Book Review - Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Title: Dangerous Days of Daniel X
Author: James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
Series: Daniel X (book 1)
Publisher: Century
Release Date: 3 July 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1846052774

Synopsis
Daniel X was born with the world's most extraordinary power: the power to create. With his secret ability, he can conjure anything and everything, from inanimate objects to living, breathing people. This talent has helped him survive--but couldn't save his parents from being brutally murdered. Discovering a strange list of names, Daniel vows to complete his father's mysterious mission and hunt down his family's assassin. Now, on his own, he must uncover the dark truth behind an apocalyptic struggle that will determine the fate of all mankind. But hot on his trail is a cunning killer--one who knows exactly what Daniel X can do. 

My Review
I read and adored the 'Maximum Ride' series by Patterson, it was better than I ever expected. I added him to my list of authors I like. Back in September I gave this book to my Teen Book Group as their read of the month, half of them loved it, the rest hated it. I intended to read it but didn't get round to it. I've had it on my pile ever since. I kept putting it off because I figured once I'd read the first one I would want to read the whole series. But someone requested the book and I thought I had better read it before I return it. 
The chapters are 2-3 pages long each, they are really short and easy to read. At 227 pages it is quite short anyway but the pages have a lot of spacing on and each chapter starts half way down the page so it really is short.
I was intrigued by the start and thought I would enjoy this book but it soon went downhill. If this book had been longer I may have given up but as it was so short and fast paced I decided to finish it. 
Daniel's parents are killed when he is three by an Alien. He isn't an ordinary 3 year old though, he is very advanced and quite possibly an alien himself. He decides to carry on his parents 'List' a file of Aliens that are causing havoc in the world. The closer to the top of the list, the tougher they are.
The premise of this book sounds good, I'm not really into Aliens that much but this sounded different. But I just didn't feel a connection to the main character. He was a bit big headed, a bit wimpy at times and completely delusional. He 'conjures' images of his parents or best friends. at first I thought these were like imaginary friends, then I found out that others could see them, and that they could move/touch/interact with things, I wasn't quite sure what they were meant to be. And no one ever seemed to notice that these 'people' would just randomly pop up. What's with that?
He also gets shot in teh stomach with some super powerful gun but apart from the initial shock and pain he then carries on pretty much as normal, jump down a chute into a swimming pool - fine, never mind that his spleen was hanging out of his stomach two seconds ago! Just didn't click with me. Maybe I'm just too critical but I really didn't get it.
I did like the character 'Phoebe Cook', there is a twist about her in the story that I sort of guessed at, but not in the exact way it turned out, but she was like a grounding, real force in the book, something to hold Daniel down.
I really did think this book had a lot of promise but I felt let down by it. It was an easy read though, I think I finished it in about an hour and a half. Not at all what I expected.

My Rating