The Final Warning

My review for the first book of this series still stands. I suppose I only kept reading after that point out of pure bile fascination, or out of some futile hope that the books would get better and that the plot might in fact go somewhere. I really wanted these books to be good. The original premise sounded good. Winged kids who fight evil overarching entities? Come on, that's cool. Or at least it would be if that was actually what went on, instead of what does happen in this series, which is close to nothing.

This book was where the series well and truly jumped the shark, and where I finally stopped reading. It dropped what plot it had left, turned all its characters into Sues (though they were already heading in that direction anyway), show more and turned into a thinly disguised tract against global warming. I agree with the author on this issue. That doesn't mean I want to be lectured to death on it. If I wanted that, I'd read blog posts on the issue. I DO read blog posts on the issue. In a work of fiction, I expect any such views to be handled with a little more grace and artistry, because literature is supposed to be an art form. If you make it nothing more than your own soapbox, people will not read it, they will not enjoy it, and ultimately it will succumb to the next hot-button issue. The Grapes of Wrath and A Christmas Carol give social commentary. But people have read them, and still read them, because they're good literature, and not propaganda. Learn the difference, James Patterson. show less

Everyone said this book would suck, and it did, but not as much as I expected. Yes, parts of it are boring and preachy. Yes, it blatantly and relentlessly pushes its agenda. Yes, it reads like a Greenpeace pamphlet at times. However, it still wasn’t as terrible as I thought it was going to be, perhaps because I had such low expectations in the first place. It’s not good, but it’s bearable because there’s still action, humor, and a few cute Max/Fang moments. The plot can be summarized in a few sentences, and there’s not much character development or revelations about the big-picture mystery. Overall, it’s a skippable installment in the series for those who want to go straight to book five, but if you’re like me and you show more don’t like to miss anything, it’s a tolerable read if only because it’s short. show less

I enjoyed the series quite a bit until this entry. The author basically abducted this series to write about global warming awareness. It's so blatant it hurts. Are you telling me that all this time Max was supposed to save the world by talking about global warming before the audience, Greta Thunberg style? Yeah, right... And that was just the cherry on top of this disaster.

It's nice to be passionate about the good of the world, but changing the story of the series to fit the agenda is just going to leave the fans mad. You could have always written a new story or made this an optional side story novella...

I am not continuing with the series as from sequels reviews I learned there are some more questionable things happening further on. I show more will rather keep the good memory of the first three books and pretend that the story ended there. show less

I've really been enjoying the Maximum Ride series, until I got to book 4. This book was a bit soap boxy for me and a platform for the author to preach his opinion on global warning. That's great, if the story doesn't suffer while your doing it, which in this case it did. The character development felt rather empty to me as well this time around, the villains just... existed, came out of nowhere, with no explanation or reasoning behind their course of action. You do get to connect with Max on a more emotional level, but there is just so much lacking in this book I can't write it all down.

You know, what I have appreciated most about this series was it was light fantastical reading. I adored the cute simplicity of it. And, I am all for putting a message in your books. I think it's something to be somewhat expected. Authors tend to put a bit of themselves in a book and sometimes when the characters need to learn something an author makes the reader learn it too. Sadly, I think this book took it a bit far. I believe we have to act against global warming too, but that message overtook the characters and the story. 'The Final Warning' became a warning to us as a people with characters along for the ride to preach it at us.

WHAT?! I really liked the first 3 books, but when I got to this one I got so confused. It feels like James Patterson suddenly got interested in Antarctica and penguins. I mean, all throughout the series, NO ONE MENTIONED GLOBAL WARMING!!!! I mean seriously, I think some organization paid Patterson to encourage people to save the environment, but it makes no sense. The only good things are Max/Fang love relationship, Nudge's new powers, and that Iggy can sometimes see. The rest was crap. I thought about skipping the book since the "villains" didn't even survive because Max let them die in a HURRICANE, I mean she always said she was not a murderer (except for Ari) but she pretty much let the guy die. Oh and I thought, "Why keep an 80 show more pound dog, even though the flock always flies and has to carry her?" Just because Total fell in love with a dog that can't talk back to him and doesn't love him, doesn't mean it's worth it. I felt like, "Shame on you Mr. Patterson, this doesn't even compare to the first 3, so why publish it?" I just hope the other books are better than this God forsaken one. show less

Compared to the rest of this series' pure awesome books, this one disappointed me a little. It almost doesn't sound like James Patterson's writing; it's more an extended exposition on global warming than a true tale of the Flock. Sure, there's things in here you'll want to know, but they seem really rushed and just tossed in. None of the characters felt completely themselves; the villains didn't seem to have any connection whatsoever to the previous books.

That said, I really have to view this book more like a bridge to the 5th novel, which, luckily, resumes Max's more natural style and gets the series back into the loop.