It has been brought to my attention that there is another Maximum Ride book coming out. Here are the details if you really want to know more. But warning, this post is going to turn ranty and include some bashing…
TITLE: Maximum Ride Forever
AUTHOR: James Patterson
SERIES: Maximum Ride #9
PUBLICATION DATE: May 18th 2015
Goodreads |
THE NINTH AND ULTIMATE MAXIMUM RIDE STORY IS HERE! Legions of Max fans won't be disappointed by this encore episode in the beloved series about the incredible adventures of a teenage girl who can fly. As Maximum Ride boldly navigates a post-apocalyptic world, she and her broken flock are roaming the earth, searching for answers to what happened. All will be revealed in this last spectacular "ride"- a brand-new grand finale featuring all of the nonstop action, twists and turns that readers can rely on in a blockbuster Patterson page turner!
Before I start making fun of this book, which is probably what’s going to happen. I need to explain the title of this post. Long, long ago, okay so maybe it was only three years ago, I read Nevermore and I hated it. I gave it a one star review. It was that bad. It was a horrifying ending to a series that I loved. One that had already started to go downhill. I loved the first three books. Max and Fang (the books, not the characters) were pretty good in my opinion. But I like to pretend Angel and Nevermore don’t exist.
I still don’t understand how that series got to be that long. And it seems like it’s never ending. Nevermore was supposed to be THE LAST FREAKING BOOK. But it’s not. I feel like James Patterson is just trying to milk the cow for all the money until there is not one drop left.
Someone asked me the other day if I planned on reading the 9th and “final” book of Maximum Ride. My answer is no. I’m done with that series. Maximum Ride started as a series I could not put down and get enough of. I loved it so much. But thanks to Angel and Nevermore, that golden image of it is tinged and tarnished. If people needed a sci-fi book recommendation, Maximum Ride used to be my go to series to recommend. Now I pretend I haven’t even read it. I didn’t really like Angel and I took a chance reading Nevermore, hoping it contained some of the magic that made me love Max Ride in the first place. It did not. It only made me hate the series I once loved.
Now let’s dissect Maximum Ride Forever. First off, the title sounds like something I would have said five years ago when I was still a giant fan of the series. It sounds so… fangirly. Moving on to the blurb… “THE NINTH AND ULTIMATE MAXIMUM RIDE STORY IS HERE! Legions of Max fans won’t be disappointed by this encore episode”. To me, the blurb is just asking me to hate and dislike the book. I hate it when I get review requests telling me I will love a book (How do they know? Are they psychic? Are they me?) and I hate reading those same words in a blurb.
And then there’s “brand-new grand finale featuring all of the nonstop action, twists and turns that readers can rely on in a blockbuster Patterson page turner!” One, I’m not quite sure what a “blockbuster Patterson page turner” is if he only writes the outline and the final draft of a book (according to the article “James Patterson Inc.” from the New York Times). Two, the words “brand-new grand finale” just rub me the wrong way. Yes, Max Ride certainly deserves a new “last” book because Nevermore was horrible and had a horrible ending but whether it needs one is a different question. And seriously? “Grand finale”? Come on!
Another Maximum Ride book? No thank you. To me the series ended a long time ago. I don’t see the need to read Maximum Ride Forever simply because I don’t quite believe in Maximum Ride forever anymore. I took a gamble reading Nevermore, hoping it would restore my love for the series. It was a gamble that did not pay off. At all. I don’t really want to take the chance again with this one. Plus, if I want to read this one, I’ll have to reread the others which will only reopen old wounds. The chapter of my life when I read Max Ride has closed and has been closed for a while. And unlike the series, there will be no “brand new grand finale”.
What do you think?
Will you be reading Maximum Ride Forever?
Should I give it a chance?
I am not even SURPRISED that this his happening but I agree with you 100%. The first three books were amazing but then it just got worse and worse.. and I almost had hope by the time Nevermore came around but then Fang messed it all up. I hated that book /so/ much. This is the biggest money grabbing move I’ve seen by James Patterson yet…
I wouldn’t read it, I won’t be reading it. The flock got too overpowered and Max and Fang’s little happy ending was just gross. I’m just bitter and annoyed so maybe don’t take my opinion (but I’m also usually right).
>:|
[…] Another Maximum Ride book by James Patterson? No thanks! […]
I just finished the book…feeling pretty empty right now. The thing about the Maximum Ride series that was so refreshing in the beginning was the quirkiness of it all. The characters are constantly being hunted and roughing it in the wilderness, but they’re mutants who fight other mutants while making jokes, and it’s charming. As soon as the series introduces the whole save-the-world-mission, the scale of the books increases exponentially. It’s no longer about the flock vs. lab coats, but Max vs. the world, sometimes including members of the flock. This last book is a constant barrage of antagonism toward Max and the flock and all of humanity and mutants. It’s so lonely and so, so off-course from the themes in the earlier books. Meanwhile, Max’s signature snarkiness and the comic relief at unlikely moments (Harry’s adorable!) is preserved, but the disparity between that silliness and the gravity of the world’s state–it gives the book an unsettling, forlorn mood. All that said, Maximum Ride Forever is packed with surprises, often things I truly didn’t see coming, and I think it’s a more realistic ending to the series than the utopia that ended Nevermore. I also liked the environmental message this book sent more than Nevermore’s. The 8th book ends with evil scientists trying to wipe out humanity with a virus, but they’re beat to the chase by nature, so the message seems to be “no matter how far we’ve come, nature’s bigger than us, so don’t poke the bear.” The 9th seems to say instead that we need to keep our environmental preservation crusades in perspective given the inherent value of intelligent life. So, I’m glad I read both, but I’m going to pretend Maximum Ride Forever didn’t happen because I believe the series deserves a happier ending than it got, and I hope that when they do whatever they’re doing with the YouTube series, they nix everything after MAX and start fresh.