Like The Angel Experiment, this second book in the Maximum Ride series packs tons of action, a fast pace and a powerful female heroine. This story is pretty much things as usual. The flock (a group of kids with avian DNA, and thus wings) searches for their parents using intel they uncovered in book one. They turn up a string of dead ends, and then they’re attacked by Erasers (kids with lupine DNA, basically werewolves). Only now, the creepy scientists from the School (aka whitecoats) have given the Erasers wings, making it much harder for the flock to escape their attacks. Fang, Max Ride’s right-hand man and sometimes love interest, is injured in one such aerial Eraser battle. Max brings him to the hospital and is forced to rely on the good intentions of the hospital staff and a group of government agents. Never a good idea. I don’t want to reveal too many plot details, but let’s just say that Max meets an interesting, and familiar new enemy, and things with Angel (the six-year-old bird kid who can read minds) get even creepier.
This book has everything I generally require in a good sci fi/fantasy: a strong heroine, action, intriguing premise. A few caveats: a) too many characters, b) some cliched/old-fashioned dialogue, c) an interesting premise, but does Patterson take it too far? I mean, okay, I’m willing to believe that scientists could graft bird or wolf DNA into human DNA to create some whacky recombinant beings. But asking me to believe that they could then slap a pair of wings on these recombinant wolf creatures, toss them off of a building and watch them fly? That’s almost too much. And a talking dog? No offense to Total, but I really hope they cut him out of the movie. I’ve seen one too many bad talking animal flicks in my time.
For fans of audio books, don’t bother trying this one. I listened to the first book, The Angel Experiment, on audio, and the narrator (Evan Rachel Wood) was great. Book two has a new, ultra sarcastic, ultra valley girl narrator (Valentina De Angelis) that just does not fit Max. I couldn’t get past the first chapter.
DweebMeter: 3/5
Links
DeviantArt.com’s Maximum-Ride-Fans Gallery
Nov 10, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I agree with you about the taking it too far part – it does strain credibility quite a bit, doesn’t it? I did listen to this one on audio, but my narrators were pretty good – it’s the Recorded Books version, and Nancy Wu does a great job with Max. Valley girl? That would really be annoying!