@@allmyfandomsaredead8348 Oh I don't hate him because the book Fang sucked. I hate him because he is annoying, unfunny and has no relevance to the plot what so ever. In no story does he do anything that help our characters stories or progress the plot. If he were cut from the story, nothing would be lost. He is there for comic relief that is at best unfunny and at worse annoying as hell. He is is worse than Jar-Jar Binks.
A defining moment of my understanding of literature was when I read the one where Angel randomly shapeshifts, like grows feathers all over her face or something, then NEVER DOES IT AGAIN. IT'S NEVER MENTIONED. I was like... 15, maybe younger, and I put the book down at the end and said 'this was a bad book'. That was when I broke into looking at what I read critically, because these books that I loved at first became SO BAD that they made me realise it wasn't just a case of 'i like/ i dislike' and that knowledge of what was critically good or bad wasn't some arcane adult ability 😂
@Mrytle Romilly Telepathy is science fiction. If we are gonna question telepathy existing in this book, we need to question it in every other series and medium that has it. And honestly, I don't mind Angel getting powers out of nowhere because she was the youngest of the flock, meaning she was the most recent experiment which can translate to the most advanced powers. On top of that, she was taken out of the School at an early age, only about 2, her not knowing about all her abilities could be a result of them not having a chance to test them out. Its only u til the Final Warning where I start to call bullshit because they clearly establish in that book that its all just developing mutations out of nowhere.
I vaguely remember a scene where they're at a restaurant and they think people suspect them or something and so they just...fucking smash through the ceiling and fly away?
@@chailatte1234 They had ordered an assload of food and the manager was like "yeah what the fuck, you can't order that much" (?????? the money that theyd get??? do they not have boxes to take home????) and the waiter was apaprently a jerk, so max splashed water on him and they U&A'd.
@@its_nikkits I think it was also just way too nice a place for a bunch of teenagers without any adult supervision and wearing dirty street clothes to be at (I want to say one of them ordered pheasant?). If I was that manager, I'd fully expect to be stiffed on a huge bill.
@@its_nikkits I thought that the scene happened before they knew what money was. They didn't know that you had to pay for stuff, so they ditched when the bill came.
I remember writing a book report on one of the latter books in middle school. I forgot the exact wording, but 12 year old me was fucking savage, describing it as something along the lines of "the tone is as consistent as a chameleon at a pride parade"
Iam Cleaver I think he just means that the teen pregnancy part was shock value for the sake of shock value...kind of like Ari dying and coming back over and over...or Angel being evil and trying to take over the Flock...or everything else in this series after book three... (Not that the first three were particularly good, but at least they were thrillers, not soap operas pretending to be thrillers like the later books).
@American Vagabond Super late response to an old video... But yeah! I was beginning to think that I was the only one who ever read those books! That scene really disturbed me when I read it. Not only was she 12, but she did it with a 10 year old! WHILE her little brother was watching from the Bushes! Then she of course gets pregnant from it.... I am kinda thinking it's james patterson's kink or something at this point.
I had the biggest crush on him when I was a kid I remember reading the other books just to see what happened to him (they kept hinting he’d get his sight back and then he didn’t)
James Patterson be like: oh yeah, Max is blonde. Whoops, never mind, she had brown hair Oh yeah, Brigid is blonde. NEVER MIND, AGAIN, she has red hair just so Max can get peeved. Yeah, Ari has died like eight different times. Max falls in love with a kid named Dylan who seems to be around Max's age, but is just eight months old. oh, sorry, Max, but Fang died. But an adrenaline shot to the heart should do the trick! Angel died but not really. Angel is blind for two seconds um, sorry, your mom and sister just drowned, LOL. oh no! Fang dies AGAIN. Oh, I'm pregnant at fifteen and the dad is dead bUt ThAt'S nO pRoBlEm Oh, wow! Thanks Dylan! You saved Fang- and you're dead... yay I have a child and everything IS A-OKAY :D
@@pyroshayniac1090 I mean, I was surprised at first, but considering the fact over half of humanity was wiped out, the survivors should start having children to just like start building back up civilization.
The having a kid thing seems to be ripped straight from When The Wind Blows and The Lake House. In The Lake House, proto Max and Ozymandias (proto fang) have kids but they're like, twelve. James patterson insists that the two book series' are not contiguous to each other, but I think that he decided to rip ideas from his previous book series to the new one. Btw WTWB and TLH are pretty good books and have a more adult slant to them.
Oh my god she for real had a kid and named her Phoenix?!? That’s a completely bizarre conclusion for a young woman who is not even an older teen and never given the opportunity to be a kid much less actually be a mother. Sure she was a good older sister figure and always saw herself as a mother figure to Angel but it only showed how she was just a kid and not equipped yet to be a mom. I just don’t see how having a baby at 15 in an apocalyptic scenario is at all satisfying or to be seen as a good thing at all.
I don't necessarily see it as a good thing, but I *do* see it as being normal. In fact, it's MORE likely, considering she didn't have a childhood and was forced to grow up too quickly. She was never taught about how to safely have a relationship or how to prevent pregnancy.... There's a ton of different reasons why she'd have a kid, and all of them are reasonable. The problem becomes when it isn't explored as a part of a deeply flawed teen that's dealing with a tragic lot in life and adding on responsibility onto everything.
The baby came out of nowhere, i see a lot of people say it makes sense for them to rebuild hamanity but no they were 15. I would rather the ending just be them having a break for once in theyre lives
@Mrytle Romilly I mean, it wasnt "some guy" her and Fang (the dad) had like a whole book where they were on their own separated from the group. Is it really all that surprising that after his resurrection (basically) two teenagers who saw each other as their soulmates banged at least once?
literally me every time I rearrange my bookshelf. I'll come across a ton of garbage I bought and read and was like, really, younger me, you liked this enough to keep it? lol.
I remember how at some point the message completely flips from “it’s bad to do human experiments” to “only the human experiments will survive” and I was like bruh
My personal rule: James Patterson is in it for the money and literally nothing else, and reading him will only result in disappointment. So this here will be the first I've ever seen of anything inside the jacket of Maximum Ride.
I honestly think Ari's character was fine. The major thing to keep in mind with this character is that he is 7 years old with a neglectful father, and he most likely sees Max as something like a hero in a kid's Saturday morning cartoon. Not to mention like a potential older sister
The manga left out the self-harm scene which I'll be honest, I liked seeing from Ari because it was an interesting look at his character, but I can very much understand them not adding that in for the sake of the audience.
The newest book, Hawk, mentioned something about them having an extra joint, but I'm don't think even that would allow them to fit under a windbreaker so easily.
I always hated the end of the series because when the apocalypse randomly occurs Max is all like "Ha! With all our powers we'll survive more easily than the evil scientists who made us, the jerks" like they weren't trying to fight against them for that very reason. It's dumb.
I got all the way to nevermore. and I was angry beyond belief when it was revealed that *angel was the voice in Max's head* the voice told max what the password for the credit card was!!! how the hell did angel know thatt!!!!!
Oh my god. Well, glad I didn't bother buying these books past book 3, I'd been mooching the other copies until Nevermore and at that point I was burnt out and kinda miffed. I'm still pissed, I loved Angel in the first 2 books
@@TheNOPEland I think it was in nevermore cause I remember having the back of the book listing the top 10 questions that would be answered in the book, one of which being who the voice in max's head is
Yeah the one whose whole message was "climate changebad". Where the thing that saves them from a big bad guy in the end is a hurricane caused by global warming.
YES I'm so confused about where this fucking series came from bc I thought the only Maximum Ride books were Where the Wind Blows and The Lake House and then like 7 years after I read those books there's a full series and a manga and a movie????
I've been reading the graphic novel versions drawn by NaRae Lee. I love the artwork, especially on the wings. Wings can be very difficult to draw, and Lee's artwork helps provide good reference for me in drawing winged characters of my series. One little clue even gave me an idea of how to determine wingspans based on height. However, as soon as I heard the original book series took an over-the-top environmental bent, I wanted to tell Patterson to get bent for that. If they adapt it again--let's say animated in the style of the Lee's artwork--they really should just adapt the trilogy and end it there--it'll be a rare instance where a show would be better than the books they're based on.
I've read all the manga volumes so far, and my only problem was that I didn't really like Fang and Max's on and off relationship (honestly I wanted Max and Sam to have more development with each other, but Sam and Lissa were literally just plot devices for the Max and Fang's romance, and that angered me) but... what can you do? It was alright.
The manga is phenomenal! The writing, of course is the weakest part of it. But the character design is so distinct and the art became my main influence.
I like how it was trendy and when I began reading the series, the series just immediately died out. Now I regret to this day ready the fourth and fifth. That's when I stop reading the series because the third was fine.
That sounds like a dream. I read it like a few months ago. I really liked it, and literally nobody has read it. And when they did read it, it was the manga series, which is nothing like the actual novels.
