Kindle Book Review: Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson

Let me start by getting this out of the way: I had no idea that these were kids books when I downloaded the first one to my Kindle.  Had I known, being a man in my 30s, I likely wouldn’t have even begun reading the first one.  But I did, and here we are five books later.  (The sixth book, Fang, will be out early next year.  This review only entails the first five books in the series.)

The Maximum Ride series is James Patterson’s attempt at his own Harry Potter or Twilight series.  A set of books strongly relying on the imagination of impressionable young minds to believe in the world created therein.  I can’t compare the Maximum Ride series to either Harry Potter or Twilight, because I’ve never read any of the other series.  However, knowing how wildly successful those series are, I think Patterson may have missed the mark a bit.

If you haven’t heard of this series at all, you have no idea what any of this is about, so let me sum everything up in a short description:

Maximum Ride (or Max, as she’s often referred to in the books) is one of six mutant kids who were genetically created in a lab.  They have 98% human DNA, and 2% avian (bird) DNA.  That caused them to grow wings when they were very young. So, yes, they can fly.  Max is accompanied by her 5 “brothers” and “sisters”, all of whom escaped “the School” (the lab they were created in, and tested at) together.  They range in age from 6 to 14 years old.  The five various books follow the kids around as they try to escape Erasers (part kid, part werewolf), and various other bad guys.

That’s the jist of it. Without giving away too much, of course.

Like I said, had I known these were kids books I would have stayed clear. But once I started reading, I just had to find out where this was going. After all, if you start something, be prepared to finish it. Right?

The books were an extremely fast read. Especially since I spend a good amount of time on public transportation every day going to and from work.  The first book took about three days, and that was the longest.  I think that was just time to adjust to all of the new characters, and to get a feel for their “world.”  I completed the fourth and fifth books (which arguably are extremely short) in a day a piece.  All in all, I read all 5 books in just over two weeks.  Guesstimating that I spend two hours a day on various trains, that’s not a bad amount of time to read an entire series.

Patterson did a pretty good job in writing these, from a technical perspective.  Though the first person aspect changes a bit throughout (most of the time Max is talking in first person, but at times we switch to other characters briefly), it’s not confusing.  There’s very little time where you think to yourself “man, this is boring”, Patterson knows his audience, and skips over all of the boring parts.

Though I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters, I still read all the way through all of the available books, because I felt like there had to be a silver lining at the end. There had to be a pot of gold waiting at the end of the last book.  I was disappointed when I got there, though.  There was no “aha!” moment. There was no big finish.  All I got at the end was a reason to buy the next book, because things didn’t end in the last chapter of the fifth book.  Each book (not to spoil anything) ends much like the level of any good video game: we defeated the bad guy, but there’s another one in the future and we’re off to our next mission.

That’s fine and dandy, after all this is a series of books, and Patterson’s on goal in life is to sell copies of a book. I can’t say I blame him. Suck them in, and leave them wanting more. That’s the motto of any good author worth his weight in paperback.

Would I recommend the Maximum Ride series to some teenagers? Sure.  If you’ve already read Harry Potter and Twilight, and want a new (and fast reading) series to jump into, check this one out.  You’ll fly through the five books (fly? get it, it’s a bird joke, because they’re bird kids) and likely want to read the sixth one when it comes out in 2010.  The bright side is that the Kindle versions of the books are only $6.50 each right now, which means you can get all 5 of them for $32.50, a pretty good deal.  Try getting Harry Potter’s first five books that cheap.

The Maximum Ride series is available on the Kindle, and in hardcover.