Expecting Nothing: Maximum Ride the First

[kippurbird]

Maximum Ride. Pt. One

I come to this series with no expectations. Unlike previous series that I’ve done, I stumbled upon this one myself and ended up banging my head against the wall with in pages. No one has told me it was bad until I revealed it to others that I was taking this book on. So, I have no expectations.

Let us begin.

The title page, or at least the page after the introduction has the title of the book with a “hand scrawled” note reading:

Warning
If you dare to read this story, you become part of the Experiment. I know that sounds a little mysterious - but that’s all I can say right now.
Max

This is a writer’s trick. It’s trying to get you interested in the story at hand by telling you it is dangerous to read it. You, the reader, then wonder why is it dangerous? What is this Experiment? Etc. Etc. It engages the reader by setting up a hint of the world and story to come. It’s not a good or bad trick. It breaks the fourth wall. But in a similar way to say William Goldman interjects during the Princess Bride about the changes he’s made or Tolkien saying that he found the “Red Book of Westmarch” which he translated into the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

Turning the page we get our prologue where we are informed that we’re now one step closer to surviving to our next birthday. I would think, however, that if we didn’t turn the page and weren’t reading this would mean that we were one step closer to surviving our next birthday considering the warning we were given on the previous page. After all if we do read it we will know too much. Also, if we’re not supposed to be reading this, and we’re being told not to put the book down, how did the book get into book stores? Wouldn’t this Mysterious Shadowy Agency the Experiment kept the book from getting into stores?

It sounds cool and urgent though. Like this shadowy experiment is EVERYWHERE. But it seems like ignorance should be bliss. We’ll have to see.

Our narrator is named Max, we’re told, and that he/she is fourteen (but not their gender) with an amazing family. We’re told that they’re “cool, nice, smart” but I would like to make that judgement for myself, thank you. You should show, not tell. I can say that I’m a pickle all I want, but that won’t make it true. We’re also told that the six of them, his/her family are experiments made by “scientists”. The word scientist is in quotes. I’m not sure why. Just because your an evil son of a bitch experimenting on children doesn’t make you any less of a scientist than the guy who is grown naked chickens. You’re a Mad scientist, but you’re still a scientist. It’s a job description. Someone who uses the scientific method of experimentation to get results.

Oh and we get the names of the family too: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Which sounds like something some kids would nick name each other.

The kids are apparently only 98% human, 2% other, they grew up in a place called the School. Why would you call your Mad Scientist HQ the School, I have no idea. They also grew up in cages. Which is fine by me, where else are you going to be keeping your human experiments in?

We’re also told about the “Erasers” which are part man and part wolf. And that has got to be the stupidest name to give an experiment with that combination ever. They’re capable of morphing into wolf men...

Morphing into wolf men...

I cannot think of a single animal on earth that is capable of ‘morphing’. How would you even get the body to do that. I complain about this because we’re told that they are human. They are being used by Science - not magic- so I would think they would try to keep it based in fact. Sure I’ll accept the whole DNA merger between man and wolf as a conceit, because that’s possible. They even have laws against mixing animal and human DNA and they mix animal DNA around all the time. How else do you get glow in the dark mice?

But morphing...

No. I’m sorry. I refuse to take that.

I also don’t like being told that these “erasers” are scary suckers. I would like to be shown this, thank you.

Finally, we’re told that this story could be about us or our children. Which is a damn lie because we were grown in a lab. Unless he/she means that they might come and snatch us away. Which contradicts the fact that they were grown and raised in a lab... doesn’t it?

I think the reason why we’re given this talking to the reader bit is to justify the first person narration. After all who else would Max be talking to? “I” usually indicates a speaker and an audience. It was done in Moby Dick with the “Call me Ishmael” and in the “Heart of Darkness” Where we’re introduced to the Narrator telling us a story as the Narrator telling us a Story.

Though, in a way, in this case it may not be in the best interests of the book to do so. Because if Max is able to tell us this story, write it down, get it into the book stores, then it must not have been as bad as s/he says it is. After all Max got out in one piece with what seems to be little harm. And there mustn’t be that much danger if s/he can get it to the agent, book publisher etc.

I am reminded of an in universe sort of example in the Dresden Files. Dracula was written by the enemies of the Black Court of vampires. It was a how to manual on how to kill them. Ordinary folk don’t realize this, but those in the know, do and so the Black court has all but been eradicated. In a sense that’s what this book is trying to do. Be the Dracula for our world.

I guess we’ll have to see if it works.

Comments

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

You're a pickle!

Now wait right there while I find some cheese.

:D

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Pickles and cheese?

EWW

I don't know if you can come and visit any more.

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

We're talking about a pickled cucumber here, right? If so... mmm, cheese 'n' pickle...

[white-wolf03.livejournal.com]

So is this another genetically modified superhero? Considering they're only 2% 'other', there can't be that much room for powers.

To be fair, the narrator is a kid so the nicknaming the family thing could be plausible. Though speaking as a fifteen year-old, I've had yet to meet anyone who would call their friend any of those names and expect to be taken seriously.

[lccorp2.livejournal.com]

And to be fair, we're only 2% different from a chimpanzee. And lettuce is about 75% the same as us.

Genes can have a butterfly effect, once you know something basic about how they activate and result in protein replication. A small difference can have a large effect.

[white-wolf03.livejournal.com]

That's true. So do you think Max is a chimp then? :D

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

We're 75% the same as lettuce? That explains soooo much. XD

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Nicknaming I can get behind. But that would have been "We call ourselves *insert ridiculous nicknames here*" as opposed to "Our names are *insert ridiculous names here".

I don't have a LiveJournal or I would put a name....

