Monthly Review: Maximum Rider: The Angel Experiment

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style? (You must include a passage or two from the text if you choose this question.)
7. If you've read other books in this same genre, how does this one compare?
8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment is a science fiction and the first book in the Maximum Ride series written by James Patterson. It tells a story about a group of kids experimented on mixed with 2% bird's genes and have extraordinary powers that a bird would have. Now their on the run, evading from the evil scientists who created them, and trying to find out about their origin. Apparently Angel, one of the youngest member of the group, was captured by the Erasers(half man half wolf) and taken back to the "school" to be experimented on again. Now Max and the rest of the group, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, and the Gasman are trying to rescue Angel and away from the clutches of the evil scientists.

James Patterson's style of writing is pretty weird to me, or just something new, because I thought that all writings of any kind your suppose to stick to one type of narrative. He writes in first person narrative with whatever Max is doing,thinking, and feeling, then switches off to third person narrative a few times on different characters around the book. At first I was confused on whats going on in the book and whether or not the author is still talking about the main character, Max. I didn't know you can write in both narratives form, thought it was bad English if you write something like that. I don't remember at all about learning two forms of narrative in the same story from any teachers I had previously. The writing style was just something new for me that I had to get used to and this wasn't the first time I encounter this. Another book I read called, Pendragon, written by D.J. MacHale, was also similar with this book I'm reading. Pendragon, one of my favorite books, talks in first person and third person also in its series. For D.J. MacHale's style of writing, it's a bit different compare with Patterson, because it doesn't jump straight off to first then third narrative like Patterson, it enter in first person by reading a letter in the past and present time with third. On Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, it just goes straight to third person without a hint or clue for the readers, which I usually get confused at those time. Both of these writing are very unique to me and frankly these are the only books I know that put two forms of narrative person into a story. I will show you two quotes from the book, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, when he uses the first and third person.

I pressed my lips together. I was doing the best I could. "Maybe not," I admitted. "We'll never know. Jeb's dead. Now everyone get your gear together." (35)

"Okay, okay," the Gasman said suddenly. "I have an idea. It's risky, and Max will kill is when she finds out." Iggy raised his head,. "Sounds like my kind of idea." (122)

Well the closest genre that comes close to my mind right now with Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment is The Hunger Games, mostly because their both doing something about survival. Maximum Ride is where Max and the rest of the group are trying to run away and escape from the Erasers who are pursuing them, while Katniss in the Hunger Games is fighting to her death in an arena to survive. These two books share some similarity about surviving in the real world and also with animal mutation like the mockingjay in the Hunger games and Erasers in Maximum Ride. Maximum Ride seem more on the fantasy side with superpowers and evil scientists for young readers, while the Hunger Games seem more realistic that could actually happen in our world set in the future. For me, I prefer the Hunger Games more than Maximum Ride, because it has a more sophisticated storyline compare to Maximum Ride which set on one main thing, trying to save Angel who was captured by the Erasers and their origin. The Hunger Games talks more than just some bloody game with a fight to the death thing, it talks about how everything came to be, their hardships living, and revolution throughout the place. I have more interest for the Hunger Games, because it is more realistic to me and has more of my favorite genres like romance, action, post-apocalyptic, etc. I like the superpower thing in Maximum Ride with their ability to fly, read/control minds, and abnormal strengths, but that is about it so far. Even though both the books share similar genres, the plot and characters are completely different with 98% human 2% bird while the other one is about a bloody game. The Hunger Games seem to catch my interest more on the storyline compare to Maximum Ride with a typical saving the world thing.

The most surprising character that stood out to me was the main character, Max, which apparently I thought she was a boy until page fifty when they actually indicate she's a girl.

"Shut up," said the Gasman, and Iggy raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Look. This sucks so bad. Max left us here 'cause she thought we couldn't keep up."(50)

So at that time, I thought she was a boy which never cross my mind that she was a girl, probably because it showed a lot of her masculine side with her tough attitude and her actions. The name even seem to trick me, since not a lot of girls I know have the name Max and commonly known for boys. She is the leader of the six member flock including herself, and the oldest out of all the other 98% human and 2% bird. Max have the ability to fly along with the rest of the flock because of the 2% bird genes that the evil scientists experimented on. Max is the type of person who puts family first and than the rest of the other priorities last, because she cares for anyone even strangers she don't even know. In the book, when Angel got captured by the Erasers, Max swear to herself and the rest of the flock that they would bring Angel back safely in their hands. I like this type of characteristic that Max has, and will do anything for anyone when their in need for help like Angel and Ella. She doesn't think and just act straight away to save people in trouble, which is a good thing to do, but I think it may also be a weakness for her, because she won't realize the full danger of what she got herself into and might actually get killed. For example, when Max saved Ella from a couple of people bullying her, Max got herself wounded with a gunshot on her wing which those people apparently had guns. Max needs to be careful when saving people in order to not get herself hurt again, other than that she is very brave for the things she did that she thought was right.

