Estimated reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

The following book review is brought to you by the Siskel & Ebert of young adult fiction: Holly and William Jahangiri. I give you the parent’s viewpoint, he gives you the thirteen-year-old boy’s viewpoint. Hmmm…you should probably give more weight to his.

On the whole, James Patterson’s Daniel X: Watch the Skies reads like a comic book and contains about as much emotional depth. To be fair, its non-stop action, alien technology, cool weapons, gooey violence, unusual superpowers, and teen heroics are bound to appeal to young readers. The lack of real emotion makes the gore seem cartoonish, rather than horrifying; however, it also makes the characters less engaging.

As a fan of Patterson’s adult novels, including When the Wind Blows, I was a bit disappointed. I wanted to love this book. But half the town gets “liquefied” by aliens – really nasty, twisted, heartless aliens who aren’t much kinder to each other – and they’re hardly missed.

Here’s a small taste:

?Looks like we got company,? said the personal assistant, nodding at the flashing red and blue lights in the parking lot. A moment later the front door to the diner flew open, and a sheriff and deputy burst in with their guns drawn.

?Hands u ?? the sheriff started to shout, but Number 5 fired a wide-angle ray gun that instantly turned both officers into puddles of something resembling swamp mud.

?Clean that up. I?m eating here,? said Number 5.

The two henchbeasts eagerly turned away from the carcass of their fallen comrade and with long, rubbery tongues devoured the human sludge.

Daniel X owes a nod to one of my favorite movies, Men in Black, only it’s not as funny. And the aliens are kickin’ butt? from the start while the helpless humans are forced to do the Macarena for intergalactic alien entertainment, incubate fishy evil alien spawn intent on destroying the human race, get liquefied on TV for alien laughs, and wait to be saved by a “good alien” teen and his imaginary friends. In the end, it’s as if all the survivors have been zapped by one of the Neuralyzers from Men in Black, and life goes on – mostly as if nothing ever happened.

Daniel does have some amazingly cool superpowers – cool enough to seriously strain credibility at times. Shoot, what middle-schooler wouldn’t give his right arm to be able to do this?

It takes some concentration, and I have to be rested and not taking any allergy medicine, but, really, being able to shoot fireballs or outrace locomotives is nothing next to being able to make friends out of thin air.

The “power to create” is just a tad too convenient; nonetheless, Daniel’s weakness – the inability to invoke his powers if he’s distracted or not paying attention – carries a subtle but important message. Daydreaming is fine, but don’t forget to pay attention to everything that’s going on around you.

If there’s a moral to be had, it’s that “electronics are a conduit for aliens to control you and destroy your planet, so turn that stuff off. Go read a book. And use your imagination, because that’s the greatest superpower in the universe.” Not a bad moral, really, for our video-game-addict, cell-phone toting, TV loving teens.

William’s thoughts on Daniel X

Aliens rule!

Find more videos like this on Max-Dan-Wiz

You can read Daniel X’s blog and watch more videos, including the trailer for Daniel X, the video game, on the Official Web Site for Maximum Ride, Witch & Wizard, and Daniel X.

I’d like to thank www.Mother-Talk.com for the opportunity to review Daniel X: Watch the Skies, James Patterson’s latest science fiction novel for young adults.