Blog Book Tour: Maximum Ride #3

I must be in a reviewing mood lately. Heh. I'm part of the MotherTalk blog book tour for the new young adult fantasy novel by James Patterson called Maximum Ride #3. When I saw the email asking for reviewers and it said "young adult novel, kids that can fly" and I was all like, excellent!

See, I love young adult fantasy novels. I routinely check one or two out at the library on each library trip. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone--I mostly read fantasy or supernatural novels, whether they fall into the young adult, mystery, or even the romance genres. I love 'em all.

So it was with great excitement that I tackled this novel. I mean, all the elements are there--kids that can fly (they are bird-human hybrids); they are on the run from the 'man'; there is burgeoning romance; and they take on a big, evil corporation. What's not to like?

Turns out, for me, plenty.

It was difficult, at first, for me to put my finger on exactly what is wrong with this novel. The first thing that leaped out to me was that I couldn't tell whether the main character, Max, was male or female for quite a while. That clued me in to the fact that James Patterson has trouble writing female characters (I noticed this in the one other book I've read by him). Eventually she displayed some "nurturing" tendencies to make her femaleness obvious.

Ug.

Additionally, the main character commonly breaks the fourth wall and talks to the reader. This is not set up in anyway to make sense--such as, the book is a diary or journal left somewhere deliberately for someone to find and read. No, the main character just talks to the reader randomly throughout the book. It is distracting and completely derails the plot each time it happens. And it happens constantly.

Lastly, one of the other characters has a blog. It bothers me; not, obviously, the idea of blogging itself, but because it feels like it's completely pandering to the media's idea of kids today. Like, Mr. Patterson said to himself, "Hmmm... I hear that teenagers today are into that weird thing 'blogging'... better put it in the next book!" It's just plopped in as an awkward plot device without there being any sense of what blogging is really about. I guess I should feel grateful that he left out Myspace (in fact, the absence of Myspace seems almost deliberate--like Mr. Patterson thought about it and discarded the idea because of the negative press around Myspace these days).

According the information that arrived with the book, this series is popular (you know it's a series, by the way, because on page 10 you are admonished by the main character for not having read the other books). It's clear that they are hoping to target the audience that is now bereft (sob!) without Harry Potter.

Having just finished the last Potter book (sigh...) last night (read it in 24 hours!), I've been thinking about why J. K. Rowling's books work for me when Maximum Ride didn't. Part of it is the fact that Ms. Rowling constructs better sentences (although I agree with many that she could use a heavier editing hand), but the most obvious element is the kids themselves. They are just more believable and more present in the Potter books. There is an emotional distance to the characters in Maximum Ride that makes it hard to really invest yourself in them (although less so with the male character Fang--he's much more believable).

Also, I think that while the last Harry Potter book is incredibly violent (ah, the deaths killed me in the last one), having magic softens the blow to some extent. In Maximum Ride, there is no magic--just genetic manipulation--and the violence seems much more cruel. Actually, as I write this, I realize that the difference in the perception of the violence is that in the Potter books it's clear that Harry and his friends are all fighting for the greater good of the world; in Maximum Ride, the kids are fighting merely for their survival alone--and that seems much more stark and harsh.

I won't be reading the other Maximum Ride books. There are so many other amazing young adult novelists out there--I mean, come on!--that could better fill Potter's shoes. I hope that kids and parents take some time to explore and find them. One great candidate is the Philip Pullman trilogy that starts with The Golden Compass. I read these books years ago and they are simply marvelous--and I just saw the new trailer for the movie and it looks AMAZING. Much better choice!

I'll be checking out the other reviews to see what other moms thought, especially those that read it with their kids. If you've read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. What other young adult novels do you love?

Comments

[chrystal]

Have you read Neil Gaiman's Stardust? The movie is coming out this week. It's not young adult.

Have you read any Gaiman? I really enjoy some of his stuff and then others I really have to force my way through 2/3 of it, before giving up.

[wookie]

For younger readers (probably 3-5th grade level?) I highly recommend the Spiderwick Chronicles. They're written as a 5 book series but each book wouldn't take an adult more than a night to get through.
They're well paced (something Rowling does NOT do well), nicely illustrated and the three main characters are a coherent group whose interactions make sense. It's got the occasional dark moment but overall it's fairly light compared to the James Patterson's of the world.
The story is unusual enough to be new again, yet familiar enough fantasy lore to be easy to read.