School and Blogging

Well, summer is right at our doorstep and just about three more weeks until our long agonizing, torturing days in school is almost over, hallelujah(Yes!). So hang in there people, salvation awaits us! Haha... well right back to the topic and this is it, school is almost over and this is officially our last blog aside from the final blog were doing next week. So no more homeworks, projects, TEST, teachers (not you Sutherland, your the best xD), and even those presentation where you have to speak up against your own will or else your grades will go down the drains. None of that and just relaxation all summer long with your friends, family, or whatever your going to do on your vacation. Life will be great, until our next school year begins...

Since all of this is going to happen and this is our last blog, I wonder, will any of the us students in Sutherland's class ever continue blogging again? Or are they just going to leave it untouched, since their class with this is over and have nothing else to do with blogging? I bet a majority of the students will just forget about blogging once their done with it. What I mean is that most of the students will just stop blogging once school is over, and only did it because of the teacher's order. Once their done with that, their just get on with their life as if this was just another ordinary homework assignment in the past. Well maybe not an ordinary homework assignment, but a very unique one and that most of the students won't forget about this. This is all about experiences, I guess, something new that we haven't tried at all with posting up blogs as our assignment for English. I'm wondering is that will any of Sutherland's students still blog even after school is over? Has blogging changed their life (hmm... maybe the word life seem a bit exaggerating, something like your way of thinking or something, I guess?) and became a habit of theirs and something more than just schoolwork.

As for me, blogging was a great experience for me and something new that I haven't tried in my whole life. Well since school is almost over and we won't be needing to blog anymore without a purpose, I guess blogging is obsolete to me. Well maybe not completely unused, I might go on from time to time and put up some blog post even if school is out. And If you been reading my blog posts, I would like to continue and possibly finish my made-up story which I started this year. I like to write stories, because you can practically make up anything you want to write about. So possibly in the future, I might post something new and continue my story and hopefully finish. This is pretty much it, and if anyone is reading this (hopefully), want to like share your opinion/leave a comment about school and blogging whether or not you will still blog even after school is over? I want to know other students' opinion on this mostly out of curiosity if they will still blog in the future from time to time. So thank you Mr. Sutherland for this great new experience you showed us in English other than the regular same old routines done like the other teachers.

Lit Cirle, Letter 3; Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

Angel nodded, smoothing her bear's fur down around its ears. "Yeah. I just asked her to buy it for me. You know, with my mind." pg 287

That would be pretty cool to have a superpower and all that in the real world. I mean Angel have telekinese power and can mostly control other people by telling them what to do. Her ability is very unique and pretty useful if you ask me. You can easily get information from someone else or just tell them what to do. Read their mind to see whats going on in their head and also another extradinary thing she could do is breathe under water. Angel seemed to be very gifted with her abilities to read/control people, and swim for hours without even drowning, but with great powers comes with great responsibilities. Angel will have to learn how to control her powers and use it for good. Her powers to me seem pretty evil, since she can influence people easily to her own needs and mostly do whatever she wants. Angel being evil? Pshhh that would never happen because she is a sweet innocent little girl who would never succumb to evil, or would she?

"You killed your own brother!" pg 408

Oh man, what a pleasant thing to hear after all these times without even knowing, the one who's been hunting you down and treating you mostly like crap, finally killing him right after hearing the news. Ari is Max's brother (well dead brother now), who is the son of Jeb, and now Max knows the truth that she's in this sick mutation family. Wow what a twist, having a younger brother who's been hunting you down, detesting you in every way possible, now in Max's cold blooded hands realizing that she killed her own brother. Also with Jeb, who helped her and the rest of the flock escape from the school, and acted like a father to Max but in reality he really is; hmm a bit confusing don't you think?

QuickWrite: The Rules of Love...?

