the majority of Mark's community with darts carrying a deadly disease that kills rapidly and spreads even faster, and Mark and his friends have no choice but to run. When they encounter a little girl, the only one alive in the mass grave of her old village, who seems to be immune for the disease, their goal shifts: it's unlikely that any of them will survive the disease as it ravages their world, but the girl just might. 

Thoughts: 

    This book did not need to be written. The Maze Runner is an interesting, exciting, and dynamic story. The world building is released in a way that is interesting to discover, and the relationships between characters, as well as the protagonist's narration, were engaging. This story was not all that interesting, nor was it dynamic in the slightest. Maybe because it was clear from the start where the story was going to end, there wasn't any feeling of suspense or mystery in the narrative. Mark's narration was also super dry, just a dude trying to survive rather than a particularly clever and fate-tied kid trying to find out why he was placed where he was. 

    This novel could have so easily been a novella, or even a short story dropped at the end of the third maze runner book. Getting a window into the world post-disease but pre-WICKED was interesting, but there was not enough of that interest for the length of the novel, especially considering the lack of inter-character dynamics. I will admit I did like Alec as a character (minus his being referred to as a "Bear" throughout the novel) but the entire point of the work was to show how Baby Theresa was given to WICKED, and to show that Thomas's parents did indeed love him. I think I am done with this series now, and I very much wish Dashner wrote this story as a novella and left the world where it ended in The Death Cure.