The prequel to the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series—The Kill Order is a modern classic for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent. It can be read alone or as a companion to the action-packed series.
Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.
Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next.
Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there’s something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, it’s mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.
Mark and Trina are convinced there’s a way to save those left living from descending into madness. And they’re determined to find it—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you’re worth more dead than alive.
The Kill Order (Maze Runner Prequel)
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The Best Books of 2012
 This book has been selected by our editors as one of the Best Teen Books of 2012. Check out a chapter sampler download of Kill Order [PDF].
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
A Letter from James Dashner: Top Ten Things I’d Want During the Apocalypse
10. Very, very strong sunglasses.
10. Very, very strong sunglasses. 9. Lots of plastic to wrap around my house.
8. A stranger taken in who happens to be the smartest, ablest doctor in a thousand years.
7. A server containing every show that’s ever been on HBO and a nice entertainment system on which to watch it all.
6. An e-reader loaded with 5,000 books.
5. A generator and a gas refinery next door to provide fuel so I can watch all those shows and charge my e-reader.
4. Deodorant that smells like a rotting dead body so zombies think I’m just one of them.
3. Lifetime supplies in my basement of the following: hot dogs, Almond Joys, potato chips, and Mountain Dew.
2. A cloaking device to hide my house from the tyrannical, evil, bloodthirsty government that will inevitably spring up.
1. Oh, and my wife and kids.
From School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up-In his short life, Mark has seen sun flares that killed millions, including his family and beloved younger sister. Afterward, floods, food shortages, and continued devastating heat, along with individuals bent on surviving at all costs, have made his chances pretty bleak. Against all odds, he and a close-knit group of other survivors move inland and set up a community together. But before long, a flying ship brings something wholly unfamiliar: a disease, transmitted initially by darts, but soon spread person to person at an alarming rate. Mark's friends all work together to figure out what this illness is, how it spreads, and why it drives people mad, while trying to hold onto hope for themselves and save others. A prequel to the "Maze Runner" series (Delacorte), this story does indeed show how the world started to fall apart prior to Thomas's time in the Maze. However, Thomas's and Teresa's stories are contained to the prologue and epilogue, so readers hoping for information about how WICKED began will be disappointed. Dashner achieves a high level of emotional involvement for readers in this prequel. Mark knew and loved his family, which makes him a more relatable character than memory-challenged Thomas. The action is nonstop, although a little unrealistic at times, and Mark seems wise beyond his years. This novel works well as a stand-alone.-Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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More About the Author
James Dashner is the New York Times bestselling author of The Maze Runner trilogy and The 13th Reality series. Learn more by checking out his website, www.jamesdashner.com.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having just put down The Death Cure, I turned quickly to The Kill Order with the anticipation of getting some answers making my knee shake with excitement. The first pages sent a thrill to me as I saw those few minutes before Thomas was sent up into The Glade ... but then the story took a journey to a place 13 years before.
This new story with new people (Alec, Mark, Trina, and others) was something very familiar to me. Flashing back and forth from this new present to their past, James Dashner does what he does best: writes a racing, thrilling story and slowly placates his reader with tiny bits of information as he does so. And it was easy to like both Mark and Alec, so I gave in to enjoy the ride.
While it was frustrating to not get the history and understand more of certain elements of The Maze Runner trilogy (sorry if that's a spoiler folks - but I know a lot of people out there were very frustrated about knowing things), it was helpful to understand what Dashner did disclose and it pieced together a lot of pieces for me that were left undone by the ending of The Death Cure. Am I completely satisfied with what was given to me? No. And I honestly don't know if there will ever be answers given to us or if Dashner will continue to string us along. But I did enjoy a riveting, full-blown prequel that set up a world that was a place of complete confusion to me.
This new story with new people (Alec, Mark, Trina, and others) was something very familiar to me. Flashing back and forth from this new present to their past, James Dashner does what he does best: writes a racing, thrilling story and slowly placates his reader with tiny bits of information as he does so. And it was easy to like both Mark and Alec, so I gave in to enjoy the ride.
While it was frustrating to not get the history and understand more of certain elements of The Maze Runner trilogy (sorry if that's a spoiler folks - but I know a lot of people out there were very frustrated about knowing things), it was helpful to understand what Dashner did disclose and it pieced together a lot of pieces for me that were left undone by the ending of The Death Cure. Am I completely satisfied with what was given to me? No. And I honestly don't know if there will ever be answers given to us or if Dashner will continue to string us along. But I did enjoy a riveting, full-blown prequel that set up a world that was a place of complete confusion to me.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
First Impressions: I loved The Maze Runner series so much that I wanted to really love this book. I have a fascination with wanting to know what happens before I find myself in a story, and I love that Dashner has created a world that existed before the first pages of The Maze Runner were penned. I wanted to know more about the sickness infecting the world, the darkness that had enveloped a crazed planet. Well written as always, the opening pages of this book seemed like they were going to answer a lot of my questions. But, it didn't. I will go into that more later.
First 50 Pages: Besides the brief prologue, there is not too much that is familiar about The Kill Order. You are introduced to a new group of characters fighting a completely different battle. What this book does well, and instantly, is set up the post solar flare world. Everything changes on earth when a solar flare hits and nearly destroys everything. What is left are small settlements and resilient people. That is, until the ships come from the sky and reign a new kind of terror on the flare survivors. Instead of being their salvation, the giant ships sends Mark, Alec, Trina and Lana on a new, horrifying journey.
