Maximum Ride
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Cover of The Angel Experiment | |
| Author | James Patterson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | 1st Book: Kamil Vojnar & Roger Wood 2nd Book: David Perry, Pete Turner & Rob Matheson |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
Publication date | 1st Book: April 2005 2nd Book: May 2006 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 1st Book: 422 2nd Book: 408 |
| ISBN | [[Special:BookSources/1%3Csup%3Est%3C%2Fsup%3E+Book%3A+0-316-15556-X%3Cbr%3E%0A2%3Csup%3Est%3C%2Fsup%3E+Book%3A+0-316-15559-4 |1st Book: 0-316-15556-X 2st Book: 0-316-15559-4]] Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
This article is about the book series. For the upcoming film, see Maximum Ride (film).
Maximum Ride is a book series by James Patterson and published by Little Brown. The series is set in the near future, and centers around the 'Flock', a group of human-avian hybrids on the run from the scientists who created them. There are two books in the series so far: The Angel Experiment (2005) which was a New York Times Bestseller for 12 weeks, and School's Out Forever (2006). The books will be part of a trilogy.
The series is a pseudosequel to When the Wind Blows and The Lake House.
Plot
The Angel Experiment
Template:Spoiler The main character of the series, Max, is the leader of a 'flock' of six children: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, The Gasman, Angel, and herself. The only ones who are related by blood are The Gasman and Angel, who are brother and sister. The flock escaped from 'The School'; a place where scientists, or whitecoats, illegally experiment on human children for reasons unknown. The only successful experiments are the Flock, who have avian (bird) DNA, and Erasers, who have lupine (wolf) DNA, and work for The School. Erasers look like normal humans, but can transform into wolf-men with fur, fangs, and claws. The kids all have wings and are able to fly, but some of them have unique powers as well. The Gasman can imitate any voice or sound, Angel can read people's minds, Nudge is psychometric, and Max can fly at supersonic speeds. Iggy is blind, but because of this, his other senses have been sharpened. The Flock escaped The School by being smuggled out by Jeb Batchelder, a whitecoat who felt sorry for the children. They had lived together for a while, but two years before the start of the book, he disappeared and Max took over the role as leader.
The book begins with Angel being captured by Erasers and taken back to the School. One of the Erasers, Ari, was Jeb's son. He was once human, and had always been bitter about being left out by the flock while they were still at The School. After they escaped, however, he had been the first to become an Eraser after birth. Max, Fang, and Nudge go to rescue her, but Max makes Iggy and The Gasman stay home. On the way to The School, Max stops to help a little girl who was being bullied. However, it resulted in her being shot in the shoulder and wing, meaning she couldn't catch up with Fang and Nudge. She finds the little girl, Ella, and is invited into her house. Her mom, who is a doctor, helps to treat her wound. When they notice her wings, they still accept her. Max starts to have thoughts about what having a real home and family would be like, and compares it to Ella's house. However, when Ella's mom does her X-rays, she notices a chip in Max's forearm that she says cannot be removed. After a couple of days, Max recovers and goes to catch up to the others.
Meanwhile, Iggy and The Gasman have been fending off Eraser attacks on the house and decided to try to catch up with the others and do so just before Max. Afterwards, they all head to The School. After everyone but Iggy and The Gasman are captured, it is discovered that Jeb Batchelder is still alive and is working for the whitecoats again, and probably was the entire time. He also tells Max that she was created to save the world. However, the flock is soon recued by Iggy and The Gasman, and they leave The School with Angel.
While heading East, Max experiences excruciating pain from her head that causes her to pass out. After Max recovers, Angel remembers that she heard someone think about the address of another place like The School that has information about the flock: The Institute, New York. She also reveals that they had human parents. The School had told Nudge's parents that she had died, Iggy's mom died when he was born, Angel and The Gasman's parents gave them to the school willingly, and Fang's parents were also told that he was dead. Angel didn't hear any thoughts about Max.
Max soon experiences the brain attack again, this time accompanied by visions of seemingly random landscapes and people. However, she soon recovers again and they finally reach New York. After entering the subway system, Max has another brain attack, and a kid comes by and tells them to stop screwing with his Mac. When he shows them what is on it are the same visions Max has been having. Also, Max starts hearing a Voice inside her head that seems to be giving her clues about what to do and where to go next, and Angel learns how to control people with her mind.
The flock finds the address of The Institute, but there is nothing but other companies inside. And, after having their wings seen at a restaurant, the flock leaves New York and goes to the ocean, where Angel realizes that she can breathe underwater. But, they are soon discovered by Erasers and have to return to New York to escape. Fang is injured in the fight and when Max is checking whether he is ok or not, she kisses him spotaneously on the lips. This is the first suggestion in the series that Max has something for Fang. Fang responds with the word "Ow" since his lip is cut.
