Maximum Ride: The Manga, Vol. 1

by James Patterson

Book Overview

Fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "Flock"--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--are just like ordinary kids--only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time--like when Angel, the youngest member of the "Flock," is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0759529515
• ISBN13: 9780759529519
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Yen Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 13 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

Ugh. I thought nothing could be better than the actual book then I saw this. Beautiful!!

Honestly? I truly enjoyed this manga. It was a brilliant and accurate adaptation to the book (unlike the movie...) I loved it and it made me want to read the whole series all over again!!!

FrEaKiNg AwEsOmE

i just looooved this book! it follows the original plot fairly closely, and the artworkwas just fabulous! <3ed this book soooooooooooo much!

great Maximum Ride graphic novel!

this graphic novel is awesome! it follows the first part of The Angel Experiment, without leaving out any major details, and does it all with stunning visuals! the artist is talented and understands the story well. the characters' hair and wings are well drawn (my only complaint is, why is Fang's hair so long? it should be more like Iggy's , just black). the drawings bring the story and characters to life. hey, if the movie turns out to be crap, at least we fans have these beautiful graphic novels to enjoy. i loved this first volume, and can't wait until Volume 2!!!

Great take on the Max Ride series!

I was a big fan of the orignal series, i was surprised and excited to hear that it was being turned into a manga novel. Being also a manga fan, it was perfect! The characters were great! Good representaitons of the characters; Angel cute, Iggy good looking, Gazzy a typical 8 year kid. It was fun to read, I've read it 3 times already! Can't wait till the next manga adaptation. I would for sure recommend the manga, but it's even cooler if you read the real books first.

Interesting manga that's good for hooking a reader into the novel

My daughter, Erin, snagged this off the manga shelf at Barnes and Noble the other day and immediately gave me the puppy-dog look. "Can I please have this?" Yeah. Right. Like I was going to say, "No." The thing is, what Erin had keyed in to was direct evidence that not everyone making money decisions in traditional publishing is nominally brain-dead. Maximum Ride is actually a manga adaptation of a YA novel of the same name written by James Patterson. Manga, for those who have been hiding under bibliographic rocks for a while, is an incredibly popular media, especially with the younger age groups. The market probably does more damage to wallets in an ongoing basis that most of the rest of book publishing combined. Thus, the decision by the publisher of the original (and already successful) Maximum Ride to contract for a manga version is actually a really clever marketing move. Not only do they open another revenue stream with a popular age group and media, but they also backfill sales of their novels and all the novel sequels by people who read the first manga, realize that there's a novel, and have to grab the novel to find out what's next. Evil, evil publishing market geniuses. Fortunately for my wallet (and unfortunately for my writing career) they're an endangered species. The Maximum Ride manga itself is an entertaining read. The art by Korean manwa NaRae Lee is top-notch although someone needs to buy that woman a plane ticket to the USA for field research. The story focuses on a group of teens and children who have been created through transhumanist genetic experiments at a DUM-DUM-DUM evil and secret laboratory for reasons unknown (yeah, like no one's every used that plot-device before.) The story begins at a point two years or so after the kids were extracted from the lab by their (now missing) benefactor and hidden away (they think) in the unnamed and unlocated wilds of the western US. Okay, so the setup is a bit hokey. You can say that about a lot of fiction, frankly. In this case, though, the characters are likable if extremely clueless (which may be in keeping with their sheltered upbringing, given the benefit of the doubt.) Another key point is that the story is action-action-action for the most part, which is well in keeping with entertaining the targeted YA market. Frankly, from a manga standpoint, Maximum Ride is a good, entertaining book for its target audience. If it relies a bit too much on overused tropes, eh. That's normal for manga. The entire media is based on reusing clichés. There's also some pretty glaring plot issues, but I doubt they'd really slow down a younger reader. How this reflects on the novel, I can't really say. I do plan on reading it, though. I'm really curious about how the graphic novel version compares to the prose. In any case, I now understand what drew Erin into the series from a distant standpoint. Thank goodness she already collected the novels with her own money. More r

Great Job

NaRae Lee and James Patterson have done a great job with this manga version of one of my favorite books. I can't wait untill the 5th book comes out.