Patterson actually first wrote two books before this, When the Wind Blows and The Lake House, which were also about mutated bird kids made in a place called The School. The main kid was also a blonde girl called Max (Maximum). They're much more adult books with more violence and sex.
Imo when the wind blows and the lake house are much better than regular maximum ride. Mostly because i loved Frannie and Kip. But Max laying eggs at the age of 12 made me so uncomfortable.
@@thomastoolis5301 if I remember about the book correctly (it was years ago when i read it last) she aged or matured quicker due to the genetic testing or smth.
"Therapeutic" is such a great way to describe this video. The Maximum Ride series was the first time as a kid that something I read or watched genuinely disappointed me, and I had never really sat down and looked at the progression like that.
I read the Witch and Wizard manga and it was decent. But I think the only reason I stayed was for the Wisty and Byron's relationship, but even that was kinda rushed.
Witch and Wizard was the book that made me refuse to read any more James Patterson books. I’d read around 4-5 of the Maximum Ride books by that point, but W&W made me realize how little he knew what he was doing, stringing along mysteries for as long as humanly possible and throwing in twists at random because the reader *surely* must care, right? If I remember correctly, W&W’s big climactic scene was completely skipped over and the characters were thrown into a new status quo that wasn’t the least bit justified. It was just. so. BAD.
You brought up memories I had buried since high school, I remember reading the first book and remembering absolutely nothing about it because it was so uninteresting
I remember loving the series and then being burnt out by the later books in middle school and when the last book came out I didn't bother to read it. My friend did and I asked if Dylan died (they weren't very far in the book at that point but I hated him SO MUCH that I would have scrounged up any remaining love for the series and read the book just to see it for myself). They said no so I never read it. In other words, the fourteen-year-old in me is absolutely delighted to hear that he did die after all. Not gonna read it now though because It sounds like I dodged a bullet.
Yes she randomly matures off screen into an asshole, with no through line character development for us to follow and just kinda knows stuff sometimes for some reason.
These books are an absolute TRIP if you read the original pair of adult fiction books (When the Wind Blows and The Lake House) that Patterson wrote about Max, the Flock and the School first.
miyuki kiyoshi yeah, those two books were written first, for the same sort of audience as the Alex Cross series. I read them when I was fourteen or fifteen (my mum was a fan).
"Kind of stupid and kind of cool" summarizes the entire series really well. I love the original trilogy but things definitely went downhill super fast. At this point me and some friends just yoinked the universe of the series to write fanfic about OCs. Tbh we're probably writing better than anything past the final warning
I loved the first three Maximum Ride books as a kid. The Final Warning was absolute garbage and broke my heart as a kiddo. But boy howdy; the problems I found upon rereading are. Hoooo boy we got a problem, Houston. This video was a great nostalgia trip and validation in regards to my many issues in the series. 👍
Reading the comments made me vividly remember the scene where Iggy gains the power to tell what color things are by touching it and they realize when he asks for a certain color cup. And then theres a scene where they're gonna sight see in Washington and someone suggests they go see some monument and "iggy can touch it and feel that it's white". For as crazy as it got, I still can remember so many scenes like that that make me laugh, even typing this is unlocking even more random book scenes I didnt know I remembered
Literally the most random thing that ever happened in the series and it made me scratch my head then and even more now that I'm an adult. Thanks for making me laugh today
@@roamoray I only read the manga as well. I didn't realize that it was based on an actual book series until later and when I tried reading the books, I hated it and stuck to the manga lol I wonder if Narae Lee is ever gonna finish making the manga 🤔
the manga was what got me into drawing five years ago, actually! i would not be the person i am today if it weren't for the manga, even if the original books became the frankensteins of YA fiction
@@thatcrispyperson_arts I think the manga just followed the original three books and then started to do the other six books but only published two volumes after the original trilogy was wrapped up
From what I've heard it seems he comes up with ideas and rough outlines and then has others do the actual writing (which is bs in my opinion especially since his name is the largest).
@@persephone3892 as a writer...that's disgusting. I would feel so used, but also knowing how hard it is to find a good writing job (yay working retail for two years after graduating and for who knows how much longer I'll be stuck in it) I dont blame any of the ghost writers taking such a position because at the very least itd be good for a resume
@@VainVanitas Yeah, many writers must do it to break into the field. Though, being that theyre given a detailed plot and structure, as well as personal training from james pattetson, it must make their writing process easier. If i remember correctly, patterson believes he has the perfect formula, and those that cannot stick to it wont be writing his books.
@@persephone3892 that makes sense for his books but damn is that pretentious as hell. There is no perfect formula for writing my dude get over yourself 😂. But seriously though yeah it's probably a great way to break into the field. Its definitely not somewhere you'd want to stay for long though, ik I wouldn't if I had the opportunity
Maximum Ride was one of the first YA series that I read. I had a ton of fun reading about the Flock, though reading past the original trilogy turned out to be a massive and frankly painful disappointment. Anyway, I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the matter!
I don’t know how I managed to brute strength my way through the post-trilogy books. I remember loving the first 3 books, and I remember convincing myself that I liked the post-trilogy books. I was only deluding myself though. I was really only reading because I felt obligated to finish the series. It wasn’t until I entered high school that I realized how bad those post-trilogy books were.
33:57 Actually, I think this part works. The director is, in no uncertain terms, a eugenicist. She also obviously believes that overpopulation is an issue. By "Save the World", she probably means it in the Thanos way, of "Commit genocide on the 'inferior' people and replace them with the Master Race."
Honestly, this is a book series that started bad and then became one of the worst I've ever read. The Final Warning should _come_ with a warning. The whole thing just feels like Patterson didn't have a plan and was just tossing stuff out at random. I remember laughing when I found out her mom was that Martinez lady. The motherly figure that she literally thinks would be a perfect mother from early in the first book that she met completely randomly. It's like... seriously?
Oh thank god I was wondering if I'd imagined the talking dog. I'm gonna have to reread these, my friends and I loved them when we were in middle school, before we got totally mature and switched to the House of Night books
25:20 Alright, I object. If an abandoned child, clearly being hunted down that you only saw for a brief while and you legitimately liked and cared for showed up again, *alive,* you'd be happy as all hell.
You know, Fang’s blog summoning an army sounds ridiculous, but after witnessing the Area 51 fiasco and The One True Josh Battle, I’ve come to understand that massive groups of people will join together just to shitpost. If a teenager with wings told you to show up and beat up flying werewolves, I guarantee you SOMEONE is gonna show up.
I read almost all of these during middle school. Hated the ending and really most of the later half of the series. I didn't read the 'FINAL" book because "Never More" was the last one at the time. Glad I didn't waste my time.
The series went from "messy but ok," to "someone's half baked crack fic." So many viscerally memories brought back with this video. PERCY JACKSON FOREVER!
man, i was so confused by these books as a kid. i read almost the whole series because the characters themselves were fascinating and i really didn't understand discernment at the time, just read anything i could touch. But there were random elements like clones and androids and global warming that served no real purpose and threw me way off, plus the plot was loose from the beginning, but then it just... disappeared? like, there's postmodernism, and then there's this series. If i had been older, i don't' think it would have been surprising, though. for me, the problems with the rest are logical progressions of the problems of book 1. (Also, the third book's title was cringy but nothing to say about the second one? That was the one that really embarrassed me when i read them XD) Thanks for the in-depth analysis. even listening to it was kind of therapeutic.
