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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Another very engaging and exciting book in the Alex Rider series. No wonder my student just eat this series up!
This was the read-aloud for my sub job class. We didn't quite finish it before I left but I went back and finished it for myself. Entertaining if highly improbable. I was good until his snowboarded via ironing board down a mountain and landed on top of a train, at that I laughed out loud to the class!
I enjoyed this more than the first. Maybe the style and characters grew on me. Non-stop action and adventure. This time Alex infiltrates a boarding school for troubled rich boys.
A few cheesy jokes keeps this a kid’s book, for sure. Otherwise, non-stop thrills and another mind-boggling mission for a 14 year old kid who kind of takes himself a little too seriously. I don’t think he’s smiled or had a fun moment at all in these first two books. Content warning: no language that I saw this time but a brief, pubescent observation about a young girl in a white bikini (which HAS to be a nod to “Dr. No”).
This was both more exciting and less surprising than the first one, perhaps because I've started watching the series, and this book more closely corresponds to the episode where he ends up at Point Blanc. However the show sort of combines some of the events of the different books (I assume) and puts them all into one big story with his uncle's death being connected with Point Blanc. I enjoyed this book, but man, the book ends so abruptly and without spoiling anything, you know this story has to be picked up in the next book. Which I guess means I need to start the next one fairly soon, lol.
'Point Blank' throws us alongside Alex Rider, teenage spy and MI6 agent as he is tasked with his second dangerous assignment.
People are dead and Alex is the only agent young enough to infiltrate the notorious and secretive Point Blank school. He goes undercover, first with a family in England, pretending to be their son, and then on to the school. This is unlike any other educational institution Alex or the reader has come across.
Only a handful of students attend, and they are given free reign to attend or ignore classes when they arrive. But after some time, all the students begin to comply with the wishes of their headmaster. Can Alex get to the bottom of this case before he too turns into an obedient automaton?
This book was less inspiring than Stormbreaker, which in itself had a number of issues. While it is a thrilling ride, it borders on the absurd rather than the fantastic. There is also the repetitive feeling of the MI6 and fake-Q scenes. Of course, this is a young adult novel that is around 15 years old, so my jaded point of view is quite amiss with the author's original intentions. The worrisome thing is that Alex appears to have put his Uncle's murder, and the identity of the killer on the back burner. It is hardly alluded to at all in this book, which makes it less logical.
We have the same problem of absent female characters, except for the nasty ones. Seems like none of the women Alex meets are ever nice people. He has Jack, but she comes in for one scene in the entire book.
Also, there's an emphasis on the otherness of the villains, which is problematic simply because different does not, and should not, equal evil.
The ending is a surprising one. It comes out of nowhere and works. The book closes on a cliffhanger, not one that works after 15 years, but one that must have had readers of the day chomping at the bit for the next issue.
I am not all that enthused to pick up another Rider book, but I'm sure I'll be pleasantly surprised when I do.
People are dead and Alex is the only agent young enough to infiltrate the notorious and secretive Point Blank school. He goes undercover, first with a family in England, pretending to be their son, and then on to the school. This is unlike any other educational institution Alex or the reader has come across.
Only a handful of students attend, and they are given free reign to attend or ignore classes when they arrive. But after some time, all the students begin to comply with the wishes of their headmaster. Can Alex get to the bottom of this case before he too turns into an obedient automaton?
This book was less inspiring than Stormbreaker, which in itself had a number of issues. While it is a thrilling ride, it borders on the absurd rather than the fantastic. There is also the repetitive feeling of the MI6 and fake-Q scenes. Of course, this is a young adult novel that is around 15 years old, so my jaded point of view is quite amiss with the author's original intentions. The worrisome thing is that Alex appears to have put his Uncle's murder, and the identity of the killer on the back burner. It is hardly alluded to at all in this book, which makes it less logical.
We have the same problem of absent female characters, except for the nasty ones. Seems like none of the women Alex meets are ever nice people. He has Jack, but she comes in for one scene in the entire book.
Also, there's an emphasis on the otherness of the villains, which is problematic simply because different does not, and should not, equal evil.
The ending is a surprising one. It comes out of nowhere and works. The book closes on a cliffhanger, not one that works after 15 years, but one that must have had readers of the day chomping at the bit for the next issue.
I am not all that enthused to pick up another Rider book, but I'm sure I'll be pleasantly surprised when I do.