Maximum Ride

Maximum Ride

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports Maximum Ride: The Final Warning MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel Nevermore: A Maximum Ride Novel
Author	James Patterson
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Thriller, Young-adult fiction, Science fiction
Publisher	Headline Doubleday Little, Brown and Company
Published	April 11, 2005 – present
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)

Maximum Ride is a series of young adult science fiction and fantasy novels by American author James Patterson. The series chronicles the lives of six fugitive kids, Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge, and Angel, known collectively as the Flock. Created in a laboratory called the School, they endured scientific experiments that rendered them 98% human and 2% avian.

Books in series

In the first three books of the series, the Flock spends much of their time running from human-lupine hybrids (called Erasers) created by the School; book 4 is mainly about the Flock rising against global warming; Book 5 is about saving Dr. Martinez while battling environmental pollution; Book 6 is about rescuing Fang; and Book 7 is about stopping the Doomsday Group from destroying the world's population of non-mutated humans. The books are divided into two sets: The Fugitives (books 1–3) and The Protectors (books 4–7). The series shares a few similarities with two of Patterson's previous books, When the Wind Blows and The Lake House.

Patterson recently announced that the series would end with an eighth book in February 2012, but the release date was later changed to August 6th, 2012. Patterson said the eighth book will be titled Nevermore, as announced at his book talk for charity at Lincoln Hall.

Maximum Ride: School's Out--Forever begins with the Flock heading off to look for their parents using papers with a computerized code that they had obtained at the Institute for Higher Living. On the way, they run into flying Erasers (with deformed, patched-on wings), including Ari. After a fight with Ari, Fang suffers injuries serious enough to need medical treatment at a hospital. FBI agent Anne Walker and her colleagues question members of the Flock for information about the School and its experiments. She offers her home for residence while Fang recovers (even though he healed in only a few days.) The only catch was that the Flock had to allow Anne Walker to ask them questions about the lab known as the School. The Flock agrees, and eventually they are enrolled into a real school. While at the school, Max witnesses Fang kissing a girl named Lissa, nicknamed by Max the 'Red-Headed Wonder'. Shortly after, most likely out of jealousy, Max starts to go out with a boy named Sam. The principal of the school works for the Institute (for the Higher Living) and almost traps the Flock at the school. Once they return to their residence, Anne Walker reveals herself as the leader of the labs that created the Flock and Max, and even offers to adopt the flock. Later, Max is kidnapped and replaced with a clone known as Max 2 that has her appearance but acts entirely different from the original Max. In the end, Max discovers that she was set up to kill Max 2; however, Max cannot bring herself to destroy the other Max and escapes with the Flock after Gasman and Iggy set off a bomb.

In Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, the Flock must save the world from the Itex Corporation (the company behind the School, and also connected to the Institute for Higher Living) and its Director, who plans to terminate and destroy all recombinant species and cut the Earth's population in half (otherwise known as the By-Half Plan). Meanwhile, the Erasers have been replaced with flying, robotic Erasers called Flyboys. As this is happening, Fang tries to persuade Max to find a permanent home where they can live in peace and forget about the world, only caring about themselves and the Flock. Max invites Ari (the last remaining Eraser and Max's half-brother) to join the group after escaping from the School once more, causing Fang, Iggy, and the Gasman to leave the Flock in protest, leaving only Max, Nudge, Angel, and Ari. In the end of the book, Ari dies because of an "expiration date" that appeared on the back of his neck, revealing the date that he would die. The group reunites, and Max discovers that Jeb Batchelder is her father and that her mother is Dr. Valencia Martinez, a kindly veterinarian from the first book (Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment). Max also begins to realize that she may have romantic feelings toward Fang.

