Review of Michael Vey: Battle of the Ampere by Richard Paul Evans

Review of Richard Paul Evans' Michael Vey: Battle of the Ampere

Release Date: May 6th, 2014

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

The hair-raising action continues for Michael Vey in this charged third installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Michael, Taylor, Ostin and the rest of the Electroclan have destroyed the largest of the Elgen Starxource plants, but now they’re scattered across the Amazon jungle. The Elgen have joined forces with the Peruvian army to capture the Electroclan, and only Michael has managed to remain free. With his friends due to stand trial for terrorism—a charge that may carry the death penalty—Michael will need all his wits and his abilities if he’s to save them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Dr. Hatch and his loyal Electric Children have seized control of the E.S. Ampere—the super yacht the Elgen use as their headquarters. With the Elgen fleet now under his control, Hatch heads back to Peru to pick up his army and then begin his quest for global domination.

Michael will have to free his friends then find a way to stop Hatch, but the organization behind the mysterious voice that has guided him to this point has been compromised. Hatch knows Michael and the Electroclan are coming. And he’s ready for them.

Can the Electroclan win the battle of the Ampere? Or has Michael’s luck finally run out?

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I really have enjoyed Evans' Michael Vey series so far. It brings to mind the earlier books in the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson (before it started to drag on, that is). The characters are well thought out, complicated and yet relatable. Michael in particular, with his Turrets Syndrome, is especially relatable in the sense that he has a disability and yet is still able to fight through his problems. It is always great to have a main character who isn't the picture perfect boy next door. 

While I did enjoy this book, I do agree with many readers in the thought that the plot was not as well thought out as the first 2 books. Book 3 is all about the aftermath of Book 2, Rise of the Elgen. They traveled to the jungles of Peru to save Michael's mother from a Starxource plant and in the process blew it up. The may have saved his mother, but in destroying the plant, they have destroyed the power source for the majority of Peru's electricity. So now, not only are they running from Dr. Hatch & Elgen, but the Peruvian government has labeled them terrorists and dispatched its army to hunt them down. They have already captured over half of the Electroclan and now it is up to Michael to save them.

While the plot focuses on the saving of Michael's friends, the fact that most of the book lacks the action of the first 2 really does lose a lot of what I loved about the series. In my eyes, this book could have been seriously condensed and made into a novella... but I know that some of the things that happened in it have opened it up for Book 4. I am just hoping that when I read the next book it picks back up and doesn't slow back down when the book after that is released.