Not criticism, just notes I took while watching based on what I remember because I am full of feelings about this series and I am SO glad I found a video into whose comments I might spew a ridiculous amount of internalized nonsense. Warning: this is a LONG comment: 1. Max's name does sound kind of dumb, but keep in mind that she chose it herself as, like, a 12 year old or something, so. Reasonable. 2. You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about the characterization and 3-dimensional nature of the flock- I loved that Patterson didn't go the route of "anyone younger than 16 doesn't know anything and is incapable of making strategic decisions or understanding complex concepts" like so much other fiction does. Obviously they act childish at times because they're children, and don't always make the best decisions, but even the youngest characters show a complex understanding of the world that is developed about appropriately in proportion to their life experiences. The relationships between the members of the flock are so profound and complex yet easy to understand.... ugh they hold this WHOLE series together during the severe plot holes etc. 3. You didn't mention this because it's really not important, and also it's just a flaw in media in general, but I'm going to rant about something that annoyed me for a hot second: there wasn't a single accurate representation of Max's appearance in ANY of the visual adaptations. In the book, Max is incredibly average-looking, with messy (nearly untamable) hair (which might have been brown if I remember correctly. mousy brown, at least until she got dyed platinum in New York during her makeover) and a consistently flawed or average visage, both self described and by others. And it wasn't the kind of ordinary look that a lot of YA novels try to pull off where the main character expounds about how average she is, and yet every male person falls over themselves about her, or she makes some "magnificent transformation" into a beauty queen. Max remains attractive to Fang throughout the series because of WHO SHE IS, even when she is consistently (through the first two books at least) characterized as not being some hot ideal teenage heroine. All the more relatable for YA audiences. Until she turned into a blonde manga hottie and then a model-level actress, which is also what happens after the trilogy so I guess that's the route that visual media took. 4.I know it was a big plot point and an important part of the story that the voice existed, but it was dumb. The whole thing was dumb, not only in the follow-up books; upon re-reading the series, it ended up being one of the things that I wished had been different the most in the original trilogy. Especially the whole 'Jeb controlled the voice' reveal. Sigh. 5. One of the things that was the most profoundly disturbing to me for every wrong reason was Angel's character "arc" in the last few books. Literally what the ever loving fuck. You couldn't pay me (or probably anyone else) to re read Nevermore and Forever, which I had forgotten were actually two separate books because at the time they just blended together into some weird sludge of Oh God Why. 6. Extremely minor note but by the last book weren't Max and Fang 16 or 17? Still bad but not quite so much as if they had been 15 and having a child. Maybe I'm mistaken but I feel like that age switch happened. In conclusion, I am mildly embarrassed to admit that not only did I read every single one of these books as they came out and only slightly lost my enjoyment somewhere around #5, but that after reading the Angel Experiment for the first time in first or second grade, I managed to reread it so many times that it went from shiny brand new to being in complete ruins by middle school. Somewhere in the depths of my dorm room there is a copy of the original first book from only the second or third printing that is in tatters, being held together by scotch tape, string and grease stains. And I am never getting rid of it, even though rereading some of the other books in the series recently made me question all of my life choices. ADDITIONALLY: Through attempting to fact check the claims I made here, I discovered that there is supposedly a soon to be released spinoff series based on Max's daughter, Hawk. May the Gods of consumerism save us all.
@Wacky Heart well, a child with asperger's who latches onto comfort objects- like a book- and then carries it with them literally everywhere (like *everywhere*) can do a lot of damage to that book over the course of about 4-5 years, it would seem... lol. and i really did re read it about 25 times........ sigh
I didn't even read Forever because A. Nevermore was marketed as the last book and B. It left such a bad taste in my mouth I couldn't read the next thing, even after I knew it existed
In 5th grade like half of my class read the original trilogy. There weren't enough characters for us all to play so we all just made up characters and created our own flock. It was so fun and probably the reason I love storytelling so much, honestly.
I have officially decided to do a fan continuation of maximum ride! I will give it a proper ending or so help me! Yes. I will retcon things and add a few characters. I want to spice things up and make them interesting. The sickness will be kinda retconned so it don't effect recombinates, so I can have room for characters off the island. Comrades! We must do this! Please support me in this! Edit: also retconning the last book entirely. That's where my patients stops. I can fix up everything before that point with smart writing. The last book I cannot.
Oh my God I read the first book as a kid and I was sooo upset I couldn't find the second one anywhere. I don't even know if it was ever translated into Slovak; I only became fluent in English by the end of my high school years and I was long past giving a damn about these books by then. Heck, I didn't even KNOW there were more of those at the time! So I am pretty excited to see someone talk about them.
I’d love to see one of these on other series that didn’t quite stick the landing. Examples that come to mind are the Inkheart Trilogy and the Artemis Fowl series, which has a movie coming out soon.
Honestly Inkheart and Inkspell were so interesting when I was younger. Like there was a ton of potential for the series. I never watched the Brendan Fraiser movie but I really wanted to read Ink Death but never did bc of the bad reviews. Same with Eragon's Inheritance book.
oh my god inkdeath... i remember waiting for years for that book to come out and then for it to be such a disappointment... inkheart was so important to me too...
Gutza1 I remember I loved 39 clues but looking back on it, the plot is kinda ridiculous. I mean really, pretty much every influential person in history is part of one family? It was fun to read for me and a lot of kids who were my age when it came out, but now I realize how stupid it really was.
@@stardust1815 during a part in one of the original books the russian chick even recollects that: Cahills don't see international boundaries only branches. Or something along those lines. What that tells me is that in that universe elections are useless because a secret family controls everything and starts wars with itself. It's like if all of history was like the makeup of the world superpowers during world war1.
The second they introduced the love triangle the books lost all appeal to me. I was such a huge fan of this series as a teen and they just killed it instantly, it was so cringe.
Are you familiar with Tui T Sutherland’s ‘Wings of Fire’ series? It follows a group of dragons who are part of a prophecy that (*SPOILERS*) isn’t real. Kind of cheesy sounding, but looking back it is actually pretty well written. Edit: I bring it up because the dynamic of the flock in the earlier books reminds me of the characters in the wings of fire series.
I really like that series. My favorite character is Moon, and my favorite villian, so far, is Darkstalker. He made me think of a Dark Side version of Luke Skywalker.
Mega props for the in-depth analysis! I agree with basically everything about this, which hurts since I originally loved this series when I was younger.
The Maximum Ride trilogy makes up a good part of my standards for YA romance books: keep it consentual, minor to the plot, yet relevant to the themes of the book.
I remember me and my best friend loved reading the manga and were so excited when we our local library got a new addition of it. The novels were good too I think for me I felt such a connection to the series because of the art in the manga though. After the 4th book, it really took a wild turn, but oh well at least there's still good in the first 3
I think that the best book series i read as a kid were the zombie apocalypse (i think they are called 'the hunted' or 'the fear series's by Charlie Higson. The series incorporated realism, death, gore, drama, sadness (especially that as one of the main plot points of the series is that all the adults are dead, that means the parents too) and comradeship. They were a really great series and actually made the zombies intresting and horrifying (and smart). Overall the books are great, and i would recommend to read them.
sauceboss holy shit enemy went so hard. It was actual fucking horror. The kid guarding the compound getting mauled. I don’t remember much but it messed me up
to be fair it's conceptually hilarious to try and cash in on the teen-romance-love-triangle ya craze by introducing a literal lab-grown boyfriend for the main girl and naming him "dylan"
About 40 minutes in I temporarily forgot what erasers are so I was like “Why is this guy threatening them with erasers?” Also didn’t Dylan have magical singing powers or something stupid?
Coming in 2020: James Patterson presents: Hawk the definitley absolutely for sure ending this time guys (unless you buy it, in which case he will write more)
Wow when I was in like 4th-5th grade I loved these books. I read all the way up to Nevermore and then stopped because I just couldn't get into Maximum Ride Forever. I actually liked them a lot up until the introduction of Dylan and the love triangle- that's when (for me) it all fell to shit. One thing I kind of picked up on was that Max was kind of an unreliable narrator, at least to some degree. I always thought that way more time had taken place than the characters thought, and that by the end they were a lot older than they said they were. I mean, they set their own birthdays and there's no way the evens of all nine of these books took place over the course of 1-2 years- but those were just my thoughts. I really liked this review- I definitely agree with a lot of the criticism and now I kind of want to go back and read them just to see how much more I pick up in comparison to when I was younger. Did you ever try any of Patterson's other YA books? I read a few of the Witch and Wizard books and then the first two of that murder mystery series, but I didn't think either were particularly good.
I gotta admit that crazy long series like these are kinda great from my perspective as a middle school teacher. Kids often LOVE graphic novels so they frequently start off with these books and then just end up reading the rest of the novel forms. It’s a pretty good way to get reluctant readers (boys and girls) to actually read!
james patterson is good for elementery and middle schoolers, as i got older i started to really see the similarities between my edgy teen roleplay phase and his writing
fun fact, Maximum Ride Forever is NOT the last book. He's got a new series called Hawk, about Max's daughter. (tho this video was released before the first hawk book came out)
He should eventually talk about the Daniel X series. I’ve heard nobody review or even talk about it on RUclips, and I remember it being (possibly) half-decent.
Yeah, I got up to the Telepathic Horse Teacher and then dropped the series at that. Also, the first or second book features a villain that seduces *yes* SEDUCES the underage protagonist by pretending to be a teenager girl. Yikes all around.
I'm weird everything I've read I forget, I read all of the original Percy Jackson almost religiously and a few of the newer books but, I've almost forgot everything. My memory is terrible but I'm only just in my mid to late teens so maybe it'll get better in time but, I seriously can't remember much from my reading years besides reading a diary of the wimpy kid in a single sitting. Even with Jurassic Park I only remember a few ending parts and the beginning couple of chapters. I guess I've never truly read them properly?