In the fourth book, The Final Warning, the Flock flies out of a government meeting set up to decide what the government officials think is best for them. Later, they go to Antarctica at Jeb Batchelder and Dr. Valencia Martinez's request, where a team of scientists needs their assistance in studying ocean pollution level. There they fight an international organization led by the Uber Director, who intends to auction off the Flock to corrupt leaders of foreign countries to be used as weapons and/or mercenaries. When Angel, Total, and Akila go after a baby penguin in the midst of a blizzard, they trap themselves inside some type of chasm. Max and Fang begin to worry, and head off to find them. Once they are all together, they are forced to take refuge inside a hole-cave to keep safe because of a monstrous blizzard. In the midst of this, the Uber Director's team finds them and captures them along with Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy. They are taken to Miami. The Flock defeats the Uber Director in the midst of a hurricane and makes their escape. Meanwhile, Total grows wings of his own and falls in love with Akila, an Alaskan Malamute. Max and Fang kiss a few times, and Max starts to acknowledge her feelings for him even more than before.

At the start of MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel,the Flock is attacked by bionic assassins (which Max nicknames M-Geeks) at environmental awareness shows in Los Angeles and Mexico City. Later, the government enlists their help in finding out what is destroying hundreds of ships and killing millions of fish off the coast of Hawaii. While the Flock is undertaking the task, a criminal mastermind is tracking their every move. Then, Dr. Martinez is kidnapped and held hostage. The Flock takes a submarine down to the ocean depths, fends off hordes of M-Geeks and rescues Dr. Martinez from an underwater dome as it starts to flood. During their struggles, Fang and Max's relationship grows stronger after they make out, and Max feels that she loves Fang.

In Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel, the Flock travels to Africa to aid the people there. They meet Dr. Hans, a former Itex worker, and Dylan, another human-avian hybrid designed to be Max's "perfect other half." After a prophetic statement from Angel stating that Fang will die soon, Max is traumatized and starts spending more time with him. Dylan joins the Flock, and they return to their newly rebuilt home in the mountains. Max and Fang are told to leave the Flock because they are more focused on their personal relationship than the surrounding dangers. Angel becomes the new leader of the Flock and gets rid of the rules Max set up for them. Eventually the group reunites, but Fang is captured by Dr. Hans and his heart stops while he is being experimented on. The Flock rushes to save Fang, Max admits she loves Fang in order to try to wake him up then Max stabs his heart with an adrenaline shot and revives him. Dylan also injects himself in a suicide attempt, but fails. In the epilogue, Total and Akila are married, and Fang leaves Max a note saying that the Flock is in danger with him there, and that he will meet Max again in 20 years.

In Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel, Max hasn't gotten over the fact that Fang has left her forever, so she goes to live with Dr. Martinez because she won't take care of herself. However, Max is slowly starting to warm up to Dylan despite her mixed feelings in the seventh book. Meanwhile, Fang starts his own gang which includes Max's clone, now called Maya. The two teams join forces in Paris to stop an organization known as the Doomsday Group from killing themselves in order to save the planet. Max is hurt even more after Fang asks her to come and help them, making her feel like she's just Fang's audience of one. They fight a lot, but Angel stops their fights. Everything goes awry when Gazzy fails to disarm all the bombs under the gathering spot, and the bombs explode while Fang, Gazzy, and Angel are still in the blast radius. Fang and Gazzy make it out safely, but Angel is missing, leaving everyone heartbroken. In Angel's epilogue it said she was still alive, but her whereabouts were not specified.

According to an article by the publisher, the final book in the Maximum Ride series, was going to come out in February. However, the release date was later changed to August 6th, 2012.

Characters

Maximum "Max" Ride

Maximum "Max" Ride is a title character and the main protagonist of the series. She is a 14-year-old (15 in Fang and Angel) avian-human hybrid and the leader of the Flock. Max is described as a tomboy, with a witty and sarcastic attitude offset by her soft side. She has blonde hair with pink highlights (added halfway through book 1) and brown eyes, but is described differently in other books. In the manga novels she has completly blond hair. Some fans have hypothesized that the change in Max's hair color might be because Angel and Gazzy already have blonde hair, yet only Nudge has brown hair. Max is five feet and eight inches tall and weighs 95 or 98 pounds, as described in The Final Warning. Max has a 14 foot wingspan, tanned skin, and is half Hispanic as described in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. Her wings are brown and white. In MAX Max has an affair with Fang in the desert after talking to him about Nudge wanting to cut her wings off, she holds her fear and stays. Later, the Flock meets Dylan, who, according to Dr. Gunther-Hagen, is Max's "perfect other half". Max begins to feel an attraction for Dylan. In Angel she and Dylan, a clone of a dead boy, grow closer, confusing her feelings about Fang, who begins to grow closer to Maya, who is essentially Max's clone.

