Maximum Ride Book 5

Maximum Ride 5

"I sized up the situation in an instant: a hundred thousand people who might be injured or killed in crossfire; innocent people right here on the field who would only get in our way; the seven of us up against this new threat.

It was like old times."

The fifth Maximum Ride book has action from start to finish, which already makes it surpass the third and fourth books easily. Reading MAX was just like going back to the old times of books one and two: funny, action-packed, dramatic, and intriguing. While the book couldn't live up to the original first book, it still had a few twists and never lacked in action. There was no more nonsense about all these superpowers the flock keep randomly acquiring, and the flock was back to their regularly-scheduled fighting. With a few differences.

Maximum Ride and the other members of the Flock have barely recovered from their last arctic adventure, when they are confronted by the most frightening catastrophe yet. Millions of fish are dying off the coast of Hawaii and someone--or something--is destroying hundreds of ships. Unable to discover the cause, the government enlists the Flock to help them get to the bottom of the disaster before it is too late.

What most fans have been waiting for has finally arrived with this book: Max and Fang! I won't spoil the ending completely, but let me say, fans of Max and Fang together will be pretty satisfied by the last few chapters. It's not exactly what we dreamed of, but it works, so at least thanks for that James Patterson.

While I doubt the books will ever be as amazing as from the start (the mystery and chase have faded, and the world now knows about the flock, so the secret is out and that's no fun), I don't doubt that I'll keep getting the next few books. I'm glad that James Patterson has finally stepped up to the plate for this one, and didn't just spend the entire book as a vent against global warming. Sure, there were a lot of environmental touches throughout the book, but there was a real villain, and a few mysterious creatures we didn't expect.

I do have one final thing that irked me though. Birds with gills? Really? It just seems too much to me.

Join in the discussion below and tell me (and the world) what you think of the final book!

James Patterson is an award-winning American author. Formerly he was the chairman of advertising company J. W. Thompson in the early 1990s, Patterson came up with the slogan "Toys R Us Kid." Shortly after his success with Along Came A Spider, he retired from the firm and devoted his time to being a writer. The novels featuring his character, Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist formerly of the Washington, D.C. Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, now working as a private psychologist and government consultant, are the most popular books among Patterson readers and the top selling US Detective series in the past ten years

In 2007, one of every fifteen hardcover novels sold was a James Patterson title- totaling an estimated 16 million books sold last year in North America alone. According to Forbes magazine, Patterson earned $50 million from June 2007 to June 2008, placing him second on the list of best paid authors in the world. In total, Patterson's books have sold an estimated 150 million copies worldwide. He has won awards including the Edgar, the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, and the International Thriller of the Year award. James Patterson was called "the man who can't miss" in Time magazine. He is the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on The New York Times adult and children's bestsellers lists, and to have two books on NovelTracker's top-ten list at the same time. He holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 39 New York Times bestselling titles overall. He even made an appearance on the Fox TV show The Simpsons (in the episode "Yokel Chords") as himself.

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