Meh. I devour books. I don't remember the stuff, either. However, if you were to pick it up by accident, again, not knowing you read it already, little pieces in the beginning would slowly bring back future pieces of the books, and then you would realize you have already read it - Damn! This is what happens to me with some fanfics. Some can be very similar to others, and I have read so many that sometimes I'll read a description and think, "Wow, that sounds awesome. Lemme read." Then I'll be like one to three chapters in or something and realize I've already read it. I also don't remember the details of movies I've only seen once, years later. That's just how the human memory works. Unless you have reason to recall something, the synapses won't connect, and you'll eventually lose that memory. If you, however, randomly decide throughout the year following your reading to recall plot points, you'll probably recall those plot points much more in the future, because, mentally, the work has been done to "establish" those memories.
I listened to the whole thing while walking, (it actually goes very smoothly, didn't even see that I'd listened to it all!) And I wanted to thank you for the passion and insight you put in your vids. It also made me remember of the time when I read these, back in middle school, Auri's death (not really sure of the English spelling) wrought a few tears back in the day~ I had only read the first trilogy tho, never even knew there were other books at the time, but since I was a little reading machine I didn't really care enough then, and even less now...
@@michaelmcnally4557 that was actually one of the reasons why I enjoyed the series. Not the whole depression part, I enjoyed how the books kinda grew up with you as they came out. Slowly shifting to a darker tone or showing how violence wasn't always the answer and etc.
I only read the manga version of maximum ride and my school only had the first 4 volumes and then like the 7th and when I read the 7th I was so confused and literally I got so mad when I read the "oh it was all a dream and angel is evil??" twist and I never picked up maximum ride again 😭middle school me was betrayed and didnt read further to figure out what actually happened thank you for unlocking these memories 🙏
I really really wish that the rest of the books went as well as the first few. I loved these books so so much and the story had so much potential. It’s like, why? What happened? It was going so well. After reading the rest of the books, I stopped reading for a while lol. But I can’t resist going back to the beginning of these books every year.
I knew nothing about this book series before this video but even I'm completely dumbfounded that at the beginning the trilogy was about the horrors of unchecked genentic experiments and the value of family and suddenly turned it into a Captain Planet episode.
i’m actually mind blown rn because after years of this series not even crossing my mind, i remembered this series a couple days ago, but just could not remember the name. lo and behold, this shows up in my yt suggestions. this just made my whole week.
Ah yes, the series I loved and then hated, reading to the bitter end out of a desire for closure. I got so mad at Patterson doing commercials for Angel with an emphasis of "It all ends with Angel" and then end with a fucking cliff hanger. I have never felt so betrayed.
You sir, have showed me that even though I have fond memories of Maximum Ride, I remember nothing about Maximun Ride.
My god same. I'm reading these comments like, "THERE WAS A TALKING DOG?"
Wow if a book has a talking dog and people who read it didnt know, thats really bad on the aurther and the series
I remember they had wings
Same! I had forgotten the talking dog and the voice in Max's head. Also I don't remember that ever being explained.
Flying Tacooo I remember the talking dog....in the Manwha adaptation (it was adapted by Na Rae Lee who’s Korean)
"He's dead, HE'S ALIVE, he's dead, HE'S ALIVE, he's dead, HE'S ALIVE, he's dead..."
Lady Marmalade fang? 🤣 yeah I read a lot of these books
Yeah that's my boy
This is why I never finished the series when I was younger. When Ari came back the like 4th time I got angry because everything felt pointless.
I haven't watched the video yet but I know exactly who this is about.
Dragonball?
can't believe that you didn't mention the talking dog getting married to totally normal dog
smh
Dex Tra that was the most wholesome thing in the books!
@@sugarm1860 and it all stemmed from a character that was utterly pointless comic relief.
Joseph Allan He may have been pointless but don't hate the characters because the story sucked
@@allmyfandomsaredead8348 Oh I don't hate him because the book Fang sucked. I hate him because he is annoying, unfunny and has no relevance to the plot what so ever. In no story does he do anything that help our characters stories or progress the plot. If he were cut from the story, nothing would be lost. He is there for comic relief that is at best unfunny and at worse annoying as hell. He is is worse than Jar-Jar Binks.
Joseph Allan Alright, well opinions are opinions I guess
You didnt mention that they all start developing random powers out of no where for like no reason and angel is like a cringy rp oc
A defining moment of my understanding of literature was when I read the one where Angel randomly shapeshifts, like grows feathers all over her face or something, then NEVER DOES IT AGAIN. IT'S NEVER MENTIONED. I was like... 15, maybe younger, and I put the book down at the end and said 'this was a bad book'. That was when I broke into looking at what I read critically, because these books that I loved at first became SO BAD that they made me realise it wasn't just a case of 'i like/ i dislike' and that knowledge of what was critically good or bad wasn't some arcane adult ability 😂
Yeah, like the weird gills that let them breathe underwater. How does that even link to bird mutants?
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/MaximumRide ALLLL OF THIS FAM
@@user-kt3zv1cm5j or when max got super speed and then used it like once
edit, more like a biological warp drive but you get the point
@Mrytle Romilly Telepathy is science fiction. If we are gonna question telepathy existing in this book, we need to question it in every other series and medium that has it. And honestly, I don't mind Angel getting powers out of nowhere because she was the youngest of the flock, meaning she was the most recent experiment which can translate to the most advanced powers. On top of that, she was taken out of the School at an early age, only about 2, her not knowing about all her abilities could be a result of them not having a chance to test them out. Its only u til the Final Warning where I start to call bullshit because they clearly establish in that book that its all just developing mutations out of nowhere.
I vaguely remember a scene where they're at a restaurant and they think people suspect them or something and so they just...fucking smash through the ceiling and fly away?
lmaooo yeah I ALSO remember that! It wasn't even suspicion, I think Max threw water on a waiter or something and then they just flew into the ceiling
@@chailatte1234 They had ordered an assload of food and the manager was like "yeah what the fuck, you can't order that much" (?????? the money that theyd get??? do they not have boxes to take home????) and the waiter was apaprently a jerk, so max splashed water on him and they U&A'd.
NikLRose ty for the summary, i’ve completely forgotten most of the details lol. Such a weird scene lmaoo
@@its_nikkits I think it was also just way too nice a place for a bunch of teenagers without any adult supervision and wearing dirty street clothes to be at (I want to say one of them ordered pheasant?). If I was that manager, I'd fully expect to be stiffed on a huge bill.
@@its_nikkits I thought that the scene happened before they knew what money was. They didn't know that you had to pay for stuff, so they ditched when the bill came.
I... vaguely remember the talking dog sprouting wings??
Yup. That happened. I remember it all to clearly.
I literally just remember him whining about a graze wound lol
@@princewithadiycrown how lucky
Oh my god, I forgot about the talking dog but this comment brought it all back
@@jequirity1 im glad i didnt know about the books after the third
I remember writing a book report on one of the latter books in middle school. I forgot the exact wording, but 12 year old me was fucking savage, describing it as something along the lines of "the tone is as consistent as a chameleon at a pride parade"
LMFAO
Damn, that really is savage lmao
Omg props to your middle school self 👏🏻😂
@@UlixesStolatus someone in my school wrote a death threat in a book report, this is tame. very clever, but tame
that’s fucking genius
The only thing this series left me with was an undying love for Iggy
Right? Iggy was my boy back then and I love him to this day.
Okay, yes, Iggy is amazing but Gazzy is my child.
The series left with a dying urge for the 10th book in the manga
@@minedude33 saame
Lmao I remembered nothing about these books except best boy Iggy
I'm glad I never had to read the teen pregnancy bit myself. Stopping after book 3 is definitely ideal with this series.
Iam Cleaver I think he just means that the teen pregnancy part was shock value for the sake of shock value...kind of like Ari dying and coming back over and over...or Angel being evil and trying to take over the Flock...or everything else in this series after book three...
(Not that the first three were particularly good, but at least they were thrillers, not soap operas pretending to be thrillers like the later books).
Iam Cleaver This is a good point!
I stopped after they started to really mess with Angel’s character
I’m still shocked looking back at the fact that I read all of these books and remember none of them 😂 I didn’t stop for some random reason
@American Vagabond Super late response to an old video... But yeah! I was beginning to think that I was the only one who ever read those books! That scene really disturbed me when I read it. Not only was she 12, but she did it with a 10 year old! WHILE her little brother was watching from the Bushes! Then she of course gets pregnant from it.... I am kinda thinking it's james patterson's kink or something at this point.
Iggy was literally the best character
im pretty sure this isnt that book lol i thought he same ths one isnt bc the other is by Nara Lee
He was.
Investigator: "and you werent born blind?"
Iggy: "no, I looked at the sun to long. If only I had listened"
i was 100% only reading for iggy past the og trilogy
so true
I had the biggest crush on him when I was a kid I remember reading the other books just to see what happened to him (they kept hinting he’d get his sight back and then he didn’t)
James Patterson be like:
oh yeah, Max is blonde.
Whoops, never mind, she had brown hair
Oh yeah, Brigid is blonde.
NEVER MIND, AGAIN, she has red hair just so Max can get peeved.
