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28-year-old author and blogger from Boston, MA.

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James Patterson

James Patterson Redeems Himself With ‘7th Heaven’

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

As big a fan of James Patterson as I am, I’ve been quite disappointed with some of his latest efforts. The past few installments of the Alex Cross series have failed to impress me. The Maximum Ride series has gotten progressively worse. But, thankfully, the Women’s Murder Club series has managed to stay strong. I finished ‘7th Heaven‘ earlier today and I have to say I was pleased. While the Alex Cross series has been fading away, the Women’s Murder Club series has remained consistent. While some twists were anticipated, the story overall kept its suspense. I hope Patterson can keep it up.


Maximum Ride: The Final Warning

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series certainly had promise. I enjoyed the first installment, The Angel Experiment. Unfortunately, each installment got progressively worse… The latest of the series, The Final Warning, is by far the most disappointing.

The novels have followed the story of 14-year-old Maximum Ride, a human-bird hybrid girl and four others just like her, who are on the run after escaping from “The School” where they were created. It was established in the first novel that Max had been created for a purpose: to save the world. A cryptic voice in her head has guided her and her flock along the way as they fight for their lives in their quest to fulfill that mission. Until The Final Warning, what that mission was exactly, they did not know. Quite frankly, I don’t think James Patterson knew until he started writing The Final Warning, because the mission seems entirely anti-climactic. The series has had human-wolf hybrids and robots out to kill Max and flock, and hints of a decades-long global conspiracy involving genetic research with recombinant life forms. Sounds exciting and thrilling doesn’t it So what is Maximum Ride’s mission really about?

Global warming.

That’s right. The Final Warning takes Max and her flock to Antarctica to study penguins, and ultimately to Capitol Hill, where Max gives a speech to Congress, urging them to heed the alleged warning signs and to do something to slow down global warming.

Instead of tying up all the loose ends from the previous books of the series, Patterson seems to have gone on a tangent by making global warming the focus of the latest novel of the series. Patterson may think he’s doing a service by using his popular series to “educate” kids about global warming — but ultimately the story has suffered.

The Maximum Ride series seems to  be suffering from premature burnout. Patterson’s Alex Cross series started off very strong but started really going downhill with The Big Bad Wolf. After ready the most recent of the Alex Cross series, Double Cross, I felt that Patterson had taken the Alex Cross character as far as he could. Well, with Maximum Ride, he’s taken the series in the wrong direction and should stop. Unfortunately, despite the implication of the title, the ending implied there’s more coming.

And yes, I’m sure I’ll read it, but I can’t say I have high expectations for it.


‘Double Cross’ Reviewed

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

As a longtime fan of James Patterson’s Alex Cross series, I always look forward to the next book of the series, despite the fact that the last few have been somewhat disappointing. I was hoping for James Patterson to redeem himself in Double Cross after a rather unsatisfying previous attempt in Cross. Unfortunately, Double Cross lacked in thrills and suspense, and was horribly predictable.

Perhaps Patterson has taken the Alex Cross character as far as he can realistically take him with. If it truly is better to burn out than to fade away, then Alex Cross needs to go into retirement… soon. In the more recent additions to the series, I found myself more interested in the parts of the stories that revolved around his personal life, particularly the strains on Cross’s family with his work and lifestyle, and a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend over their toddler son. There was a noticeable absence in Double Cross his family, and it’s not as if the parts about the DC Audience Killer or Kyle Craig were so engrossing that we couldn’t be taken away from them for a few more brief moments. Cross’s family life gave a lot more depth to his character, and was complementary to the bigger story. In Double Cross, it felt more artificial and supplementary.

But the worst thing about it was the predictability. I had the killers’ identities figured out much sooner than I should have. And some aspects of the end with Kyle Craig I had faint ideas of how they would turn out as well.

The story had potential in the beginning, but it just didn’t hold up to the end. If you’re a fan of the series, you have to read it just like I had to… but it just doesn’t measure up to his earlier efforts, such as Kiss The Girls or Cat & Mouse, two of my favorites in the series


Recent & Future Patterson Reads

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

Since my previous James Patterson update I’ve read a few more of his books, and a few more are coming out soon…

Recently Read:

5th Horseman and 6th Target

The last two books in James Patterson the Women’s Murder Club series.

Judge & Jury 

A very good thriller about a mafia trial. Patterson’s love scenes are a bit smarmy, but story was great.

To Be Read in 2008:

Double Cross 

The latest in the Alex Cross series… Still haven’t gotten a copy yet. Attempting to get the audiobook now.

