The Fever Code (The Maze Runner Series)

    So The Kill Order was not what I was expecting for a sequel. But this, The Fever Code was what I was looking forward to! You got a good prequel when you finish and start all over again with the first book! Like reading in a circle! And that is exactly what I did! This brings so much light to book #1! Love it!
    If you read Book #1 and was confused, read The Fever Code first.


_________________Spoiler Alert________

    I wonder how much of The Fever Code was put together while the original book was being written. I do see a few possible flaws... or an attempt to correct flaws.

  One that stood out was Thomas' first meeting with Teresa which is recorded in the end of The Kill Order. In The Kill Order Thomas is younger about 5 maybe, and meets Teresa is told about how they will get implant to let them telepathy communicate and they are given rooms that are connected by a shared living area.
  This does not happen in The Fever Code. The explanation being his memory was erased due to the meeting going badly but we never know exactly what went wrong during this meeting. I guess this is being explained in that the first time he met Teresa he was fresh from being tortured to except his new name. He is much too unstable to handle everything they are telling him. That's my guess anyway... But I want to know when these memories where erased? Cause he seems to have a massive headache before he goes to meet her the second time and he feels as though this has happened before which was a few years back but he just got the implant then so when did they erase the memories? A few years before or the day he meet her again? And wouldn't that mean he should have known her when he met her in the hall before the implant because he couldn't have had his memories wiped yet because he doesn't have the implant in there to be able to do it yet... am I'm making since? How did they erase his memories if they were erased before he got the implant? There's no explanation that I see.


Another thing I noticed was memories her had in the Scorch Trials did not happen in The Fever Code. I remember a scene where he and Teresa are hiding behind a door eavesdropping.

  Another scene where Thomas does not want to communicate with Teresa via the telepathy but the creators want him too and Teresa is trying to get him to do it. I did come up with a explanation for that because they started talking like that to each other before officially told them too and then a number of years are skipped where this moment could have happened if for some reason he was unhappy with what Wicked was telling him to do and rebelling against them that way.

  The biggest flaw is Chapter 53 of The Scorch Trials. Thomas has a "memory-dream" where they Thomas and Rachael are going in to get their memories wiped to go into the maze. The Fever Code completely contradicts this ever happening... there is no way around it. Thomas was drugged and had his memory taken when the plan was not to do that. The letter at the end of The Fever Code was a pretty cool twist but does contradict the opening of The Kill Order. There she believes she also is going to get her memory wipe to go into the maze. The only way around that is she was aware they were going to wipe their memories and she thought her to, but she is loyal to WICKED so she goes with it. After Thomas is inserted she is then told of the plan that she is going in memory intact.

But enough of that!

    At last! We finally find out Thomas' real name! Stephen. When rereading Book #1 there is a clue to his name that you would not catch if you didn't know it. In the cemetery Thomas comes across the grave of a boy named Stephen. This sparks a sadness in him for an unknown reason. We know now that it is his real name.

  And I loved they gave a back story to Newt. I wasn't expecting that. He is such a tragic character! It sort of makes you feel better that at least his sister got out of all that alive!

  Ugh, Dr. Paige... she goes and kills a bunch of people to keep the trials going then bails when it comes to killing her favorite "subject". Is this the real reason she didn't let him die in the Scorch? She cared to much about him? Did they really have all they needed or was she just saying that to get them out of there. In her last letter she announces that they had failed. Is it just me or are we in need of a sequel to this?

  And good ole Teresa...the first time through I did not know how I felt about that girl... lol, still not completely sure. The Kill Order did gives us a look at her pasted that was beyond tragic. Had that shaped her to never let feelings get in the way of what WICKED told her to do? I think she cared about Thomas but they had two different takes on WICKED being good. That started the betrayal. Wicked used her for all she was worth. Actually she's another pretty tragic character in this story too.

  Now time to see how they turn this into a movie... there is so much good material in this, I don't know how they could mess it up! But look at the Hunger Games, what they did with that one was water it down to a superficial children's female super hero move and the depth of that book was what made it so special! The movie was stupid! The movie didn't even make a lot of since!

    But I'll stop raving on about the Hunger Games... I'm suppose to be talking about The Maze Runner...

   Again, don't recommend these for kids due to violence, mild language, and the topic of suicide.

The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials

    I remember when this book came out as a movie. I knew next to nothing about it but it caught my interest but I didn't ever get to see it. A few years latter I found this copy of The Maze Runner at a sale on books at Goodwill. I had found with The Hunger Games that picking up a book that you don't know much about but it was popular can pay off! The same day they had a hardback set of Divergent which I also bought. Also picked up a bunch of Star Wars novels that day as well! Lol, that was a good haul!

    I've been looking forward to reading this one for a while now but just haven't been in the mood to getting into it yet. I realized after buying it that is was actually a three book set (now 5 as two were published after this copy was printed) and I wished I had known that when I bought it and had looked for the other books. But as with The Hunger Games I knew if I liked it I would be able to find it somewhere, though it was a struggle with Catching Fire and Mockingjay at the time. Those did eventually end up in thrift stores where I picked up nicer hardbacks of. (The Hunger Games are still on the top of my most favorite books) I have been unable to find a hardback of the first book of The Hunger Games... did they not print many?