[(Anonymous)]

Hiya. New here. I read Maximum Ride and thought it was pretty good, until the more recent books where it's all "GLOBAL WARMING IS BAD!" Then again I read the Inheritance series and Twilight a while ago and thought that they were decent. I guess it's the kind of thing where they're okay books until you think about them.

Yeah, that's it really.

-Blue

Re: I don't have a LiveJournal or I would put a name....

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's it.
I thought Flight of the Navigator was an awesome movie until I was old enough to think about it. Then it turned into pure agony.

*sigh*

Re: I don't have a LiveJournal or I would put a name....

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched that since I was a kid. Now I'm curious....

Re: I don't have a LiveJournal or I would put a name....

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seems to be the major problem with stuff like Eragon and Twilight. If you don't read too deeply, they're fine. Eragon is a hero and Edward is hot and sexy. That's what the text tells you.

It's when you actually consider the actions involved that things look different...

Re: I don't have a LiveJournal or I would put a name....

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Hi.

Well, these things that I do are to take a deeper look at them, under the assumption that readers aren't morons and writers should be putting more thought into it.

So, it's alright that they worked for you on a first level. But now, let us see if they work on the deeeeper levels.

Re: I don't have a LiveJournal or I would put a name....

[(Anonymous)]

Deeeep deeep deeeeeeepnesss... ~.^
-Blue

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

Seems like a bad example of metafiction, trying to convince you that the events of the book are real and, thus, scary.

Clive Barker wrote something similar with 'Mr B. Gone', where he tried to convince you the book was possessed by a demon who wants to be set free, and is willing to tell the story of how he came to be in the book in exchange for the book being burned.

Not exactly easy to pull off, I would think. You're trying to convince the reader of something different to their experience, that they didn't actually buy this book from a bookstore.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's easier to accept when the narrator-author is telling you how THEY came by knowledge of the book's story. Or in the case of the demon possession, since it might have been something that occurred before purchase/being gifted and how would the reader/gift-giver have known? (Ignoring that such things require acceptance to begin with but if you like fantasy/sci-fi/horror then you are willing to accept it on some level in order to enjoy the book.)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite example of this sort of metafiction is the Sesame Street book, "There's a Monster at the End of this Book" where Grover tries to convince you to stop turning pages because he's frightened of the monster.

Someone else mentioned "Mr. B. Gone" too. I've never read it.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember that Sesame Street book! That was awesome. :)

Yeah, I was discussing Mr B Gone with you on IM. Not sure if anyone else would have?

I just posted up here in case someone else might be able to comment on it.

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

I also liked the way Lemony Snicket did it. He was the author-narrator for the children because he'd been entrusted to tell their story and he had an invested interest because he cared about them (if I remember correctly) and their recently-deceased mother. And since it was a Series of Unfortunate Events, with their lives in danger a number of times, it increased the suspense a little. After all, he might have been telling it because he was the only one still alive to tell. Not that I'm saying they were truly amazing books but it made more sense to me that way. :P

But this? If you dare to read this story, you become part of the Experiment. How? Unless it's a social experiment. Creating human/animal hybrids doesn't sound much like a social experiment to me. It could be but I'm hard-pressed to think of anything off the top of my head. Plus the sentence after it is moot. Might as well remove it entirely as it ruins some of the suspense but drawing attention to itself as "mysterious", IMO.

I can't imagine it suggesting that reading the story means you'll be captured and experimented on. How would they know who was reading it? And as you've said, if she supposedly published it then she can't have had it too bad or must have overcome everything quite well. And I'd fully expect suppression tactics if this scientist corporation didn't want the word getting out but more along the lines of having the book pulled from publication and recalled. Even mad scientists shouldn't spend their time hunting down readers/paying bounty hunters to hunt down readers. It's a waste of their funding and/or their time.

As for the names... please tell me her full name isn't Maximum Ride. It's "cool" sounding but it also makes me think of a porn actor(ress)/prostitute name... Because my mind is always in the gutter, yes. XD

Oh, I also agree about the Erasers (Eraserhead?) morphing... I mean, there is morphing in nature (mostly insects but one could view changes of specific traits from childhood to adulthood in such a manner) but it is always very slow! Even within the life-span of the individual creature, it is almost never an hour or less process, which is what one would require for effective combat enhancement. Not to mention, a human-looking human/animal hybrid of incredible strength or just the ability to SMELL people, and track them the way animals do, would be enough when combined with a suitable weapon. Even another winged hybrid with ready access to a gun would be quite deadly, particularly a sniper rifle.

Not to mention, even with shape-shifting there is a chance at getting caught in the act. Then they have to kill bystanders or destroy security cameras or all kinds of attention-drawing things...

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the name sounded dodgy, though I was thinking it could be twisted to another kind of 'Ride'.

[white-wolf03.livejournal.com]

Wait, so his name is actually Maximum Ride?

[dove-cg.livejournal.com]

Really? What other kind of Ride is there? o.o

[kjtaylor.livejournal.com]

So that's where the weird title came from. I wondered what was up with that; "Maximum Ride" doesn't really seem to relate to anything in the story so far.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Yes. Her name is Maximum Ride.

Yes, it does sound like a porn star.

Lemony Snicket, from what I can recall, told the story with authorial asides in the book as if he were really telling the story.

The Eraserheads (I'm now going to call them that) from what it sounds like can morph with choice. Most insects and things, like butterflies take ages, relatively, to morph. Or tadpoles to frogs even. And then they can't go back. Also, if moving back and forth is an insect trait then they wouldn't be half man half wolf, would they?

I dunno.

[cimplybe.livejournal.com]

This opening reminds me of Animorphs. "We can't tell you our last names because it's too dangerous!" "...then...why are you publishing these books...?"