Heinlen had trouble writing believeable female characters as well, although if you'd like to discuss that I'd be thrilled.

[manogirl]

Have you read "Pretties", "Uglies" and "Specials" by Scott Westerfeld? It's a trilogy, and the books do sort of slightly decline in quality through the trilogy, but I really, really liked the first book, Pretties.

[Sarah]

Inkheart!!

[dana]

Any of Eva Ibbotson's books, Which Witch?, The Secret of Platform 13, Island of the Aunts (this one is my favorite!). Any book by Sharon Creech, especially Walk Two Moons and the Wanderer. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke is excellent too.

[dana]

I also LOVED the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series!

[Katie W]

I will echo your recommendation of Phillip Pullman, interestingly the first one is called Northern Lights in the UK!
As well as the famous dark materials trilogy he has a;so written several other books, including The Ruby in the Smoke which was dramatised on BBC about a year ago.

[Angela]

I read one of the "Maximum Ride" books, though I can't remember which, and was about as inspired as you were to read the others. I have LOVED Harry Potter! If you like reading fantasy and have not yet read "The Aware", "Gilfeather" and "The Tainted" (Isles of Glory trilogy by Glenda Larke), I highly recommend them.

[Angela]

I also recommend the Abarat series (only two books thus far) by Clive Barker

[Meggan]

LOVE that you mentioned the His Dark Materials series (Golden Compass, etc.) - I recommend them all the time. Absolutely wonderful.

I'd also recommend the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, and the Lemony Snicket series.

[Jenn]

My review goes up next week I think, but overall, it was ok. I'm a huge James Patterson fan in general, but this one was just eh. I thought the blog thing was kind of interesting but you're right, it was like it was just stuck in there.

[cileag]

I just got the first of a trilogy (only the first is published) called City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, which is WONDERFUL. This particular author is pretty much the only author of fanfiction, Harry Potter in this case, that I'd ever been tempted to read off the computer. She wrote the Draco Veritas series/trilogy, which was a great expansion of Draco. City of Bones was snarky, believable, and dark enough to be real.

[Mary]

Ditto on Stardust, great story. My DH bought a copy for me -- beautiful drawings. Also love the Golden Compass series.

I also really like the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Cofer, 'hero' is a bit more evil/conniving than Harry, which appeals to me -- also there are elves living underground in hiding in today's world. very entertaining.

I also love the Redwall series, have you read that? see http://www.redwall.org. Here's a summary from the site -- "The stories are known as the "Redwall" series, because they centre around Redwall Abbey. The heroes are peace-loving mice, moles, shrews, squirrels, and their friends who exhibit human characteristics in a medieval setting. They face the dark side of the animal world, represented by rats, weasels, stoats, foxes, and their villain allies, in the day-to-day struggle of good versus evil, life versus death." I listened to the first one on tape on a road trip, and was hooked.

[caroline]

Just wanted to second your suggestion of the Golden Compass series - I adored these books ~ second only to the Potter!

I also really enjoyed the Redwall series, Artemis Fowl, and Spiderwick chronicles!! I will have to check out the other suggestions - I didn't realize how much juvenile fiction I actually read till reading this post!! Keep up the reviews - I enjoy reading and value your opinions on books!

[Moira]

I really like Cornelia Funke. She is the bestselling children's author in Germany, after Rowling. Or at least was when I worked at the bookstore, 2003-2004.
"Dragon Rider" and "The Thief Lord" were my favorites, but a lot of my friends really like "Inkheart."

Did you read any of the "Eragon" series by Christopher Paolini? He is a 15 year old who read Lord of the Rings and decided to write his trilogy. They aren't bad, it's just you can tell they are written by a teen.

I also love the Traveling Pants books, and Meg Cabot is fun for teens.

[Beth]

Tamora Pierce is a fantastic YA fantasy author, she has several series.

[Meredith]

Good review-- you've convinced me not to read it! And I also love the Pullman triology, although I thought that each was a little less than the last. (They got progressively too preach-ily anti-religion for me. I felt like the author had read the chronicles of Narnia and decided to come up with an atheist response. And, by the way, I'm an atheist.) Anyhoo, I always loved the Dark is Rising series. They're classics and I'm sure you've read them, but I recently re-read them and loved them all over again.

[ellen]

I had completely forgotten that I read the first book in that series. Forgot he wrote it too.

