The Devil's Breath

Kirkus Reviews
When his father goes missing, Max Gordon, a clever British teen, finds himself embroiled in a fiendish plot with an ecological slant. Max's quest for his father leads him from Europe to Africa, where he meets Kallie, a headstrong young aviator and !Koga, a bushman boy who may be the only one who can lead Max through the unforgiving South African terrain. Through shrewd detective work, Max discovers that his father is mixed up in the despicable plot of the diabolical Shaka Chang, a plot that could kill thousands of innocent people. Can Max stop Chang in time and save his father and the others? Gilman, a former television writer from the United Kingdom, presents this first book in a series pitched directly to the throngs of Alex Rider fans. Although well-paced and action-packed, Gilman's narration lays it on thick with elaborately descriptive language that at times borders on florid. Still, this will probably serve Horowitz's readers well enough while they await the next in the series ( )

This book is about Max Gordan. He's looking for his father somewhere in Africa. Right before Max left for Africa, an assasin comes after Max. Max runs into the shooting zone and somebody shoots the assasin unintentionally saving Max's life. Max finds his father with the help of a Bushmen boy called !Koga. Max also stops Shaka Chang from destroying the dam and flooding Max's friend, Kallie's village.
This book was interesting. Max was nearly killed so many times in this book. At one point of the book, I thought that Max was killed by a lioness but the lioness had went after a murderer. This book was a little confusing at times but was enjoyable. ( )

I have mixed thoughts about this book. Let me start off that I had to put it on hold for a bit because I didn't have time to continue reading it (Life has its moments). The beginning of the book was very interesting but at the same time a bit dull. Max Gordon is a fifteen-year old boy who attends an all boy school called Dartmoor High, which is located in England. The story begins with an assassin following Max as he is running through the remote part of the school grounds during his spare time.

The assassin is then killed in his attempt to kill Max. The school is near a Military training facility and the killer was caught in the middle of a shooting session. Max then learns that his father has gone missing in Namibia. He also starts to realize that someone wants him dead, but who? Max makes the decision to runaway and search for his Father in Africa in which a great and dangerous adventure lies before him.

I found the whole adventure in Africa to be thrilling. I think Max is a good protagonist, especially for boys. He's headstrong, smart, and can handle situations well under pressure. The descriptions of the Namibia really brought the story to life. My only problem was that in certain parts of the story, there was more telling then showing. This made the story lag a bit and made it a bit difficult to continue reading.

This was a good start in a series. I'm sure the other books will be as interesting as this one. If you're in the mood for an action packed read, then check this one out! ( )

A great adventure/survival story with a little bit of fantasy worked into the plot. Max Gordon suddenly finds his life in danger and at almost the same time, Max's dad, Tom Gordon disappears in Namibia. When some mysterious clues come his way and no one else seems to be looking for his dad, Max sets out on his own to find him. ( )

This book is in the same general vein as the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz: a capable and resourceful teenage boy from England travels to some sort of exotic locale and faces a variety of dangers before saving the day. Lots of action and gadgets, and Gilman introduces a mystical element with the inclusion of African shamanism. If you are looking for high-stakes adventure and plenty of action it may be worth checking this book out, but you will also need to be able to overlook some aspects of the writing that I found distracting.

Gilman is rather obviously accustomed to writing scripts for television shows. I counted at least fourteen distinct viewpoint characters while reading, and the book is just under 400 pages in length (American hardcover release). That makes for a lot of jumping around, even within scenes, and whenever it happens the story turns rather clunky. A television show is better designed for quick changes in viewpoint, and it can accommodate more viewpoints in a single episode than a novel can. (It did not help matters for me that some of the jumps seemed solely for the purpose of explaining why the adults in the story were keeping vital information from the teenagers, even when giving the teenagers that information would have vastly simplified matters for everyone involved. In other words, it felt very artificial as I was reading it.)

It was also just as obvious to me that one of the goals of this story is to impart information in order to educate the readers about environmental and social issues. When information and issues are so obviously presented as such in a novel -- when the main purpose and goal is not to tell a good story -- I tend to resent it, since I was expecting a story and not a lecture or lesson. Including morals and information and serious discussion in a story isn't bad -- it's actually quite important -- but they don't have to be blatant, and it is probably better if they aren't. For one thing, slowing (or stopping) the story in order to explain something can contribute to clunky writing, and in an action/adventure/thriller type story you really don't want to put a high-speed chase on hold in order to describe the countryside. It tends to throw the reader out of the story. ( )