Characters & Plot: At first, I was a little disappointed that more of the story was not going to be dedicated to the characters I had met in the Maze Runner series. I wanted to know more of their story, for sure. But, Dashner created a whole group of characters that are tough, hardened and yet somehow still vulnerable. Mark, the main character, goes through every emotion possible in the pages of this story. He is hopeful, playful, angry, lost, scared and brave all at once. Alec is a strong support, leader and guide as they try and find their friends and, in the process, discover the dark truth of the disease that is wiping out people and making them go mad.
The story is dark, violent and more than a little disturbing. I found myself repulsed and disgusted on more than one occasion, that's for sure. There is a lot of exposition in this one, and a lot of major battles with people who do not really understand what has happened to them. Overall, the plot is well done from beginning to end, but I was shocked at just how dark and violent it really was!
Final Thoughts: This was not the book I expected it to be. I guess I don't really know what I was expecting. I think I was thinking this would be more of an immediate prequel to the Maze Runner series, but instead it takes a pretty big step back in time and talks a lot more about the origins of the disease flare and the solar flare that nearly destroyed the world. The Kill Order is a really good book, and fits the world of the rest of the series well. I do wonder, however, how new readers to the series will take to this book, especially if they read this as the first book in the series instead of a new part of the story after reading the rest of the books. I would recommend it, although not while eating because it's definitely violent!
First 50 Pages: Besides the brief prologue, there is not too much that is familiar about The Kill Order. You are introduced to a new group of characters fighting a completely different battle. What this book does well, and instantly, is set up the post solar flare world. Everything changes on earth when a solar flare hits and nearly destroys everything. What is left are small settlements and resilient people. That is, until the ships come from the sky and reign a new kind of terror on the flare survivors. Instead of being their salvation, the giant ships sends Mark, Alec, Trina and Lana on a new, horrifying journey.
Characters & Plot: At first, I was a little disappointed that more of the story was not going to be dedicated to the characters I had met in the Maze Runner series. I wanted to know more of their story, for sure. But, Dashner created a whole group of characters that are tough, hardened and yet somehow still vulnerable. Mark, the main character, goes through every emotion possible in the pages of this story. He is hopeful, playful, angry, lost, scared and brave all at once. Alec is a strong support, leader and guide as they try and find their friends and, in the process, discover the dark truth of the disease that is wiping out people and making them go mad.
The story is dark, violent and more than a little disturbing. I found myself repulsed and disgusted on more than one occasion, that's for sure. There is a lot of exposition in this one, and a lot of major battles with people who do not really understand what has happened to them. Overall, the plot is well done from beginning to end, but I was shocked at just how dark and violent it really was!
Final Thoughts: This was not the book I expected it to be. I guess I don't really know what I was expecting. I think I was thinking this would be more of an immediate prequel to the Maze Runner series, but instead it takes a pretty big step back in time and talks a lot more about the origins of the disease flare and the solar flare that nearly destroyed the world. The Kill Order is a really good book, and fits the world of the rest of the series well. I do wonder, however, how new readers to the series will take to this book, especially if they read this as the first book in the series instead of a new part of the story after reading the rest of the books. I would recommend it, although not while eating because it's definitely violent!
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By not happy
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was not a prequel in any way to the original series. Its a bunch of 'run, fight, run' and then at the very end he just threw in a quick reference to one of the original characters. (Almost as if he forgot this was supposed to tie them together!) It was obvious that Deedee was Theresa, but no mention of Thomas until the very end and never did they put those two together. I kept waiting for the story to turn towards the storyline but it never did. It would be like making the prequels to Star wars without Darth Vader ever being mentioned.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding!
The book arrived super quickly, in perfect condition. Excellent book! Read this only after you've read the Maze Runner Trilogy. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Terryl Warner
3.0 out of 5 stars
Much more violence than the other maze runner books
Although this wasn't as good as he other maze runner books, it was still very interesting. This book was very hard to get through and I felt that I was just reading page after... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Lauren Meaux
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Pager Turner
The Maze Runner had me hooked & I wanted more. I bought each book in the series & they didn't disappoint, including The Kill Order. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Stephanie33569
3.0 out of 5 stars
The (Zombie) Kill Order
Rather than reading the Maze Runner Trilogy first, I decided to pick up this prequel. First of all, I do not see much of a tie in with this book and Maze runner outside of the... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Taek04
5.0 out of 5 stars
The kill order (Rachael)
This book is absolutely amazing!I had a hard time putting it down once I picked it up,I read chapters at a time.it's definitely Syfi,but there is as lot of drama. Read more
Published 6 days ago by ynygfkhd h fnv
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow just wow
This book was so great it's one of those books that are just sad thrilling and exiting at the end of th book th whole story just fits right in to place like a puzzle then ends... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Luke Meyerhofer
4.0 out of 5 stars
Took a little while
The only reason I didn't give 5/5 stars is because it took 16 days to arrive and I was excpecting it sooner. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Kendra Woodall
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book!
This book is great and arrived in great condition. Very good price and care. For those wanting to read this series, I recommend reading the prequel last. Read more
Published 8 days ago by camille
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect
It was just what I was looking for and needed. Product was exactly as described above. Would recommend to others.
Published 9 days ago by Dustin Madden
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing and poignant
Good book for older people who've read the other books. I think it's great for reading after you finish the other ones
Published 12 days ago by K L Bailey
