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After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.Tags
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You know how there are those books that you see everywhere, in every library, in every bookstore, and then one day you just break down and pick it up? This is one of those books.
And I should have just left it.
The first few pages were fine--I was all prepared to get sucked into this book . . . I mean, I'd seen it EVERYWHERE, after all. It had to be good, right? It happened with the Pendragon books, it'll happen here too, yeah?
And then everything after those pages was complete nonsense. I was immediately disenchanted. But before I go into large-scale issues, I'd like to mention that these are the paragraphs that immediately set me against this book:
"'We can't just send in another agent . . . He'll be expecting a replacement. Somehow we show more have to trick him."
"We have to send someone in who won't be noticed. Someone who can look around and report back without being seen. We were considering sending down a woman. She might be able to slip in as a cleaner or a kitchen helper.'"
. . . I kid you not, this is actually in the book. The whole novel had this sexist voice, and the worst of it is that this is set in the current time. Really! She can slip in as a cleaner or a kitchen helper.
Also, a thing of note: the only PoC in this book was the villain . . .
The whole book was empty. Empty motives propelling empty actions. I couldn't even tell you what Alex's character is like. He's just a cardboard vessel that the "plot" throws around. Not to mention that I was shaking my head at each new "twist" because they were all impossible and completely ridiculous. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to close the book for a moment to groan and try to surpress the urge to throw the thing at the wall (it might have been the fact that it's a library book that saved it).
Dialogue was sometimes laughable . . . and way out of character. Alex, a 14-year-old boy saying "Nor can I" (or something along those lines)? Really? Does that actually happen or . . . ?
Oh and I wouldn't want to leave out this lovely example expressed by the villain: "'You've done well, Alex. . . I congratulate you. And I feel you deserve a reward. So I'm going to tell you everything."
Wooooow.
This is great literature right here.
It's like Horowitz is trying to reinforce the assumed notion: oh kids are only interested in violence and action and BOOMS! Everything else is dispensable.
Because at the end I think I counted at least 4-5 huge mushroom explosions. That were completely unnecessary. But OH GOD EXPLOSIONS, MAN.
He's trying to trick his readers into thinking something epic is happening when it's really something trivial.
I'd advise everyone against reading this book. It may keep young readers turning pages, but there's better literature out there that'll do the same without the cheap effects and gimmicks. show less
And I should have just left it.
The first few pages were fine--I was all prepared to get sucked into this book . . . I mean, I'd seen it EVERYWHERE, after all. It had to be good, right? It happened with the Pendragon books, it'll happen here too, yeah?
And then everything after those pages was complete nonsense. I was immediately disenchanted. But before I go into large-scale issues, I'd like to mention that these are the paragraphs that immediately set me against this book:
"'We can't just send in another agent . . . He'll be expecting a replacement. Somehow we show more have to trick him."
"We have to send someone in who won't be noticed. Someone who can look around and report back without being seen. We were considering sending down a woman. She might be able to slip in as a cleaner or a kitchen helper.'"
. . . I kid you not, this is actually in the book. The whole novel had this sexist voice, and the worst of it is that this is set in the current time. Really! She can slip in as a cleaner or a kitchen helper.
Also, a thing of note: the only PoC in this book was the villain . . .
The whole book was empty. Empty motives propelling empty actions. I couldn't even tell you what Alex's character is like. He's just a cardboard vessel that the "plot" throws around. Not to mention that I was shaking my head at each new "twist" because they were all impossible and completely ridiculous. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to close the book for a moment to groan and try to surpress the urge to throw the thing at the wall (it might have been the fact that it's a library book that saved it).
Dialogue was sometimes laughable . . . and way out of character. Alex, a 14-year-old boy saying "Nor can I" (or something along those lines)? Really? Does that actually happen or . . . ?
Oh and I wouldn't want to leave out this lovely example expressed by the villain: "'You've done well, Alex. . . I congratulate you. And I feel you deserve a reward. So I'm going to tell you everything."
Wooooow.
This is great literature right here.
It's like Horowitz is trying to reinforce the assumed notion: oh kids are only interested in violence and action and BOOMS! Everything else is dispensable.
Because at the end I think I counted at least 4-5 huge mushroom explosions. That were completely unnecessary. But OH GOD EXPLOSIONS, MAN.
He's trying to trick his readers into thinking something epic is happening when it's really something trivial.
I'd advise everyone against reading this book. It may keep young readers turning pages, but there's better literature out there that'll do the same without the cheap effects and gimmicks. show less
'Stormbreaker' was everything I expected it to be: a fast-paced, action-oriented, teen-spy adventure with operatically bad baddies, a megalomanic plot that the main evil baddy monologues to the captive, soon-to-die (yeah, like anyone who has seen a Bond movie expects that to happen) hero and lots of chases and exploding vehicles and a finale where our hero grandstands in an iconic London location.
