Customer Reviews

Max (Maximum Ride, Book 5)

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Like a lot of other readers, I was skeptical picking up this book. The 4th book was about global warming and it was one giant political message. This book wasn't nearly as bad. There was still some global warming and pollution messages however, it's not nearly as bad. Unlike the 4th book, they had a purpose in this book. I don't want to spoil anything from the book, but this time around, the flock was working to actually save something important to them.
This book isn't perfect though. The book is focused around Max, Fang, and Angel. Some of the other characters, such as Iggy and the Gasman, were almost ignored.
Also, the flock seems to have a change in personality. Before, they were kids trying to survive, now they're brats. The flock was still sarcastic and funny, but they were mean to almost all of the adults in the book. All of the characters seemed a little off, like their personality changed between books.
There is definetly more romance in this book. I won't spoil anything. But, I can assure you that romance lovers won't be dissapointed.
Overall, it's not a bad book. Not great either. It's an improvement over the 4th Maximum Ride book. But the political message is still there. The characters seem a little different as well. But the book is still exciting and entertaining. I recommend this book to any of the Maximum Ride fans, you might want to save your money and wait for it to show up at the library.

Picking up this book, I was skeptical. Can anyone remember the fourth book, The Final Warning, and how much we all disliked it? I was ready for another 309 pages of disappointment.

But boy, was I wrong. This book is great, and the series is one its way to redemption. The story starts out slow, and actually, the whole first 50 pages don't make sense. But later on, the plot gets fast paced and exciting, and the romance will make your heart flutter (there's a lot more of it this time around and, in my opinion, I loved it... you can guess between who!).

There are messages about global warming, but there's so small and subtle that you have to squint to see them. It actually leaves you with a feeling that, "Oh, yeah, it does exist, and I feel bad," instead of, "Stop shoving it in my face, book!"

My only complaint was this: did there seem to be some favoritism in the characters? Like, I noticed the Gasman was centralized in the story and always there, of course in addition to first-person narrator Max. So was Angel and Fang. But there seemed to be a huge limited amount of Iggy and Nudge. Maybe it was just me, and if you happen to like those four characters, great. But I am an Iggy fan, and he barely had, like, four lines.

Anyway, the ending of this book was such a cliffhanger. I can't give away much without spoiling it, but please just go and read it. I cannot absolutely wait for the next one, now that I know the series is back on track and likely won't pull a huge flop like The Final Warning. Can the next book come any sooner?

Bravo, James Patterson, Max is glad to have to back on track!

My kids are a bit on the younger side (6 & 9 years old) but these books are fantastic to read aloud to them- they have serious appeal for almost any age and touch on topics that are of universal importance. I love that not only are there charaters and situations that I can relate to, but so can my 6-year-old.

What I like most is the high-flying(no pun intended) adventure and how I can leave my girls hanging, literally begging for another chapter. Makes it easy to come back to again and again- much as I hate to put it down at all(Ok, I read it straight through myself, first- what's a mom to do?). We have something to look forward to the next night!

All our favorite characters are back, though as one reviewer commented, not all get as much play time but I felt like in this book there was a good deal more character development. Don't want to ruin anything but the romance angle kept even me(old mom) interested.

I am a big fan of Total who provides alot of comic relief. Patterson has the fast pace and well-timed humor down pat in this book. The language flows easily and yet isn't 'dumbed down' and something about the way Patterson write makes me feel like I'm right there with Max and the rest of the 'flock'.

It's fast, it's fun and it has a little something for everyone- heros, heroines, villians and even a flying dog. Can it get any better than that?

Okay, is it me or have no decent Maximum Ride books been written since the amazing 3rd book? I hated The Final Warning like most, but in my opinion Max was not much better.

Although Max didn't push global warming in our faces like Final Warning, it was pretty present and annoyinly so. I don't think that James even intended the series to be about global warming in the first place, but simply had to think of a purpose for the Flock. I think he could have picked better. The world has been around a long time before we came and it's....... sorry, I won't continue my rant.

Also, it was boring! I'm sorry but it seemed like most of the time the Flock was just hanging around. The first danger in the book just vanquished itsself, and in many other life threatening situations, Angel just told the threat to back off. And besides that, the Flock lacked their previous snark. They used to make me laugh out loud (which prompted odd looks from fellow students), but whenever James tried to portray a flock member giving attitude, it just fell flat.

It wasn't very believable. I know, they're bird kids, whats believable about that? But Gazzy's inventions to keep off the enemy seemed unrealalistic, and you can't just explain every weird biological abnormality with 'hey, we're bird kids'. At least mention the scientists intending to submerge the kids in water at some point or wth ever, or that they were given something that made them evolve more rapidly, etc.. And don't change detail from previous books. Fang can't really be invisable, right? But when he stands still he can blen into his enviroment? But walking through a course isn't 'standing still',is it? Sheesh, James, make up your mind.

And I know that even though shes a bird kid shes still just a girl....but Maximum has said multiple times how much she hates the gooshy and the romantic, but oh she hug sways her sister and makes meal with her mom and she kisses Fang multiple times....and she still seethes with jealousy anytime the redhead doctor steps near them. And she thinks about Fang constantly! The is not the anti-vulnerability Maximum I knew and loved.

Oh and one last thing, like hel...ahem...heck the Flock of books 1-3 would allow Nudge to not go with them. I just don't see it.

So come on James, I know you have it in you or books 1-3 wouldn't have been so great. But 4 & 5 were really quite sad. Why don't you bring Max and the Flock back for one last, salvaging book, and while you're doing it give Iggy and Nudge a few more lines. Especially Iggy. He holds my heart. <3 lol.

