Max Tilt: Fire the Depths

By: Peter Lerangis

Narrated by: Johnathan McClain

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

The New York Times best-selling author of the Seven Wonders series and books in the 39 Clues series, Peter Lerangis, brings us the enthralling first installment of the adventure-filled Max Tilt trilogy.

When 13-year-old Max Tilt happens upon his great-great-great-grandfather Jules Verne's unfinished, unpublished manuscript, The Lost Treasures, he doesn't realize that he's found the answers to all his problems. And Max has a lot of problems - his mother is sick, his father is out of work, and his home is about to be foreclosed on. But when Max and his cousin Alex discover that Verne's last work reveals everything he wrote was fact, not fiction, they realize that the book holds the key to something incredibly valuable. A treasure that can save his house - and maybe his entire family.

But Max and Alex aren't the only ones who know about Verne's clues. Spencer Niemend, a strange skunk-haired man who has spent his life researching Verne's works, is bent on reshaping the world with the hidden treasure. To find it first, Max and Alex must go on an adventure that'll take them from the broken remains of an underwater city to the very jaws of a giant squid to the edges of a whirlpool from which no one has ever emerged alive.

This is the first book in a new hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat adventure series from master storyteller and New York Times best-selling author Peter Lerangis.

©2017 Peter Lerangis (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"A bold, big-hearted start to a groundbreaking new series." (Soman Chainani, author of The School for Good and Evil)

JUVENILE ADVENTURE TAKES LIBERTIES WITH VERNE

I love Verne, and Captain Nemo in particular. I DID enjoy this book but I didn't care for the way the author further demonized Captain Nemo, especially since the character had more than redeemed himself in the novel, The Mysterious Island. But this book is geared at an upper elementary audience, not to a 57 year-old. So I am going to let this complaint go. The story is very cleverly woven together, incorporating clues and passages from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The main character, Max, has sinestesia as well as a type of asperger's disease which makes for interesting responses to the tense situations occurring throughout the tory. The reader, Johnathan McClain, did a decent job narrating, except for when he was doing Max's and his 18 year-old female cousin, Alex. Overall, the story was fun and takes the reader/listener on a trip around the world under the sea.

Another great series!!

I really enjoyed the book!! I Love that Johnathan McClain read this books also. I can't wait for the next book in this series!

Disappointing

Sadly the story was not what I had hoped for. The story felt one dimensional. The main character came off as the whiny brat you come across at the mall or while shopping, except this one had some serious issues with handling the real world. Not a character I even wanted to relate to.
I wondered if it’d be different if I had read it....because the narrator didn’t help. He paused a lot and when it came to character dialogue his inflection was distracting if not bad.
Overall, I endured the whole story hoping it would get better as it went on....unfortunately it didn’t. I like what I’ve heard from Peter Lerangis before, but I didn’t expect this one. Who knows, this may be a great read....but I wouldn’t call it a great listen.