In March of this year I attended the Public Library Association (PLA) conference in Minneapolis, MN. One of the best parts of this was all of the free books. With our registration packet came two books by James Patterson - Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (Book 1) (in paperback), and Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever (Book 2) (in hardback). I hadn't read anything by Patterson and I put them in my to-be-read pile.
Later, as I was packing for a family reunion in July, I picked up the paperback to possibly bring along. I noticed that the chapters were extremely short, usually 2 to 4 pages long. I thought it would be a perfect book that I could be interrupted on at any point and not have to worry too much about losing the flow of the story, so I took it.
As I started to read it, two of my younger cousins remarked on how much they liked the books. One is a teenager, the other is in her early twenties and I know they have liked some of the same books and authors I have so I thought things were boding well for this series. Then I started getting into the book ...
The best part of the book is that the chapters are short, so it moves along at a pretty good pace and it is easy to read in short, interruptable chunks. Unfortunately, characterization and descriptions are sacrificed.
Before I get too far into my review, here is the basic story. (I will keep spoilers to a minimum, but there are going to be some - so be warned.) Six children are living on their own, hiding from "the School," a laboratory where they were genetically enhanced with wings and other abilities. In the first book the School finds them takes the youngest one back. The other five head out to rescue her. They get her out and keep running, looking for their parents along the way. The second book continues with them on the run, finding a potential ally and leading a "normal" life for a little while before continuing on the run. Now back to my thoughts on the two books ...
It took me several chapters before I realized the main character, Maximum "Max" Ride, was female. After that, it took me most of the book to connect the names and abilities of the other members of the flock, except for the youngest, Angel. I never really grew to care for them. Max had her moments, but that was it. Questions were raised about why the School let them escape in the first place, why they leave them alone at some times and pursue them at others, who are their allies and who are their enemies, etc. The first book seemed to end so abruptly without any answers that I decided to read the second book to see if any of the ideas were explained. They weren't.
There is an Empire-Strikes-Back type revelation at the end that seems to be forgotten or ignored in the second book, so I am not sure if it was a revelation or a ruse. A "major" death at the end of the first book turns out to be somewhat irrelevant by the second book as that character's clone is created. The first book is told from Max's point of view, and in the second book, the point of view changes occasionally. Unfortunately, it was not always clear that it wasn't Max telling the story at points so that made some parts a little confusing for a few moments.
I discovered that the library has the third book on CD, so I might eventually listen to it to see if any questions are answered, or if this is a Young Adult book version of the Lost series on TV.
While the books have a few twists on ideas, the ideas are far from new. On TV, you could have watched Mutant X or James Cameron's Dark Angel with Jessica Alba, to see genetically enhanced children/teenagers coming to grips with their abilities, hiding from those who created them, tyring to find out answers as to who they are, etc. Jessica Alba's character's name was even Max! These ideas aren't new to speculative fiction in print, movies, TV or comic books. In the past ten years, the animated series Batman Beyond had geneticists "splicing" animal genes with humans as well.
The flock is constantly being chased by Erasures - other kids who can morph into wolf-like creatures. These reminded me of the Fetchers in Garth Nix's Keys of the Kingdom series. The Fetchers are part dog, but they almost became comic relief in their inability to achieve their missions also. The fact that nothing works in the flock's favor, and that several events seem pointless and that there are more than a few gaps in logic, I finished these two books with the same unfulfilled taste in my mouth as The Series of Unfortunate Events left me.
This series (the fifth book is due out next year) is a best seller and has won awards, so perhaps I have just read or seen too many stories that are similar that the ideas If you haven't seen or read many of the books and shows I mentioned, perhaps this series will be fresh enough to you keep you going - and bring you to the movie that is supposed to be released in 2010 (maybe the screen writers will be able to improve on the story - we can hope). In the meantime, I would recommend you find something else to pass your time and engage your thoughts and imagination.
No comments:
Post a Comment