I have a problem with his books...he doesn't do all his own writing and he churns them all out way to fast. After the first few Alex Cross novels, it all went downhill fast.

[mar]

Thanks for the review - I've been thinking about getting those for my son, who loves the whole fantasy genre, and I'm disappointed to hear it wasn't all it's cracked up to be. Do you think it would have helped to have read the other 2 first? I hope you'll post a review of HP 7 when you have a chance - would love to hear what you thought of it.

This isn't technically a YA series, but the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde was an excellent read, and could easily be a YA series. Set in a world where original manuscripts of classic novels are worshipped. When characters are "kidnapped" from these manuscripts, all books printed from that manuscript change. Thursday (that's the woman's name) is a literary detective - doesn't that sound like a cool job? It involves time travel, interaction w/characters from great novels like Jane Eyre, and a suspension of certain known truths, which is of course, why I like it.

I will say that the first book in this 5 book (so far - 5th book just came out, and I hope to start it today!) series was my least favorite, but I think it really helps to read it to get the basis for all of the other books. It's an easy read, and funny too. If there was one thing I didn't like about it, it was that it is written as a first person narrative, which is a little hard to get used to, at first.

[Birdie]

I love young adult fiction. True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi is one of my all time faves. Have you read that one?

[moo]

delurking because I must share: try Angie Sage's series about Septimus Heap ... I also love, love, love the Artimus Fowl series ... can't think of who the author is right this second ... but the last book was The Opal Deception.

I used to love James Patterson, but have, in the past few years, become very disenchanted with him. I feel like his writing has become uninspired, for lack of a better word. His dialouge and plots are cheesy and predictible. So I stay away from him, as a general rule.

If you like his adult novels, however, you might want to try John Sanford's Prey series ... very well written, fast paced, tight crime novels.

And it's not YA, but I really love both the A is for Alibi series by Sue Grafton AND the Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun. Neither has a lot of gore, violence, or sex, and so can be appropriate for the YA readers who are ready for the next level challenge of reading.

wow, that was long ... back to lurking now ...

[baggage]

I reviewed this as well..we had a lot of the same thoughts.

[Rachel-G]

Tamora Pierce Rocks, especially for female children (totally empowers them!), Spiderwick is great even for older kids, they just fly through them but they are still fun, His Dark Materials rocks just as hard as Tamora Pierce books, The Inheritance trilogy (only two so far) is also great fun, and Cornelia Funke books are also great.

In my opinion, The Maximum Ride books are suppose to be just summer reads for the teens/preteens that have finished their summer reading for school. Reading the first two is mandatory if you are to even remotely enjoy the third one (which is not as good as the frist nor even as good as the second.) What I always try to remember about Patterson is that he was in advertising before he became an author. His whole goal is to sell books that people will enjoy and then buy more of. He has stated as much in an interview that I read (sorry can't remember where or when, but I know I read it.) He doesn't really write for the love of his characters or the love of the art it's self. He is a mediocre writer that turns out the occasional good story that quickly goes down hill in its sequels. Installment three in the Maximum Ride books was lacking to be sure. If you want to read something by Patterson that deals with the angel children that was good, try 'When the wind blows' and the sequal 'The lake House' Those two books are where the idea for the Maximum Ride books came from, they are good for light reads, and they are appropriate for teens.

I feel I can't leave without leaving a suggestion for a good young adult book: My eldest daughter, age 16 (her fav books are in the sci-fi/fantasy and romance realm) loves the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I bought her the first book for x-mas 2005 because of the back cover's synopsis "About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second there was a part of him -- and I didn't know how dominant that part might be -- that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." Catherine (the 16 year old) about jumped out of her skin today when she realized it was Aug. 7th and the next book came out today, that is how much she loves it. She has even got her 12.75 year old sister (who is a VERY fussy reader) to read them and she also loves them.
Another author that I am sure most sci/fi fans are aware of is Anne McCaffery. The reason I mention her is that I know one of her short stories (The Littlest Dragon Boy) is in my daughters seventh grade literature book for english. That remided me that the Pern series would be great for teens/preteens to read.

[Rachel-G]

1) Sorry that my comment was so long! I got carried away as I am loath to do when talking books.

2) Moo is right! I totally forgot about Angie Sage. My fussy reader loves the Septemis books. And I thought they were fun too.

[spit]

Have you read "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowery? Someone gave it to me last year and I just read it. Other than HP, I don't usually read YA fantasy, but I really liked Gathering Blue