Max is one of the two members of the Flock who found her parents; Iggy is the other. However, she is the only one to like her parents, Iggy leaving his after only a week or so. She was stunned when she learned that Jeb Batchelder (a "white coat" who helped them escape from the school and then raised them) was her father. Dr. Valencia Martinez is her biological mother. Max trusts Dr. Martinez completely, but remains wary of Jeb. She is also close to her half-sister, Dr. Martinez' daughter Ella, who Max first meets when trying to save her from some bullies. Max dislikes Ari (Jeb's son), with whom she is constantly fighting, until he joins her "mini-flock" that was created in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports for a short time after rescuing them from the School. A short while after Ari is rescued from the School, he expires (a "white coat" term for death). After Ari's death, the two mini-flocks created by Max and Fang rejoin.

Max has a Voice in her head, which gives her cryptic messages that she sometimes disregards. She initially feared that it was an enemy inside her, or someone from the School tracking the Flock. At one point Max believes the Voice to be Jeb Batchelder's; he later assures her that he is not the voice, but he can be.

In Angel Max lets Dylan replace Fang, partly because of her jealousy that Fang replaced her with her clone, who she dicovers the name of, Maya, and partly because Fang created a new Flock with new people with different talents (making Max feel excluded). However, the Doomsday Group, a group that puts a strange spell-like hypnosis on people so they act like zombies and believe in nothing but the "One Light," appears, forcing Max's flock and Fang's flock to work together. Max and Fang fight almost nonstop in the new Flock. In the end, Angel goes missing after a huge explosion.

Max can fly incredibly fast, hitting speeds over 300 miles per hour, unlike any other member of the Flock. Also in MAX, it turns out she has gills like Angel. Her bird DNA may have come from a hawk, since her wings are mostly brown with long white feathers.

Fang

Fang is 14 years old (15 in Fang and Angel). He is second-in-command of the Flock and Max's best friend (and later her boyfriend). Fang is able to virtually disappear by staying very still and quiet. He is somewhat stronger than the rest of the flock, often sustaining near-fatal wounds, as in books one and two. He also develops gills at the end of MAX. Fang almost always wears dark clothing and always seems to be sneaking up on Max. He has dark hair and eyes with olive skin. He has avian DNA with his wings that are black and large in comparison to him. In The Angel Experiment he found out that the School took him after he was born. His mother had put him up for adoption and was later told that he had died. Fang was bitter about the fact that his mother left him, and decided that he didn't want to find his mother, because he suspected that she wasn't much older than his own age when she had him. Fang also believes that his mother was a drug addict and that that was the reason why his mother put him up for adoption in the first place. He is somewhat reserved, but cares deeply about the Flock. He is usually very silent, and seems quite dark and mysterious, always hiding his feelings. He can almost match Max in speed by flying at up to 250 mph.

He runs a blog about the Flock's adventures that proves useful in several books, such as in School's Out Forever. In book 1, Max kisses Fang when he is injured. In School's Out Forever, he is seen kissing the "Red-Haired Wonder," Lissa. He and Max fight about this, but afterwards they make up. In "Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports," he kisses Max, who flees in fright. In The Final Warning (book 4), Fang seems to like Dr. Brigid Dwyer, who worked with the Flock in their mission at Antarctica, and Max becomes jealous. In the third book of the series (Saving The World And Other Extreme Sports), when Ari joins the flock, Fang decides to lead half of the Flock and leaves Max. He later comes back, reuniting at the end of an epic battle made up of an army of his blog's followers, in which Ari dies. Fang leaves the Flock again at the end of Fang because of Dylan, Max's "perfect other half", and because Angel has predicted that Fang would be the first to die; therefore, because he knows that by dying, he would put the others in danger, he leaves the Flock. Everyone is upset by this, especially Max, but she finds a letter later that he wrote to her saying that if in 20 years, the world hasn't come to an end, he'll meet her on the cliff where they learned to fly like the hawks.