7th Heaven 

The latest in the Women’s Murder Club series… To be released February 4, 2008.

Maximum Ride: The Final Warning

The latest in the Maximum Ride series… To be released March 18, 2008.

Sail

New story, not part of a series… I’ll probably get the audiobook. This one will be released June 10, 2008.

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

This one sounds very different from his previous work… More along the lines of a sci-fi thriller.  This one will be released July 22, 2008.


James Patterson, Nick Hornby, and Young Adult Fiction

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

As someone who has spent the past seven years writing and blogg about current events, politics and even writing a non-fiction book, I have recently had a rekindled interest in fiction after a rather long hiatus.

I first got into James Patterson novels when I was in high school. By the time I got to college, I’d read all of his books. Since then my reading of fiction has become a bit spotty, and I’ve become more selective of which books I would read, but without a doubt I’ve kept up on the Alex Cross series. Though I admit the last one of the Cross series was a bit disappointing.

Some years back he decided to reach out to a younger audience with his Maximum Ride series, which was loosely based on two earlier novels he wrote, When The Wind Blows and its sequel The Lake House, about bird-human hybrid children.

I took a chance on the Maximum Ride stories, knowing in advance that they were more geared to an audience that much younger than me, but of course, knowing how many adults are into Harry Potter, I couldn’t really say there is no precedence for such a thing.

Anyway, I like the first two books of the Maximum Ride series. The latest one, Maximum Ride: Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports was rather disappointing. As an older reader, I found the story becoming much less convincing. Perhaps such things are less of an issue for younger readers, I don’t know.

This fall will also bring the first young adult novel from my current favorite author, Nick Hornby, the author of High Fidelity, About A Boy, How To Be Good, and A Long Way Down. Hornby’s forthcoming young adult novel, Slam, is described as follows on Nick Hornby’s website:

Slam, a novel for readers of many ages, revolves around Sam who—after falling hard for a very pretty girl—ultimately finds his way through conversations with a larger-than-life poster of his idol, champion skater Tony Hawk.

I have already pre-ordered the book, and regardless of its target audience, I expect to enjoy it. Nick Hornby is a fantastic author, and while most will know him because of his first novel High Fidelity, which was adapted into an equally great movie, his most recent novel, A Long Way Down is my favorite of his works, and probably ranks as my favorite fiction novel. Let’s put it this way, I first “read” the book in audiobook format shortly after it came out in 2005 and have in the past few months made the effort to purchase a hardcover version so it may hold its rightful spot on my bookshelf.

So, as a fan of Hornby, I anxiously await the release of his next novel, and I am by no means discouraged by the fact this one is written for young adults. In fact, after reading the latest decription from Amazon.com, the book clearly tackles more adult themes than a simple teenage crush and a fixation for Tony Hawk:

Just when everything is coming together for Sam, his girlfriend Alicia drops a bombshell. Make that ex-girlfriend– because by the time she tells him she’s pregnant, they’ve already called it quits. Sam does not want to be a teenage dad. His mom had him at sixteen and has made it very clear how having a baby so young interrupted her life. There’s only one person Sam can turn to–his hero, skating legend Tony Hawk. Sam believes the answers to life’s hurdles can be found in Hawk’s autobiography.

But even Tony Hawk isn’t offering answers this time–or is he? Inexplicably, Sam finds himself whizzed into the future, for a quick glimpse of what will be . . . or what could be. In this wonderfully witty, poignant story about a teenage boy unexpectedly thrust into fatherhood, it’s up to Sam to make the right decisions so the bad things that could happen, well, don’t.

This sounds much more like a novel that longtime Hornby fans will want to read as much as the audience it targets. I’m looking forward to it.


Audiobooks

Sunday, February 11th, 2007

I’ve been listening to audiobooks on my iPod for probably about two years. I listen while I’m at work since listening to music gets old after a while, and listening to audiobooks at work is like killing two birds with one stone: I get my work done, and I get to catch up on my reading.

I’ve been able to read some classics I’d never gotten around to, or had read long ago but wanted to check out again. I’ve also caught up on some new fiction I’ve never felt I had time to read before.

Some of my favorite audiobooks:

I’ve also taken advantage of the convenience of audiobooks by catching up on James Patterson’s novels, which I used to read a lot in high school, but neglected to keep up during college.

Generally speaking, I still like to have a tangible book, and any book that I really like I’ll end up buying a copy of for my shelf.