Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, #1)

by Anthony Horowitz

Alex Rider is a fourteen year old reluctant teenage James Bond. When his uncle dies, Alex finds himself recruited into the shady world of spies and espionage. M16 jump at the chance to blackmail him - if he agrees to be a spy, his caretaker and the only family he has left, Jack, won't be deported. It's a choice that's no choice at all.

But the hits just keep on coming. Worse is finding that his uncle was not only a spy but had been training him his whole life - his early years filled with language lessons, martial arts classes, rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing, lock picking and anything else you could imagine. Worse is being sworn to secrecy and given no mental support (seriously that drives me insane). Worse is being sent into constant danger with various gadgets but no real weapons. Worse is being lied to and manipulated and screwed over so many times it's painful to read.

I love Alex, but I'm also surprised he doesn't have a ton more issues than he does. Each novel is fast paced and action packed. There are daring stunts and lucky saves and many near misses. Reluctant readers will find themselves intrigued. Avid readers will find themselves consumed.

I loved Alex Rider as a kid. I must have read the first five books like fifty million times. Since I'm in the middle of a Cherub reread I thought I'd come back to Alex. It's kind of funny reading them now - I don't quite remember them being so depressing. Alex is a lot more jaded than I ever remember him being. It's also warranted but yeah. MI6 and Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones are horrendous people. Poor Alex gets screwed way too often.

I also remember Alex being a lot more talented than he is. But to my adult eyes, it seems like he's getting by more on luck than pure ability. Still they're great books with lots of action and a reluctant teen spy you can't help but root for.

(show spoiler)[ Everything changes for Alex when his uncle dies in a car accident. But something doesn't add up and Alex is compelled to find out what. Unfortunately he finds more than he bargains when he meets Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones - colleagues of his uncle at M16 and his new legal guardians.

I feel sorry for Alex. How could his uncle not have provided better for him? To have made M16 his legal guardian is cruel. Isn't it bad enough he has no family and Ian's been training him his whole life in between being absent? Spy and risk death or we'll take away the only person left, the only house you've ever known, the friends and school you're used to and put you in an institution - what kind of choice is that? It's just wrong.

And so blackmailed into spying, Alex's first mission is to go undercover as Felix Lester - a computer whizz who won a competition to be the first person to use Stormbreaker - a new cutting edge computer designed by Herod Sayle. To all appearances, Herod Sayle looks like a saint, willing to donate thousands of these new computers to schools all across England. But Ian Rider was investigating him and now Ian Rider is dead, forced off the road as he was due to report his progress to M16.

Armed with a few gadgets a fourteen year old boy would have - zit cream that will disintegrate metal, a yoyo with unbreakable string that can hold his entire weight and a Nintendo with games that can find hidden bugs, xray vision, amplify audio and can fax and scan documents - Alex is left to his own devices. (And what's the deal with no guns? I mean - you're sending a teenager into certain danger but the gun is too far?) Snooping around he soon finds what Herod is up to (each computer has a genetically modified version of smallpox that will activate as soon as the Prime Minister presses the on button and kill all the children (or at least a lot) in London.) - and why. Cause the Prime Minister bullied him as a kid and he wants revenge. Lol nice reasoning.

Working with him are Nadia Vole, a stern German woman; Mr Grin - an ironically named man with no tongue and vicious scars that mimic a grin and Yassen Gregorovich - the assassin who murdered his uncle Yassen! . Soon Alex is in a race against time to prevent the Stormbreakers from going online. And it's pretty epic how he does. He commandeers a plane, then parachutes into the building and proceeds to shoot the Prime Minister in the hand as he goes to press the button, shoots up the button, shoots up the power socket and shoots Herod Sayle.

Alex draws you in and doesn't let you go until the very end. This one isn't quite as good as I remember it being - Alex is just so jaded and the way he continually gets screwed over is kind of depressing - but it's still pretty good. I'd rate this a 4 now, maybe 4.5 but back in the day this was an easy 5 stars, so 5 stars it will remain.

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Action packed, fast paced, a riveting spy thriller. 5 stars.