But back to The Maze Runner...
    Some books you can tell you are going to like it buy just reading the first page or two, some can take a little longer... this was a first pager. I went through book one pretty fast. It was pretty interesting. Good enough to prompt me to buy the other books. So I hit Ebay and they were pretty reasonable, about $9 - $14 for a set of 4 of the 5... but if you added that last book the price rose... but after a little waiting and a couple bought out from under me I found a 4 box set with the fifth book at the side for around the price of just the 4 book set. I knew this would save me undue stress in the future of having to look for that book when I got to it! (The reason when I bought Divergent I bought all three of the books, didn't want to read the first one and find I liked it and have to go finding the other two in hardback to match the first one when I could just take the chance and spend a little more and buy all of them at once)

    So, while I liked The Maze Runner Book #1 enough to buy the rest I still wasn't sure I was completely sold on it. Book #2 did it though! Wow, this author is good! I didn't do a review of The Divergent series, maybe at some point I should but there was a major flaw in it that really bugged me and that was the author. I have nothing against young authors but there is a fact that the younger you are the less you understand relationships and human behavior. The story of Divergent was very good but I feel if the author had waited to write it when she was older it could have been much better. It lacked maturity. In The Maze Runner the maturity is there and I love it!

    But that brings me to another issue I have with all of these books. These books are being sold as "Young Adult" novels... what??? With The Maze Runner when trying to buy the rest of the book I kept seeing this was for kids like in their young teens! No, I think NOT! These books are quite violent and scary and for the most part written on an adult level of understanding of the world. Not that there aren't kids on a level that could appreciate these books but labeling them for children is off. Please read what you give your kids before you let them read something. These books could give kids nightmares! I mean, The Hunger Games is basically a bunch of suicidal emotionally mess up kids running around in a war. Divergent is about a 16 year old in love with an 18 year old... which is a dangerous example for younger teenagers. I don't understand why they didn't just up the age to 18 and a 20 year old. Would not have hurt the story at all. This is a sensitive age group where a lot of mistakes are made. This book is not what they need to be reading.

    Now I get some parents will let their kids play insanity violent video games way worse then what is in these books. My opinion on this probably sounds way conservative to many but... this is my oppion and I have the right to think and say it. I think this is an issue that people really need to think about. What is this doing to kids at such a confusing time in many of their lives. An age where idolizing the wrong influence is an easy mistake to make.

With that said, lets look at the story...

    What is this book/s about? Well, that's what it is about! This boy Thomas finds himself in a world that doesn't make since. I was going to do a quick blog about book #1 before reading on to The Scorch Trials but I just couldn't think of much to say. this book is one in which you are not given much more info then the main character which is Thomas who has had his memory swiped thus remember nothing of where he comes from. Slowly things come back at times sometimes only confusing matters more.

If you have not read The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trails stop reading here, you want to read these without spoilers, I feel part of the beauty of books like these are how the author reveals things to you at just the right times.

   Things I took notice of: (sorry, a little disjointed)

Spoiler Alert

At first the character of Chuck annoyed me but by the time they killed him off I didn't want to see him go. I'm curious if he was related to Chuck in some way in the days before the maze. I feel there must have been some importance to that but wow, this book jumps around.

The whole thing with Theresa during the Scorch Trails was as mind tangling for the reader as it was for Thomas! I love how Aris is hinting around to Thomas that he might not die and it is only another test. Theresa however is completely set on making him feel betrayed. I think they both did it to save him. I'm liking this Aris guy. Im sure we will be learning more about him.

    There was something satisfying about Thomas finally having enough of Theresa. But, I get what she did. It's an interesting situation. Doing something bad to someone because it is the best thing you can do for them. What would you have done? How would you have felt if you'd been Thomas? I like when books make you think like that cause this isn't just a scenario in a book. We have things like this happen in real life as well. I know I have. Not that someone tried to kill me or the other way around but to realize that something you did or they did though it felt like someone was greatly wrong was really done in the best interest... 

    One thing I noticed was when Thomas was taken by Group B he seems to think he has no way to find out how his group is doing. But he did. He never reached out to Aris because as far as Thomas knew Aris was still with the boys group. Of course we find out that Aris left Group A but Thomas didn't know that, so why didn't he try to contact him? Is this just an over sight of the author or did I miss something. When Thomas wakes in the white room he does attempt to contact Aris.

    The way the second book ends we do get an insight that Thomas does not. We get to read a letter written by the head of WICKED. It kind of hints at what I was wondering. Where these kids put through all this because in some way they are immune to the Flare or does it make them immune? Are they going to use them to create a cure? Are they going to just keep man kind going by repopulating the earth with those immune. This is about saving man kind as a whole? That letter seemed to hint at something like that. But these books tend to throw you in all kinds of directions... is WICKED really GOOD?