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: Not what I expected...
Summary: 3 Stars
I absolutely love all of the other Maximum Ride books and have gotten several people hooked on them. At 17, I'm a little older than most readers, but the books were still throughly enjoyable. This last, however, was disappointing. I kept waiting for there to be something more than just global warming. That didn't happen.
Patterson made the most common mistake in trying to get someone to agree with you: he preached. All of the global warming information was very preachy and condescending. Patterson put this theory-- that we can reverse global warming by changing our habits-- in his teenage books because it is our generation that will make the difference, not the current adults. However, there is no proof that we can reverse it. The world went through a little ice age in Medieval times when there was dramatically less people and virtually no pollution. The scientific community can not even come to a consensus on the issue of people causing out current temperature spike.
The book was only ok. I expected it take only two hours to read, but it actually took about six, because it was slow and a little predictable, something completely new for Patterson. I would recommend checking this out from a library instead of buying it. I got my copy at Walden's with a 40% off coupon, so I didn't spend too much.
I was happy to see that would be a fifth one. For a little while, I thought Max's mission "to save the world" had been explained in this book and it was global warming. I can only hope that the 5th book will be better and revert back to the traditional, well-loved, adventurous Maximum Ride.
Book Review: Maximum Ride: The Final Warning...Review
Summary: 1 Stars
I think the Maximum Ride series is fantastic--by all means, read it. Although all the books so far have been good, I was a little disappointed by this one. I had hoped for another adventure like the last: always exciting, great plot, makes me not want to put it down. I thought this one did not have a lot of the traditional things, and was way too political. James Patterson took an issue he was obviously concerned with: global warning, and put it into a book. After waiting to see how Max would heroically save the world through fighting countless robots and mutants created by Itex, all she does is go to Antarctica and learn about global warming, then make a speech in front of congress. This is so-called saving the world, but how many people have already made speeches about global warming? A lot. I think James Patterson should have stuck to the less real idea of evil scientists and have them try and destroy the world, rather than global warming. I agree this is an issue, but not one to be brought into books.
James Patterson also changed his writing style. He made the situations too easy to get out of, and also it seemed like when Max was "writing" she knew it would be published and edited. She kept referring to swears, for example, and then not actually saying them because "they would be edited out." I think that this book should have been completely different, but oh well. At least the first three were amazing.
So, I would NOT recommend this book, but DEFINITELY read the first three. They're as good as Harry Potter, and you'll never want to put them down.
Book Review: Keeping It Up
Summary: 4 Stars
I was surprised to learn that James Patterson had come out with another chapter of the Maximum Ride series, but after reading it I was certainly not disappointed. Patterson keeps many things consistent and unchanged. The flock is still the same old flock, and Max is still the same old Max. I found myself busting up laughing at all of her witty and sarcastic comments, which I had always found hilarious in the previous Maximum Ride novels. And I continued to love her defiant, stubborn, determined nature. Max still refuses to take anything lying down at the hands of adults who don't understand anything about her or the flock and want to just coop them up and study them. Patterson also kept my interest hooked by keeping up the hunt for Max and the flock, this time with the Uber-Director and Gozen. However the action isn't as strong as in the other Maximum Ride novels and doesn't make a real strong appearance in this one until the end. Patterson also takes a very clear environmental stance, which I don't care for so much. The Max and Fang relationship remains unnecessarily complicated on Max's end, which does aggravate me some, but seeing as they are both somewhere around fourteen I can understand this to a certain extent-teenagers in general tend to make relationships unnecessarily over-complicated. However, I think that all of the drawbacks that there are to The Final Warning are minor and do not take away from the novel as a whole. Overall I found it to be an exciting, entertaining, and enjoyable read.Book Review: Don't Waste Your Money
Summary: 1 Stars
I started reading the Maximum Ride series after reading When the Wind Blows and the Lake House, Pattersons adult books with Max, and found the first three books in this series to be even better than the original adult books.
Naturally I was extremely excited when I heard that Patterson had decided to write a fourth book in the series and eagerly looked forward to more of the heart-pounding, read-all-night-until-your-finished action that I gleefully lapped up in the first three installments. The day The Final Warning came out I went to the bookstore first thing paid my twenty dollars and rushed home to read it. This book weighs in at a pathetic 256 pages, half of which is spent waxing on about the dangers of global warming and how it's all our fault.
As for the rest of the book, you know that whole Plot thing that most readers generally expect from a novel...well let me put it this way: Max and the Flock get kidnapped (again) and then escape, through absolutely no effort on their part (that's right Max doesn't out smart the bad guys or out fight them. Instead they're saved by a convienent something that rhymes with lurricane, not to give anything away, which was caused by global warming). Then Max gives a rousing speech to Congress about the dangers of global warming.
Sorry did I ruin the ending? At least now you can keep those twenty bucks and use them to buy gasoline and then send the receipt to James Patterson. Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Book Review: It Just Keeps Going On and On
Summary: 3 Stars
Max and the flock are back again in another wild adventure. Unknown enemies are still trying to kill and/or capture them to use the flying mutants to gain power, and other influential people want to control them. But lately things have been calmer. Max and the flock join up with a team of scientists in Antarctica studying the effects of global warming. But even from the remotest place on earth, Max and her flock are still targets - because whoever controls the flock controls the world.
I was hesitant to read the fourth book in the Maximum Ride series because of mixed reviews that I read and also because I had thought the story was over after the third book. For me, The Final Warning was pretty disappointing. The plot was just not as exciting as in the previous books and sadly, Max's snarkiness got a bit annoying. I also felt that the rest of the flock wasn't as important an element in this novel as in the previous ones. Everything was too centered on "saving the world" and global warming, which although it is a good cause, it didn't make for a fantastic story. I really thought the series should've ended with Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, the third book, because by the fourth, everything just started to get too repetitive.
Dedicated fans of James Patterson and the Maximum Ride series may want to check out this fourth installment, but I would not recommend it. I think if you stick with the first three, you're all good.