In Angel, Fang becomes the leader of a new Flock (including Ratchet, Star, Kate, Holden, and Maya, Max's clone) that helps him try to stop the Doomsday Group. When he realizes he cannot stop the Doomsday Group on his own, he enlists the help of Max's Flock. Max and Fang seem to grow apart and start to like different people. Also, Fang starts having feelings for Maya, trying to replace Max. However, he then realizes that Maya is different from Max, and begins to treat her differently, although in his heart, he still loves Max. After the planned D-day, Fang leaves with his flock, leaving Max and her flock in the rubble of Paris, searching for Angel (who is missing).

Iggy

Iggy is 14 (15 in Fang and Angel), but younger than Fang and Max. He is usually sarcastic, is 6' 4", has pale skin, strawberry blond hair, very light blue eyes, a wingspan of over 14 feet, and is blind. He is one of the only two Flock members to have met his parents, the other being Max. His real name is revealed to be James Griffiths. When he found his parents, he learned that he was kidnapped by the School when he was about 4 months old. At first, Iggy decides to leave the Flock to live with his parents, but later leaves when he learned that his parents didn't want to have him back and only wanted to use him to make money off his story. Due to the whitecoats' experiments to enhance his night vision, Iggy is effectively blind, though he can see if his surroundings are white and can identify people by feeling their fingerprints and the feel of their wings, he can also feel colors. Despite his blindness, the Flock often leave things up to him that require precision or detail, such as cooking, doctoring, and picking locks. His sense of hearing is also the best of the flock because of his blindness, although he always wants "the easy way out" of situations and hates his blindness. He and Gazzy are best friends and have a habit of building bombs out of almost anything.

Nudge

Nudge is a 11 years old (12 in Fang and Angel), black, and has 'brown eyes like melted chocolate', she has wild long,dark brown hair that she usually cannot control. Her wings are often said to be tawny-brown,almost cream. Her real name is revealed to be Monique and she managed to track down who she believes to be her mother, but never meets her. The Flock calls her the Nudge Channel because when she's awake it's "all Nudge, all the time." Nudge can hack into computers with her ability to sense leftover emotions, also called psychometry, and can also draw metal to her by will. Nudge is described as Max's best supporter and the peacemaker. Nudge is often extremely talkative, leading some fans to believe that she talks a disproportionate amount to balance and cover up the emotional pain and loneliness that she still feels from being in the neverending silence of The School. Whether or not this is true has yet to be discovered.

Gazzy

Gazzy (or The Gasman) is eight years old (nine in Fang and Angel) with blonde hair, blue eyes, and brown wings with a 10 foot wingspan. He is Angel's biological older brother, and they are the only "true" siblings of the Flock. He has a mischievous nature and makes fun of Max sometimes. He has digestive problems, leading to his nickname. He is an expert at constructing and setting off bombs and explosives, along with Iggy (his closest friend in the Flock). It is revealed that his parents sold both Gazzy and Angel to the School when they were extremely young. Gazzy's main ability is to perfectly mimic any voice. Gazzy gets a mental picture of his parents when Max and Fang go check out what they think was Gazzy and Angel's old residence; the Flock sees the house many times accidentally and sometimes purposefully throughout the series. He is thought to have grey - white wings, he may have the DNA of an owl.

