Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever

Notes:

In The Angel Experiment you're catapulted straight into the world of the Flock, genetically engineered children who have hidden away from the lab where they grew up. One of their number is captured and the rest fight to get her back and to find a place for themselves. They're chased by the Erasers, wolf-like genetically-accelerated children and discover part of the secret behind their identities. The story rises a little above the level of a techno-thriller by giving characters you can sympathise with and a bit of a shadowy backstory to keep you guessing. As long as you weren't expecting sophisticated vocabulary or poetic descriptions, it offers a thought-provoking and at times moving story of children who are trying to make the best of a difficult situation.

My main regret when reading this sequel is that it squanders the build-up of that first book. The premise is already established, and this second book doesn't advance it outside a few uninspired clues as to the origins of the Flock. The youngsters' personalities don't develop, barring a certain interest in the opposite sex and the tension that creates in the group. A few more powers come to the fore, but in a way that seems either space-filling or manipulative. In contrast to the constant tension of that earlier plot, the Flock spend a significant part of this book in fairly cushy circumstances in the somewhat unexplained absence of their enemies. It's true that the Erasers are nastier and have wings, but they're too easily out-manoeuvred by the Flock and never really represent a credible enemy.

A subplot concerning a Max-clone is telegraphed too early and offers little suspense since the ersatz Max is so incompetent that it doesn't need Angel's mind-reading ability to spot the difference. The existence of the second Max, along with Ari's surprising reappearance after his apparent death at the end of the previous story, suggest some sort of cloning, but this is never established or commented upon. At the denouement, the evil scientists' hallucination machine breaks down in a convenient Deus Ex moment, just as the real Max develops a new power which brings her straight to the rest of the Flock. There's nothing tremendously wrong with all this; it just smacks a little of sloppy plotting while trying to get this sequel on the shelves.

There are still some nice moments as the Flock continue to war internally between their wish for real family and the danger they'd be in — as evinced by Iggy's family's somewhat mercenary attitude when they receive him back and the reluctance of the younger characters to leave the comfort of Anne's home. And there are some genuinely tense moments, such as when Max is in the isolation tank; or when she has to decide whether the boy she's kissed is a likely plant; or when, using her new-found super-speed, Max shoots ahead of the Flock and appears to be trying to slash her arteries. But too much is left unsaid: Anne's position in the scheme of things; the real history of the school they attend; the origin and background of the other Max and of the revived Ari. Granted, most of the action is seen through the eyes of Max (the real and the ersatz) and of Ari, so it's only right that you should understand in the measure that they do. But it's in the author's hands to keep his characters informed so that the readers stay informed, and some of their ignorance seems gratuitous rather than dramatically-demanded.

There's nothing really wrong with the story; it just seems as though it was put out too soon and doesn't offer enough to merit the sequel.