Yeah, Ari has died like eight different times.
Max falls in love with a kid named Dylan who seems to be around Max's age, but is just eight months old.
oh, sorry, Max, but Fang died. But an adrenaline shot to the heart should do the trick!
Angel died but not really.
Angel is blind for two seconds
um, sorry, your mom and sister just drowned, LOL.
oh no! Fang dies AGAIN.
Oh, I'm pregnant at fifteen and the dad is dead bUt ThAt'S nO pRoBlEm
Oh, wow! Thanks Dylan! You saved Fang- and you're dead...
yay I have a child and everything IS A-OKAY :D
Ugh, I pretend that the pregnant thing never happened.
@@pyroshayniac1090 Yeah. Like, how did she not freak out??
@@pyroshayniac1090 I mean, I was surprised at first, but considering the fact over half of humanity was wiped out, the survivors should start having children to just like start building back up civilization.
The having a kid thing seems to be ripped straight from When The Wind Blows and The Lake House. In The Lake House, proto Max and Ozymandias (proto fang) have kids but they're like, twelve. James patterson insists that the two book series' are not contiguous to each other, but I think that he decided to rip ideas from his previous book series to the new one. Btw WTWB and TLH are pretty good books and have a more adult slant to them.
Cannon max will always be Latina with dark brown hair and blonde streaks
Oh my god she for real had a kid and named her Phoenix?!? That’s a completely bizarre conclusion for a young woman who is not even an older teen and never given the opportunity to be a kid much less actually be a mother. Sure she was a good older sister figure and always saw herself as a mother figure to Angel but it only showed how she was just a kid and not equipped yet to be a mom. I just don’t see how having a baby at 15 in an apocalyptic scenario is at all satisfying or to be seen as a good thing at all.
I mean.... Over half of humanity is wiped out..
Mrytle Romilly completely agreed. She just want to be a leader
I don't necessarily see it as a good thing, but I *do* see it as being normal. In fact, it's MORE likely, considering she didn't have a childhood and was forced to grow up too quickly. She was never taught about how to safely have a relationship or how to prevent pregnancy.... There's a ton of different reasons why she'd have a kid, and all of them are reasonable. The problem becomes when it isn't explored as a part of a deeply flawed teen that's dealing with a tragic lot in life and adding on responsibility onto everything.
The baby came out of nowhere, i see a lot of people say it makes sense for them to rebuild hamanity but no they were 15. I would rather the ending just be them having a break for once in theyre lives
@Mrytle Romilly I mean, it wasnt "some guy" her and Fang (the dad) had like a whole book where they were on their own separated from the group. Is it really all that surprising that after his resurrection (basically) two teenagers who saw each other as their soulmates banged at least once?
At least the Iggy of this story is alive and didn't die horribly in Egypt.
I was waiting for someone to make a jojo reference lmfao💀
wa wa wa wawawawaaaaaaaaaaa
Another JoJo reference?
*yare yare daze...*
iggy became a birb boi in another life
Waiting for this
All I got was that this series worked better as a comic book.
You're not wrong, I've only read the manga (didnt read the last manga yet)
Eh, probably, but the manga left a lot out and kinda tore apart the family dynamic
i’ve only read the manga and i think it was pretty good :)
@@missimperfectlyfine7 your just casually replying to a comment from 1 year ago
@@koolaidmansam8yearsago273yeah that’s so weird
Oh wow I just got such a whiplash because I loved these in middle school and then I completely forgot about them
literally me every time I rearrange my bookshelf. I'll come across a ton of garbage I bought and read and was like, really, younger me, you liked this enough to keep it? lol.
I remember how at some point the message completely flips from “it’s bad to do human experiments” to “only the human experiments will survive” and I was like bruh
Holy shit, THAT was Selena Gomez?!
I...I need to go home and rethink my life.
you want some deathsticks?
*You don’t want to sell me deathsticks*
@@samf5988 ah starwars you are truly everywhere
The more you know
Maximum Ride Forever: “Thats it. That’s the end this time”
Hawk standing in the background; ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT
My personal rule: James Patterson is in it for the money and literally nothing else, and reading him will only result in disappointment. So this here will be the first I've ever seen of anything inside the jacket of Maximum Ride.
I honestly think Ari's character was fine. The major thing to keep in mind with this character is that he is 7 years old with a neglectful father, and he most likely sees Max as something like a hero in a kid's Saturday morning cartoon. Not to mention like a potential older sister
I actually skipped MAX by accident and I barely noticed.
At least I can genuinely say that "The Manga is better."
i only read the manga in middle school but i didnt read the last one and now im thinking about it now :/
The manga left out the self-harm scene which I'll be honest, I liked seeing from Ari because it was an interesting look at his character, but I can very much understand them not adding that in for the sake of the audience.
I've only read the manga and so far its good
"My son is your brother!"
"..."
"I'm your father!"
"!!!"
Half brother but yes
my sister's cousin's husband's dad' grand-niece's niece in law, YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER
What I don't get is how they hide their wings so easily, aren't Fang's and Max's like fifteen feet long?
I thought they kind of folded into some skin-flap hammerspace thing.
@@ShibuNub3305 iirc they just fold neatly along their back which even to 13 year old me made *no* sense.
I know in one book they wear bulky windbreakers to hide them but I dont think they're ever mentioned again lol
The newest book, Hawk, mentioned something about them having an extra joint, but I'm don't think even that would allow them to fit under a windbreaker so easily.
Maybe its like peacocks feathers
I always hated the end of the series because when the apocalypse randomly occurs Max is all like "Ha! With all our powers we'll survive more easily than the evil scientists who made us, the jerks" like they weren't trying to fight against them for that very reason. It's dumb.
I got all the way to nevermore. and I was angry beyond belief when it was revealed that *angel was the voice in Max's head*
the voice told max what the password for the credit card was!!!
how the hell did angel know thatt!!!!!
.....you're serious??
@@JoyEmpress yep.
Oh my god. Well, glad I didn't bother buying these books past book 3, I'd been mooching the other copies until Nevermore and at that point I was burnt out and kinda miffed. I'm still pissed, I loved Angel in the first 2 books
Was that really only revealed until Nevermore? I don’t know why I remember that being revealed much earlier in the series
@@TheNOPEland I think it was in nevermore cause I remember having the back of the book listing the top 10 questions that would be answered in the book, one of which being who the voice in max's head is
I remember it perfectly well. The series dropped like a brick in the fourth book.
I have yet to read the last book. I just lost interest. Almost forgot about it til I saw a commercial for Angel.
Yeah the one whose whole message was "climate changebad". Where the thing that saves them from a big bad guy in the end is a hurricane caused by global warming.
Yeah Maximum Ride was a great trilogy. Lol
Either the fourth or the fith book, the last one I read, felt so much like a complete rehash of the first book, I couldn't finish it.
I read all the way to Nevermore but by that point I really had no idea what was going on or who I was supposed to care about. It was baffling.
James: I’m uncomfortable with 15 year olds having kids.
Me: Don’t read The Lake House.
Oh no now THAT'S a repressed memory I didn't want
Cradle And All, too.
Right, that's the one I was thinking of. Read that one, not the maximum ride was thinking 'the book with all the weird sex stuff was for kids'
Why would you do that to meeee
YES I'm so confused about where this fucking series came from bc I thought the only Maximum Ride books were Where the Wind Blows and The Lake House and then like 7 years after I read those books there's a full series and a manga and a movie????
I've been reading the graphic novel versions drawn by NaRae Lee. I love the artwork, especially on the wings. Wings can be very difficult to draw, and Lee's artwork helps provide good reference for me in drawing winged characters of my series. One little clue even gave me an idea of how to determine wingspans based on height. However, as soon as I heard the original book series took an over-the-top environmental bent, I wanted to tell Patterson to get bent for that. If they adapt it again--let's say animated in the style of the Lee's artwork--they really should just adapt the trilogy and end it there--it'll be a rare instance where a show would be better than the books they're based on.
I've read all the manga volumes so far, and my only problem was that I didn't really like Fang and Max's on and off relationship (honestly I wanted Max and Sam to have more development with each other, but Sam and Lissa were literally just plot devices for the Max and Fang's romance, and that angered me) but... what can you do? It was alright.
Also, the plot things I didn't like was all Patterson. The art was very pretty, I liked how Lee did it.
The manga is phenomenal! The writing, of course is the weakest part of it. But the character design is so distinct and the art became my main influence.
the manga was amazing, but what messed me up was that fang had....long hair. it didnt suit him right
Honestly that's the only reason I even know about Maximum Ride in the first place.
Damn, I'd completely forgotten about this series. It was huge in my area with middle schoolers for a year or two.
I like how it was trendy and when I began reading the series, the series just immediately died out.
Now I regret to this day ready the fourth and fifth. That's when I stop reading the series because the third was fine.
