The Final Warning (Maximum Ride, Book 4)

I've read all of James Patterson's other Maximum Rides books and I loved them, they are clearly meant for teenagers without the effort you see other acclaimed writers make to make something appeal to children. Throughout those other novels, I had never really noticed that it had subtle things he thought would appeal to children, the children against the adults concept and so on...

So I really loved his past books and faithfully 'clicked' for the new Maximum Ride book over and over. Now that it's out I find it condescending and he seems to think that teenagers have no intelligence. James Patterson tries to blatantly sell the concept of global warming to his readers, which I understand at 14 I'm rather more well-versed in politics and important issues than other readers, but his writing about it made it seem like he was writing to a little five year old. Much of the book was him blatantly expressing the effects of global warming, and very little of the nail-biting action I've come to expect of this series.

I have absolutely no issue with authors trying to express their opinions through their books, however, when it's done as blatantly and boringly as this is it seems as if it's like an insult to my intelligence. Am I not supposed to notice that this book is basically him trying to sell the concept of global warming to the more impressionable readers? It wouldn't have been bad if he had bothered to be subtle, sort of like the Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (still getting off his controversial ideas to the younger set, yet leaving the chance for ignorance of the underlying themes there), but instead he chose to spend half the (small) book lecturing the reader on Global Warming by Max's sarcastic (for the most part) narration of it.

The beginning of the book was promising, with less adventure than usual but still interesting. Some slightly random events happened that were never fully explained (for those of you who read the book the green wire incident), but on the whole interesting and I was ready for the huge climax and the fun battles or whatever... Yeah not so much . .. By the end I felt like I had read a book meant for a five year old, like all of those little picture books with a moral or point (like telling the story of Hurricane Katrina). Even the 'Bad Guys' were more like something you would come to expect from a show like 'The Replacements' on Disney Channel than something supposedly meant for teenagers.


And the most annoying thing is, he would never have done this in one of his adult series. Anyways, I'm really let-down by how condescending the book seemed after all the excitement and I really hope he'll release a new one next year that mirrors the excitement and suspense of his earlier three books.

The release of a sequel is an anticipated event, especially if the sequel is written by a wildly-popular, best-selling author like James Patterson. Approximately 4.8 million copies have been sold of the previous three books in the Maximum Ride series, so hopes were high that Final Warning, the new installment, would be just as entertaining. When a sequel fails to live up to the standards of the previous books in the series, readers feel let down.

There are three issues that affect the quality of Final Warning. First, there is a lack of adventure in this installment of the action-packed Maximum Ride adventure series. It seemed to be more of an extended brainstorming session instead of actual problem-solving. Second, the length of this book is an issue. For a novel that has a retail price of $20, 272 pages is pretty skimpy -- especially when you consider that The Angel Experiment, the first book in the series, had 432 pages. Finally, and most importantly, is the story itself. If the story had been interesting and new, the reader would be able to overlook the page length. Instead of adding anything new to the story, Patterson chose to focus on the issue of global warming and have The Flock, the six bird kids we've come to love, assist with scientific research in Antarctica. Final Warning appears to be more of a filler book than a necessary part of the series. In fact, if a reader were to skip Final Warning, there probably wouldn't be a problem catching up when a fifth book is published.

Instead of a character-driven storyline, Patterson has given us an extended public service announcement on global warming, and while global warming is a serious issue we need to think about, a young adult adventure novel might not be the best place to hammer the issue home.

I expected a lot more from the next chapter in the Maximum Ride saga. After all, the first three books were all about heart-pounding action, excellent character development, and just the right amount of romance to keep it interesting. Now take all of the first three books and squash them together into a single miniature version without any of the action, and you have The Final Warning. Granted, there are some good points, not to spoil any, but most of them happen towards the beginning of the novel. The last three quarters were, in my opinion, mainly rehashed storylines from the first three books. The action is only seen from the point of view of two characters including Max and Fang's meaningless 'book blog', not the actual blog that exists on the Web. Then there's the fact that the series has become a huge environmental tree-hugging plug as well. Yeah, we know the environment needs to be saved, but you don't have to beat it into our brains by making Max Ride the Eco-Lady of Popular Literature. Is this book what we Maximum Ride fans clicked a million times for? I think not. This one needs a sequel, if the Flock is to be saved.