Angel

Angel is six years old (seven in Max, Fang, and Angel), with blue eyes and curly blond hair. Angel is also the biological sister of The Gasman (Gazzy). Her wings are pure white and are 8 ft (9 ft in Fang) across. She obtains seemingly random powers at random times, such as the ability to breathe underwater and to talk to fish, but her main power, lasting throughout the series, is to read and control minds. In The Angel Experiment, she uses her powers to convince a woman to buy her a $49.00 teddy bear that she names Celeste. She acquires the ability to swim in deep water at pressures that would crush a normal human, change her appearance into a 'bird of paradise' form and change her skin and eye color, although after the initial introduction to this power it is never mentioned again, except when she gets trapped under a snow pile in The Final Warning and tries to change form to escape; however, the attempt was unsuccessful. She is usually mistaken to be powerless and innocent, but she is truly extremely intelligent and dangerous. Her ability to control people's minds gives her extreme power. In Fang, Angel believes that she is the strongest of the Flock, and holds a vote, temporarily kicking Max out of the group. She also has a 'Voice' in her head, like Max, but this is not revealed to the reader until Fang, and the Flock does not know this. Angel is portrayed as calculating and ruthless in Fang, and has pointed a gun at Max to make enemies back off. In Angel, she seems to have calmed some of the extreme changes of her personality that occurred in Fang, and helps Max to balance her feelings for Fang and Dylan. She appears to be content with her role and no longer bids for power, but advises Max, who is still suspicious of her. In the end, she volunteers to go undercover in a new evil organization (The Doomsday Group). She goes missing after she and Gazzy fail to defuse a bomb, and the others think she is dead. In fact, she is being held captive in an unknown location, and is continually told she is "most superior". She is also a tomboy, but she also enjoys shopping and girly things along with Nudge. She may have the DNA of a dove.

Dylan

Dylan is an avian-human hybrid (and a clone of an original 'Dylan') who joins the Flock in Fang. He is said to be Max's "perfect other half", causing Max to refer to him as Mr. Perfect, although Max and Fang are quite in love when they meet. He is over six feet tall with a 15-foot wingspan, and is usually described as handsome, with dark-blond hair and turquoise eyes, and is said to have a beautiful singing voice, though his songs are usually very cheesy and irritating. He is in love with Max, but he was programmed by the scientists to feel that way. Because of this, he and Fang almost never see eye-to-eye. He was also made in a lab, created from a clone of a boy who had died in a car accident in the country of Canada. He is 8 months old in Fang. He learns how to fly when Max teaches him by pushing him off a roof. His relationship with Max is complicated, but she does actually start to like him. In Fang he is portrayed as somewhat meek, but appears to grow a backbone, even arguing with Max in Angel. The most notable argument in Angel starts at the beginning of the book with Dylan and Max arguing about how miserable Max has been since Fang left her. Dylan can heal himself almost instantly by putting some of his saliva on his wounds and putting pressure on it. In addition, he has extremely good vision and clairvoyance. In Angel Max finds a new appreciation for Dylan and a romance is sparked. Though Max is usually confused and therefore harsh. The first time Max allows Dylan to comfort her is in the desert where they sleep and embrace. They kiss twice, once beside a tree. and then they make out in Paris. Though she is confused she allows him to get closer and closer to her. Angel herself seems to supports them and often encourages her to pursue a relationship with him.

Total

Total is a black Scottie whom Angel saves from the Institute at the end of The Angel Experiment. He is described to have the characteristics of a Scottish terrier. When Total is rescued from the Institute, he is described as looking similar to Toto from The Wizard of Oz, which would make him a Cairn terrier. Total's character is not fully developed until School's Out – Forever, when it is discovered that he has the ability to talk. He is often humorous and dramatic, exemplified when he gets shot in the tail and isn't hurt largely, but still exaggerates the injury. Despite his dramatic nature, he can be mature when he want to be and will not tolerate getting treated like a normal dog. In the end of Fang, Total marries Akila, an Alaskan Malamute whom he met in Antarctica. It is discovered Total thinks Tricia Helfer is hot in "Angel" when they are going to go to the ComicCon in San Diego. He is known to be a fan of culture, including theatre and cuisine. He has the ability to jump to great heights, and eventually grows his own tiny wings.

Akila

Total's wife at the end of Fang. Akila and Total met in the forth book (The Final Warning) in Antarctica. She is an 80 pound Alaskan Malamute. She has no special powers.

