 |
Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Adventure) by Anthony Horowitz
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Anthony Horowitz Brand: Puffin Books Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2006-02-16 ISBN: 0142406147 Number of pages: 352 Publisher: Puffin Product features: - ISBN13: 9780142406144
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Adventure)Book Review: Runner-up to Harry Potter! Summary: 5 Stars
I'm breaking a taboo in this first paragraph to say how much I am enjoying this series for "children" (10 and up). Actually, anyone who enjoys a great spy thriller and very little outright graphic violence would absolutely LOVE this series. Not since Harry Potter have I had such fun!
"Skeleton Key" is the third in the series about Alex Rider, a 14-year-old English school boy, who works as a spy for M16, the U.S.'s equivalent of the CIA. Not that he wants to work as a spy--oh no, he does not, but M16 manages to entangle him every time in a new episode in which, bottom line, he saves the world. That's three times now that he has done so.
The first time was "Stormbreaker," set in the Cornish coast of England, involving a computer scheme unlike any you have heard of. Alex triumphs spectacularly! The second time was "Point Blank," set in an elite school for highly privileged and troubled youth. The school is set on Point Blank in Switzerland. Another, no, make that two spectacular endings in this book!
Let me say that what Anthony Horowitz creates for Alex to know and do are truly preposterous--if you logically examine the plot, but, I'm telling you also truthfully, that Horowitz's skill at writing is such that the reader believes these things CAN happen. Example: Alex must board a departing yacht and does so on skateboard by ramping up a plank, hurtling through air, just barely grasping the handrail, and pulling himself up and over. Allow me to explain: In book one, Horowitz laid the back story to show that Alex was trained in many areas by his uncle, who was a M16 spy, unbeknownst to Alex.
In Book Three, "Skeleton Key," Alex's new assignment is working with two agents from the CIA to explore a mansion on the tip of an island, Skeleton Key, owned by a retired Soviet general, who has serious hanky-panky in mind. It involves uranium and an atomic bomb.
The yacht-leaping takes place in this story. However, Alex is thwarted several times in this adventure, showing the reader that Alex cannot elude every case of danger.
An atomic bomb, world domination, a mad general, and one more put-together Frankenstein assistant. Can a 14-year-old boy handle those? That is absolutely the fun of reading this series--you know he will, but you don't know how!
Highly recommended!!
This is a series that needs to be read in order for the back story, which builds with each book. To begin:
1. Alex Rider: Stormbreaker tie-in novel (Alex Rider Movie)
2. Point Blank (Alex Rider Adventures)
There are currently eight books in the series. Horowitz plans a total of ten.
Summary of Skeleton Key (Alex Rider Adventure)Alex Rider has been through a lot for his fourteen years. He's been shot at by international terrorists, chased down a mountainside on a makeshift snowboard, and has stood face-to-face with pure evil. Twice, young Alex has managed to save the world. And twice, he has almost been killed doing it. But now Alex faces something even more dangerous. The desperation of a man who has lost everything he cared for: his country and his only son. A man who just happens to have a nuclear weapon and a serious grudge against the free world. To see his beloved Russia once again be a dominant power, he will stop at nothing. Unless Alex can stop him first... Uniting forces with America's own CIA for the first time, teen spy Alex Rider battles terror from the sun-baked beaches of Miami all the way to the barren ice fields of northernmost Russia. Come along for the thrilling ride of a lifetime.
|
 |
Tendernessby Robert Cormier Rebound by Sagebrush; Published: 1998-10; Library Binding; BookPrice in other shops: $13.75
Don't Screamby Joan Lowery Nixon Topeka Bindery; Published: 1997-10; School & Library Binding; BookPrice in other shops: $9.83
Ransomby Lois Duncan Laurel Leaf; Published: 1984-08-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $1.49Price in other shops: $6.99
Who Are You?by Joan Lowery Nixon Laurel Leaf; Published: 2001-02-13; Mass Market Paperback; BookBest price: $0.01Price in other shops: $5.50
The Girl in the Boxby Ouida Sebestyen Laurel Leaf; Published: 1999-10-20; Mass Market Paperback; BookPrice in other shops: $4.99
The Spirit Window (Laurel Leaf Books)by Joyce Sweeney Laurel Leaf; Published: 1999-06-08; Mass Market Paperback; BookBest price: $19.71
Kiss Me Kill Me (Scarlett Wakefield Series)by Lauren Henderson Delacorte Books for Young Readers; Published: 2008-01-08; Library Binding; BookBest price: $8.27Price in other shops: $18.99
Death and the Arrowby Chris Priestley Knopf Books for Young Readers; Published: 2003-05-13; Hardcover; BookBest price: $1.00Price in other shops: $15.95
Speed (Smallville Series for Young Adults, No. 5)by Cherie Bennett, Jeff Gottesfeld Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2003-04-16; Mass Market Paperback; BookBest price: $0.50Price in other shops: $5.99
The China Gardenby Liz Berry Turtleback Books: A Division of Sanval; Published: 1999-10; School & Library Binding; BookPrice in other shops: $18.40
|
|