Maximum Ride: Fang (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

This is the sixth book in the Maximum Ride series. The first three books were a really great trilogy, the 4th was basically a lecture about global warming with a real sense that it had been written without an idea, but simply because the first three were popular. The 5th one was a slight improvement, but not by much. I wasn't expecting much from this book, based on the previous books and most of JP's recent books, but I loved the first three books, and I love Max and Fang so I wanted to see if there was any chance the series could improve.

Based on the blurb for the book I assumed it would be more romance that previous books, with some crazy life and death stuff thrown in on top. In reality, I wasn't far off the mark. Max and Fang are officially a couple now, and very happy about it. They and the rest of the flock start out in Africa on a mission for the CSM (coalition to stop the madness) giving out food to refugees. But they're quickly inturrputed by Dr. Gunther-Hagen and a new bird kid, Dylan. Max gets a bad feeling about this Dr and his claims to want to help them and quickly takes the flock away from him, and Dylan. They're soon back in the US by themselves not really caring about much of anything, but then Jeb reappears and has Dylan with him. It doesn't take long for things to go downhill and the flock find themselves in big trouble again. This time, it looks like one of them really won't make it out alive.

Plus points: There was more of a story here than the past two books. The characters don't develop any strange, convinent super powers in time to save the day. There was a little more than a hint of the first three books with a crazy Dr. wanting to experiment on the flock again, adding to their DNA. And as a nice change, Max isn't running from Fang whenever he kisses her.

On the downside: The kids are still sheltered, spoiled, bratty versions of themselves instead of the sassy, tough kids from the first three books. Max seems to have let leadership go to her head and lost some common sense. Angel is creepier than ever and not in a good way. Fang was a little 'off' at times, and the others didn't get too much page time. There is a completely unexplained reappearence of a few erasers, who were then promptly forgotten. Pretty much all over the drama is over done to the point of annoyance and plenty of characters had big blowups when they really weren't warrented. The plot jumped around a little too much, it was one thing then suddenly another, then another, with little explination along the way. And when Max was talking about the evil doc, she used a different nickname just about everytime, which got tired and a little confusing at times.

Overall, this is an improvement on books 4 and 5. It's not a particularly coheasive story, and it's certainly got it's flaws, but it did get better as it went on and the ending was actually pretty good in many ways. Can't say I'm 100% happy with it, like many things it was a little over dramatic, but I still liked it.

This was worth the wait! Fang is totally action packed and very funny, and Patterson has played out Max and Fang's relationship really well-it wasn't all lovey dovey, annoying and slightly gross, but really nice. Angel, believe it or not, certainly gets more creepy in this book, and although she scared me at times, it makes the plot of this book amazing! It really has everything-love, action, scares and a little education (flock style). I particularly liked this because of Patterson's tendensy to base his books on current issues-this was about drug testing on children in Africa by big corporations, which was really touching. And the question of whether or not Fang will die? I'm not saying, just that he'll make you laugh and he'll make you cry. Either way, I am sure that you will love this book. 5/5

Mikaela
P.S. And seriously no worries. It's not sickeningly romantic. :)

I was hoping that this book would get back up to the standards of books 1-3, which are simply amazing, witty, and action packed books which I adore. After reading book 4 I felt completely betrayed and book 5 was not much better; it was random and made no sense. When I heard the plot to this book 'Fang will be first to die' I was very excited, thinking that this book could be the resurrection of a failing series. Unfortunately, this book comes nowhere close the prowess of books 1-3, and in comparison seems short, rushed, and not really thought over to well.

The plot moves so fast, with the flock not being in one place for more than a few pages that you don't really have time to take anything in before moving onto something completely different and making whatever came before it irrelevant. This book could have certainly done with being 100 pages longer, and I feel like Patterson doesn't even care about what he's writing anymore. Another flaw in this book is the lack of humour compared to the other books (even 4-5, which was the ONLY thing that kept me reading!) This lacked the sarcastic and witty humour...instead it is filled with a ton of romance and only short and too fast-paced-to-know-what's-happening fight scenes.

Another flaw, the Flock are so OOC in this book it made me feel sick...Angel is even more crazy and power hungry than ever, which Max really doesn't seem to do enough about, or even seem vaguely worried about! Max isn't her normal, witty sarcastic self and is mostly a puddle of crying mush in this book whenever something happens (normally about Fang =.=) which is not a welcome change. Fang is painfully OOC...I mean I know he loves Max, but Patterson is really going overboard with Fang being so 'open'....it's just NOT HIM! The only time he seems himself is when he is conversing with Dylan ( and I was hoping for a punch up with Dylan and Fang...but alas no...just some conversation that lasted a page =.=) There really wasn't enough tension between the 2. Also I don't believe he even got a fight scene! Along with that, the rest of the flock just act like spoiled brats (mostly Angel) and don't get much page time...apart from Angel.

This brings me onto Dylan. I was expecting much more from this character, but all I got form him was a sappy, good looking guy who likes Max but doesn't really DO ANYTHING about it except look at her adoringly! He's meant to be her 'prefect other half' as the scientists keep saying ( and I don't get where this guy came from either...doesn't make much sense tbh) and I really thought that Patterson would include him more and at least make him a main part of the story! He really wasn't...just an addition to the Flock that hung around =.=

All in all I was not impressed...this book and plot had so much promise to bring back this series from the gutter and failed =.= The plot didn't really make much sense and moves much too fast, the characters acted very unlike themselves, almost too much romance, not enough Dylan vs. Fang, not really much explanation of anything, not very realistic reactions to: Fang's going to die, and not enough done about it! Patterson's got his work cut out for him winning me back from this!