Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

The Angel Experiment
The Angel Experiment

I read this book for two reasons, firstly; the cover looked awesome, secondly because I was on the lookout for a book that fulfills the criteria for the 1st in a Series Reading Challenge.

The book is about a bunch of kids who were raised by scientists after being created using 98% human DNA and 2% bird. The leader of this flock is “Maximum”. All these children have escaped from the cruel experiments these scientists do to them. The 6 children (Max, Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge and Angel) are in hiding from these scientists for years until one day they are found and they kidnap the youngest, Angel who is just 6 years old. The first half of the book is about finding and rescuing Angel; the second half deals with finding out where they come from and trying to track their families.

I started reading this book when a sense of familiarity came over me. Something about the writing style seemed horribly familiar. I went back to my blog reading list and found this – an old review of a book I had loathed – The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.

Uh!oh! I was ready to drop this book right away and move on to something more palatable. But, I hate leaving books unread; and I know this would be a quick read. And so, I persevered.

And you know what, this book was not too bad. I can’t say I loved the book or the writing. But, I did like the characters and the concept. The book drags strangely in places (the numerous narrow escapes from sticky situations got real tired real soon). I also did not like the concept where each time they are in a spot, one of the kids discovers some strange power within themselves to solve the problem. One example of this is when the kids need to hack into a computer. They are stumped because the various password combinations they try are not working. One of the children puts her hand on the computer and is suddenly able to visualize the password. Voila! they key it in and they are good to go. I hope James Patterson in the later books has some explanation for why these children suddenly develop these powers. As such, it just felt like lazy writing to me.

However, in spite of all these deficiencies, the end of the book left me curious to read more about these characters and their adventures.

And that’s a good thing for a book that is the beginning of a series.

The other books in the series are:

  • School’s Out – Forever
  • Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
  • The Final Warning
  • MAX: A Maximum Ride Novel
  • Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel

7 comments

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  1. Sharry

    Just finished reading this myself. Never read a Patterson book before, and found it reasonably enjoyable!

  2. docshona

    Not a big sci fi fan but I have heard good things abt James Patterson. I have his Sunday’s At Tiffany’s on my book shelf which I am yet to read. Never read Maximum RIde series though

    • Nish

      James Patterson books tend to be a mixed bag for me ranging from good to downright atrocious.

      You never know what you are going to get )

      Btw, although I have classified the book as sci-fi, that is purely because of the mutant issue. It’s a perfectly readable book; nothing too scientific about it…

  3. sumanam

    this kind of books, what should I call it sci-fi is it??? I don’t know why I never get a kick out of them, atleast you read the whole book and tried to find a few nice things to say… good review.

    • Nish

      This is what happens when you are desperately trying to complete reading challenges!

      In a way, it’s nice because it motivates me to pick out boooks I would never read. But on the other hand, I never know whether my reviews are any good. How do you review a book +vely or otherwise, when the book genre itself does not appeal?

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