I actually read the whole series. I saw the drop in quality, but I kept telling myself he'd get his act together before the last book.
Cut to the Nevermore where James Patterson decided he just didn't care and destroyed the whole world. With a meteor.
I have never read any of these books, though I will go to the mattresses against anyone who says that this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Wind_Blows_(James_Patterson_novel)
which kinda sorta laid the foundations for the eventual series, isn't a cracking book. Patterson's a sort of marmite author for me. Some of his stuff I lap up, other stuff I shy away from.
Yeah, read that one. Decided it wasn't really for me, especially since the sequels have copious amounts of Narm and things like child sex in them.
The first let's say 3-4 books we're enjoyable, but maybe it's just me, but after that it just way to 'tangled up'. I don't care about your love affair! In the last few books, it was like they totally ignored all details and slapped an approval sticker on that said 'Great job folks! It's so brain meltingly (and not in a good way) mushy they won't pay attention to anything else! What?! Angel can suddenly see again? WHAT? And other stuff, but I just lost complete faith in them, and the last book pretty much gave me the wax seal.
Crow: There's a plot?I think the third book was where it became clear to me that the series wasn't actually going anywhere. For the first two books you get the impression that it's all building up to some sort of plot arc and the little mysteries will get answered, but then it never does and just keeps loading up the Shocking Swerves with no end in sight.
Then I read the fourth book and never had any interest in going further.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Getting this set up before someone sets up a thread for this under Comic Book. Pretty much, this is a place to discuss and/or rant about the Maximum Ride series. Knowing how far the series has fallen, though, I won't be surprised if no one posts...