The Kill Order (The Maze Runner Series)

 This book was not what I was exspecting. (See my post on The Death Cure to see what I expected) Below (warning, LOTS of spoilers, you will be warned before you get there) I'll tell you what I got. Before I get there though let talk about this book in general.
   Um... wow, this book was not what I expected it to be. This was suppose to be a prequel to The Maze Runner Trilogy. Read my review of

Was it good? Yes!

Was it really a prequel? Yes.

Did reading it mentally wreak me? YES!

    I mean this thing was intense... I'll just warn you, this story will play with your emotions. Not much down time when it comes to action.

    The story actually does not circle around any of the main characters of the original trilogy which I was quite confused by, but it is relevant to the over all story. It's an interesting direction to go in for a prequel... but pretty brilliant if you just sit back and trust the author and where he is going with it.

________________ Spoilers Alert__________________

    As I said above... this is NOTHING of what I expected it to be!

    I thought something was up when the Epilogue started with Thomas being put into the Maze which obviously is where the story picks up in the beginning. Shortest prequel ever. Then first chapter does go back in time. 13 years in the Appalachian Mountains. I was confused cause I was thinking this was going to be about Thomas and suddenly we are following this kid named Mark. I know from book #1 that all the kids where renamed but this Mark was too old to be Thomas and couldn't see how he was anyone else in the trilogy either. I was skeptical at how much I would like this at the beginning. So many unanswered questions and now I'm starting to have to learn a whole new set of characters! What is this?

    I did like reading how the whole thing started. I liked how the author would jump to the bargaining of the sun flares in between the current story. I lived in NYC at one point and have spent time in the Appalachians Mountains but not so far as where they ended up. I spent time in what is called the Crystalline Appalachians which is in the area of New Jersey. Beautiful place (See my review of Star Wars Planet of Twilight to see my adventure in the Crystalline Appalachians)

    Then Dee Dee shows up and I think I might know what is happening now. This little girl is close to Thomas and Teresa's age though a little older by about too years, Thomas was 16 in The Maze Runner I assumed so was Teresa (I don't remember it being mentioned) So that made this girl a little to old for Teresa, that would have made her about 18 in The Maze Runner. Not impossible but I still was not sure if she was suppose to be Teresa or not. Rather confused my best theory was Dee Dee was Teresa... then after a very tear jerking end... END, as the authors "thank you"s was the next page It was NEVER clear who Dee Dee was or what happened to her! Yeah, like Rogue One, everyone dies... except Dee Dee.

    After letting the emotions die after reading the end I explored the last pages where normally a preview of another book in normally found but not this book... the book did not end at the author's acknowledgement page. I found Teresa's secret file! Here we jump ahead a few years and Thomas is back in the story. It is here we find out for sure Teresa was in fact Dee Dee but we still are left in the dark about Thomas' real name even though we do find out how he was renamed Thomas after the inventor Thomas Edison.

   And also, even though Teresa was in the story there is not a lot of her so we know where she came from her but just starting to understand who she is.

    This was a very cleverly written prequel but I was disappointed I got no answers about a lot of things.... so.... I took a look at the cover of The Fever Code, maybe that would give me a hint if this author ever planned on telling us what happen during the creation of the maze and more about the characters in the trilogy, their back story. I was washed over with relief, the front cover says it is about the creation of the Maze! I'm pretty sure The Fever Code is the last book in The Maze Runner's series... but I have to wonder if there will ever be a sequel…


(P D June 27th 2019)
Mark, Teresa, The Death Cure, The Kill Order, the maze runner series, The torch trials, Thomas, #dashnerarmy, James Dashner, the death cure, Young Adult, zombies, walking dead, Maze runner prequel, trilogy, Appalachian Mountains, New York City, Dee Dee, Trina, the fever code, New Jersey, The Maze Runner Series

Assault at Selonia

 When I first saw this trilogy I feared it would be boring cause Han is just not my favorite character but turns out that was not the case. The thing that gets me is the story isn’t boring nor do I dislike the author… but something about this one is just not incredibly exciting or compelling. There are things that seem rather silly and far-fetched. I mean while having Anakin have a special talent in electronics I feel like it’s a quality being totally taken overboard just to keep the story going…

Han Solo fighting a Selonian
Art by Joe Jusko

 And then putting a shadow of a doubt on Mara Jade doesn’t seem quite right as well! She has been around too long to be the first person looked at when something is amiss! Han may have had some doubts about her in the past but not Leia!

