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Maximum Ride 3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports: Navigation

Maximum Ride 3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Flabby finale to senseless yet exciting series.

Author: James Patterson Pages: 405 Publisher: Little, Brown & Co. Published Date: 05/15/2007 Genre: Fiction - Science Fiction HC Price: $16.99 Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 14 Read Aloud: 12 Read Alone: 12

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that the violence level is about the same as the previous two books, so if your kids have read this far, more won't hurt. There's nothing much else of concern here.

Families who read this book could discuss the flabby finale. Is there anything realistic or believable about it? Why did the author have his heroes genetically enhanced when that ended up having nothing to do with saving the world?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Matt Berman

"I keep putting two and two together and coming up with thirty-seven," I said. "We have the School, the Institute, Itex ...us, Erasers, Jeb, Anne Walker, the other experiments we saw in New York. But what's the bigger picture? How does it all fit together?

Good question, Max. Hope you weren't counting on the author to provide the answers. To his catalog of empty thrills and nearly plotless to-ing and fro-ing, author James Patterson adds something new -- a series of pointless plot twists. Max finds her mother! Except she's not. The whole thing was just a dream! Wait, no it wasn't. Angel turns evil! Nah -- it was just a secret plan. A plan to accomplish what? Who knows?

The long-awaited climax turns out to be pretty much a joke, and doesn't even succeed in tying up the loose ends. And, in the end, it's not even our heroes who save the day. The brilliant, if evil, worldwide cabal of scientists turn out to be pretty dumb. The evil international mega-corporation behind them turns out to be powerless. And that giant army they built to wipe out half the earth's population -- whoops, where'd they go?

As for the rest? The relentlessly evil Ari suddenly turns puppy-dog loyal and good for no apparent reason, his daddy issues vanishing like a mist. The good-turned-bad Jeb turns out really to be good again, in a bad sort of way. All of the clues to their parents? Eh, meaningless. What's with the talking dog? Comic relief. What was that chip in Max's arm for? Chip, what chip? Expiration dates? Can't have those if you want to continue the series, so poof, they're gone. Why were the hybrids created in the first place? Well, you know how those evil scientists love to play with their toys.

Oh well. At the end, the mutant kids fly off into the sunset, in a way that suggests the author is hoping to continue the series (at the end of the second book he actually asked readers to vote on it). Well, for an utterly pointless series that makes no sense at all, that, at least, makes perfect sense. When you're making tons of money, why stop?

From The Book

"We have meticulously crafted the skeleton of our new world," the Director proclaimed from the large TV screen in the conference room. "Parts of this skeleton are scattered across the globe. Now the time has come to connect those parts, to become one! And, as one, we will commence our Re-Evolution!"

The Director stopped speaking when she noticed that the phone was vibrating in the pocket of her white lab coat. Frowning, she pulled it out and looked at a message. The situation in Building 3 had become critical.

"It's time," she said, glancing at a colleague offscreen. "Seal Building Three and gas everything inside."

Plot Summary:

Max and the Flock have escaped from the evil scientists. Again. After some more fighting, being captured, and escaping, they end up with Ari on their side, which causes them to split up. Max, along with Nudge and Angel, are finally led by the Voice to Germany -- but only after it leads them to England and France, for no apparent reason. But then you know how these Deep Throat types are -- they never tell you anything straight out.

So after some European site-seeing, they find the Itex master headquarters, where they are ... captured again! There the evil corporation is having some sort of pep rally/gladiator bout, in which Max is to be the feature attraction. Good thing Fang has been keeping that blog.