The Final Warning (Maximum Ride, Book 4)
by James Patterson
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Book Reviews of The Final Warning (Maximum Ride, Book 4)
Book Review: Patterson Needs Show More Effort
Summary: 3 Stars
The Final Warning, by James Patterson, is the fourth book in the Maximum Ride series. As I recall, this series was supposed to be a trilogy, but after the last book, Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, it was clear that Patterson could still add to the story line. While this book answers more of the lingering questions, there are still some that require more investigation, like "Who is the Voice?" and "Why are the kids mutating new powers?"
The book begins with The Flock under attack from the Uber-Director and his new army while a short chapter brings the new readers up to speed. Following those chapters, The Flock, under the direction of Maximum Ride, are invited to Washington where they are presented with an offer of safety and schooling (while the oldest in The Flock is about 14, none of them have had any structured schooling). A little issue with an assassination attempt forces The Flock to seek shelter elsewhere and they end up in Antarctica. This is where The Flock discovers how they are to "save the world." But while they are busy with the scientists in Antarctica, the Uber-Director is plotting their demise. It all comes to a head in Florida during a hurricane.
This installment does not have as much adventure as the previous Maximum Ride novels. Most of the novel deals with Antarctica and the work that The Flock engages in on the ice. There are some exciting scenes, but they are much less than in the earlier novels. I have to believe that most teens that will read this book are aware of global warming. Patterson, through The Flock, in general, and Maximum Ride in particular, really beats that theme over the readers' head. At first, I thought that it was nice that Patterson added this to the novel, but after driving the point home time after time, it got to be very annoying. The final scenes, with the Uber-Director, seemed too easily wrapped up, especially for a character that was presented as extremely intelligent. I felt that Patterson did a disservice to the reader and the characters.
We still have unanswered questions, and I expect that Patterson is working on Part 5. Hopefully, that novel will contain more meat. As it is, this book leaves the reader feeling short changed.
Book Review: Why, why, WHY JP?
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was so utterly disappointing I'm glad I read it in Walmart instead of buying it.
This book was a combination of confused mysteries, stupid pointless plots lines, more lying from Jeb, no response from Max, and more stupid love triangle stuff between Max and Fang. Just kiss him Max, and stop being a baby!
The bomb, Max and the Flock blindly listening the Voice (which Jeb claims isn't just him, so she will keep trusting it), living in Antarctica for...some reason that had nothing to do with them helping them in any way, almost no action, more pointless skills (Fang `fading' into the background instead of turning invisible? What's the point of that exactly? And Gazzy's new power? Ick), another pretty girl that Max can hate because she's in love with Fang and doesn't want to admit it (except this one is a WOMAN), and another villain whose character is never developed (unlike the previous villains, whose ultimate agenda was never explained in previous books).
All in all, it was a BIG disappointment. Now we had to wait another year and hope that the one that came out today will be better.
James Patterson, the tree hugging and propaganda shoved down our throats wasn't called for. We get that in school, TV, science books, and now our favorite series. Max's speech to Congress when she didn't even care about global warming until a few days ago was a bit much.
Also, in book one, Max dosen't know what she's going to save the world from, just that Jeb, who is evil in this book, says she is. In book two, she thinks she's saving the world from Itex, that they are going to blow up the world. Same in book three. But in book four, it's global warming. In book five, it's pollution! Make up your mind!
Please have tried harder with this one...
P.S. And just so you know, the three stars were because of the prequels, and my respect for them, not this one. I would have given it one.
Book Review: Major Letdown
Summary: 2 Stars
The release of a sequel is an anticipated event, especially if the sequel is written by a wildly-popular, best-selling author like James Patterson. Approximately 4.8 million copies have been sold of the previous three books in the Maximum Ride series, so hopes were high that Final Warning, the new installment, would be just as entertaining. When a sequel fails to live up to the standards of the previous books in the series, readers feel let down.
There are three issues that affect the quality of Final Warning. First, there is a lack of adventure in this installment of the action-packed Maximum Ride adventure series. It seemed to be more of an extended brainstorming session instead of actual problem-solving. Second, the length of this book is an issue. For a novel that has a retail price of $20, 272 pages is pretty skimpy -- especially when you consider that The Angel Experiment, the first book in the series, had 432 pages. Finally, and most importantly, is the story itself. If the story had been interesting and new, the reader would be able to overlook the page length. Instead of adding anything new to the story, Patterson chose to focus on the issue of global warming and have The Flock, the six bird kids we've come to love, assist with scientific research in Antarctica. Final Warning appears to be more of a filler book than a necessary part of the series. In fact, if a reader were to skip Final Warning, there probably wouldn't be a problem catching up when a fifth book is published.
Instead of a character-driven storyline, Patterson has given us an extended public service announcement on global warming, and while global warming is a serious issue we need to think about, a young adult adventure novel might not be the best place to hammer the issue home.
Book Review: Major Letdown
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, so I went to the library, like I do every couple of weeks or so, when I spotted James Patterson's FINAL WARNING. I loved the first three books, and was dying to read this one. I had almost bought the book earlier when it first came out, but had decided against it in hopes that maybe in a few months it would still be on the shelves and i could get it then. Boy, am I glad I didn't buy it.
The beginning of the book was promising, and I kicked back and relaxed, excited and content to be reading another great Maximum Ride novel that I was absolutely sure would fill me up and leave me waiting for the next one, or at least give me a promising and glorious conclusion.
What I got was about half a book with Patterson lecturing us wittle readers about Global Warming, which is vewy vewy bad! Seriously, though, I felt as if he had written the whole action packed, awesome series to end it with a lecture about how us humans are destroying the earth, blah, blah blah.
Don't get me wrong, we should take care of the earth and recycle about all that good stuff, but if Patterson wanted to get that out there, he could have just written it somewhere else. Spoiling the whole book, which had the potential to be a very good installment of the Maximum Ride series, with that much ranting about Global Warming was not a good idea. I was hoping throughout the rest of the book from the point where the Flock is in Antartica to the end that Max would remain by her own ideas, instead of going along with the "OHMIGAWSH, Global Warming is gonna KILL US!" theme.
Anyways, I am desperately hoping that after all these reviews, James Patterson will realize that Maximum Ride is not the place to sell his ideas on Global Warming and will bring back the old Maximum Ride ideas with a fifth book.
Book Review: The Worst...
Summary: 2 Stars
This novel is the start of the series "The Protectors". And does it do well.....No!
For once, we have the book where the "Maximum Ride" kids become heroes and try to go on a mission to anartica for some strange reason. And we might've had the reason that max had to save the world....Global Warming, seriously...Global Warming!!!!
We need another lecture of how we r ruining the planet by a James Patterson novel. Why not just make an "Inconvienent Truth 2" while ur at it. This is one of my favorite series, and it had to be ruined because this was another lesson to ourselves. Truthfully, I don't think it was pattersons idea to put in the Global Warming idea in there, maybe someone had payed him to say that, because this was just another popular series. Say when the new twilight book "Midnigt Sun" will find out that he was a vampire because of global warning, and thats why he can never get a tan because of it.
But I was glad to find out that this wasn't the last book of the series, because it leaves off on a really bad cliffhanger to the story. But another knitpick to it is that they introduced these bad guys into the series and u see their perspective of the story. Those guys were just not that interesting to me, since every single enemy became on max's side. I wanted the chapter to be over because they were so boring and confusing. But I thought it was written well for the team, The Maximum ride Kids, James stuck to the characters very well and this did not hve a moment when the characters did not do something that wsn't them. Not a bad book, easy to read if u are fan. But ill be checking out "Max" pretty soon