The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)
by James Patterson
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Book Reviews of The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)
Book Review: Fast-paced action adventure sci fi story of orphaned, winged wonderkids
Summary: 5 Stars
Not normally a fan of fantasy, I found myself repeatedly putting a low priority on reading this first book in the Fugitives series, in spite of my 11-year-old son zipping through all six books in a matter of weeks. When I finally read it, I was pleasantly surprised. Although the logistics of things like - exactly how the retracted wings look, their attachment, and how they formed after the feat of genetic engineering required to "make" them (at a scary sounding research lab known as the School) is left a bit vague, and the author's use of the active voice seems extreme at times, imaginative readers will likely get as wrapped up in this action packed story about six "mutant" creatures (98% human, 2% avian) and their adventures involving their evil counterparts (the Erasers, part wolf) as I did. Fourteen-year-old Maximum, leader of the flock of six, ranging in age from four months younger than Ms. Ride to six years old, calls the shots, which involves occasional Notes to Self, e.g., "Give subconscious a pep talk re: better dreams." For the most part, though, she uses split-second decision-making skills. In this first book, the Erasers kidnap Angel for use in performing cruel and extensive experiments. And in spite of the winged-kids' near humanness, lab workers treat her poorly. Due to Maximum's sense of justice (and a desire to help a fellow female), she gets sidetracked before the rescue can begin. Several surprises (including the appearance of an unexpected person, and a revelation about an enemy) take place as they attempt to retrieve their flockmate as well as while they try to solve the mystery of how they came to be: specifically, how they ended up at the School in the first place. The cliffhanger ending will likely leave readers needing to know more about the fate of these brave and crazy winged kids. Maximum Ride is an excellent, action-packed, fast-paced story about a flock of extraordinary genetically engineered winged kids. Also good: The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, the Gregor the Overlander series also by Suzanne Collins, and Coraline on audio CD read by the author, Neil Gaiman.
Book Review: So Much Potential yet So Much Fluff
Summary: 3 Stars
James Patterson, for better or worse, is one of the most prolific and bestselling authors of all time. Such a title doesn't come without its hard knocks. For instance, any rummaging through Amazon reviews will review that while there are those who love Patterson's work, there seem to be many who dislike it with a passion. I'd heard enough negative or mixed things that I'd shied away from Patterson's work (it's not like I didn't have other things to read), but through a free offer on Amazon's Kindle, I had a chance to read through Patterson's The Angel Experiment, the first book in the Maximum Ride series.
Maximum Ride isn't your ordinary fourteen year old girl. First of all, she hangs out with some pretty weird people--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel--not your typical crew. Even stranger, Max and crew aren't completely human. They have wings. Created by the School in experiments combining human and animal DNA, they are the successes. Well them and the half-wolf/half-humans called Erasers that do the School's dirty work.
Several years ago, Max and her friends escaped from the School with one of the scientists, who they think of as their father. But he's been missing for a while now, and the group has been forced to cope on their own. But the School and the Erasers are closing in on them, with the result being a wild, frenzied chase with several interesting and unexpected twists.
All in all, The Angel Experiment was enjoyable. Nice, mindless beach read, good for entertainment. The writing quality is mediocre at best, but the pace flows well and makes for an easily read, fast-paced story. The book's cliffhanger ending intrigued me, but not enough to where I want to go out and read the next book, at least not if I have to pay for it. For those interested in stories like this, I'd advocate reading Sigmund Brouwer's books Broken Angel and Flight of Shadows.
Patterson's goal appears to be to just merely entertain, which is does well, and obviously it sells. But I think I'll be sticking to authors who give me a bit more meat with my literary feast.