I bought the first three Maximum Ride books for my twelve-year-old son last Friday. In four days, he had read them all, and so this afternoon, we bought the newest "Final Warning." Thank goodness I only had to pay $12 because the first words out of my son's mouth as he exited his bedroom after an hour and a half reading the brief 270 or so pages were: "Mom, where's the shredder?" He was completely frustrated and disappointed and began to question the entire Maximum Ride series, looking back to see if Mr. Patterson had slipped in propaganda into those books (but which may have been more easily overlooked given the first three books were, in my son's opinion, far superior in plot and action.) Trying his best to come to some positive conclusion about "Final Warning", my son decided that perhaps Mr. Patterson, after having been bugged to write "just one more" Maximum Ride tale, chose to put out this utterly disappointing sequel in order to stave off future requests for more books (and, yes, he used the word "stave".) On top of that, my son felt bad that I had wasted $12 on the book. I reassured him and told him he ought to re-write the book himself this summer, as he thinks the story should have been told. Either that, or we could mail our copy of "Final Warning" back to Mr. Patterson. Both ideas put a smile back on his face. My son's final recommendation: don't bother with "Final Warning."

After reading the original two novels that the Maximum Ride series came to be based on, I had high expectations. Those expectations were met in the previous books. This one however, was a major let down. The first clue was the extra large size of the paperback and fewer pages. My intuition said, "This book will be dumbed down and watered down for adolescents. James Patterson did a disservice to a generation of young people who poured through "Harry Potter" with no problem. I found that with this book if I put it down I didn't really want to pick it back up. I forced myself to finish it. It's as though he was under contract to pump out one more and he did it half-heartedley with awful results. Patterson reduced Max and the gang to Captain Planet like caricatures diminishing the trials and tribulations that they endured in the previous books. Reducing the "voice" in Max's head to nothing more than a guilty concious over a yet unproven THEORY called global warming. (Silly premise since Max and the gang has only been on their own for two years and were too busy to be formally educated much less indoctrinated about "global warming".) Mr. Patterson took the easy way out.

My 14 year old daughter just finished this book. She was so excited about this book when it came out. James Patterson is one of her favorite authors ever.

She just got done saying she was so frustrated and disappointed with this book because....low and behold, everything is blamed on global warming. And the last page explains what we can do. She wants a story, not more of the global warming crisis shoved down her throat.

We are not saying it isn't true, but she says, she gets it all the time at school and the news. She just wants a fiction story to enjoy.

If she could she would give this book zero stars

While I am one of Mr. Patterson's biggest fans. I must turn thumbs down, way down, on Final warning. His attempt to use his status as a great author to expond the "truth" about global warming leaves much to be desired. Max and the flock flys inti the south polar region has no real contact with any GW data and can then appear before Congress and make rash statements such what would happen if 50% of the worlds ice were to melt.

Sorry but Mr. Patterson is better than that.

I cannto recommend this book to any one much less young readers.

Woah boy, is this one stinker. I've read and reviewed the previous books - all of which were pretty enjoyable. Mr. Patterson, hang your head in shame.

This book starts with some promise and the normal Patterson style of "start the action now". The "dust cover summary" of the book (no spoilers): A new villain, Uber-Director and his cyborg-Terminator-Rip-off-henchmen, Gozan, is out to get the flock. Meanwhile, Max must save the world again - this time by battling Global Warming. End of Summary.

