Max

It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Yes, that sounds terrible—I was expecting it to be bad before I even started. But I was so disappointed in the fourth Maximum Ride book I wasn't sure whether I even wanted to carry on with the series. But I saw it in the library, so because I enjoyed the first three so much I decided I'd better read it.

Now, I do have one question. Why, when you have a group of six flying kids (and a dog who randomly gains wings at the end of the fourth book), do you decide to set the book predominantly underwater??? And randomly add new 'powers' to your bird-kids? Wasn't flying enough? Oops, that was more than one question, but it was all related. Evil megalomaniac captures Max's mother, romance between Max and Fang with a bit of jealousy (get over it and snog each other, please!) thrown into the mix, it follows the standard pattern that James Patterson seems to have established. Which was fine in the first three books, because it was basically the same enemy who they were working on defeating. But again? I mean, how many evil megalomaniacs with lots of money can there be in the world? However, there were the strange sea creatures created by pollution. And to be fair, Angel could already swim underwater without breathing. But the fact that she wasn't kinda squished by the pressure really just shows blatant disregard to practicalities. The earlier ones were at least believable. Now? I'm not convinced.

To be fair on the book, it was, as I said, not as bad as I expected. Max is still a great character. Nudge acted relatively believably, and I do like her as well. In fact, I like all the characters. And I suppose Total having wings is okay—after all, he was genetically enhanced too, and he could already jump really high and talk (I always did expect him to end up with wings I have to say). But it's still a disappointment if you look at how great The Angel Experiment was. So, unless you really really like the Maximum Ride series already, I suggest you don't bother. Just stick to the first three, and maybe this one if you happen to see it in a library.