Book Review: Positive review
Summary: 5 Stars
The book Maximum Ride: Angel Experiment is an exciting read because it intrigues the imagination. It has mutant bird kids who have been living as science experiments for most of their lives in the "School." They are Max, Maximum Ride, the leader and the oldest; Fang, a strong silent kid, who is a person Max confides in and second oldest; Iggy, a kid who loves explosives and who became blind because of one of the experiments the "School" did to his sight; Nudge, a little girl who can talk non stop; and the only two people who are related, Gasman, or Gazzy, a boy who tries to be brave, and Angel. The book is mainly about the adventures of these six kids hiding away from the School's minions, the Erasers, who are ware wolf mutants. They escaped because Jeb, a scientist who likes the kids and was like a dad to the kids or as they call themselves the flock, helped them. However, he has been gone for four years so they think he is dead.
It is a good book because it shows that they are still kids, just kids with wings, and it has great detail about everything they do and what every thing looks like. For example, it went into detail about how the Erasers not only looked like but how they changed form human to wolf. It also modernizes it by having some of the places that people can recognize, like Central Park in New York City. However, it does makeup a restaurant in New York and some streets in California but most people wouldn't recognize that unless they researched it.
The short chapters in the book may keep people form reading it but for me it helped me read it faster because I just kept thinking one more chapter then ok that was short I can read another and before I knew it, I had read half the book! The short chapters also keep you wanting to know what happens next. It sometimes switches characters between chapters so you have to keep reading to see what happens to that character. It truly can entertain people with even little imaginations and keep people guessing throughout the book.
Book Review: Are you kidding me?
Summary: 1 Stars
I started to get a bad feeling when Max says "Okay, maybe I can't cook, but I can still kick your butt." That was my writing style in elementary school. The dialogue looks like it was written by a third grader.
The story centers around stuck up, Mary Sue Maximum Ride, our witty, sarcastic hero who has a comeback for every moment. Everyone loves her, she is amazing and perfect, and I read the book a couple times and could find no flaws other than the fact that she can't cook.
The series reads like a soap opera. She stops mid-rescue to chase some bullies away from a twelve year old girl. THe bullies shoot her (!!) and she goes to said twelve-year-old girl's house where her mom just happens to be a vet. Max falls in love with their family, somehow forgetting that six-year-old Angel is locked up in an evil torture facility, and just a few hours earlier she was throwing a screaming fit because they slept too long and had to get back to the rescue.
Later, we find out that Ella's mom is, in fact, Max's mom as well. Seriously, people.
Joy of joys, Max and Flock escape afore mentioned evil torture facility when HAWKS come and dive-bomb the evil scientists that created them, letting the Flock escape. They rush off to New York, where Max starts getting weird headaches that are NEVER EXPLAINED. She just happens to kill her arch nemisis Ari, but no worries. He comes BACK TO LIFE in the second book.
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment is a badly written version of what could have been a good plot. Very badly written. The third one was a slight improvement. (The fourth one stunk so much. Don't get me started.)
This series is all hype and no talent.
Book Review: Great, but lacking something...
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed this book. The plot was suspenseful, yet written in a young teen's humorous voice. This book was absolutely a page turner, forwards and backwards. What I mean by this is; the plot was full of that "I NEED TO READ MORE", but there were times where you had to flip back a couple pages, and re-read certain things to fully understand.
I did like the characters, but just a warning, there's quite a few, and they may be easy to mix up.
This book was written in the form where the main character is the narrator. But the fun thing about it, is that there were chapters where you were brought into the other characters mind. This helps explain the characters, which in some areas, this book lacked. Only near the end of the book do you find out the character's appearance, which can throw you for a loop.
This book has a lot going on, and for the majority of the book, you felt as if you too were experiencing the stressful days with Max, Fang, Angel, Nudge, Gazzy and Iggy. But certain areas near the end of the book seemed slightly rushed.
The idea of the story, which is young humans with animal DNA ( you have to figure out the rest ) is interesting, uncommon and fuels up a great read.
In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who respects books with sci-fi, suspense, and flickers of romance and humor. This would be a good book for ages 10 and up. This isn't a personal favourite, but i might consider reading the rest of the series.