Max by James Patterson

Synopsis:

James Patterson's bestselling Maximum Ride series is back, with Max and the gang as The Protectors. Someone--or something--is decimating ships and sea life off Hawaii's coast, and Max and her flock find themselves sucked into the Navy's top-secret investigation of the catastrophe. Their objective: Rescue Max's activist mom from a wicked subterranean enemy. The hitch: They must dive deep into dark waters, where gruesome evil dwells... and for high-flying Maximum Ride, could there be anything more terrifying than being trapped in the great abyss? This soaring new adventure takes Maximum Ride and the Flock into terrifying new territory--fans, hold your breath!

Thankfully this book was better than the previous one. If it wasn’t, I don’t think I would have been able to finish the series.

That said, it still wasn’t that great and on par with the first few books in the series, but any progress is a little better I suppose.

Most of the book took place under the ocean, which was interesting, but they didn’t see a whole lot aside from mutant radioactive creatures.

We also saw some more evolving of the flock. Max and Fang became aware that they have a new ability, which was important for the storyline of this book.

Other than that, I didn’t feel like this book progressed the story as much as it could have. They spent the whole book just trying to solve one problem, and once it was solved, the book was over.

It was okay, but I felt like it was lacking something.

3/5 stars

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The Final Warning by James Patterson

Synopsis:

In this breathtaking new story from the astonishing imagination of James Patterson, a girl has to save herself from an army assembled just to capture her -- and maybe save the planet while she's at it.

Maximum Ride is a perfectly normal teenager who just happens to be able to fly, the result of an out-of-control government experiment.

Max and the other members of the Flock -- six kids who share her remarkable ability -- have been asked to aid a group of environmental scientists studying the causes of global warming. The expedition seems like a perfect combination of adventure, activism -- and escaping government forces who watch the Flock like a hawk.

But even in Antarctica, trapped in the harshest weather on our planet, Maximum Ride is an irresistible target in constant danger. For whoever controls her powers could also control the world. Maximum Ride is James Patterson's greatest character, a heroine who manages to be human and fearless at once.

Now, I must start by saying that this book was really odd to me. It seemed like a book that wasn’t part of the series, it just featured the same characters.

The storyline wasn’t entirely consistent with that has happened in the previous installments, and it just felt weird.

It seemed like this book was written just to talk about ‘global warming’ or climate change. I question whether Max’s mission of saving the world was always planned around this, or if it just took that turn when this book was written.

That said, being a young adult series, I don’t mind this book or series as a whole talking about such a big topic like that. It is a good way to educate young adults about global issues. Use characters that they have already connected with during earlier books, and they are more likely to keep reading and take in what the message is.

It wasn’t a bad book by any means. It was just weird to me and seemed out of place. I found myself spacing out a lot instead of being focused on the story. I guess this has just been one of the weakest in the series so far. I’m also not very sure what the title has to do with this book as nothing seemed very final.

3/5 stars

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Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

Synopsis:

In MAXIMUM RIDE: SAVING THE WORLD AND OTHER EXTREME SPORTS, the time has arrived for Max and her winged "Flock" to face their ultimate enemy and discover their original purpose: to defeat the takeover of "Re-evolution", a sinister experiment to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race...and to terminate the rest. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel have always worked together to defeat the forces working against them--but can they save the world when they are torn apart, living in hiding and captivity, halfway across the globe from one another?

I’m pretty sure this series just keeps getting better as it goes. I feel that there was depth added to the characters in the flock in this one, especially when they were split up.

Max and Fang are both incredible leaders, but they need to learn how to work together to lead as a team. I feel that by the end of this novel they figured that out. I hope so, at least.

We got a peak into some of the inner workings of the big, bad corporation that is trying to take over the world. I wasn’t aware that they were stationed all over the place, but we learn that they are.

The new flying creatures they created were pretty comical. They were very strong, but they were so dumb and often ended up in destructing themselves.

We finally figured out the truth about Max’s origins as well. It will be interesting to see how that plays out and if she will return to her real family at all.

This book just left me wanting to dive right into the next book in the series, so I would say that it did its job!

That said, YA novels can be so cute when they have a bunch of kids standing up for the flock. When kids read these books, they probably feel like they can achieve anything they set their mind to, and that is awesome!

4/5 stars

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