Research! It's your friend
Part Six:
Hotel California, sort of.
Hah. It is to laugh. They’re going to California. To the School which is sort of like a hotel, but not. I’m not going to really bother with asking how they know of the title of the song.
Okay, so Nudge, Fang and Max are flying off to rescue Angel. They’re flying at about ninety miles per hour. I like how they know how fast they’re flying. It reminds me of the old question of the air speed of a swallow (African or European) carrying a coconut. Which is discussed here In riveting mathematical detail. Obviously if it takes that much math to figure out the air speed of a swallow (African or European) and not even taking into account coconuts. I’m not at all certain how Max, who has an Internet Level education that more than likely doesn’t include higher maths, knows how fast she is going. She doesn’t have any equipment on her to gauge her speed, or the wind currents, or anything else.
There is no possible way for her to know how fast she is flying or how fast she could fly. It is possible that they did testing on her while at the School, but that was more than likely under controlled conditions, which would not, of course, account for actual flying. And again, how are they even capable of long distance flight?
In regards to the fastest flying bird, that would be a Peregrine Falcon which can hit around 120 mph. But, you know, a Peregrine Falcon is built for speed and flying. Humans are not. So it is highly unlikely that they could reach 90 mph much less 120 mph on good wind currents.
And now I’ve just proved I’ve done more research into this flying thing than the author.
Huzzah!
Max and Nudge even managed to have a conversation. While flying. At ninety miles per hour. Because, you know, that’ll be heard easily. It’s all exposition. Max is making sure that Nudge knows what “Plan B” is: Meet up at the north most point of Lake Mead. The school, we learn is in “Death Valley, eight miles due north from the Badwater Basin”.
Um.
Badwater Basin is - besides being the lowest point in the United States - right smack dab in the fucking middle of a National Park. You know. A National Park. Where people, you know, visit. Every day. During the year. And, you know, a bunch of wolf- people, scientists, and kids flying would be noticed. And you know, there aren’t any trees. I say trees because in the first chapter it mentions that she ran through trees to reach a cliff. Which, if Badwater is the lowest point in the Entire Fucking North American Continent, there wouldn’t be any cliffs because that’s the entire fucking point of being the lowest point in the Entire Fucking North American Continent. And there are most certainly not any tress because, you know, they’re in a FUCKING DESERT. This paragraph brought to you by a simple search on the Death Valley National Park Website.
Research. It’s your friend. Use it or look like a complete and utter moron.
Why is the school located, then, in Death Valley. Well so that Patterson could likely have Max make the following joke:
“You got it,” I said. “Good job.” Did you hear that address? Could the School be located in a more perfect place? Death Valley. Above the Badwater Basin. Like, when we got there, we’d see a road paved with good intentions and have to cross the river Styx to get in. Wouldn’t surprise me.
Question: If she was born and raised there, shouldn’t she know what the geography of the School looked like? And so, shouldn’t there not be any surprise giving the landscape features?
Just saying.
Continuity. Please. Remember: it’s your friend too.
The Gasman and Iggy were left behind, as mentioned in the previous section. Fang is not happy -he’s apparently never happy - but instead calm and cool as cucumber. (that cucumber bit was all me).
Nudges’ age is again brought up. We know that she is three years younger than Max and Fang and she’s holding her own. She’s also skinny, likely weight no more than sixty pounds and has strong light birdy bones.
Max starts thinking about setting down to find something to eat, when Nudge brings up some things she saw in Jeb’s files about her. Her real name, it appears, is Monique and she might be from Tipisco, Arizona which is right on the Arizona -California border. And she’s wondering about her real parents, and if they could visit them, though she never gets to say that because Max shuts her down.
She says that they don’t know if they have anything to do with Nudge - even though the names are right on her file - and if they’re test-tube babies or what.
Then we get FORESHADOWING. Max says “I knew this one was going to go come back and bite me in the butt.”
LOOK *points * FORESHADOWING!!! :O :O :O
Wow. That’s even more blatant than some of the stuff in Eragon or the Fifth Sorceress and they had some blatant stuff.
We switch POVs to Angel’s. It’s in third person now, not first. Which is a bit jarring. Angel wakes up in a dog crate. A “Kanine Kamper, size medium” to be exact. How she knows this, I have no idea. I don’t even know why it’s an important detail. I’m sure I’m not going to mention the fact that my cat’s crate is a Petmate of … some size if I were to ever talk about putting him in there. From the smell of chemical disinfectant smell she realizes they’re in the School.
For the grammar nerds out there is: “she would recognize that chemical, disinfectant smell anywhere” a correct usage of the comma?
Angel telepathically hears things in Courier New Font
What she hears is New new ‘n’ wings and new new wings girl new
What she sees are two kids younger than her in a crate next to hers. They’re not very bright, as can be told from these thoughts and clearly rather … animalistic in how they look.
One had rough, scaly skin - literally scaly like a fish, but just in patches, not all over. Not a happy effect.
The other one just looked like... a mistake. He had extra fingers and toes, and hardly any neck. His eyes were huge and bulging, and the hair on his head was sparse. It made Angel’s heart just hurt to look at him.
Now here’s the thing. These two boys are clearly experiments of the School and they’re rather primitive in their thoughts. They haven’t been taught how to speak or think. So, logically speaking, the others who have been at the school longer should be just the same. Perhaps not Angel as she is likely young enough to be able to get out of the feral stage, but Max and the older ones - definitely should still be feral.
And yet they’re not.
Why?
I have no idea. But it is something to think about.
In any case it seems like the reason why they wanted Angel back was because they wanted to cut up here BRAAAAIN and see how she’s psychic.
