  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 06/01/2001 Gr 5-9-Alex Rider's world is turned upside down when he discovers that his uncle and guardian has been murdered. The 14-year-old makes one discovery after another until he is sucked into his uncle's undercover world. The Special Operations Division of M16, his uncle's real employer, blackmails the teen into serving England. After two short weeks of training, Alex is equipped with several special toys like a Game Boy with unique cartridges that allow it to scan, fax, and emit smoke bombs. Alex's mission is to complete his uncle's last assignment, to discover the secret that Herod Sayle is hiding behind his generous donation of one of his supercomputers to every school in the country. When Alex enters Sayle's compound in Port Tallon, he discovers a strange world of secrets and villains including Mr. Grin, an ex-circus knife catcher, and Yassen Gregorovich, professional hit man. The novel provides bang after bang as Alex experiences and survives unbelievably dangerous episodes and eventually crashes through the roof of the Science Museum to save the day. Alex is a strong, smart hero. If readers consider luck the ruling factor in his universe, they will love this James Bond-style adventure. With short cliff-hanger chapters and its breathless pace, it is an excellent choice for reluctant readers. Warning: Suspend reality.-Lynn Bryant, formerly at Navarre High School, FL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. - Copyright 2001 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2001 Horowitz, author of The Devil and His Boy (BCCB 3/00) and screenwriter for many British television mysteries, here turns to thrillers with a youthful slant. Alex is only fourteen when his uncle and guardian is killed in a strange car accident; upon investigation, he finds that the “accident” involved a hail of gunfire and that there’s a great conspiracy to ensure silence about the matter. His uncle’s employers, a division of the hush-hush intelligence agency MI6, consider Alex a useful replacement for his uncle and send him off to investigate Herod Sayle, the Egyptian-born creator of the Stormbreaker (a lightning-fast computer), who’s about to give thousands of the machines away free to British schoolchildren. Now trained as an agent and disguised as a young computer-nerd contest-winner, Alex battles danger to discover Sayle’s secret agenda. This baby Bond tale lacks the adult spy series’ humor, and it’s certainly too serious to be entertaining pastiche; as a consequence the clichés (elaborate methods of execution), stock dialogue (“In a way it’s appropriate that MI6 should have sent me a real English schoolboy. Because, you see, there’s nothing in the world I hate more. . . . You bliddy snobs with your stuck-up schools and your stinking English superiority! But I’m going to show you. I’m going to give you what you deserve!”), and stereotypes (evil German servants, evil disfigured servants, evil ugly foreigners) are merely clichés, stock dialogue, and stereotypes rather than affectionate homage or sendup. On the other hand, this has many of the escapist appeals of 007’s exploits, including techno-gimmicks (Alex saves himself with metal-eating zit cream) and hand-to-hand combat (Alex is a karate expert), and the existence of a fourteen-year-old spy is all the more alluring for its complete impossibility. This improbability recalls old-fashioned adventure stories; Alex has more than a touch of an updated Jim Hawkins, and that may be all that young adventurers need. - Copyright 2001 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Booklist - 09/01/2001 When his uncle and legal guardian are mysteriously killed in a car crash, 14-year-old Alex sees his prep-school world overturned in an instant. Police explain in funeral voices that Ian Rider's death was the result of not wearing his seat belt, but that doesn't explain the fresh spray of bullet holes across the car's battered windshield. Finding out what really killed his uncle and saving England become young Alex's new life mission. Inspired by James Bond and his own opulent but lonely boarding school upbringing, Horowitz thoughtfully balances Alex's super-spy finesse with typical teen insecurities to create a likable hero living a fantasy come true. An entertaining, nicely layered novel, especially for boys who may not like to read but have a soft spot for good-verses-evil adventure. - Copyright 2001 Booklist. Loading...
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