Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

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Maximum Ride

The cover for The Angel Experiment
Author James Patterson
Cover artist Kamil Vojnar & Roger Wood
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Young Adult Fiction
Publisher Little, Brown
Publication date April 2005
Pages 449
ISBN 0-316-15556-X
Followed by Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment is the first book in the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. The book is set in the near future and centers around the 'Flock', a group of human-avian hybrids (98% Human 2% Bird) on the run from the scientists who created them.

Contents

[edit] Plot

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Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, The Gasman and Angel are the result of illegal experiments on human children. The 'Flock' as they are referred to in the book are one of only two successful experiments by the School where 'whitecoats' or scientists carry out dangerous experiments.

The Flock escape from 'The School' with the help of Jeb Batchelder, a whitecoat who felt pity for them. For years Jeb cares for the children until he suddenly disappeared and is presumed dead.

The book begins with Angel being abducted by Erasers (A Lupine X Human mix and the only other successful experiment done by the School) who take her back to the School. The Flock then discovers that Ari, Jeb's son, has been turned into an Eraser. Max, Fang, and Nudge go to rescue Angel, leaving Iggy and Gasman home -because Iggy is blind and Gasman cannot keep up.

On the way to The School Max stops to help a girl who is being bullied and ends up being shot in the wing, rendering her unable to get back to Nudge and Fang. She finds the girl that she helped, Ella, who then convinces her to go back to her house. Her mom, who is a veterinarian, helps to treat Max's wound. When they notice her wings, they still accept her. Max starts to have thoughts about what having a real home and family would be like, and compares it to Ella's house. However, when Ella's mom does her X-rays, she notices a chip in Max's forearm that she says cannot be removed. Her guess is that the chip sends out a type of tracking signal. Meanwhile, while looking for Max, Fang and Nudge fly over Tipsico, Arizona, which is where Nudge thinks that her parents live. They find a lady who is similar to her in appearance, but before they have a chance to do anything Ari and the rest of the Erasers show up. They briefly fight the Erasers before flying away. After a couple of days, Max recovers and rejoins the others.

Meanwhile back at their home, Iggy and the Gasman have been fending off Eraser attacks. They decide to leave and join the others. After catching up on each other the Flock head to the School. They see a man remove money from an ATM and who then leaves his card in the machine. Iggy is able to guess the code correctly, so they retrieve two hundred dollars and leave. The Flock then steal a car and drive into a town to eat. At the cafe, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by Erasers and run to the car. They speed away but then, while being chased by Erasers in their van, collide head-on with another one. The Erasers mob the car and capture everyone but Iggy and the Gasman. Iggy and the Gazman escape as the rest of the Flock are taken to the School, where they are reunited with Angel. They discover that Jeb Batchelder is still alive and is working for the School again. He tells Max that she was apparently created to save the world. They are taken to the yard outside the School where the Erasers are let loose on the Flock to kill them. However, just as they begin to fight, Iggy and the Gasman arrive with a flock of hawks and storm the School. The Flock all escape, along with Angel, and decide to go eastwards as they cannot go home.

While heading east, Max experiences excruciating pain from her head that renders her unable to talk or move. She falls from the sky, but Fang grabs her before she crashes to the ground. Then they go to make camp on land. After Max recovers, Angel decides to tell the Flock that she heard someone think about the address of another place like The School that has information about the Flock called 'The Institute', in New York. She also reveals that she heard someone's thoughts about the Flock having human parents.

Max soon experiences the brain attack again, this time accompanied by visions of seemingly random landscapes and people. However, she soon recovers again and they finally reach New York. After entering the subway system, Max has another brain attack and a boy comes up to them and tells them to stop violating his Mac. When he shows them what is on the screen they see the same visions Max has been having during her brain attacks. While in the subway, Max starts hearing a Voice inside her head that seems to be giving her clues about what to do and where to go next and Angel learns how to control people with her mind.

The flock finds the address of The Institute after one of Max's attacks where she sees the name 'The Institute For Higher Living', along with the address. When the flock locate the building they discover that there is no organization like the 'School' inside the building. The woman at the desk becomes suspicious of them and they quickly leave.

Afterwards, Gazzy breaks down, and the Flock decides to go to a restaurant that Gazzy picks out. Problems arise with the staff at the restaurant and the flock has no choice but to fly through a skylight in the ceiling of the building. They realize, now, that people will really notice them - after having their picture (wings exposed) in the newspaper. Walking down the street, a staff member of a barber shop asks them if they want to be "made over". The flock agrees, and asks to be made over, to look completely different.

Then the flock leaves New York and travel to the ocean, where Angel realizes that she can breathe underwater. However, just when starting to relax, they are discovered by Erasers along with Jeb. The Erasers grab Iggy and Max. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy fly up, just out of reach, and Fang fights with Ari. During the battle, Ari smashes Fang's head against a rock, and almost kills him, but Jeb stops him and tells him to wait. Jeb turns to Max and tells her that she should start trying to save the world and he orders the Erasers to leave. While Max begins to check Fang over she suddenly kisses him on the lips. This is the first suggestion in the series that Max has a crush on Fang. Despite his injuries he is able to fly back to New York with the rest of the Flock and they sleep in the subway tunnel again.