That sounds like a dream. I read it like a few months ago. I really liked it, and literally nobody has read it. And when they did read it, it was the manga series, which is nothing like the actual novels.
oh yeah my school just liked the manga
@@berklannd I thought the manga was almost the exact same storyline?
Patterson actually first wrote two books before this, When the Wind Blows and The Lake House, which were also about mutated bird kids made in a place called The School. The main kid was also a blonde girl called Max (Maximum). They're much more adult books with more violence and sex.
Imo when the wind blows and the lake house are much better than regular maximum ride. Mostly because i loved Frannie and Kip. But Max laying eggs at the age of 12 made me so uncomfortable.
Just started watching the video. does he seriously not mention those at all?
Nope
@@PapaMeese6170 I’m sorry, WHAT.
@@thomastoolis5301 if I remember about the book correctly (it was years ago when i read it last) she aged or matured quicker due to the genetic testing or smth.
this just reaffirmed that my middle school years were a fever dream.
My whole life has been a fever dream.
"Therapeutic" is such a great way to describe this video. The Maximum Ride series was the first time as a kid that something I read or watched genuinely disappointed me, and I had never really sat down and looked at the progression like that.
I stopped reading after Fang too. I just really hated Dylan
Also Patterson's Witch and Wizard series was vapid garbage
I read the Witch and Wizard manga and it was decent. But I think the only reason I stayed was for the Wisty and Byron's relationship, but even that was kinda rushed.
Witch and Wizard was the book that made me refuse to read any more James Patterson books. I’d read around 4-5 of the Maximum Ride books by that point, but W&W made me realize how little he knew what he was doing, stringing along mysteries for as long as humanly possible and throwing in twists at random because the reader *surely* must care, right? If I remember correctly, W&W’s big climactic scene was completely skipped over and the characters were thrown into a new status quo that wasn’t the least bit justified. It was just. so. BAD.
Witch and wizard gave me mental whiplash, I already knew I didn’t like James Paterson’s writing style w&w made me realize I hated it.
@@andreamarvin9817
I liked the quick pacing and action pact sequences of the early Maximum Ride books but daym do they loose momentum fast
You brought up memories I had buried since high school, I remember reading the first book and remembering absolutely nothing about it because it was so uninteresting
I remember loving the series and then being burnt out by the later books in middle school and when the last book came out I didn't bother to read it. My friend did and I asked if Dylan died (they weren't very far in the book at that point but I hated him SO MUCH that I would have scrounged up any remaining love for the series and read the book just to see it for myself). They said no so I never read it. In other words, the fourteen-year-old in me is absolutely delighted to hear that he did die after all. Not gonna read it now though because It sounds like I dodged a bullet.
I can't have been the only one who hated Angel right?
I did like everyone else though
I was thinking about the book not the character, I was thinking isn’t the point of this video that Angel is super shit
Yes she randomly matures off screen into an asshole, with no through line character development for us to follow and just kinda knows stuff sometimes for some reason.
I hated when they tried to make Angel a villain
I was indifferent to Angel but HATED Fang with a passion. he was so broody and boring!
These books are an absolute TRIP if you read the original pair of adult fiction books (When the Wind Blows and The Lake House) that Patterson wrote about Max, the Flock and the School first.
I’m sorry the WHAT!?!
miyuki kiyoshi yeah, those two books were written first, for the same sort of audience as the Alex Cross series. I read them when I was fourteen or fifteen (my mum was a fan).
Thanks for the recommendations!!
"Kind of stupid and kind of cool" summarizes the entire series really well. I love the original trilogy but things definitely went downhill super fast. At this point me and some friends just yoinked the universe of the series to write fanfic about OCs. Tbh we're probably writing better than anything past the final warning
Hit us with the links, my dude
Tell us where to find it bro
@@keyboardstalker4784 most bookstores, or use a library
Nah they meant your fanfic we wanna read them dude
@@thesetwofloofs5397 ah my bad, my fics are all on Ao3 under the username No1fan15
I loved the first three Maximum Ride books as a kid. The Final Warning was absolute garbage and broke my heart as a kiddo.
But boy howdy; the problems I found upon rereading are. Hoooo boy we got a problem, Houston. This video was a great nostalgia trip and validation in regards to my many issues in the series. 👍
The final warning summoned up: Global Warming Bad.
Reading the comments made me vividly remember the scene where Iggy gains the power to tell what color things are by touching it and they realize when he asks for a certain color cup. And then theres a scene where they're gonna sight see in Washington and someone suggests they go see some monument and "iggy can touch it and feel that it's white". For as crazy as it got, I still can remember so many scenes like that that make me laugh, even typing this is unlocking even more random book scenes I didnt know I remembered
hey guys remember when mr. chu (one of the villains) turned out to be a lizard child in a skin suit named robert and it was never mentioned again lol
Literally the most random thing that ever happened in the series and it made me scratch my head then and even more now that I'm an adult. Thanks for making me laugh today
the manga series by narae lee was better than the books dont @ me
Big agree
i only read the manga tbh
@@roamoray I only read the manga as well. I didn't realize that it was based on an actual book series until later and when I tried reading the books, I hated it and stuck to the manga lol I wonder if Narae Lee is ever gonna finish making the manga 🤔
Correct
the manga was what got me into drawing five years ago, actually! i would not be the person i am today if it weren't for the manga, even if the original books became the frankensteins of YA fiction
God this was a ... ride, a pretty big one. One might say it was the maximum ride
I read the entire manga series, which got me into reading the novels. Thank god it ended because it got cheesy and dumb.
so the manga is done?
I think so. There haven't been new volumes for a while.
@@milestrombley1466 thanks
the manga got me into actual manga and anime which has been going better than the uh...downfall of a series the maximum ride manga is based on
@@thatcrispyperson_arts I think the manga just followed the original three books and then started to do the other six books but only published two volumes after the original trilogy was wrapped up
Doesnt james patterson hire (basically) ghost writers? At least for most newer books ive heard
From what I've heard it seems he comes up with ideas and rough outlines and then has others do the actual writing (which is bs in my opinion especially since his name is the largest).
@@GrinMonister yeah i looked it up and he literally refers to his writing business as a "factory"
Lol
@@persephone3892 as a writer...that's disgusting. I would feel so used, but also knowing how hard it is to find a good writing job (yay working retail for two years after graduating and for who knows how much longer I'll be stuck in it) I dont blame any of the ghost writers taking such a position because at the very least itd be good for a resume
@@VainVanitas Yeah, many writers must do it to break into the field. Though, being that theyre given a detailed plot and structure, as well as personal training from james pattetson, it must make their writing process easier. If i remember correctly, patterson believes he has the perfect formula, and those that cannot stick to it wont be writing his books.
@@persephone3892 that makes sense for his books but damn is that pretentious as hell. There is no perfect formula for writing my dude get over yourself 😂. But seriously though yeah it's probably a great way to break into the field. Its definitely not somewhere you'd want to stay for long though, ik I wouldn't if I had the opportunity
Maximum Ride was one of the first YA series that I read. I had a ton of fun reading about the Flock, though reading past the original trilogy turned out to be a massive and frankly painful disappointment. Anyway, I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the matter!
I don’t know how I managed to brute strength my way through the post-trilogy books.
I remember loving the first 3 books, and I remember convincing myself that I liked the post-trilogy books. I was only deluding myself though. I was really only reading because I felt obligated to finish the series. It wasn’t until I entered high school that I realized how bad those post-trilogy books were.
33:57
Actually, I think this part works.
The director is, in no uncertain terms, a eugenicist. She also obviously believes that overpopulation is an issue.
By "Save the World", she probably means it in the Thanos way, of "Commit genocide on the 'inferior' people and replace them with the Master Race."
Honestly, this is a book series that started bad and then became one of the worst I've ever read. The Final Warning should _come_ with a warning. The whole thing just feels like Patterson didn't have a plan and was just tossing stuff out at random.
I remember laughing when I found out her mom was that Martinez lady. The motherly figure that she literally thinks would be a perfect mother from early in the first book that she met completely randomly. It's like... seriously?
Oh thank god I was wondering if I'd imagined the talking dog. I'm gonna have to reread these, my friends and I loved them when we were in middle school, before we got totally mature and switched to the House of Night books
The series almost seemed like a really long fanfiction with a mashup of OCs and genres.
I think the writing team trolled message boards and fan fiction for content ideas.
Honestly, Izzy, Nudge, and Gazzy are what kept me going reading this series.
25:20
Alright, I object.
If an abandoned child, clearly being hunted down that you only saw for a brief while and you legitimately liked and cared for showed up again, *alive,* you'd be happy as all hell.
You know, Fang’s blog summoning an army sounds ridiculous, but after witnessing the Area 51 fiasco and The One True Josh Battle, I’ve come to understand that massive groups of people will join together just to shitpost.
