The Kill Order is the prequel to the Maze Runner trilogy, and as such it has completely different characters in it.
As you already learned by the other books, the story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, one that was almost totally destroyed by a huge Sun Flare.
And then, not too long after the tragedy happens and people are starting to settle down in refugee camps and abandoned villages, another problem comes along... The Flare.
The book starts out with a short introduction of Teresa from the trilogy, but after the first chapter we learn that it's a totally different time than where the Maze Runner takes place. The main characters, Mark and Alec are two guys who are trying to protect their little group that consists of Trina (Mark's girlfriend), Lana (Alec's partner), Deedee (a little girl they find on their way), Misty, the Toad and and Darnell (with an added Baxter, who is the first to die).
Of course, the group isn't made up of all of them at first, and we soon learn trough a couple of flashback dreams that Mark and Trina were in an underground when the Sun Flare came, and they were trying to survive in the tunnels together when Alec and HIS little group came upon the two of them.
Deedee only joins the last four survivors of the group (Alec, Mark, Trina and Lana) when a group of government people come down upon the refugee village they are staying at and proceed to unleash a deadly virus on them. The five year old little girl was left behind by another group of people who were attacked months before the main characters, because she got a deadly dosage of the virus but still seemed to be quite healthy.
Then the horror continues as the little group tries to find out what was the deal with the virus, and they are separated from each other when a fire brakes out in the forest they are spending their time in.
Marc and Alec try to investigate some crazy sounding voices not too far from them and while they struggle to come back to their camp they learn that another group took the three girls with them.
Of course, as things go in these stories, the guys try to get them all back, and on their way they meet quite a few insane people that succumbed to the Flare.
There is a LOT of action in the book, I have to warn you (in case you don't like these kind of books).
A lot of running and hiding and fighting- with fists and guns that kill people by tearing each and every molecule in their bodies apart.
Now, the book is wrapped up wonderfully in my opinion (SPOILER ALERT - everyone dies but Deedee, who's transported into the clutches of WICKED, and then we get a glimpse of the time when Thomas' mother gives his boy away to WICKED too).
It's a book that would probably be understood even if you didn't read the trilogy before it.
It gives some answers to most questions you had (what happened with the Sun Flare? How did the Flare escape from under control? What happened to the first people in the disaster?), and I finally learned the truth that the virus was not an accident- it was a means of population control.
I have to tell you that I liked this book a lot more than the last book in the trilogy, and even though I knew that the characters in it will have to all die at the end, it was a pretty good "adventure".
Oh, and then there is the part where we slowly realize that all the main characters have the Flare, so when the end comes it's almost a relief to see them all die.
(These catastrophe stories always make me think about how I would actually want to be between the first ones to die instead of living in fear and constant pain until my time finally comes. I guess, I'm not hero material...)
Anyways, it was a good series, I'm looking forward to see what the big screen will turn it into. And until then, I have new adventures to embark on.