When Max's Voice says that there is a pot of gold under every rainbow, Max figures out that they have to enter The Institute through the sewers. They find the door in the sewers and go inside. They find computers that require a password, and Nudge realizes that she can pick up memories from objects and finds the password. On the computer, Max finds a list of the flock's real names, the names of their parents, and the names of locations, and prints it out. They see that all of the locations are close to Washington D.C. Afterwards, they start to leave, when they find dozens of mutants locked up in cages. The flock releases them and begins to escape.
However, Ari tries to stop them, and Max is forced to snap his neck and kill him, and as they the flock flies away, they hear Jeb scream, "You killed your own brother!" Afterwards, Angel reveals that she took a dog from one of the cages in The Institute, naming him Total. In the end, the flock starts to head towards Washington D.C.
Organizations
The School
The brainchild of deranged geneticist Roland ter Borcht, the School is the birthplace of the Flock, the Erasers, and countless other genetic experiments of dubious morality. The School serves as a laboratory of Nazi-esque proportions, where cruel experiments on the genetically-altered humans are not only allowed, but encouraged by the scientists inside.
Since the Flock's escape from the School, the School has relentlessly tracked the Flock.
The School is located in Death Valley, California.
The Institute For Higher Living
An extension of the School, the Institute For Higher Living is another hub of morally dubious genetic experimentation. The Institute's archives store most of the paperwork for both the School and the Institute, including information on the origins of the Flock.
The Institute is located in New York City.
Itex
A mega-corporation that controls most of the world, via a smattering of satellites and dummy companies.
Recombinants
Erasers
Erasers are genetically engineered human-lupine hybrids, who have the ability to change their DNA and morph from human to wolf form at will. Designed as the perfect killing machines, Erasers work for the School as hunters, shock troops, and executioners.
In human form, the Erasers have a "sameness" about them; they are adult (regardless of their chronological age), suspiciously attractive and have silky, hypnotic voices.
Their genetic makeup is flawed, resulting in lifespan of about five to six years.
Flock
The addition of workable wings to a human body produces more than just an angelic appearance. With 2% bird DNA, Flock members have strong, hollow bones, enormous back and pectoral muscles, lodestone implanted in their skulls, and nuclei in their red blood cells. These engineerings do more than just allow the Flock to fly; on the ground, Flock members have superstrength and superspeed, though they cannot match the sheer muscle mass of a fully-grown Eraser.
They are the longest lasting experiments from the 'School.'
Flying Erasers
In a controversial new experiment, the School has begun designing Flying Erasers. These are garden-variety Erasers with enormous reptilian wings grafted to their backs. Flying Erasers are badly designed, and can fly only clumsily and with great pain.
The leader of the Flying Erasers is Ari Batchelder, son of Jeb Batchelder, one of the top scientists at the School.
Characters
Max
Max, short for Maximum Ride, is the protagonist of the series. She is fourteen years old: the oldest of the avian-human hybrids and the leader of the Flock. Max is a skilled fighter, and has the ability to fly at supersonic speeds.
Max has a microchip implanted in her left arm, which she discovered through an x-ray. Its function and purpose are currently unknown, although the Flock suspects that it was implanted by the scientists and is used as a tracer. Max also has a "Voice" in her head, of unknown origin; the Flock is divided as to whether the Voice is a School creation or whether Max is simply schizophrenic.
Max has a crush on fellow Flock member Fang (she kissed him in the first book). She became very jealous when Fang kissed the 'Red-Haired Wonder' (a girl whose real name was Lissa) in the second book.
Max is thought to be the daughter of Jeb and the sister of Ari, for in the first book, she kills Ari, and Jeb cryptically yells out, "You killed your own brother!" However, this is unconfirmed, and could just be part of the many "tests" Jeb claims she must go through.
Max is about 5' 8", and has blonde highlights in her hair. She has a thirteen foot wingspan, and her wings are light tan, speckled white and brown.
Fang
The black-winged Fang is the most solitary of the flock members. He is described as dark and silent, around 6 ft tall. Biologically, he appears to be Greek, Italian, Spanish, or Middle Eastern, with dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. Fang is physically tougher than the rest of the flock, frequently taking punishing wounds and coming back again. Of all the Flock members, Fang is the closest to Max, whom he appears to harbor a crush on. He did kiss Max on the forehead in the second book, but he did kiss another girl also. He seemed hurt when Max was asked out on a date with Sam because he did not react to her annoucement. Usually it seems, he would burst out laughing.
Fang has an online blog, which he updates whenever possible.
Iggy
Iggy is fourteen and one of the three oldest members of the flock; his blindness, caused by a failed attempt to surgically enhance his night vision when he was younger, is one of his defining traits. He is also very talented at building and using explosives and makes them in cooperation with the Gasman. Since he was blinded, his other senses have been greatly heightened (eg. identifying members of the flock by the feel of their skin or feathers, a quasi-echolocation, telling when someone is coming through vibrations in the floor,), and he uses them to compensate for his inability to see. Although he is blind, Iggy is the only one in the flock who can cook well.