I liked the start of the story best. Alex's investigation into his uncle's death and his encounters with the British Secret Service were fresh and engaging.
Alex's first assignment lacked any of that originality. It was a clone of a standard James Bond plot. It worked because it was done with a completely straight-face. A sort of, 'You didn't show more complain when Fleming did this, so give me a break' attitude that I liked. The plot becomes rapidly more and more absurd and lines more and more cheesy (my favourite was the evil assassin telling Alex, 'Killing is for grown-ups. You are just a boy.') but it worked because it had had 'Suspend Disbelief All Yea Who Enter Here' written at the top of every page. The reader is invited to relax and enjoy the ride.
Perhaps the most credible part of the plot was that the whole nation was put at risk by the ego of a Prime Minister who had been a bully at school, was still a bully now and had such a large majority that everyone felt obliged to laugh at his lame humour. There's realism for you.
A couple of things caught me by surprise:
- The good guys weren't very nice. Alex isn't recruited into spying for the British government, he's Shanghaied. I found this quite convincing. There's a sign of the times for you.
- It seemed odd to me that Alex Rider kept referring to his dead uncle by his full name, even in his thoughts. It made Alex seem a little cold-blooded, something that was reinforced by an absence of grief from the beginning..
- The persistence of a World War II German baddy stereotype who, although fluent in English, still uses the odd German phrase and introduces herself as 'Fraulein Vole'. Who does that? At any moment I expected her to say 'Hande hock, Englischer schweinhunde'.
'Stormbreaker' was a few hours of light, fast, fun with enough promise to make put the series on my 'comfort read' list. I'm told the plots get better. I hope that the speed and lightness of tone are maintained.
I recommend the audiobook version. I think Oliver Chris did a good job with the narration. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.
https://soundcloud.com/walkerbooks/sets/alex-rider-audio-extracts show less
Alex Rider is a fourteen year old reluctant teenage James Bond. When his uncle dies, Alex finds himself recruited into the shady world of spies and espionage. M16 jump at the chance to blackmail him - if he agrees to be a spy, his caretaker and the only family he has left, Jack, won't be deported. It's a choice that's no choice at all.
But the hits just keep on coming. Worse is finding that his uncle was not only a spy but had been training him his whole life - his early years filled with language lessons, martial arts classes, rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing, lock picking and anything else you could imagine. Worse is being sworn to secrecy and given no mental support (seriously that drives me insane). Worse is being sent into show more constant danger with various gadgets but no real weapons. Worse is being lied to and manipulated and screwed over so many times it's painful to read.
I love Alex, but I'm also surprised he doesn't have a ton more issues than he does. Each novel is fast paced and action packed. There are daring stunts and lucky saves and many near misses. Reluctant readers will find themselves intrigued. Avid readers will find themselves consumed.
I loved Alex Rider as a kid. I must have read the first five books like fifty million times. Since I'm in the middle of a Cherub reread I thought I'd come back to Alex. It's kind of funny reading them now - I don't quite remember them being so depressing. Alex is a lot more jaded than I ever remember him being. It's also warranted but yeah. MI6 and Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones are horrendous people. Poor Alex gets screwed way too often.
I also remember Alex being a lot more talented than he is. But to my adult eyes, it seems like he's getting by more on luck than pure ability. Still they're great books with lots of action and a reluctant teen spy you can't help but root for.
Everything changes for Alex when his uncle dies in a car accident. But something doesn't add up and Alex is compelled to find out what. Unfortunately he finds more than he bargains when he meets Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones - colleagues of his uncle at M16 and his new legal guardians.
I feel sorry for Alex. How could his uncle not have provided better for him? To have made M16 his legal guardian is cruel. Isn't it bad enough he has no family and Ian's been training him his whole life in between being absent? Spy and risk death or we'll take away the only person left, the only house you've ever known, the friends and school you're used to and put you in an institution - what kind of choice is that? It's just wrong.
And so blackmailed into spying, Alex's first mission is to go undercover as Felix Lester - a computer whizz who won a competition to be the first person to use Stormbreaker - a new cutting edge computer designed by Herod Sayle. To all appearances, Herod Sayle looks like a saint, willing to donate thousands of these new computers to schools all across England. But Ian Rider was investigating him and now Ian Rider is dead, forced off the road as he was due to report his progress to M16.
