Gyt again, and I just got done with the latest book to catch my interest. I’m not a huge fan of James Patterson, but I fell in love with his Maximum Ride series shortly after reading the first few chapters. Because of that, when it was announced he would write another series for kids, I was immediately intrigued. So when my mom finally found a copy of it, I jumped on it just as soon as she got done with it – The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.
Just like Maximum Ride, Daniel X for some reason just reeks of Animorphs-likeness. I don’t know if that’s an actual influence for either series on James Patterson, or if it’s just me as a fan drawing the connections, but either way they do flow very similarly. However, Daniel X, though good, doesn’t stand up to either series.
Let’s get to the story. Daniel X is the story of it’s titular character as he hunts down aliens. Thirteen years prior to the book, Daniel was just an extraordinary two-year old playing with play-doh in his basement. Then, a man with a gun came to his house and mercilessly slaughtered his parents when they don’t give him ‘The List’ he demanded from them. Knowing Daniel was in the house, and still looking for ‘The List’, he revealed his true alien form as The Prayer, a huge praying mantis. He leaves the house when he is unable to find either the boy or ‘The List’, setting it on fire. Just how did Daniel get away you ask? Simple. He transformed into a tick.
Ok, fast-forward thirteen years later and Daniel is using his powers to hunt aliens on ‘The List’. I suppose now is the best time for an explanation (since this is mainly when we get it in the book). See, Daniel himself is an alien. His parents came to Earth to protect the planet from the aliens of ‘The List’. The List itself is a computer laptop, over 5,000 years old, with the names of every bad alien on the planet listed in order of their danger and strength. Back to Daniel, his powers are pretty amazing even for an alien of his race. His power is something that those who destroy can only dream of – the power of creation. In addition to changing his body’s form into that of a tick or anything else he wants, he can almost literally bring people back to life temporarily. He can make matter form into the exact being of his four best friends, his mom, his dad – even his unborn little sister.
This is the first book of a series that as far as I know is undetermined, so naturally a lot of it is spent on explaining what Daniel’s powers are and his quest for vengeance and to finish his parent’s work. I assume the next book will be even better, but only time will tell. In the end, Daniel is a likeable enough character, which is always a good thing in a book where you only see from the main character’s perspective. Getting through the book is as easy as any in the Maximum Ride series as well (and maybe James Patterson’s books period, if The Jester is any indication to his normal style), being written in plain English that anybody can understand. And you can easily get through it in a day if you have the time – the reading goes really fast as the chapters are never more than two and a half pages at most.
So in short, I’d recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of kid’s adventure stories, especially those who are already fans of Maximum Ride. So far it doesn’t hold up to the standard that MR has set, or even to the best kid’s adventure story of all time (IMO at least, though I’m sure few people nowadays even remember Animorphs).
I give ‘The Dangerous Days of Daniel X’ a 6 out of 10. It’s got a ways to go before I’m going to be singing its praises from the rooftops, but it’s definitely off to a good start.