Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
Release Date: April 11, 2005
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
422 Pages
Received: Bought used
Format: Paperback
Rating:
Description:
In James Patterson’s blockbuster series, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it’s like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the “flock”–Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel–are just like ordinary kids–only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time…like when Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the “School” where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare–this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf “Erasers” in New York City.
Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb–now her betrayed and greatest enemy–that her purpose is save the world–but can she?
Review: I think that a lot of people are going to say that I’m being harsh giving this book only two stars. Honestly I think the two star rating is truly deserved. Now I haven’t read a lot of James Patterson and I really don’t plan to, from what I understand he is a very formulaic writer. Perhaps this is the reason for my greatest complaint: this book has no soul. There doesn’t seem to be any passion behind the writing, the words are there but they seem hollow.
At first I thought maybe there was something missing, like there should be more. I put down the book and said “yep, that’s a story” but I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t hate the book but it didn’t have anything really meaningful in it either. It felt like chewing on the equivalent of cardboard, everything was bland and just completely unmemorable.
Part of this was because of something I consider to be a major failing in any book it pops up in: I didn’t care what happened to the characters. Something you never want is a reader to look at your characters in peril and say “so what?” I didn’t feel for any of them, except for perhaps Angel. The other characters are flat as a board. Max is forgettable at her best and downright annoying any other time. The other members of the flock? Flat, forgettable, dull, more of the same really. They didn’t inspire any concern or love, they were just there, the whole lot of them.
So was there anything good about the book? Yeah, I guess. The Erasers, creepy attack dog types, were kinda cool. Even unnerving at times. Not a lot happens in the book, most of the flock’s choices don’t lead anywhere, so when the Erasers show up at least you know something is going to happen.
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I completely agree with this review: Patterson is a hack extraordinare. He was a former big-shot publisher who realizes everything could be reduced to a quick-bake formula for mass consumption/sales. Indeed, he doesn't even write his books; he does the "treatment," and then has a ghost writer fine-tune it for him (if you look, all his books have such a writer credited, in much, much smaller print, because he's an egotist). As you suggest, his books are soulless revamps of the works that have put such ideas/genres on the map. This series, as near as I can tell, basically steals from thousands of issues of the X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, etc., in an attempt to cash in on the genre. Why people should read it is beyond me, since it only proves his Machiavellian point: that readers are desperate to read and re-read the exact same book over and over again, and doesn't care who writes it. I think you made some great insights as to why this book (and his general approach) doesn't work, and you did it far more diplomatically than I ever could. Good review!
From what I understand people either love or hate this series, or even Patterson's books in general. There's very little middle ground. The idea had potential but he just didn't do very much with it. It's sad that there are authors who work their butts off to get something they're proud of published while Patterson can sell heaps of this garbage just by putting his name on it.