Armed with a few gadgets a fourteen year old boy would have - zit cream that will disintegrate metal, a yoyo with unbreakable string that can hold his entire weight and a Nintendo with games that can find hidden bugs, xray vision, amplify audio and can fax and scan documents - Alex is left to his own devices. (And what's the deal with no guns? I mean - you're sending a teenager into certain danger but the gun is too far?) Snooping around he soon finds what Herod is up to (each computer has a genetically modified version of smallpox that will activate as soon as the Prime Minister presses the on button and kill all the children (or at least a lot) in London.) - and why. Cause the Prime Minister bullied him as a kid and he wants revenge. Lol nice reasoning.
Working with him are Nadia Vole, a stern German woman; Mr Grin - an ironically named man with no tongue and vicious scars that mimic a grin and Yassen Gregorovich - the assassin who murdered his uncle Yassen! . Soon Alex is in a race against time to prevent the Stormbreakers from going online. And it's pretty epic how he does. He commandeers a plane, then parachutes into the building and proceeds to shoot the Prime Minister in the hand as he goes to press the button, shoots up the button, shoots up the power socket and shoots Herod Sayle.
Alex draws you in and doesn't let you go until the very end. This one isn't quite as good as I remember it being - Alex is just so jaded and the way he continually gets screwed over is kind of depressing - but it's still pretty good. I'd rate this a 4 now, maybe 4.5 but back in the day this was an easy 5 stars, so 5 stars it will remain.
Action packed, fast paced, a riveting spy thriller. 5 stars. show less
But the hits just keep on coming. Worse is finding that his uncle was not only a spy but had been training him his whole life - his early years filled with language lessons, martial arts classes, rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing, lock picking and anything else you could imagine. Worse is being sworn to secrecy and given no mental support (seriously that drives me insane). Worse is being sent into show more constant danger with various gadgets but no real weapons. Worse is being lied to and manipulated and screwed over so many times it's painful to read.
I love Alex, but I'm also surprised he doesn't have a ton more issues than he does. Each novel is fast paced and action packed. There are daring stunts and lucky saves and many near misses. Reluctant readers will find themselves intrigued. Avid readers will find themselves consumed.
I loved Alex Rider as a kid. I must have read the first five books like fifty million times. Since I'm in the middle of a Cherub reread I thought I'd come back to Alex. It's kind of funny reading them now - I don't quite remember them being so depressing. Alex is a lot more jaded than I ever remember him being. It's also warranted but yeah. MI6 and Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones are horrendous people. Poor Alex gets screwed way too often.
I also remember Alex being a lot more talented than he is. But to my adult eyes, it seems like he's getting by more on luck than pure ability. Still they're great books with lots of action and a reluctant teen spy you can't help but root for.
I feel sorry for Alex. How could his uncle not have provided better for him? To have made M16 his legal guardian is cruel. Isn't it bad enough he has no family and Ian's been training him his whole life in between being absent? Spy and risk death or we'll take away the only person left, the only house you've ever known, the friends and school you're used to and put you in an institution - what kind of choice is that? It's just wrong.
And so blackmailed into spying, Alex's first mission is to go undercover as Felix Lester - a computer whizz who won a competition to be the first person to use Stormbreaker - a new cutting edge computer designed by Herod Sayle. To all appearances, Herod Sayle looks like a saint, willing to donate thousands of these new computers to schools all across England. But Ian Rider was investigating him and now Ian Rider is dead, forced off the road as he was due to report his progress to M16.
Armed with a few gadgets a fourteen year old boy would have - zit cream that will disintegrate metal, a yoyo with unbreakable string that can hold his entire weight and a Nintendo with games that can find hidden bugs, xray vision, amplify audio and can fax and scan documents - Alex is left to his own devices. (And what's the deal with no guns? I mean - you're sending a teenager into certain danger but the gun is too far?) Snooping around he soon finds what Herod is up to
Working with him are Nadia Vole, a stern German woman; Mr Grin - an ironically named man with no tongue and vicious scars that mimic a grin and Yassen Gregorovich - the assassin who murdered his uncle
Alex draws you in and doesn't let you go until the very end. This one isn't quite as good as I remember it being - Alex is just so jaded and the way he continually gets screwed over is kind of depressing - but it's still pretty good. I'd rate this a 4 now, maybe 4.5 but back in the day this was an easy 5 stars, so 5 stars it will remain.
Action packed, fast paced, a riveting spy thriller. 5 stars. show less
"And the next time they ask you, say no. Killing is for grown-ups and you're still a child."
What an adventure of a book! This story hits the ground running and never lets up. Alex is an amazing kid. He was raised with all the correct steps and training to be the perfect agent, embodied in a young boy. and his first assignment just might kill him.
I hadn't expected to like this book - I thought it would be a little boring and unrealistic. But, it just zooms through and you really find yourself rooting Alex on. And the gadgets were really cool.
all in all, a nice short fun read.