Jeb Batchelder

Jeb Batchelder is a brilliant scientist. He used to work at the School where the Flock was experimented on, but felt compassion for them and later breaks them out of the School. He lives with the Flock deep in the mountains for two years, where he teaches them basic survival skills and how to fight so they can defend themselves. Jeb then disappears, leaving the Flock alone to fend for themselves. The Flock thinks Jeb is dead, but he reappears later in the first book. In The Angel Experiment, the flock discovers Jeb back at the School when they are recaptured. This initially leads the Flock to believe that he is a traitor, but he later comes back to the Flock and helps them on numerous occasions. Jeb is Ari's and Max's biological father. Max does not trust him after discovering his identity. Jeb is shot in the sixth book, but he is shown to be making a steady recovery. Though Jeb and Dr. Martinez are Max's biological parents, there is only a professional relationship between them. Max trusts Dr. Martinez, but is usually wary of Jeb. Jeb donated his chromosomes, which were matched with those of Dr. Martinez to create Max. In Angel, Jeb tells Max she needs to breed with Dylan after the world ends, and later goes missing with Max's mother. Once Max thought Jeb was the Voice in her head, but in The Final Warning he reveals he "can do the voice, but isn't the voice"

The Erasers

The Erasers, created by the School in Death Valley, are half-human, half-wolf hybrids that were bred by the School to be guards, but their larger mission later involves hunting down and even killing the members of the Flock. Their powers are superhuman strength, but they also eventually gain wings that are crudely grafted onto their shoulder blades. They have a life span of about 4 years to reach maturity and approximately a year or two to hunt the Flock. Jeb's son, Ari, who was turned into an Eraser at a very young age, is one of the last to die when Itex 'retires' all of the Erasers and replaces them with the Flyboys, robotic Erasers with synthetic skin attached to their robotic structure. The Erasers are originally killed off because they 'expire' very quickly, but they make a surprise appearance in Fang when they attack all of the flock but Max and Fang, who are not at the house with the others. It is believed that when Itex was disbanded, some scientists took Eraser DNA with them, creating these new Erasers, though they are never mentioned after the events of the surprise battle. They are always armed, but rarely use their weapons after The Angel Experiment and later novels in the series.

Ari Batchelder

Ari Batchelder is Jeb's son who was turned into an Eraser when Jeb was helping the Flock escape from the school. In The Angel Experiment, he was once killed by Max in the sewers of New York but gets revived in the second book. He thought his father Jeb Batchelder didn't care about him, which is part of the reason that he hated Max out of jealousy and opted to become a Eraser. However, it is later confirmed that Jeb does care about Ari, because in The Angel Experiment, after Max has fought with and killed Ari, Jeb cries for Ari and calls after Max, telling her that she has killed her own brother. He is Max's younger half-brother since they have the same father, Jeb. When Ari was only seven, the whitecoats used him as an experiment to see if Erasers would be stronger if they were mutated after birth. The wolf DNA turned Ari into a "super-eraser," although he is always partially morphed. Ari came back to life and was grafted with wings according to the book Saving The World And Other Extreme Sports In addition, Ari apparently loved and hated Max at the same time, according to Angel. In Maximum Ride: Schools Out Forever,In Saving The World And Other Extreme Sports Max and Fang get into a fight because after Ari broke them out of the School, Max was convinced that he was no longer evil. The Flock splits up: Max, Nudge, Angel, Total, and Ari go to Europe, while Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy go to Hollywood. Max and the gang go to Itex, where there is a super-mutant named Omega. Ari tries to help Max fight him, but then his expiration date kicks in and he suddenly dies in Max's arms, only living till the age of seven it was revealed that he is back (it is still unknown HOW) in Nevermore.

Dr. Gunther-Hagen

Gunther-Hagen is one of the other scientists the Flock meets. Max is constantly making fun of his name, calling him things like Dr. G-H, Dr. Haagen-Dazs, Dr. God, etc. He created Dylan, wrote a book, and makes the shocking suggestion that Max and Dylan should come to live with him to Germany in order to "breed" or create the start of Max's "dynasty". He also has some special abilities such as instantly healing from illnesses and regenerating small extremities, such as fingers.

He was Dylan's caretaker until he joined the Flock.

