Parents' Guide to

Maximum Ride 3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

By Matt Berman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Flabby finale to senseless yet exciting series.

Book James Patterson Science Fiction 2007
Maximum Ride 3: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

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age 10+

Based on 1 parent review

Squirrelgirl
Squirrelgirl Parent of 16-year-old
June 9, 2010
age 10+

What Happened?

The last book in this series, while trying to be perfect for all ages made itself unreadable for all ages. How they end up SAVING the world is utterly ridiculous, only a small child would find it entertaining, but at the same time the relationships and violence would make that child uneasy throughout most of the book. It was like he gave up on writing WELL.
See all 1 parent review

What's the Story?

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.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (34 ):

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. The long-awaited climax turns out to be pretty much a joke and doesn't even succeed in tying up the loose ends.

The book's ending 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?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about 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?

Book Details

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