The rules that dictate the behavior of young men and women in relationship today, is probably because of shyness if their actually going out, or be really comfortable with each other. Either their to scared to ask the other person or just have the guts to ask him/her. Nowadays, If the person really like this other person, their going to spend more time with the other getting to know him/her much more. Texting is pretty common in this twenty first century, where people use this for communication and getting to know the other more person. Also friends might be a big influence toward the person you like, because they can change their mind and opinion about you. For example getting to know your lover's friend and making them like you will make them say that your the right choice. Friends can help change and influence others if your on their good side. If everything seem to work and seem all right, the male usually ask the female out on a date or be boyfriend and girlfriend. Well that's how the liking/asking out system works here nowadays I think?
"Good girls" well... I'm not really sure on that and what they shouldn't violate. I mean like stuff to not have sex? Or cheat on the guy? Be innocent and not be mean or something. Well I'm not really sure on this question, and same goes for the "good boys" also with the not cheating and possibly not having sex too? I don't know... Good couples like bring flowers for the girlfriend, don't fight or abuse each other, and get along really well.
If you break any of these rules, well either the boyfriend/girlfriend find you cheating on them, just guess... you break up what do you expect? Well most of these scenario... For the sex thing umm... If their both ok sure? But underage sex is not right for anyone and it's wrong, because what if the female gets pregnant or something.

Lit Cirle, Letter 2; Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

"If you do see or hear of anything unusual, here's a number for you to call. Thanks for your time. Sorry to disturb you."
Heavy footsteps faded from my hearing. A minute later I felt the front door slam shut.

Hmm for a second there when I first read this quote, I was for sure that the men from the "local law enforcement" (probably Erasers) was surely going to barge into the door and some action will occur, guess I was wrong. Instead the outcome was the men leaving and not even becoming suspicious about the doctor, Dr. Martinez, who was keeping Max hidden in the office. I thought the Erasers were a group of pretty much ruthless predators, expert at hunting down anyone who escaped from the "School," and who wouldn't let anything get in their way, but instead got yelled at to an ordinary veterinarian. The Erasers were all bark, but didn't even bite back to Dr. Martinez. Also, doesn't the Erasers, half-man half wolf, have a keen smell and could find Max pretty easily? Well they sure didn't prove themselves about how deadly they are and their keen nose. The Erasers in my opinion are pretty weak for being half wolf and half men, other than transforming into a hairy person with claws.

"They wanted to help the School," Angel said, gasping out the words through her sobs. "They let them put bird genes in us. And gave us away for money." (227)

Wow this pretty much shocked me, but yet doesn't seem to surprised me that much. How could Angel and the Gasman's parents just gave them away to be experimented on, and let the evil scientists do horrible things to them just for money? That's pretty mess up, but the sad thing is, that it's sometimes even true in this real world. Well maybe not the evil scientists putting bird genes into children, but parents selling their kids off for money or other things like labor. It's horrible for anything like this to happen when your parents would sell you to some stranger only for money, and who knows what the stranger will do to you. What were the parents thinking selling their own children away, couples of sick jerks I say. Well good thing this is a book after all and hope a happy ending will fall upon the flocks.

Deuces

Deuces or as some people call it, big two/thirteen; what a fun game to play right? There are many types of ways you could play it, the types are Chinese, Vietnamese, and ... Well I only know two so thats about it so far. Feel free to leave a comment or so explaining more about this game. Oh yeah forgot to tell you the one thing that is essential to this whole game. Your wondering what type of game this is? Well its a card game and can be up to two through four players. It's actually pretty fun to play this card game once you get the jest of it and understand how to play.
This game is pretty simple, each player gets thirteen cards, and mostly be the first one to win the game by having no cards left. You play by placing down cards that are higher than the last person who placed it, and repeat the steps over again until the first one use up all their cards win. The order of the cards from lowest to highest are three, four, five... etc to jack, queen, king, ace, and two. Two is the highest of all cards, and whoever have the lowest three starts first of the game.
In Viet. style of deuces, the suites from lowest to highest are spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. You can play doubles, triples, or four of a kind if you have the same number. You can also place a straight if your numbers are in order like three, four, five, and etc. up to ace. The lowest straight you can go is with three cards, and if your lucky and have all the numbers to three up to ace that's called a dragon. If someone place a two you could "chop," as in placing a higher set of cards, if you have four kinds of card or three doubles in order. For example having four of a kind like four seven or any other number could chop the two. Having three doubles like two three, two four, and two five could also chop the single two, but if the player place two twos then you have to have five doubles in order to beat it.
Next is the Chinese style of playing deuces. Its a bit different compare to the Viet. style with the different suites and the five card limit. The lowest suites to highest are diamond, clubs, hearts, and spades. With the five card limit, well the name tells you itself that you can only place five cards which is the limit and nothing over it. You can only play five cards straight from numbers order, instead of having three card straight like Viet. Another five card limit is having three of a kind and one pair called, full house, or four of a kind with one card. A flush is any five cards of the same suit, but not in a sequence. A straight flush is having the same straight and same suites, which is the highest five card limit you can play.
That's about it on all I know about this game, so sorry if anything is confusing or just bad grammar, because I rushed through this blog

