Jason Steed: Fledgling

On LibraryThing I wrote "An exciting adventure story that is inappropriate for its target audience because of its casual homophobia. I also disliked the clumsy caricatures of members of the royal family."

Jason Steed is the son of an officer in the Royal Navy, who he seldom sees and he is raised in Hong Kong by a nanny. On a trip to England when he is five, Jason goes to a ceremony at Buckingham Palace and saves Princess Catherine when she falls in a koi pond. After his return to Hong Kong, he becomes interested in martial arts and becomes adept in many forms. At age 10, he is sent to a prestigious boarding school in England, saves a boy from being bullied by beating them up, and becomes best friends with Scott. He also reconnects with Princess Catherine who attends a sister school. Jason joins the Sea Cadets and goes away to summer training camp. When a nearby mission by Royal Marines goes wrong, many Sea Cadets are killed, leaving show more Jason to save the day, utilizing his ability to speak Chinese, his experience in flight simulators, and his martial arts prowess, managing to rescue the captured marines and recover a cassette to avert war. Fun, but not as good as the Alex Rider books. show less

Jason Steed's mother died during childbirth and his father is a remote Naval officer who is never around. Rather than wallow in self-pity, Jason has made himself strong, resourceful, and resilient. At 5 years old, Jason begins martial arts training and becomes exceptional by the time he is 11. When he decides to use his skills to become part of a group called the Sea Cadets, he finds himself in a situation that takes him way beyond a simple training exercise.

Fledgling is the first book in the Jason Steed series. Although the story is exciting and filled with adventure, the book is quite problematic. Much of the dialogue is stilted and sounds unrealistic. The pacing of the story is way off as much of the meat of the plot happens toward show more the end of the book. In addition many of the situations in the story seem much too far-fetched to be believable. However, even with all of these issues, Fledgling manages to be an exciting read and an intriguing beginning to the Jason Steed series. show less

An exciting adventure story that is inappropriate for its target audience because of its casual homophobia. I also disliked the clumsy caricatures of members of the royal family.

A rattling good adventure yarn for teenage readers, with some very emotional bits.

This book was originally self-published by the author, and it does show in a few places where some extra editing or reviewing could have avoided jarring older readers out of the story - for example, Jason's paternal grandparents are said at the start of the book to have been killed by an IRA car bomb in the early 1960s, which is around 10 years too early - the IRA weren't active in the early 60s, and didn't use car bombs until around 1970. The WW2 aircraft Jason uses in the climactic chapter is described throughout as a B-24, but at one stage the author uses the term "Flying Fortress", which was the B-17 (the B-24 was the "Liberator"); judging by what show more Jason did with the plane (being a bit vague here to avoid spoilers), I suspect it actually was supposed to be a B-24 as the design of the B-17 wouldn't really cater for his actions! Anyway, if you're not a WW2 or 60s/70s history buff, this won't matter, just treat it as a great adventure story. show less

I read several reviews that claimed Fledgling was better than the Alex Rider series. Although I enjoyed the book, I don't feel it is near the caliber of the Alex Rider books. Fledgling is a good adventure story about a British boy, Jason, who, while living in Hong Kong, starts martial arts very early in his life and excels at it. Jason also has a dad who is mostly absent from his life so Jason has a lot of unsupervised time. He joins the Sea Cadets and loves it. While on a training outing, something unexpected happens, which lands eleven year old Jason in the middle of a secret and deadly mission. This is book one and book two is called Fledgling: Revenge of Boudicca.

The writing in this book was kind of atrocious, the plot was incredibly unbelievable, and it was completely corny and cheesy. However, middle school students seem to love it, and I even found a few parts mildly enjoyable. There is quite a bit of set-up to this book, so I'm assuming that the next books will all start out with a bigger bang. There is PLENTY of action at the end of this book. Ridiculous, implausible, violent action, but action nonetheless. Once again - right up a middle grade boy's alley. (I read somewhere that this was Prince William's favorite book. Really?)

Is it worth listing all the things that irritated me about this book?

*A ten year old boy dancing with a girl, kissing a girl and wanting to be with her all the time? show more Has the author ever met any 10 year old boys?
*The Queen of England began a sentence with, "You have showed great bravery..." Is that a British vs. American thing? Because that is not proper grammar where I come from, and you would think the Queen could manage to speak The Queen's English.
*The 10 and 11 year old kids were speaking like 70 year olds.
*I couldn't stand Jason's father. I kept thinking he would redeem himself, but not so much. Even at the end, when his little boy is having nightmares because of the horrible things he has experienced, he just tells him that those memories will fade as he replaces them with better ones. Wow, very healthy. And I'm sure PTSD patients everywhere appreciate knowing that as well. Once again, is this a cultural thing? All of the British "stiff upper lip" business? I wouldn't have believed it was possible for a book to be too British for me, but this one might be.

I could go on and on, but it doesn't really matter what I think, it is a middle school student's fantasy. An 11 year old takes on scary enemies with his superhero-like abilities and saves the adults who couldn't save themselves.

Areas of concern:
*There are a few instances of profanity along with cussing. (The *d* word and *h* word for the Yanks out there, coupled with 2 words that are much more offensive for Brits than for Yanks.)
*I was very concerned about the sexualizing of 10 and 11 year olds. Kissing on the lips, along with mention of a form-fitting dress and parents being upset because they slept in the same room one night.
*The main character is put in tremendously stressful and dangerous conditions and experiences killing, being shot and the death of friends.

http://read-me-maybe.blogspot.com show less