Yay.
Hotel California, sort of.
Hah. It is to laugh. They’re going to California. To the School which is sort of like a hotel, but not. I’m not going to really bother with asking how they know of the title of the song.
Okay, so Nudge, Fang and Max are flying off to rescue Angel. They’re flying at about ninety miles per hour. I like how they know how fast they’re flying. It reminds me of the old question of the air speed of a swallow (African or European) carrying a coconut. Which is discussed here In riveting mathematical detail. Obviously if it takes that much math to figure out the air speed of a swallow (African or European) and not even taking into account coconuts. I’m not at all certain how Max, who has an Internet Level education that more than likely doesn’t include higher maths, knows how fast she is going. She doesn’t have any equipment on her to gauge her speed, or the wind currents, or anything else.
There is no possible way for her to know how fast she is flying or how fast she could fly. It is possible that they did testing on her while at the School, but that was more than likely under controlled conditions, which would not, of course, account for actual flying. And again, how are they even capable of long distance flight?
In regards to the fastest flying bird, that would be a Peregrine Falcon which can hit around 120 mph. But, you know, a Peregrine Falcon is built for speed and flying. Humans are not. So it is highly unlikely that they could reach 90 mph much less 120 mph on good wind currents.
And now I’ve just proved I’ve done more research into this flying thing than the author.
Huzzah!
Max and Nudge even managed to have a conversation. While flying. At ninety miles per hour. Because, you know, that’ll be heard easily. It’s all exposition. Max is making sure that Nudge knows what “Plan B” is: Meet up at the north most point of Lake Mead. The school, we learn is in “Death Valley, eight miles due north from the Badwater Basin”.
Um.
Badwater Basin is - besides being the lowest point in the United States - right smack dab in the fucking middle of a National Park. You know. A National Park. Where people, you know, visit. Every day. During the year. And, you know, a bunch of wolf- people, scientists, and kids flying would be noticed. And you know, there aren’t any trees. I say trees because in the first chapter it mentions that she ran through trees to reach a cliff. Which, if Badwater is the lowest point in the Entire Fucking North American Continent, there wouldn’t be any cliffs because that’s the entire fucking point of being the lowest point in the Entire Fucking North American Continent. And there are most certainly not any tress because, you know, they’re in a FUCKING DESERT. This paragraph brought to you by a simple search on the Death Valley National Park Website.
Research. It’s your friend. Use it or look like a complete and utter moron.
Why is the school located, then, in Death Valley. Well so that Patterson could likely have Max make the following joke:
“You got it,” I said. “Good job.” Did you hear that address? Could the School be located in a more perfect place? Death Valley. Above the Badwater Basin. Like, when we got there, we’d see a road paved with good intentions and have to cross the river Styx to get in. Wouldn’t surprise me.
Question: If she was born and raised there, shouldn’t she know what the geography of the School looked like? And so, shouldn’t there not be any surprise giving the landscape features?
Just saying.
Continuity. Please. Remember: it’s your friend too.
The Gasman and Iggy were left behind, as mentioned in the previous section. Fang is not happy -he’s apparently never happy - but instead calm and cool as cucumber. (that cucumber bit was all me).
Nudges’ age is again brought up. We know that she is three years younger than Max and Fang and she’s holding her own. She’s also skinny, likely weight no more than sixty pounds and has strong light birdy bones.
Max starts thinking about setting down to find something to eat, when Nudge brings up some things she saw in Jeb’s files about her. Her real name, it appears, is Monique and she might be from Tipisco, Arizona which is right on the Arizona -California border. And she’s wondering about her real parents, and if they could visit them, though she never gets to say that because Max shuts her down.
She says that they don’t know if they have anything to do with Nudge - even though the names are right on her file - and if they’re test-tube babies or what.
Then we get FORESHADOWING. Max says “I knew this one was going to go come back and bite me in the butt.”
LOOK *points * FORESHADOWING!!! :O :O :O
Wow. That’s even more blatant than some of the stuff in Eragon or the Fifth Sorceress and they had some blatant stuff.
We switch POVs to Angel’s. It’s in third person now, not first. Which is a bit jarring. Angel wakes up in a dog crate. A “Kanine Kamper, size medium” to be exact. How she knows this, I have no idea. I don’t even know why it’s an important detail. I’m sure I’m not going to mention the fact that my cat’s crate is a Petmate of … some size if I were to ever talk about putting him in there. From the smell of chemical disinfectant smell she realizes they’re in the School.
For the grammar nerds out there is: “she would recognize that chemical, disinfectant smell anywhere” a correct usage of the comma?
Angel telepathically hears things in Courier New Font
What she hears is New new ‘n’ wings and new new wings girl new
What she sees are two kids younger than her in a crate next to hers. They’re not very bright, as can be told from these thoughts and clearly rather … animalistic in how they look.
One had rough, scaly skin - literally scaly like a fish, but just in patches, not all over. Not a happy effect.
The other one just looked like... a mistake. He had extra fingers and toes, and hardly any neck. His eyes were huge and bulging, and the hair on his head was sparse. It made Angel’s heart just hurt to look at him.
Now here’s the thing. These two boys are clearly experiments of the School and they’re rather primitive in their thoughts. They haven’t been taught how to speak or think. So, logically speaking, the others who have been at the school longer should be just the same. Perhaps not Angel as she is likely young enough to be able to get out of the feral stage, but Max and the older ones - definitely should still be feral.
And yet they’re not.
Why?
I have no idea. But it is something to think about.
In any case it seems like the reason why they wanted Angel back was because they wanted to cut up here BRAAAAIN and see how she’s psychic.
Yay.