Iggy's real name is James Griffiths. He is the only member of the flock who has located his biological parents, but he left their custody to rejoin the Flock when they attempted to sell his life story to eight different magazines.
Nudge
Nudge is African-American, 11 years old and very talkative. "I love Nudge, Nudge is a great kid, but that motormouth of hers could have turned Mother Teresa into an ax murderer."--Maximum Ride-The Angel Experiment, pg 40 Her wings are brown with russet streaks, and are streaked with white on the underside. She is a skilled computer hacker, and develops tenuous psychometric powers within the course of the first book. Her true name is Monique.
Of all the Flock members, Nudge is the one most determined to find her biological parents.
The Gasman/Gazzy
The Gasman is eight years old. He earned his name from the fact that he frequently passes gas, although he is often called Gazzy or Gasser instead. He also has the ability to mimic any sound or voice, an ability which he uses to play pranks.
The Gasman and Iggy are best friends, and often work together to build explosives, pull pranks, or do tasks for the Flock.
The Gasman is the biological older brother of Angel.
Angel
Though biologically related only to Gasman, Angel is the 'baby sister' of the entire Flock. She is six years old, with blonde hair and white wings that together give her an angelic appearance.
Angel is a very powerful telepath, and can breathe underwater and talk to fish. Generally sweet-tempered and suspiciously amiable for a six-year-old, Angel exhibits a vicious streak when using her mind-control abilities, at one point killing someone with her brain alone.
In the second book, Angel repeatedly expressed a disturbing desire to take over Max's job as leader of the Flock.
Total
Total is a Cairn terrier that joined the Flock after their visit to The Institute. He also can talk which is revealed in Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever.
His name may be a reference to Toto of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Jeb Batchelder
Jeb Batchelder is a scientist from the 'School'. He is Ari's father, although this did not stop him and others from turning Ari into an Eraser. He helped the flock escape the first time and lived with them for a few years, suddenly disappearing afterwards. Jeb later reappeared at the 'School' when the flock returned. Throughout the series, he keeps insisting that he is still a friend of the flock and wants to help them.
Ari
Ari is the son of Jeb Batchelder, one of the top scientists at the School. Unlike the other hybrids, Ari spent his early life as a nonmutant human. When he was three years old, Jeb disappeared along with the Flock, leaving Ari at the tender mercies of the School's genetic scientists. The geneticists used Ari as an experiment, splicing his DNA with that of a wolf in order to create a new breed of Eraser that could live longer than the previous versions (those whose DNA had been spliced in the womb).
Ari is the most 'wolfy-looking' of the Erasers, at one point being mistaken for the X-men character Wolverine.
During the climactic fight scene in "The Angel Experiment", Ari fought with, and had his neck broken by, Max. While the injury would have killed a nonmutant human, Ari recovered; the broken spine may have even been a blessing in disguise for him, as it allowed the School's scientists to graft a full pair of wings on his back. Ari is now a Flying Eraser.
Ari and Max share many similarities, the most obvious being that they are both mutants and both hear "Voices" in their heads. In "The Angel Experiment", the possibility that Ari and Max are siblings is discussed.
In "School's Out Forever" it is revealed that Ari has a crush on Max.
Max 2.0
Max 2.0 is a clone of the original Maximum Ride. She was created by the School, in an effort to replace the original Max with a controllable substitute. At one point she secretly replaced Max as the leader of the Flock, only to be exposed and rejected by the other Flock members. At the end of “School’s Out Forever” she fought with, and was defeated by the original Max. Her whereabouts are currently unknown.
Soundtrack for the book
As an opportunity to increase the book's publicity and introduce emerging artists, Little, Brown also published a promotional soundtrack for the second book. The CD can only be found at concerts by the artists on the CD, Five Below (a store which sells summer/party supplies), or winning a contest on the Maximum Ride message board. These are tracks on the CD:
- "Death Said" by The Summer Obsession
- "What I Wouldn't Give" by Holly Brook
- "Shaky" by Cipes and the People
- "Underneath My Skin" by Brian Steen
- "Disappear" by The Summer Obsession
- "Wanted" by Holly Brook
- "The Way I Do" by Marcos Hernandez
- "Where Do We Go From Here" by Cooper
- "Golden Days" by Kelly Dalton
- "Take It From Me" by The Weepies
- "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment: Special Excerpt"
- "Maximum Ride: School's Out - Forever: Special Excerpt"
Movie
Warner Brothers will be writing the script for a movie of When The Wind Blows and Maximum Ride. Matthew Huffman will write the script and Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster will produce the film.