Saving the World (Maximum Ride, Book 3) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: bird kids, New York, Anne Walker, By-Half Plan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The end is near . . . or is it? So reads the tagline of Book 3 of the Maximum Ride series, suggesting that Patterson's best-selling series for YAs may expand beyond the trilogy originally planned—news that will be greeted enthusiastically by fans of its 14-year-old heroine. Slated for extermination by their scientist creators, rebel-mutant Max and other members of her flock, all of whom possess bird DNA and functioning wings, are on the lam again, their mission to save the world from a eugenics plot. Affection for the dauntless characters and misadventures that build on universal yearnings about sprouting wings and taking flight will hold readers. Mattson, Jennifer

Product Description

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?

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1st edition (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316155608
• ISBN-13: 978-0316155601
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,188 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 3 in The Maximum Ride Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars jumpy, plot doesn't flow (SPOILER ALERT), July 4, 2007

By	P. Bowers "reader" (Richmond, VA & Tirana, Albania) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I know this book is written for a younger audience, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first 2 installments. Now that I've read the third I WISH I HAD NEVER GOTTEN STARTED! There are so many things that are left hanging or "closed" in nonsensical ways!

(1) We never find out how the flock was being tracked.
(2) The whole business with Max's Mom/Dad ended way too unsatisfying -- just boom, now we know and everybody hugs and is happy even though BOTH Mom & Dad should have had some accountability.
(3) The whole betrayal by Jeb is turned into (what?) some kind of under-the-radar helping the flock?
(4) Angel can read minds, but never can or does at the crucial moment of deciding whether we can trust someone. Why not?
(4a) Contrary to some other reviews I thought Ari's "turn" was well done and believable, but why couldn't Angel just confirm one way or the other?
(4b) Why couldn't she figure out what was going on with Jeb right off and let everybody know?
(5) Fang somehow manages to hack into the systems of these super-secret corporations even though Nudge isn't around. Did I miss something?
(6) Angel's being a traitor and then resolving itself is WAY too simplistic. What? "Oh, I forgot to mention this to the rest of the flock." Either there needs to be a reason for it being so secretive or it would have been shared with the rest.
(7) You have these super-enhanced robotic fly-boys that are designed to beat anything and (a) the flock can fight them about 10-1 and (b) when a child throws a rock over a wall and hits one suddenly it sits down and doesn't move anymore.
(8) The whole thing of kids the world over being able to violently overthrow high security installations is a bit of a stretch.
(9) Would have been nice to see better closure on the whole Itex thing. I suppose we can imagine, but it just felt too rushed.
(..) I could go on and on.

I liked the style continued with the earlier books. The romance with Fang went very nicely and believably. The split of the flock showed some change in the characters which I thought enhanced the book.

The series has been a really fun read, but for me much of a book is based on the ending. You can't have a great series of books which ends on a completely inconsistent and rushed note and not have the whole series judged negatively.

Sorry, I really wish I had never started the series.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wait Until Available in Your Local Library to Avoid Maximum Disappointment!, August 14, 2007

By	James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Fifth novel overall about these characters and the third aimed at the young adult market this book shows Patterson has just plain run out of ideas and doesn't even fully develop the ones he did come up with as to what to do with these kids with wings. Don't pay money for this, borrow it from your library to avoid maximum disappointment of both the storyline and throwing away your heard earned cash!

In this adventure Max and Fang are having relationship issues, even though neither seems to want to admit their feelings for one another. They haven't seen any Erasers for a while and some of the flock just want to settle down and forget about saving the world. Scientists have been given orders to terminate these winged failures and they've got some cyborg Flyboys with instructions to bring them back to The School. Meanwhile an evil dictator residing in Europe has plans for mass genocide that make Hitler look like a choir boy that when successful will reduce the world's population by half. Of course the voice in Max's head keeps telling her only she can save the world!

This book starts off extremely slow with the entire part of Part One "In Search of Hot Chocolate Chip Cookies" pretty much just being Max rehashing the first two Young Adult books resulting in you the reader pretty much just going, come on get on with it! Great young adult (and even junior) fiction like any good PG movie should be just as enjoyable to adults as well. The first novel in the Young Adult series wasn't that much different writing wise to the two adult adventures, the second was more like your usual young adult novel but Patterson seems to struggle as to which target market he is writing for with this book with parts reading like a junior fiction book. This novel spends more time with Max trying to make wise cracks then actually having a storyline. At the end not much has happened, not much is resolved (obviously Patterson is leaving the option for more books in the series) and the reader is left feeling pretty unsatisfied. The reader is forced to believe in massive coincidences when it comes to Max's parentage.

The first book of this series was pretty good, the second no where near that quality and after this disaster I won't be continuing the ride when the fourth novel comes out.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My students LOVE it!, June 2, 2007

By	R. Radebaugh "Rad teacher" (Orem, UT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a sixth grade teacher in Orem, Utah and my students have fallen in love with the Maximum Ride books. I have been a long time fan of Patterson's adult fiction and always thought my students would love his quick page turning style. I was right. When Max 1 came out a couple years ago it quickly became their favorite. I wrote to James and commented on my students' love for Max and the gang so he sent me an advanced reader's copy of Max 2. It was a great lesson to my kids that authors care about their audience. It helped increase their love for the stories and, ultimately, reading. Max 3 came out this May with only a day left of school, so we held a read-aloud-a-thon and read Max 3 for the entire school day. We ended up about 3/4 of the way through and the students were screaming when they had to go home (a teacher's dream). The books are wonderful for kids who do not like books. I have had dozens of students begin a love for reading all different books as a result of Maximum Ride. I cannot thank James Patterson enough for inspiring kids to love reading!