Suspense

The Maximum Ride series was never particularly, good, or at all. But this is the book that takes them from bad to god awful. ( )

I love the first three Maximum Ride Novels. But that's it. The Final Warning made was a 2 compared to the 10 of the Angel Experiment, Schools Out--Forever, and Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. Max was a 3. Fang went down into the negatives. Does anyone else read FanFiction? Take a look at the story Amazing Clichés by rainbowstike. This story was first published in July 2009 about cliché FanFiction stories-not even the good ones-and think about how many of those ideas James Patterson Used in Fang. There's Dylan the Gary Sue, the flock almost forming a band, Evil Angel, the flock making Max leave, the death of Fang, the OTHER flock, everyone randomly hating Dylan, and probably more that I'm forgetting.

Everyone was out of character, especially Angel who has somehow morphed from an adorable six year old who tells Max that "she's her favorite too" into an outrageous and evil seven year old without reason. Fang was never a distraction to Max, he always helped her and supported her, keeping her even MORE focused. Nudge barely talked, Iggy and Gazzy barely made any bombs, it was like a horrible FanFiction where they forget everyone besides Max and Fang. Not to mention that Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy would never vote for Max to leave.

Let's not forget that James Patterson is leaving many things at dead ends. Gazzy has more abilities than being gassy, as most people have probably forgotten, because JP has not mentioned Gazzy's voice mimicking ability since about the second book. Whatever happened to Nudge's ability to attract metal? That doesn't matter; only her hacking ability does, because it can help fix plot holes about finding information. Iggy can see colors, not that anyone would ever spare it a single thought since we found out in the Final Warning. Max, Fang, and Angel have gills. GILLS! Yet why on earth would they matter at all except to save the day and let the flock live happily ever after. Wouldn't the rest of the flock still be curious why they weren't developing gills? Furthermore, Angel has mentioned that she has a voice. That is something huge. It brings up hundreds of questions like why she hasn’t had brain attacks, who her voice is, whether it’s good or not, et cetera. That deserves more thought and consideration by everyone in the flock, this big of an event is not something you just ignore. A normal acting Angel would have told someone by now, or at least have been a little worried about it. With all of this going on, it seems like we have an Angel 2 instead of a regular Angel.

There, my rant is over. Feel free to comment, agree, bash, flame, or whatever you want. I’d love to hear your opinion on things. ( )

In general I do not enjoy James Patterson novels as I find them predictable and formulaic but for some reason I quite enjoy the Maximum Ride series. I found the characters to be interesting and I found the story to be fascinating. I liked how it was fantastical but also believable enough that it felt like the vents could maybe actually happen. The writing style is very readable if a bit simplistic. ( )

Another good installment of this series.

James Patterson is still walking a fairly thin line though, and I'm kind of doubting he'll ever reach the heights of the first three books again. The characters are still themselves, but sometimes they seem to waver a little, and there are still a couple moments of out-of-character oddness here and there. The plot becomes a bit more hectic with every novel, with new problems, characters, and villains popping out of the crevices, and very few previous plot points explained or revisited. But the general heart of Maximum Ride is still there, although the humor was not quite as rampant.

I both liked and disliked the ending. I have to hand it to Patterson for fulfilling the teaser for this book while still averting the wrath of fans, and also throwing in a twist probably no one saw coming. Quite emotional, actually, for a novel usually far more focused on action. At the same time, it does feel a little sudden and unnecessary. I hope Patterson is able to take his story in a good direction and make use of the new plot points introduced here. ( )