After The Final Warning, I was really concerned for the Maximum Ride series. So concerned that I was pretty surprised when I saw that a new book was coming out in the series. However, Patterson pleasantly surprised me with the fifth book in the Maximum Ride series, Max. Instead of being preached at or being walked through some cliche story, I was treated to a fresh new adventure that breathed new life into the series.

At the opening of Max, Max and her fellow bird children have joined an organization to spread awareness and fight the effects of global warming. Soon after, the Flock is enlisted by the U.S. government to investigate the death of millions of fish off the Hawaiian coast. It isn't long until the sinister Dr. Chu kidnaps Max's genetic mother, Dr. Martinez, and demands that Max and co. give up on their crusade against global warming or risk Dr. Martinez's death.

It was great to see the Flock working with the government this time instead of fighting it or running from it, as they have in previous books. Even though part of me missed the suspense and intensity of the constant chase from the earlier novels, Max is infused with enough drama and emotion to keep readers flipping pages. Overall, Patterson's writing was fun and entertaining to read, with a healthy dose of sass and wit. It seemed like his writing skill has also strengthened since The Final Warning and grow considerably since The Angel Experiment. I find that Max is much easier to read than the other novels and truly brings something original to the Maximum Ride universe.

The sudden increase of romantic content in Max, however, may bother some readers since it is not common to the series, but to others (such as myself) it's a welcome change and shows how the Flock is growing up. There also seem to be some neglect of Iggy and Gazzy compared to previous novels, but this didn't hurt the overall story. Of course, if you're a fan of these characters, than this approach may be a problem.

While this book is not perfect, it is, by far, the best book in the Maximum Ride series so far. I'm not a big fan of Patterson and have only read his Maximum Ride novels, but he just seems to pull out all of the stops on this one. I was pleasantly surprised by Max, especially after the disappointment of The Final Warning. There were points when I was reading this book that I saw it playing in my mind like a movie -even though, at times, a somewhat sappy, romantic movie. I certainly hope that future Maximum Ride novels will be just as enjoyable.

In Max, Max and the flock are asked by the government to help them investigate what is killing fish off the coast of Hawaii and destorying ships. Max is weary about doing it but she wants answers. Not even just about what's going on with the oceans or even how to save the world. Things with her and Fang are changing and she's not sure how to handle it.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this because I did not like The Final Warning at all. I finally decided to read Max out of curiosity and in the end I'm glad I did. It felt like a Maximum Ride book, unlike The Final Warning. I can only hope the series continues to get better from here. These last two books were disappointing since I loved the first three in the series. I understand why Patterson is writing in global warning since it's so important, but it seems to have brought the story down. Try focusing on the characters a little more. They shouldn't be taking a back seat to global warming. If I had my way, the next book will have more about the flock and their old ways. And more Fang and Max.

I must say, I was a little bit reluctant to pick up this book at first. I was disappointed by Book Four, and when I read this book's descripton, I didn't think it was going to be much better. Boy, was I wrong! James Patterson has redeemed himself by giving us back all the action and adventure we have come to expect from Maximum Ride. With plenty of action and just the right amount of romance, Patterson has regained my trust AND my interest. If you were put off by the fourth book and were convinced not to give book five a try, well - it's not too late to change your mind!

Overall with Max, Patterson has produced a decent story. The plot line is decent (much better than the last book I think), and there is still the characteristic humor that I have come to associate with this series. Nevertheless, Patterson overall lack of facts is what really annoyed me through out in the novel. I am in the Navy, and the portrayl of the Navy through out this story has so many holes in it, it's distracting....
To begin with, there are no LT Col. in the Navy... There equivalent is a LT. Commander. Second of all, A LT. Col. would never call a LT Ma'am , as a LT ranks below a LT. Col. Third of all the training that the kids had to go through to get on the ship doesn't exsist. Atleast not what they went through. Fourth, the navy doesn't have tanks... The army does, and the marines (which IS a sub section of the navy, but they are on a different base in Hawaii). Fifth, Kids would not be issued khakis. Sixth, at the time of this novel, no women were allowed on Submarines, and one of the techs was a woman on the sub.
I know these things are knit-picky, but because Patterson's overall portrayl of the Military seems to be kind of downcast, I felt that he should atleast get the facts right. It screws up his credibility of the save the environment messege.

Our favorite terrifically sarcastic freak kids, with lots of action... HOWEVER, the increasingly pervasive political/environmental message just cheeses it up. The average news-story-type message just sucks the fantasty/adventure right out of it. This started in Final Warning and becomes more of the story in Max. I skipped Fang's "earthy" blogs and if this keeps up, I'll be skipping future Max novels. Keep the activist messages out. Having said that, Max still delivers in humor, adventure, and sarcasm. Disappointing that the creativity doesn't follow through to the plot.

Yep, this series, specially the last two books have been all about contradictions. They're in a sub for most of the time and there are a lot of contradictions about water pressure, first the shoot a man put into the water and he's crushed. Then angel comes out into the water and she's fine. then, towards the end, max says that she shouldn't go out of the water because she'd be "crushed like a pancake" seriously. That just pisses me off. And the fact that they're still messing around with the global warming crap? ugh. I only listened to this because my boyfriend bought it (hes been reading the series since they came out) and even he was disappointed with everything after the 3rd book. I honestly think Mr. Patterson should just write one last novel (I'm not sure if the 6th is the last) and end this series with the little dignity it has left. Reading these books used to be exciting. Now all I'm getting is global warming and pollution propaganda, what's up with that? If I want to read about global warming I will go buy a book that was written by scientists, people who know what they're talking about. Not get informed through a damn children's book.