Described as a mystery thriller
with fantasy elements, this novel is the first in a series which sparked the
Maximum Ride spin-off series. It concerns genetic experiments on babies which
produce children with wings: what could possibly go wrong? There are evil manipulators
behind these cruel experiments, but there are also those with strong moral
instincts. Innocent people who stumble across the flying kids suspiciously
vanish. The novel is fast paced with short (two-paged) chapters, clearly-drawn lines
between the good and bad guys, little room for ambiguity, and an element of
romance with an eye to the big screen: she’s a vet; he’s a ‘troubled and
unconventional FBI agent’.
All of the action is described in
literal detail, and much of it would look better on screen than it does on the page.
“We gathered up the children, kept them moving. We slid and fell and scraped
our way down the hillside into a small valley. Then we climbed painfully up the
side of a facing hill. Then down the opposite side. We ran until we couldn’t
run anymore, and then we ran some more.” The short sentences and minutiae are clunky
and dated in a way that recalls Stieg Larsson’s product-placement-crime-fest
novels. “Kit continued to work furiously at the desktop. Like many of the
younger agents in the Bureau, he was good at it. He likes computers most of the
time, and was comfortable around them. He brought up Netscape, then opened it.
In the location field, he typed – about:global.”
Other aspects of science are explained for dummies to seem technical.
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| Maximum Ride fan art |
The
obvious moralising also becomes tedious. When the children escape from the lab,
the baddies chase them down with a justification that “The good that will
ultimately come will justify everything. The most important days in history are
almost here.” Just in case we might have missed the point, it is reiterated
several times. “Biotech was definitely the new frontier in science. It can, and
undoubtedly will, push evolution farther and faster than anything has in
history. The question, though, is whether we’re ready, emotionally and morally,
for what we will be able to create in the very near future.” The novel is an undemanding,
fairly gripping page-turner that you could read on a plane between interrupted
dozes and not be upset if you left it behind in the seat-pocket.
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