When Max's Voice says that there is a pot of gold under every rainbow, Max figures out that they have to enter The Institute through the sewers. Together they discover a grate in the subway tunnel ground and climb down a ladder into the sewer tunnels. Here they find computers owned by the Institution, but they are password protected. Nudge realizes that she can pick up memories from objects and discovers the password. On the computer, Max finds a list of the flock's real names, the names of their parents, and the names of locations, and prints it out. They see that all of the locations are close to Washington D. C. Soon after they start to leave, but they find dozens of mutants locked up in cages. The Flock releases them and begins to escape.

However, Ari tries to stop them, and during the fight, Ari slips in the sewage. Falling down, Max finds herself on top of Ari. An audible crack is heard, and Ari and Max look at each other in surprise. Ari tells Max that he would never have hurt her like this, and then apparently dies, his neck broken. As the flock flies away, they hear Jeb scream, "You killed your own brother!" Angel reveals that she took a dog from one of the cages in The Institute. She names it Total, because of the name on its tag. In the end, the flock starts to head towards Washington D.C

[edit] List of characters

[edit] Max

The main character; Max -short for Maximum- is a 14-year old girl and the leader of the Flock. Her abilities include flight(by wings), the ability to boost to impossible speeds(not until second book), raptor-like vision, extremely good leadership skills, and advanced strength. A voice in her head talks to her sometimes, which is explained in Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. She has mixed feelings for Fang; at some points, he is as if her brother, but she is deeply in love with him. She chose her last name, 'Ride', from Sally Ride, which shows Max's connection to the sky, for herself. Her wings are a light brown with white spots and black streaks.

[edit] Fang

Fang is Max's 14-year old "right-hand man". He is tall, dark, and silent, with long black hair and olive skin. He is commonaly called"The Strong-Silent Type". He is very resilient, often recovering from near-fatal injuries. He also has the ability to fade into the backround when he is completely still. He has a thing for Max, yet is always surrounded by girls that fall for him. His wings are all black with a purple glow in the sunlight.

[edit] Iggy

Iggy is a blind 14-year old boy.His blindness was a result of an attempt by the Whitecoats to improve his night vision that failed drastically. Because of this his senses are sharpened and allow him to crack codes and locks, and identify people by finger- or wing-prints. He is also a good cook. Iggy enjoys making bombs and is commonaly called a pyromaniac. In the fourth book, he discovers that when he is "snow-blinded" or surrounded by pure white, he is able to actually see slightly. He also discovers that he can identify the color of anything he touches without seeing it. His wing color is unknown

[edit] Nudge

Nudge is a 11-year old girl who likes to ask questions. She is extremely talkative though often annoys the Flock with her chatter. Nudge can feel vibrations where people have been(clarivoince) and clean information about them that way. In the fourth book she discovers that she can attract metal to her like a magnet as a new ability. Nudge is also very skilled with computers (thanks to her ability to be able to find out anything by touching it) and cars. Her wings are a tawny.

[edit] The Gasman (aka Gazzy)

Gasman, an 8-year old boy, is the partner in crime of Iggy. He likes to blow things up and joke around, and is able to mimic any voice or sound. He is Angel's blood brother. He also has really bad stomach problems thus giving him the name "Gasman". Later in the fourth book, he develops a new ability to release almost toxic and unbearable farts. His wings are a brown with white spots.

[edit] Angel

Angel, Gazzy's sister, is the youngest of the Flock, being only six years old. Max has a somewhat maternal connection with her and thinks of her as a baby. She can breathe underwater, control people, read minds, can talk to fish and can change her form and appearance, although all that she can do so far is change her into a bird and small african-american girl. She found Total, the talking dog at the Institute.Her wing are white as snow.

[edit] Total

Total is a small, black, friendly terrier, who was rescued from the Institute by Angel. He can talk and jump about 30 feet in the air. In the fourth book, the flock discovered that he is growing wings and can slightly fly.

[edit] Jeb

Jeb is the Whitecoat who rescued the Flock from the School. He is Ari and Max's father. He is also a loving father that cares about the flock and will do almost anything for them. However in most of the books, he seems to be evil, but on other times he really does seem like a good father who will never hurt his kids.like real

[edit] Ari

Ari is Jeb's seven-year old son. He was transformed into an Eraser, but the age he was when the turned him into an Eraser was 3. In the Angel Experiment book, Ari is just a regular Eraser, but in School's Out--Forever, wings have been grafted to his body by Whitecoats, but they are hard for him to use unlike the flock. Deep inside, he really likes Max and wants her to be his friend, but does not show it on the outside. He expires a short time after turning good and helping Max. He dies in the third book.

[edit] Notes


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