 And then we have a war where nobody seems to know who is behind it or really who is fighting who! And I mean, a ragtag group made to look like 2nd rate Nazis led by Han's evil cousin...

 I’m just at a loss at figuring out what is lacking and basicly going on in this trilogy… It's a bit all over the place! Well, let’s see if it picks up in book 3... then I can make my final statement on this!

 At least there were not nearly as many typos in this one as there was in Ambush at Corellia!

Shield of Lies

 This author is good! This story has such a complex story line that the 2nd book is written in 3 sections. Lando"s story, Luke's story, and Leia's. All basically 3 unconnected stories which in the end I'm sure will meet. For book 1 I was complaining that I couldn't hardly keep up with the characters! I smiled when I opened this one and found a list of who's who and where! :-)

 I read a portion of the book riding from NJ to AL. I felt like I read for nearly 24 hours straight 8-o Which I stopped after starting on Leia's portion of the book, my mind just couldn't think well enough at that point to continue!

 I'm looking forward to the next book! The author has a wide range in writing talent, if that makes since. He can write about politics with amazing depth and contrast with the emotional search for Akanah's and Luke's family. A very good author!

Before the Storm

  This is book #1 in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. It's got a lot in it! Much more story and detail then The Crystal Star but again it was published before Planet of Twilight so again Calista never happened again. Anyway, you could retitle this, Luke and Leia Lose Their Minds, lol. The story got so complicated with new characters popping up that I was starting to feel like I was reading the Star Wars version of War and Peace! (actualy I've never read War and Peace but I hear it's hard to follow) I will have to say some things seemed a little out of character for Leia and Luke but some of that may play in the story line later so I won't put it down too quickly but I will say it annoys me no end when they have Luke speaking some sort of Shakespearean (for lack of better to call it) I am sensitive to speech patterns and it throws me when people are way off, come on, Luke is a farm boy from Tatooine, why is he speaking to his students like a collage professor? Makes you wonder, do Jedi have lessons in grammar?

A painting of a young Padmé Amidala hanging in the
 Imperial Palace during the Thrawn campaign

  I do like the depth the author is putting into emotions. There is also a lot of politics and war stratagies but not done in a way that is boring.
  One problem I see coming is, how much in 1996 was known about Padme'? In this book Luke is met by someone knowing about who his mother was. This was getting close to the making of the second set of movies but so far I'm not sure how much was revealed to this author... so far it is being done in a way to not give a lot of details to conflict with later stories yet it does still conflict! I guess we will see how it turns out...

Champions of the Force

  At last the last of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. This is the book that never ends…
 Haha, ok It’s not that bad :~) It’s just different that this author finishes off his story rather then having an abrupt ending which does kinda bug me when a story just stops like they ran out of ink :-/I don’t think this author is great with characters. He seems to get some yet others are one dimensional. He did better with Luke then in the last book but still some of it I just had a hard time visualizing some of the stuff said. I think the title of this one is a bit cheesy.
  All in all I would recommend someone read these three. Though the middle book was slow the third made up for it.

Jedi Search

 This is actually the first novel I finished a while back. I'm posting it hear for the sake of having these somewhat in order and I did re-read this one before going on to the next to refresh my memory. I found this book in a Goodwill in Astoria Queens along with 9 others! So that 1 mile my mom didn't want to walk paid off after all! Lol... Below is my review from the first time I read it. The second time through was as good as the first plus I knew better who everyone was! That is why it is a good idea to read these in order.
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Finished reading this a few days back. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the second one so I guess it was pretty good :-) It mentions the Dark Empire comic books a bit. I luckily read those before I got this book. That's actually what got me reading this. The character of Han's is well written. The author seemed to capture him the best. Luke on the other hand comes across as being a little one dimensional :-/ But all in all I really enjoyed reading it!

Heir to the Empire

By Timothy Zahn, I was getting the idea from reading reviews that the author of this book was really good. When I started I wasn’t sure I was going to agree but after the story got to going it started getting good. This author captures the Star Wars feel in ways other books have not. Now on to reading book two!

 (Note added 8/19/12 I know I'm going to have to reread this one eventualy as I can't remember what happened now!)