Author James Dashner has electrified teenage readers with the dramatic and lively Maze Runner series.  When word of a prequel came out, fans like myself shook with excitement. However, The Kill Order by James Dashner turned out to be a tremendous disappointment.  Instead of answering the numerous questions on my mind from the last book in the trilogy, the prequel bored me to the point where I was considering abandoning it completely.  Compared to the Maze Runner series, The Kill Order did not live up to my expectations of a well-written, interesting, and suspenseful story.
     One of my main issues with The Kill Order was the fact that as a prequel I expected Thomas, Minho, Brenda and the others who were introduced in the trilogy to play an important part of the story.  James Dashner starts off the dystopian science fiction prequel with an entirely new set of characters.  Mark, the protagonist, has a standard, dull personality as he, like other main characters, is frightened of the future.  Trina serves as Mark's love interest, which is presented as a stereotypical love story that makes for a completely superfluous addition to the plot.  Alec is the experienced one in The Kill Order; he is a former military soldier who acts as a strong, fearless, and cunningly sage individual.  He is the only character with an actual personality within the book.  Lana is an ex-military nurse that, along with Alec, leads the group of survivors.  Lana’s bland role is not clearly established, making her part in the story seem less significant than it should be. Some of the minor characters in the book include Darnell and Misty, who are close friends, and Toad, who provides comic relief. 
     Later on in the book, indistinct, small references to characters were just not enough for readers to comprehend.  For example, eventually in the story a slightly familiar character is introduced-- a little girl named Deedee.  Only out of personality and facts mentioned in the trilogy could one infer that the adorable four-year old in The Kill Order was supposed to be a younger Teresa from the series.  The slight indication from vaguely similar traits without direct recognition left the readers questioning the identity of some of the characters.  In other words, the fact that Deedee wasn't specifically stated as Teresa made the book confusing.  Furthermore, towards the very end of the book, Thomas, the protagonist of the Maze Runner series, was  abruptly introduced in the last few sentences of the epilogue.  The brusque manner in which Thomas was included was unsatisfying since one would expect a more thorough connection between the series and the prequel.
     The Kill Order was a book meant to explain the history behind the Flare, a disease causing someone to lose their mind (also referenced to as becoming a Crank).  While it served that purpose, the prequel failed to explain further on how WICKED, the government at the time, had chosen candidates like Thomas for the Maze Runner experiments witnessed in the trilogy.  Instead, Dashner starts off the story with Mark, Trina, Alec, Lana and the others living in a small camp, struggling to survive the recent excessive sun exposure known as Sun Flares and natural disasters.  One day the group wakes up and finds the camp being shot at with poisonous darts.  Mark and the gang find their way in the new world of disease and search for the truth behind the fatal darts all while trying to stay alive. 
     The plotline of The Kill Order consisted mostly of action and the use of flashbacks.  Although one would expect the abundance of activity to be intriguing, the non-stop commotion in the story only allowed for a lack of meaningful content.  The ratio of story to action  drastically interrupts the flow of the book.  It made the story feel tedious to read, especially since the previous books were written differently.  I did  not get the previous emotional attachment with the trilogy in the prequel because of the continual action.  Moreover, Mark experienced  unanticipated, sudden flashbacks within the story, which gave readers a snippet of how the Sun Flares started.  They were grueling and allowed for readers to lose interest quickly since it mainly broke up the writing’s flow as well.  It was a shortcut for developing backstory and didn’t work well with the piece.  For example, one of the flashbacks was in the form of a dream, the most cliché way to introduce backstory.  According to the book,“There was so much to do.  No time for sleeping.  But he was so, so tired…” This is a very typical, unexciting approach for a flashback.  James Dashner's writing style in this book wasn't as interesting as Maze Runner fans, such as myself, anticipated.
     The latest entry to the Maze Runner collection, The Kill Order,  was a labyrinth of mediocrity at best, not even close to meeting the requirements of a decent book.  The lack of original characters, the endless action, and Dashner's use of flashbacks deemed the prequel unworthy of any acclaim it may have gotten.  Although the story may have been written by a best selling author, The Kill Order killed my interest long before I had finished it.