Book Binge May 2008: Wrap Up

Book Binge May was my first reading challenge for A Chain of Letters. In the end, I read a little below my normal monthly total, but this isn’t including graphic novels. I think I made the mistake of starting off with a few big books instead of spacing them out. I pushed to read one more book before the deadline, and thought it was only fitting to end with the same author I started with. Looking at the other participants as the final posts roll in, and I am amazed at how many books some people can squeeze into 1 month. INAMP herself read 17.

Here’s my breakdown, each link to the individual reviews:

1. 7th Heaven by James Patterson

2. In the Woods by Tana French

3. The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

4. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

5. The Enemy by Lee Child

6. By the Rivers of Babylon by Nelson De Mille

7. Talyn (A Novel of Korre) by Holly Lisle

8. Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by James Patterson

Total Number of Books: 8
Total Number of Pages: 3,419

Maximum Ride: The Final Warning

23. Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by James Patterson. 256 p. Published march 2008.

I started reading the Maximum Ride series because I heard it was being remade into a manga and wanted to give Patterson a fair chance. Four books later and I sorely regret it.

If you haven’t heard of Maximum Ride, here’s the breakdown. Maximum (Max for short) is the leader of 6 mutant bird-children (and eventually one mutant talking dog). Their recombinant DNA has granted them superhuman strength, avian-esque wings, and various abilities ranging from mind reading to super-farts. The first three books take you through their treacherous youth as lab-experiments, their escape, recapture, betrayal by loved ones, escape, recapture (they do this combo a few times in each book), and the eventual final battle against the evil corporation that created them.

The Final Warning opens in the wake of this final showdown. After Max buries her half-brother, she and the flock, along with her parents, travel to Washington D.C. to meet with the government and see what is to become of them. Max and the rest promptly tell the politicians off and fly away. Max’s mother convinces her to take the flock on a trip with some environmental scientists to the south pole. While there, Max and the others hang with penguins and learn about global warming. Max and Fang (her second in command) are promptly separated from the rest when looking for Angel, the youngest, who has wandered off and fallen into a crevice in the ice with the dog. As Max and Fang save Angel, they are captured by a strange Frankenstein’s-Monster of a man and his robot minions. Max finds that the rest of the flock has been captured as well. The Flock is taken to Miami, which has been evacuated due to an imminent Category-4 hurricane. There they meet the Uber-Director, who has placed them up for auction to the highest bidding evil-power (various anonymous heads of state and industry). It’s up to Max, as always, to help the flock and foil this latest plot against them.

So, might as well start off positively. Patterson uses his gift for fast paced plot and thrilling characters to render The Final Warning a decent addition to the Maximum Ride series. And the new political slant to his work has shed light on an important issue (global warming). But in the end, this entire series is disappointing. His attempts at youthful jargon and internet lingo are pedantic and laughable. His plots consistently prey on the divide between teenagers and adults. Patterson supplements the reader’s imagination of this relationship with depictions of capture, subversion, and torture. And in the end he gives the reader a hollow victory, where the hero escapes to fight another day. Frankly, the one realistic lesson Patterson grants is this: it takes superhuman strength to achieve individual freedom and maintain it. And even then, you end up sleeping in the woods and scavenging out of dumpsters.

Patterson’s work has always benefited from his gift for using simple concepts and thrilling pacing to build a magnificent story. But the Maximum Ride novels read like a midlife crisis put to paper. Most men buy fast cars, find mistresses, and go to Vegas. Patterson writes teen fiction. And while his political statement adds originality to this overused genre of super-teens against the world, his apparent push for militant activism among today’s youth is shockingly irresponsible.

Patterson, stick to the adult thrillers.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Other Reviews of Maximum Ride: The Final Warning: Karin’s Book Nook, Teen Book Review

Talyn

22. Talyn (A Novel of Korre) by Holly Lisle. 524p. Published August 2005.

This book was recommended to me by fellow blogger Fyrefly. Despite how prolific Lisle is in fantasy, and how often she co-write with some of my favorite authors, I’d never read one of her books before.

Talyn is the story of its namesake, Talyn Wyran av Tiirsha dryn Straad. This isn’t just Talyn’s name – it is her history, lineage, and connection to her people. Talyn is Tonk, a race that, while settled down from life as nomadic tribes, hold tightly to its traditions. and the Tonk have been at war for 300 years with the Eastils, a kingdom occupying the opposite side of their continent. Talyn and her people are bound to the war by honor, kinship, and religion, and philosophy. While much of the fighting is over certain land rights, the clash between the Tonk democratic city-states and the Eastil representative republic is largely political and religious.

Talyn herself was drafted into the Tonk army as a young girl, her gift for magic marking her as one of the elite Shielders. Able to step into the View, Talyn and other Magics can bend the essence of life to defend from and attack Eastil Magics.

But this war that has raged for 300 years comes to a sudden halt as the Feegash, a race respected both for its elite army and diplomatic skills, brokers peace between the countries. The resulting disarmament leaves Talyn and the other warriors in shock, and many of them go overseas for promising jobs around the world. Talyn herself embraces her hobby as a jeweler and tries to come to grips with being a warrior in peace time. She is soon visited by Skirmig, a Feegash diplomat, and finds herself strongly attracted to him. Despite her own misgivings, Talyn begins a relationship with Skirmig and he begins to teach her Feegash magic, a cousin to her own abilities.

Taking a break from lessons, Talyn roams outside and is confronted by an Eastil ex-soldier. He fears his friends have been kept prisoner, not released like the rest at the end of the war. Talyn uses Skirmig and his position to have the prisoners released, and hides them in her own house. But to do so, Talyn must do Skirmig a favor and move in with him. Soon Talyn discovers that something is wrong with Skirmig and the other Feegash – they are amoral and relish pain and suffering. And yet she can do nothing, for Skirmig has magically subverted her will to forget the depravities of his people. Skirmig hopes that, as they continue her training in Feegash magic, she will realize that good and evil are petty concepts.

But Talyn stumbles upon something during their training, and a melding of her magics and Feegash releases her from Skirmig’s hold. But not his grasp, and Talyn undergoes horrible torture at the hand of Skirmig and his servants. Thankfully she is soon rescued by Gair – one of the Eastil prisoners, now recovered, and the two escape while the city burns down around them. Skirmig, enraged by her betrayal, has unleashed his army, who quickly trample the disarmed populace and secures them under his magic compulsion.

Talyn must now lead the fight against Skirmig and his hordes, her only weapons are the magic she has developed and Gair, an enemy bound to her by a common foe. But to do so Talyn must come to terms with her fears, her gods, and her own involvement in the fall of her people.

Lisle manages to pack an amazing story into these 500 pages. The world, people, and language of Korre, raw and alien to the reader at the start of the novel, soon becomes familiar. The story, while oddly paced, is captivating in its description of Talyn and her plight. But I must warn you, the fantasy here is some of the darkest I’ve ever read; definitely adult in nature. Lisle’s depictions of the emotions, actions, and perditions of Talyn are… striking.

In writing Talyn, Lisle merges dark fantasy with equal parts political/moral philosophy and dime-store trashy romance. While reading the book, I found myself comparing Talyn more to the science fiction novels of the 50s and 60s than modern depthless fantasy. And frankly, it was refreshing. Before this book, A Song of Ice and Fire had been as mature as mainstream fantasy had been willing to get. My thanks to Fyrefly for the recommendation; I look forward to the upcoming sequel.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Other Reviews of Talyn: Fyrefly’s Book Blog, Book Wyrm Reads, Scifi Bookshelf