Patterson messes up the time line of his own series, are they on their own two years or 6 months or stuck in time? I have children and work with teens. Mr. Patterson needs to hang out with them. After four books, the kids still don't talk or act like kids (except for when the plot calls for it). Then, he decides to get all preachy. The vast majority of the book is spent on educating the reader on global warming with bad science. ATTENTION: anyone who stayed awake in science class (obviously, not James Patterson) knows that global warming does NOT cause earthquakes or tsunamis - nor does it increase the chance of said events /end of science content.

Next, the villain. His total dialog takes less than a page. He exists only because a villain has to be there. His goals, ambitions, etc are all a mystery. Even though the world wide mega-organization that created Max, which he now apparently runs, has lost billions in resources harrassing the flock, the Uber Director (seriously kids, no one would take this title - more Patterson laziness in that he couldn't even take the time to name the guy) tries to capture the kids to sell them off. Um, the real value of the flock is in how to make them. The flock themselves are too old to reprogram reliably. Yet a bunch of rich but stupid no names seem willing to pay out cash for tainted goods, rather than ordering a fresh set from the bird-kid-o-matic company. Maybe they forgot how to make bird-kids. It's really that bad. They "plot" is almost non-existent. The action scenes exist to help the reader forget this is nothing more than a very poorly constructed rant on global warming, told by a popular character. And I'm a GREEN!

At the end, Max wraps herself in the flag and preaches to the American Congress. Then off on another mission. Oh, and Fang kisses Max. That's the sum total of character development in this book. After four books, the flock is about as 2D as they were in book one. Max still doesn't bother asking the questions that any 14 year old would ask. And she's far more clueless about her feelings towards Fang than even a dysfunctional 14 year old.

This book is a complete waste of the few hours it takes to read, and the carbon footprint it took to print it. If Patterson wants to kill off a really cool series and concept, keep cranking out half baked garbage like this.

I am an avid fan of the Maximum Ride books. I loved the other books of the series, but I couldn't stand this one.

This book was one of the few books I wish I'd never bought. It wasn't exciting at all -- it lacked plot and action. I was expecting a can't-put-it-down action-packed book, like in The Angel Experiment. All I got, however, was global warming propaganda.

The plot was basically nonexistant. The flock has survived Itex and the Director. So now what do they do? After a semi-interesting introduction in Washington DC, they take a random trip to Antarctica. They're traveling with scientists to study global warming. Why? Dr. Martinez thinks it's a good idea. Meanwhile, the new villian, The Uber-Directer (what kind of name is that, seriously?!), is gearing up to try and capture the flock. The flock have fun in Antarctica, learning about global warming (and, of course, passing every bit of global warming information to the reader), and having little pointless adventures.
(slight spoilers follow)
Eventually, they are caputured and the climax of the novel occurs. I was expecting a carefully planned out action climax. Instead, it was just so boring! The Uber-Director's "evil" plot was just so stupid and unexciting. And then the flock easily escapes without a scratch.

The thing that bothered me most about the book, however, was the propaganda (at least that's how I thought of it). The book is full of global warming information and statistics. Max submits easily to the idea of global warming and embraces it wholeheartedly. She then spends the end of the book lecturing the reader about global warming and its harmful effects. I wouldn't have minded a little bit about global warming, but it just felt like the whole book was simply written to spread the idea, not to share Max's adventures with the world. This really dissapointed me. I just feel like I picked up the book to enjoy a good novel, not to read a bunch of propaganda.

So, to conclude my rather lengthy review? I wouldn't reccommend this book. If you're a fan of Max Ride, stop at book 3 so you can still remember the series fondly. This book had virtually no plot. There wasn't really much character development. In my humble opinion, it simply wasn't worth reading.

I am a librarian in a Central Missouri town and was excited to see that the newest book in this series was out... unfortunately this book was just a lot of propaganda about global warming. I'm not opposed to books on global warming, but when you are expecting another book in an "action/adventure" series and you just get preached at about the global warming "problem"... well, I don't expect the teens who are waiting to read this one will be overly impressed.