If a teenager with wings told you to show up and beat up flying werewolves, I guarantee you SOMEONE is gonna show up.
I used to love this series.
Back when I was 12.
Aloemancer yeah it’s a fucking teen novel. Get off your high horse
I read almost all of these during middle school. Hated the ending and really most of the later half of the series. I didn't read the 'FINAL" book because "Never More" was the last one at the time. Glad I didn't waste my time.
I think that two different people wrote the two separate parts of the books. One person wrote the first three, and another person wrote 4-9.
The series went from "messy but ok," to "someone's half baked crack fic."
So many viscerally memories brought back with this video. PERCY JACKSON FOREVER!
man, i was so confused by these books as a kid. i read almost the whole series because the characters themselves were fascinating and i really didn't understand discernment at the time, just read anything i could touch. But there were random elements like clones and androids and global warming that served no real purpose and threw me way off, plus the plot was loose from the beginning, but then it just... disappeared? like, there's postmodernism, and then there's this series. If i had been older, i don't' think it would have been surprising, though. for me, the problems with the rest are logical progressions of the problems of book 1.
(Also, the third book's title was cringy but nothing to say about the second one? That was the one that really embarrassed me when i read them XD)
Thanks for the in-depth analysis. even listening to it was kind of therapeutic.
Not criticism, just notes I took while watching based on what I remember because I am full of feelings about this series and I am SO glad I found a video into whose comments I might spew a ridiculous amount of internalized nonsense. Warning: this is a LONG comment:
1. Max's name does sound kind of dumb, but keep in mind that she chose it herself as, like, a 12 year old or something, so. Reasonable.
2. You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about the characterization and 3-dimensional nature of the flock- I loved that Patterson didn't go the route of "anyone younger than 16 doesn't know anything and is incapable of making strategic decisions or understanding complex concepts" like so much other fiction does. Obviously they act childish at times because they're children, and don't always make the best decisions, but even the youngest characters show a complex understanding of the world that is developed about appropriately in proportion to their life experiences. The relationships between the members of the flock are so profound and complex yet easy to understand.... ugh they hold this WHOLE series together during the severe plot holes etc.
3. You didn't mention this because it's really not important, and also it's just a flaw in media in general, but I'm going to rant about something that annoyed me for a hot second: there wasn't a single accurate representation of Max's appearance in ANY of the visual adaptations. In the book, Max is incredibly average-looking, with messy (nearly untamable) hair (which might have been brown if I remember correctly. mousy brown, at least until she got dyed platinum in New York during her makeover) and a consistently flawed or average visage, both self described and by others. And it wasn't the kind of ordinary look that a lot of YA novels try to pull off where the main character expounds about how average she is, and yet every male person falls over themselves about her, or she makes some "magnificent transformation" into a beauty queen. Max remains attractive to Fang throughout the series because of WHO SHE IS, even when she is consistently (through the first two books at least) characterized as not being some hot ideal teenage heroine. All the more relatable for YA audiences. Until she turned into a blonde manga hottie and then a model-level actress, which is also what happens after the trilogy so I guess that's the route that visual media took.
4.I know it was a big plot point and an important part of the story that the voice existed, but it was dumb. The whole thing was dumb, not only in the follow-up books; upon re-reading the series, it ended up being one of the things that I wished had been different the most in the original trilogy. Especially the whole 'Jeb controlled the voice' reveal. Sigh.
5. One of the things that was the most profoundly disturbing to me for every wrong reason was Angel's character "arc" in the last few books. Literally what the ever loving fuck. You couldn't pay me (or probably anyone else) to re read Nevermore and Forever, which I had forgotten were actually two separate books because at the time they just blended together into some weird sludge of Oh God Why.
6. Extremely minor note but by the last book weren't Max and Fang 16 or 17? Still bad but not quite so much as if they had been 15 and having a child. Maybe I'm mistaken but I feel like that age switch happened.
In conclusion, I am mildly embarrassed to admit that not only did I read every single one of these books as they came out and only slightly lost my enjoyment somewhere around #5, but that after reading the Angel Experiment for the first time in first or second grade, I managed to reread it so many times that it went from shiny brand new to being in complete ruins by middle school. Somewhere in the depths of my dorm room there is a copy of the original first book from only the second or third printing that is in tatters, being held together by scotch tape, string and grease stains.
And I am never getting rid of it, even though rereading some of the other books in the series recently made me question all of my life choices.
ADDITIONALLY: Through attempting to fact check the claims I made here, I discovered that there is supposedly a soon to be released spinoff series based on Max's daughter, Hawk. May the Gods of consumerism save us all.
@Wacky Heart well, a child with asperger's who latches onto comfort objects- like a book- and then carries it with them literally everywhere (like *everywhere*) can do a lot of damage to that book over the course of about 4-5 years, it would seem... lol. and i really did re read it about 25 times........ sigh
I didn't even read Forever because A. Nevermore was marketed as the last book and B. It left such a bad taste in my mouth I couldn't read the next thing, even after I knew it existed
what the fuck? i never knew forever and hawk existed. This is agonizing.
In 5th grade like half of my class read the original trilogy. There weren't enough characters for us all to play so we all just made up characters and created our own flock. It was so fun and probably the reason I love storytelling so much, honestly.
I have officially decided to do a fan continuation of maximum ride! I will give it a proper ending or so help me!
Yes. I will retcon things and add a few characters. I want to spice things up and make them interesting. The sickness will be kinda retconned so it don't effect recombinates, so I can have room for characters off the island.
Comrades! We must do this! Please support me in this!
Edit: also retconning the last book entirely. That's where my patients stops. I can fix up everything before that point with smart writing. The last book I cannot.
That sounds so cool! Good luck (and add a link if you ever publish it online)! :D
Agent T where your patience*** stops. Not trying to be that guy. Sounds awesome and I’ll totally read!! Just double check for typos! :)
Is this still ongoing? I can contribute
It’s been about a year, how’s it going?
I had a biG obsession with the manga for a hot minute like five years ago, I even made my own neko girl oc and no, I don't want to explain further.
Iggy was my fucking favourite holy shit. I love him so much
Oh my God I read the first book as a kid and I was sooo upset I couldn't find the second one anywhere. I don't even know if it was ever translated into Slovak; I only became fluent in English by the end of my high school years and I was long past giving a damn about these books by then. Heck, I didn't even KNOW there were more of those at the time! So I am pretty excited to see someone talk about them.
"I hate James Patterson" shows a shelf full of James Patterson books
It's a display of the future book-burning victims
I’d love to see one of these on other series that didn’t quite stick the landing. Examples that come to mind are the Inkheart Trilogy and the Artemis Fowl series, which has a movie coming out soon.
That movie is going to be the equivalent to the Percy Jackson one to the Artemis Fowel fandom. I knew it since I saw the trailer months ago
Honestly Inkheart and Inkspell were so interesting when I was younger. Like there was a ton of potential for the series. I never watched the Brendan Fraiser movie but I really wanted to read Ink Death but never did bc of the bad reviews. Same with Eragon's Inheritance book.
oh my god inkdeath... i remember waiting for years for that book to come out and then for it to be such a disappointment... inkheart was so important to me too...
Are you thinking of reviewing other kids' "thriller" fiction that were popular in middle school, like the 39 Clues?
Gutza1 I remember I loved 39 clues but looking back on it, the plot is kinda ridiculous. I mean really, pretty much every influential person in history is part of one family? It was fun to read for me and a lot of kids who were my age when it came out, but now I realize how stupid it really was.
@@stardust1815 I only realise now as an adult that the books basically portrayed the world as being controlled by 5 factions of the illuminati.
The original books were alright. Then the sequel series got weird.
switch player 101 Wow, I never realized that! 😂
@@stardust1815 during a part in one of the original books the russian chick even recollects that: Cahills don't see international boundaries only branches. Or something along those lines. What that tells me is that in that universe elections are useless because a secret family controls everything and starts wars with itself. It's like if all of history was like the makeup of the world superpowers during world war1.
The second they introduced the love triangle the books lost all appeal to me. I was such a huge fan of this series as a teen and they just killed it instantly, it was so cringe.
Are you familiar with Tui T Sutherland’s ‘Wings of Fire’ series? It follows a group of dragons who are part of a prophecy that (*SPOILERS*) isn’t real. Kind of cheesy sounding, but looking back it is actually pretty well written.
Edit: I bring it up because the dynamic of the flock in the earlier books reminds me of the characters in the wings of fire series.
I really like that series. My favorite character is Moon, and my favorite villian, so far, is Darkstalker. He made me think of a Dark Side version of Luke Skywalker.
Nina Sampson Moon is one of my favourites as well, as is Darkstalker. The Darkstalker book was amazing and really serves a good job as a prequel.
Yeah, Darkstalker has the best book but all the books are great
I really like like how the new books have a dystopian vibe to them. Something you rarely see in fantasy.
