 |
Snakehead (Alex Rider Adventure) by Anthony Horowitz
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Anthony Horowitz Edition: Hardcover Format: Bargain Price Published: 2007-11-13 ISBN: N/A Number of pages: 400 Publisher: Philomel
Book Reviews of Snakehead (Alex Rider Adventure)Book Review: The last of a great series! Summary: 5 Stars
Note: The zeros were cast by a troll and her gang, not real and decent people, and are against me personally and not the book or the review!
It's over! "Snakehead," the seventh and last book in the Alex Rider series, concludes the secret service adventures of one 14-year-old English lad. It was a great adventure for our unwilling but lucky super hero, but all good things must inevitably come to an end.
The only spoiler I will give is this: Anthony Horowitz ends the series well. I have my interpretation, but it will sit quietly in my brain so the next reader will conclude the series with the same blank slate I had--no spoilers, no clues, just surprises.
"Snakehead" is just as full of wild adventure, amazing escapes, and clever plotting as each novel in the series. I must declare that I don't have a favorite in the seven. I found each as enjoyable as the one preceding and the one following.
I displayed the first in the series in the small school library where I work just yesterday. I did a quick book talk to two different boys who picked it up. The second checked it out. The first returned today to borrow it! Can't wait to get a student opinion of this exciting series.
Literary merit? The books are well-written, cleverly plotted, and plausible, but the series is strictly escapist fare, adventure par excellence. It's greatest bid for permanence in the pantheon of older children's literature is that it is a link of books that will reinforce a love for reading.
Like the Harry Potter books, the reader must read! Both Harry and Alex are forces for good and dare all to be so. Alex inspires courage, valor, and stamina in the face of great odds. In nearly all of the books, the villain has the face of good but the heart and actions of evil. Alex is placed in circumstances that allow him to discover this truth and thus must act. No coward Alex!
Of course, in a spy series there must be violence, but it isn't graphic. Although there are deaths, there are no curse words, drinking, sex, or anything else objectionable (this sounds silly in the face of deaths and violence), but there it is: a very mild warning. In comparison with video games, the Alex Rider series is Dr. Seuss, OK, maybe something stronger. How about the dangers of The Magic Tree House series magnified by age and locations?
As for "Snakehead," the villain is a Snakehead, one part of Scorpia, who controls black market trafficking in human beings, i. e. moving immigrants for vile purposes. One thing Alex is forced into as a smuggled person is facing a master of Muay Thai (a killer combination of boxing and martial arts used for personal discipline by real masters) in a ring with bets on how long the opponent can last against this master. Need I say that Alex wins? This is not a spoiler since it happens very early in the novel and I am not revealing HOW he wins. Later he will be used as a harvest field for body parts.
"Snakehead" also involves the destruction of an island and all of Western Australia by a tsunami. It is Alex's assignment to stop this from happening.
So I come to a close in the close of a series. Goodbye, Alex Rider. It was great fun while it lasted!
Summary of Snakehead (Alex Rider Adventure)What goes up must come down, and when we last saw Alex Rider, he was as up as can be?in outer space. When he crash lands off the coast of Australia, the Australian Secret Service recruits him to infiltrate one of the ruthless gangs operating across South East Asia. Known as snakeheads, the gangs smuggle drugs, weapons, and worst of all, people. Alex accepts the assignment, in part for the chance to work with his godfather and learn more about his parents. What he uncovers, however, is a secret that will make this his darkest and most dangerous mission yet . . . and that his old nemesis, Scorpia, is anything but out of his life. From the slums of Bangkok to the Australian Outback to the middle of the Timor Sea, Snakehead is Alex Rider?s most action-packed adventure yet.
Teens Books
|
 |
13 Little Blue Envelopesby Maureen Johnson HarperTeen; Published: 2005-08-23; Hardcover; BookBest price: $5.99Price in other shops: $16.99
Far Northby Will Hobbs HarperTeen; Published: 2004-04-13; Paperback; BookBest price: $3.60Price in other shops: $6.99
Things Fall Apart: With Connectionsby Chinua Achebe Holt McDougal; Published: 1999-10; Hardcover; BookBest price: $11.86Price in other shops: $20.53
Holt Physicsby Serway, Faughn Holt Rinehart & Winston; Published: 2002-01-01; Hardcover; BookBest price: $26.95Price in other shops: $103.40
Pe Holt Physics 99by Raymond A. Serway, Jerry S. Faughn Saunders College Publishing; Published: 1999; Hardcover; BookBest price: $25.90Price in other shops: $63.80
Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Likeby Jay Williams Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1984-10-01; Hardcover; BookBest price: $309.46
Dogsong----INSCRIBED----by Gary Paulsen Bradbury Press; Published: 1985; Hardcover; Book
White Stallion of Lipizzaby Marguerite Henry Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Published: 1994-04-01; Hardcover; BookBest price: $176.20
Wings. Aprilynne Pikeby Aprilynne Pike HarperCollins Children's Books; Published: 2009-04; Paperback; BookBest price: $3.99Price in other shops: $15.50
Killers Cousin (Collins Flamingo)by Nancy Werlin Harpercollins Childs; Published: 2002-04-01; Paperback; BookBest price: $0.01
|
|