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The most helpful critical review
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
What a Fun Read!
What an interesting idea, and believable, genetically altered children with superhuman intellect and strength who are like normal children in every other way except that they fly. Totally engaging. I often found myself with a smile on my face and wishing these kids really existed so I could meet them.
One thing I like about Patterson is that he, unlike...
Published on January 26, 2007 by John Considine
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Every cliche in the book is in this book!
This book is perhaps the worst I've ever read! Though the premise is intriguing, the novel itself is critcally lacking in every aspect. "When the Wind Blows" seems to be nothing more than cliches, one-liners, and tired, wornout phrases from World War II. All the characters are non-dimensional and completely unimaginatitve beings with no true human qualities...
Published on November 28, 2003 by Ross Pavio
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Every cliche in the book is in this book!, November 28, 2003
This book is perhaps the worst I've ever read! Though the premise is intriguing, the novel itself is critcally lacking in every aspect. "When the Wind Blows" seems to be nothing more than cliches, one-liners, and tired, wornout phrases from World War II. All the characters are non-dimensional and completely unimaginatitve beings with no true human qualities. This book is nothing more than a really bad "B-Grade" "Made for TV" movie. The plot is the same old story line so that you regretably know everything that will happen after reading just the first few pages. Moreover, Mr. Patterson doesn't have a clue as to how real children and real women are. Throughout the book, he has young children reciting and singing lines and tunes of World War II vintage like, Geronimo! and "We're in the Army Now." One of Mr. Patterson's main characters is a youngish woman veterinarian named Frannie O'Neil(written in first person). This is perhaps his biggest failure of all. Due to Mr. Patterson's inability to write creatively and empathetically, Frannie comes across as an emotionally confused and disdraught Army drill sargeant in drag. This book was a colossal waste of my money and my time. If this is the direction the writers of leisure literary works are going or if it is really what the readers want, I am truly saddened.
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Amateurish writing & 1-dimensional characters, June 30, 2003
It sounds like such a good story and I was so disappointed. It reminds me of bad fan fiction, the kind of stories lonely junior high students write about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Except the Buffy characters actually have some depth. The Good Guys are drippingly good - and good looking - and the Bad Guys are unadulterated Evil. The story line has problems too. Patterson has no grasp of subtlety; even comic book plots are more involved. And to top it all off, the writing is just weird. Clearly at some point in his formative years as a writer, somebody told Patterson not to use the word "said." He resorts to a lot of awkward and occasionally just plain wrong sentence structure to avoid the use of this horrible, terrible, no good, very bad word. There is some gratuitous cursing, though. Bottom line: save your money. If you want to read about animal experimentation, HG Wells did it better in "The Island of Doctor Moreau." If you want to read about adults misusing special children for their own ends, read Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." Don't waste your time on this one.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
What a Fun Read!, January 26, 2007
This review is from: When the Wind Blows (Paperback)
What an interesting idea, and believable, genetically altered children with superhuman intellect and strength who are like normal children in every other way except that they fly. Totally engaging. I often found myself with a smile on my face and wishing these kids really existed so I could meet them.
One thing I like about Patterson is that he, unlike most suspense novelists, goes out of his way to give the reader a believable excuse that the protagonist does not go to the police. Most novels leave you with the conclusion that the hero suddenly takes idiot pills and that's why he/she doesn't go to the police. In this story, Patterson makes it somewhat understandable why Kit and Frannie don't call for backup.