The Box -Part 3

"Where is the box?" asked the inpatient man, dressed like the commoners of this city, but seem a bit cleaner and less tarnish than the rest.
The short-tempered man with his gray shady hat and pistol in his holster hand out demanding for the box while his bodyguard keeps watch for any intruders. Tora standing at the side quietly, while watching Syrol and the short man do all the talking. She looks around carefully keeping an eye on the bodyguard if anything goes wrong with the deal and worse to come might have to fight him. Almost twice the height of her, the bodyguard has a firm body and probably more well fed than Tora. Better yet, her only weapon is of a rusty knife concealed in her back pocket compared to the man with a much bigger blade whose probably experienced with swordsmanship. Tora is of absolutely no match against this man and wouldn't stand a chance if he was her foe in battle. Considering his massive size, Tora could probably outrun him and escape safely with no harm done, but she knew she couldn't leave Syrol behind to fend off the two. Her only option is to fight this man even if the odds are against her and hopefully survive the ordeal.
Syrol must live was all she could think of, because if he dies there would be no meaning to live in this despicable world, where every man for themselves. Syrol is a gentle and caring person who is always there for Tora. He took her in when she was just about eleven all alone in the wandering street with no family, just on the verge of dieing from starvation. Syrol took her in, fed her, cleaned her, trained her to survive in this harsh world, and mostly acted like a father to her. He was everything to her and would do anything to save him and return back the favor for everything he had done for her.
On most of their missions, Syrol always try to talk things out with his persuasive voice instead of using force to achieve his goals. His voice is very peaceful and it reaches out to the people like a soothing melody. But if peaceful talking can't solve the conflict and things turn to worse, he is a force to be reckoned with. Syrol is a tough adversary against any foe he fights and is skilled in the art of stealth. As time has past, so did his body and his movements are a bit weary. That's why Tora must stand her ground and protect anyone from harming Syrol, even sacrificing her own life to save his.
Tora's hope was starting to build up, having courage to withstand anything that will come at her. Thinking back now, Syrol has been taking care of himself way before Tora had met him, and is an experienced fighter way longer than her. If anyone was to get hurt easily, it was her. Tora's confident was at its highest peak, nothing that she could think of would scare her and she was ready to fight even the bodyguard that is double her size. Then, one look at the bodyguard's arm and all hopes of winning went down the drain. A tattoo was on his arm shaped like a scythe with blue flames on the blades and a snake curled up on the handle of the scythe. Ekans was all she could say in her head, better yet that bodyguard is one of the Black Reapers. Tora lost all hope of winning.

Lit Cirle, Letter 1; Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

First off the book I'm reading is Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment written by James Patterson, hint the title. So far, the storyline is ok for me with the six main characters Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel trying to survive and escape from the half human and half wolf, called the Erasers. Angel, one of the youngest family member got captured by one of the Erasers and brought back to the "School" where they first originally came from or became to what they are now. The whole story seem like something out of those t.v. shows or the old times where a group of heartless scientists conducting in evil experiments on people, stuff like animal mutations. Now Max, Fang, and Iggy are out on a rescue mission trying to save Angel from the evil scientists who will do horrible things to her.

They created us as an experiment. An experiment where we ended up only 98 percent human. That other 2 percent has had a big impact, let me tell you.(2)

This whole quote was mostly the reason that grabbed my attension from the start. It was interesting that just only two percent of them are bird and the rest human, I wanted to know more about it. I thought it was like an experiment that turned them into this(which I was right) or something like they were born with it and have special abilities from the DNA of the bird. This made me wonder if I had just two percent of bird and have some of their abilities like flying or seeing far in the distant, but mainly about the flying part. At first, I thought two percent of bird wasn't that great of a deal, but so far that two percent mostly changed their life and made a big impact to them, looks like I was wrong.

"Shut up," said the Gasman, and Iggy raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Look. This sucks so bad. Max left us here 'cause she thought we couldn't keep up."(50)

Haha this kind of got me surprised and shocked, since I read this far to pg 50. First of all Max is a GIRL, It never came to my mind that she was a male since it showed a lot of masculine things about her, like her tough attitude and how she act (not really sure how to explain it). The name, Max, seem more commonly in a male than a female which caught me off guard when I realized it was a girl. I mean it took like 50 pages until it said the word "she," other then her actual name. I'm like WOW it's a girl, who would have guessed that Max was a girl. I can't wait till I read more of the book to find out anymore surprising things that will stun me.