Dr.Martinez

Dr.Martinez is a Hispanic veterinarian who helps Max when she is hurt in The Angel Experiment after helping her daughter, Ella, escape from bullies. Dr. Martinez is described as strong-willed woman who goes to great lengths to help Max. It is later revealed that it was she who donated the egg that created Max, making her Max's mother.

Ella Martinez

Ella is Dr. Martinez's other child, making her Max's half-sister. Max met her in "The Angel Experiment" when she saved her from bullies. Ella got away but Max was shot and had to go to Ella's house to get help. Ella is proven trustworthy, but she often wishes to be like Max, making her run away to the School in Angel to get wings. Little is known about her except that she likes Iggy. In the later books, Iggy is thought to like her too.

Reception

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment received generally positive reviews. The School Library Journal called the book an "exciting SF thriller that's not wholly original but still a compelling read". Booklist described it as an "an action-packed cross between Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children and Marvel Comics' X-Men. John Ritchie of the ALAN Review wrote a negative review, saying that Patterson "slips in his attempt to write an action-adventure series for kids". He called the book "filled with every possible comic book/Saturday morning cartoon cliche" and described Patterson's writing style as "uneasy" and Max's dialogue as "horribly fake". In January 2010, the webcomic Penny Arcade poked fun at James Patterson based on the description found on the back of the first book.

The second book, Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever" was criticized for being "disappointingly anticlimactic and violent," although Total's character was praised for being "sure to entertain." Booklist delivered a positive review, praising Patterson's "ability to write page-turning action scenes" and noting that he "leaven[ed] the suspense with some surprising humor." It also mentioned that fans of the first book would be "delighted" with the sequel. Erin Collazo Miller from About.com praised the "fast-paced" novel, "fun characters," and "interesting premise," but criticized the characters and plot lines for "lack of depth and development." The review said that "[a]fter 400+ pages, readers may wish they were a little farther into the plot and that more of their questions had been answered."

Other works

OEL manga

Illustrated by NaRae Lee and released by Yen Press, the first chapter of the original English-language manga adaptation came out in July 2008 in the magazine Yen Plus. A free 22-page preview was released on Free Comic Book Day (May 3, 2008). The first volume of the series was released on January 27, 2009, the second volume was released on October 27, 2009, and the third volume was released on August 17, 2010, with a fourth volume released in April 2011 and four more volumes expected to be published.

Film adaptation

In September 2007, it was announced that a film would be created based on the Maximum Ride series. James Patterson will be the executive producer. Avi Arad, who has worked on films such as Spider-Man and X-Men, will also produce alongside Steven Paul. In an interview with James Patterson, it was revealed that Arad has already planned out the first two movies. On August 7, 2008, it was announced that Columbia Pictures bought the screen rights to the franchise. The film was slated for a 2010 release. Catherine Hardwicke was said to direct, but dropped out. Don Payne is writing the script. In January 2010 it was announced that the film would go into pre-production. Hardwicke asked for a script rewrite to include more action in the film and hired Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby for the job, which subsequently delayed its estimated release to 2013. In February 2011, the Maximum Ride Facebook page posted that "The Maximum Ride Movie is Coming – In 3D!" and asked its Facebook fans who they would like to play Max in the movie.

In a recent interview with USAToday, Patterson revealed he is hopeful for a film adaptation. Patterson took note of fan-made audition videos from User Based Casting, a fan-driven casting initiative for the upcoming Maximum Ride film adaptation, among others in his USAToday interview, commenting that "there's something like 9,000 Maximum Ride videos on YouTube, and some of them are stunning. I also think we're closer to the movie than we've been. I never know for sure in Hollywood, but it's definitely warm now."

The film ran into trouble in early 2012, when Catherine Hardwicke quit as the film director. When asked about the odds of a movie still being made, Patterson claimed he was "...very hopeful as opposed to mildly depressed".

See also

Global warming portal

Children's literature portal

External links

• Maximum Ride Official Website
• Maximum Ride book page at James Patterson's Official Website
• Maximum Ride at the Internet Movie Database
• Maximum Ride at User Based Casting