The one thing I'd like to ask Mr. Patterson: is it really believable that an FBI agent could be such a renegade and survive in that agency? That said, thank you sir, for a great experience of fantasy and fun.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Doesn't even rate one full star., October 7, 1999
By A Customer
I was truly shocked by how bad this book is. Mr. Patterson evokes no suspense, his characters are one-dimensional, the plot is just plain silly. Perhaps a more talented writer could have done something creative with this premise. The book reads like it was written by a thirteen year old girl for other thirteen year old girls. I suffered through 148 pages hoping the writing would get better, skimmed through a few more pages, and finally decided not to waste any more time trying to be entertained by this piece of trash.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A Total Waste of His Time and My Money, September 21, 1999
By A Customer
I struggled to finish this book and when I had, I wondered why I bothered. It's like he wrote it in his sleep. There were so many loose ends, it's hard to know where to start. For instance, they got to the army base at 1200 hrs then were supposed to meet the General at 0200 hrs. Oh, Really? They waited until 2.00 am to see a guy when they arrived at noon? Where were the editors when they were needed. The science is far-fetched, I should know, I have 2 degrees in biology. The throw away references to current pop idols and fashions should be left to Stephen King - he does it better. For all the misguided people who thought it was a great book, I have an infinitely better choice - "The Watchers" by Dean Koontz. It's more entertaining and in a way, more believable.James Patterson, please go back to Alex Cross - he's much more believable than these 2-dimensional ones in WTWB.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Did James Patterson REALLY write this?, July 28, 1999
I can not believe this is a James Patterson book. At first the book was OK. I feel I gave it a sincere chance.(Although it was very predictable) The further I read, the sillier it got. I can NOT believe that this book was written by James Patterson, the writing seems so amature. I will still read his books, but only if he gets back to Alex Cross and some REAL writing.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
I could not force myself to finish this book., January 10, 1999
I really like James Patterson's works and was surprised by the utterly disappointing plot and premise of When the Wind Blows. For the first time in may years I did not (could not) finish the book - it has gone out with the trash.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The main thing that Blows is this book., October 13, 1999
I bought this for a long airplane ride, but I think I would have been better off with the bad in-flight movie. This guy is a best-selling author? With that third grade vocabulary? And if his heroine is so bright, why doesn't she figure out that her (murdered) husband was in on the experiments? These "bird kids" are so valuable? Then why did the scientists leave two of them to starve in the compound? That's when I stuffed the book where it belonged, in my "air sickness" bag.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Dreck!, November 6, 2000
What dreck! This is supposed to be the work of "America's No. 1 Thriller Writer"? What an embarrassment for American readers. The best thing about this novel was that it was such a quick read. I would have thought if someone was going to convince a reader about such a remarkable premise as bio-engineered flying children, the writer would at least make an attempt to do some research and perhaps make some of the plot or characters believable. The plot is riddled with holes and the astoundingly stupid actions by supposedly superior intellects made me want to shriek out loud. The style of writing sounds like the work of an eighth grade student trying to rush his homework and the characters were non-dimensional. I think Mr. Patterson dictated this story while in a coma; thank God I borrowed this book from a library and didn't waste any money on it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Not deserving of all the hype, September 13, 1999
By A Customer
I really enjoyed Mr. Patterson's series featuring Alex Cross, so I was quite excited when I found this book at the library. I've been hearing about it since December (including the television and radio ads). According to the hype, this book was something truly scary, an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Then I read the book. Instead of being scared, I alternated between amusement and disbelief. Patterson starts off with a good premise: what would happen if a bunch of rogue scientists starting experimenting with cross-species genetics, grafting animal parts onto human tissue. He creates interesting characters in Frannie, Kit and Max--then ruins everything with an unbelievable and unlikely plot. A genetic construct like Max is indeed possible, but then Patterson lets the ball drop, favoring action over substance. According to the author's note, over thirty scientists and medical professionals read and aided in the manuscript. What did these professionals do? Patterson's science is pretty accurate as far as it goes (he throws in buzz-words like "cross-species genetics" and includes such set decoration items as glass pipets and laser spectrographs) but there's very little science in this story. Patterson could have gotten the necessary information from a good biotechnology textbook without wasting the time of those 30 biomedical professionals. If you want a really good (and scary) story of what genetics could make possible, try Nancy Kress' "Beggars" series (especially "Beggars in Spain") or her excellent short story collection, "Beaker's Dozen". Mr. Patterson should stick to mystery and leave the science to real science fiction writers.
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