I really like the books too! The dystopian hives are awesome.
Mega props for the in-depth analysis! I agree with basically everything about this, which hurts since I originally loved this series when I was younger.
I love that Iggy wears glasses in the manga even though he’s blind
“saving the world and other extreme sports” is a great title what are you talking about
The Maximum Ride trilogy makes up a good part of my standards for YA romance books: keep it consentual, minor to the plot, yet relevant to the themes of the book.
I remember me and my best friend loved reading the manga and were so excited when we our local library got a new addition of it. The novels were good too I think for me I felt such a connection to the series because of the art in the manga though. After the 4th book, it really took a wild turn, but oh well at least there's still good in the first 3
And Patterson has somehow managed to even not make that the end! There's a story about Max's kid(?) coming out in July.
I think that the best book series i read as a kid were the zombie apocalypse (i think they are called 'the hunted' or 'the fear series's by Charlie Higson.
The series incorporated realism, death, gore, drama, sadness (especially that as one of the main plot points of the series is that all the adults are dead, that means the parents too) and comradeship. They were a really great series and actually made the zombies intresting and horrifying (and smart).
Overall the books are great, and i would recommend to read them.
I think the series is called Gone.
@@holden_7597 That's a different series, where everyone over the age of 15 disappears.
sauceboss holy shit enemy went so hard. It was actual fucking horror. The kid guarding the compound getting mauled.
I don’t remember much but it messed me up
@@jacksons9546 idk dude for 11-12 year old me this series was fucking amazing. Loved every book except the ending, a bit disappointing in my opinion.
to be fair it's conceptually hilarious to try and cash in on the teen-romance-love-triangle ya craze by introducing a literal lab-grown boyfriend for the main girl and naming him "dylan"
About 40 minutes in I temporarily forgot what erasers are so I was like “Why is this guy threatening them with erasers?”
Also didn’t Dylan have magical singing powers or something stupid?
Coming in 2020: James Patterson presents: Hawk the definitley absolutely for sure ending this time guys (unless you buy it, in which case he will write more)
Wow when I was in like 4th-5th grade I loved these books. I read all the way up to Nevermore and then stopped because I just couldn't get into Maximum Ride Forever. I actually liked them a lot up until the introduction of Dylan and the love triangle- that's when (for me) it all fell to shit. One thing I kind of picked up on was that Max was kind of an unreliable narrator, at least to some degree. I always thought that way more time had taken place than the characters thought, and that by the end they were a lot older than they said they were. I mean, they set their own birthdays and there's no way the evens of all nine of these books took place over the course of 1-2 years- but those were just my thoughts.
I really liked this review- I definitely agree with a lot of the criticism and now I kind of want to go back and read them just to see how much more I pick up in comparison to when I was younger.
Did you ever try any of Patterson's other YA books? I read a few of the Witch and Wizard books and then the first two of that murder mystery series, but I didn't think either were particularly good.
I liked the first Witch and Wizard book, but the second one was pretty terrible. I never read the third one, and nothing else he's written.
I remember loving the first book or so. Then there was a love triangle and it was weird and I dropped it because yuck.
I gotta admit that crazy long series like these are kinda great from my perspective as a middle school teacher. Kids often LOVE graphic novels so they frequently start off with these books and then just end up reading the rest of the novel forms. It’s a pretty good way to get reluctant readers (boys and girls) to actually read!
james patterson is good for elementery and middle schoolers, as i got older i started to really see the similarities between my edgy teen roleplay phase and his writing
fun fact, Maximum Ride Forever is NOT the last book. He's got a new series called Hawk, about Max's daughter. (tho this video was released before the first hawk book came out)
He should eventually talk about the Daniel X series. I’ve heard nobody review or even talk about it on RUclips, and I remember it being (possibly) half-decent.
Oh god you bringing back repressed memories my guy XD
That series makes me cringe now. It reads exactly like how an old person thinks a young person talks based off of shitty RUclips videos.
That series was weird. The main character literally creates imaginary friends who are REAL PEOPLE enslaved to his mind.
Yeah, I got up to the Telepathic Horse Teacher and then dropped the series at that. Also, the first or second book features a villain that seduces *yes* SEDUCES the underage protagonist by pretending to be a teenager girl. Yikes all around.
@@something6510 oh jesus I remember that. Good god YA is a pit.
"They get help from a scientist named Jeb."
Please flap.
Goddammit
I remember reading these books as a kid, but I can legit only remember the talking dog
I'm weird everything I've read I forget, I read all of the original Percy Jackson almost religiously and a few of the newer books but, I've almost forgot everything. My memory is terrible but I'm only just in my mid to late teens so maybe it'll get better in time but, I seriously can't remember much from my reading years besides reading a diary of the wimpy kid in a single sitting. Even with Jurassic Park I only remember a few ending parts and the beginning couple of chapters. I guess I've never truly read them properly?
I read the og Percy Jackson series as well, I have the original covers
I _tried_ reading the second series but I couldn't get past the third book
That’s me and I have inattentive adhd. Gotta love that rereading!
Meh. I devour books. I don't remember the stuff, either. However, if you were to pick it up by accident, again, not knowing you read it already, little pieces in the beginning would slowly bring back future pieces of the books, and then you would realize you have already read it - Damn! This is what happens to me with some fanfics. Some can be very similar to others, and I have read so many that sometimes I'll read a description and think, "Wow, that sounds awesome. Lemme read." Then I'll be like one to three chapters in or something and realize I've already read it.
I also don't remember the details of movies I've only seen once, years later. That's just how the human memory works. Unless you have reason to recall something, the synapses won't connect, and you'll eventually lose that memory. If you, however, randomly decide throughout the year following your reading to recall plot points, you'll probably recall those plot points much more in the future, because, mentally, the work has been done to "establish" those memories.
I remember every book I've found interesting.
@@Lumina_Solaris by Jurassic park I meant the books, sorry if i wasn't clear
I listened to the whole thing while walking, (it actually goes very smoothly, didn't even see that I'd listened to it all!) And I wanted to thank you for the passion and insight you put in your vids. It also made me remember of the time when I read these, back in middle school, Auri's death (not really sure of the English spelling) wrought a few tears back in the day~
I had only read the first trilogy tho, never even knew there were other books at the time, but since I was a little reading machine I didn't really care enough then, and even less now...
Ranger's apprentice? I always enjoyed the books but kinda felt like it dropped off when the books started jumping around the timeline.
It gets depressing after the "happy ending" for will
they also have one called brotherband chronicles that was pretty neat by john flanagan
@@michaelmcnally4557 that was actually one of the reasons why I enjoyed the series. Not the whole depression part, I enjoyed how the books kinda grew up with you as they came out. Slowly shifting to a darker tone or showing how violence wasn't always the answer and etc.
Depressed Will made me sad,
Actually the entirety of book 12 made me sad.
Agreed. Like, suddenly it's been a few years bUt I'm StIlL fOuRtEeN :D
I only read the manga version of maximum ride and my school only had the first 4 volumes and then like the 7th and when I read the 7th I was so confused and literally I got so mad when I read the "oh it was all a dream and angel is evil??" twist and I never picked up maximum ride again 😭middle school me was betrayed and didnt read further to figure out what actually happened
thank you for unlocking these memories 🙏
I really really wish that the rest of the books went as well as the first few. I loved these books so so much and the story had so much potential. It’s like, why? What happened? It was going so well. After reading the rest of the books, I stopped reading for a while lol. But I can’t resist going back to the beginning of these books every year.
I really enjoyed the whole series. ;w;
You're not going to believe what James Patterson just released
I knew nothing about this book series before this video but even I'm completely dumbfounded that at the beginning the trilogy was about the horrors of unchecked genentic experiments and the value of family and suddenly turned it into a Captain Planet episode.
How sad that a series with some flaws yes but a good story many people can like just turns into a complete utter mess
Maximum ride is my favorite series and I am so glad that they didn’t stop at 3
In my maximum ride collection, the never more book I have has a silver medal on it that says "R.I.P maximum ride"
His earlier book that the Maximum Ride series was based off of...
“Where the wind blows.”
Was actually really good. It’s one of my favorite books
As well as the sequel to that book "The Lake House" I loved both but definitely the first one was the best.
My seventh grade teacher banned me from reading them after Nevermore. After watching this I think she saved me.
i’m actually mind blown rn because after years of this series not even crossing my mind, i remembered this series a couple days ago, but just could not remember the name. lo and behold, this shows up in my yt suggestions. this just made my whole week.
I've literally only read the manga, so this should be fun
Ah yes, the series I loved and then hated, reading to the bitter end out of a desire for closure.
I got so mad at Patterson doing commercials for Angel with an emphasis of "It all ends with Angel" and then end with a fucking cliff hanger. I have never felt so betrayed.