What an adventure of a book! This story hits the ground running and never lets up. Alex is an amazing kid. He was raised with all the correct steps and training to be the perfect agent, embodied in a young boy. and his first assignment just might kill him.
I hadn't expected to like this book - I thought it would be a little boring and unrealistic. But, it just zooms through and you really find yourself rooting Alex on. And the gadgets were really cool.
all in all, a nice short fun read.
{First of 12 in Alex Rider series; children's/ YA, action-adventure, spy} (2000/ 2020)
Alex Rider's parents died when he was a baby so he has grown up with his uncle, Ian Rider. The story opens as the doorbell rings in the middle of the night to let fourteen year old Alex know that his uncle has been killed in a car crash on the way home from one of his many business trips. But then Alex finds out that his uncle was actually a spy and was killed while on a mission to investigate the billionaire, Herod Sayle, who has donated free computers, named Stormbreaker, to every school in Britain including Alex's own comprehensive (Ian Rider thought it would be 'more of a challenge' than any of the smart private schools around Chelsea). The show more computers are soon to be distributed to the schools and will be activated by the Prime Minister in a ceremony on the 1st of April. Ian Rider must have found something, but was killed before he could pass on the information. Someone needs to finish the mission - and so MI6 calls Alex in, whether he wants to or not, to take the place of another boy who won a competition to be the first to try out a Stormbreaker before they are distributed from Sayle's headquarters. It's a good thing that his uncle seems to have been training him to be a spy since he was a baby.
I read the 20th anniversary edition which was published in 2020 and I don't know if it was updated in any way. Stormbreakers are very advanced computers - they boot instantly, for one thing - which may seem like every-day ordinary technology now but would have been ahead of cutting edge in 2000. Remember when connecting to the internet would give you the 'boing boing crrrrr' sound effect and then you'd have to wait for the connection? So, although it has dated slightly (but not too noticeably), it still works.
I did think that the giant jellyfish got a bit of a raw deal. Alex has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth when talking to Sayle:
The story takes place over two weeks and, since Alex is in the heart of the bad guy's territory, he gets thrown into the thick of the action. There were a few deus ex machina moments although Alex's training and Ian Rider's having run the mission previously did explain a lot of things convincingly.
As an adult reader there were one or two moments that made me pause but I think that it works very well for its target audience (tweens and young teenagers); it still kept me reading. Horowitz wanted to write a book about a reluctant teenage James Bond and he's done it well - after all, this book is the first in a best-selling series.
March 2021
5 stars (for its age range) / 4 stars show less
Alex Rider's parents died when he was a baby so he has grown up with his uncle, Ian Rider. The story opens as the doorbell rings in the middle of the night to let fourteen year old Alex know that his uncle has been killed in a car crash on the way home from one of his many business trips. But then Alex finds out that his uncle was actually a spy and was killed while on a mission to investigate the billionaire, Herod Sayle, who has donated free computers, named Stormbreaker, to every school in Britain including Alex's own comprehensive (Ian Rider thought it would be 'more of a challenge' than any of the smart private schools around Chelsea). The show more computers are soon to be distributed to the schools and will be activated by the Prime Minister in a ceremony on the 1st of April. Ian Rider must have found something, but was killed before he could pass on the information. Someone needs to finish the mission - and so MI6 calls Alex in, whether he wants to or not, to take the place of another boy who won a competition to be the first to try out a Stormbreaker before they are distributed from Sayle's headquarters. It's a good thing that his uncle seems to have been training him to be a spy since he was a baby.
I read the 20th anniversary edition which was published in 2020 and I don't know if it was updated in any way. Stormbreakers are very advanced computers - they boot instantly, for one thing - which may seem like every-day ordinary technology now but would have been ahead of cutting edge in 2000. Remember when connecting to the internet would give you the 'boing boing crrrrr' sound effect and then you'd have to wait for the connection? So, although it has dated slightly (but not too noticeably), it still works.
I did think that the giant jellyfish got a bit of a raw deal. Alex has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth when talking to Sayle:
'I love to kill fish,' Sayle went on. But when I saw this specimen of Physalia physalis, I knew I had to capture it and keep it. You see, it reminds me of myself.'
'It's ninety-nine percent water. It has no brain, no guts and no anus.' Alex had dredged up the facts from somewhere and spoken them before he knew what he was doing.
The story takes place over two weeks and, since Alex is in the heart of the bad guy's territory, he gets thrown into the thick of the action. There were a few deus ex machina moments although Alex's training and Ian Rider's having run the mission previously did explain a lot of things convincingly.
As an adult reader there were one or two moments that made me pause but I think that it works very well for its target audience (tweens and young teenagers); it still kept me reading. Horowitz wanted to write a book about a reluctant teenage James Bond and he's done it well - after all, this book is the first in a best-selling series.
March 2021
5 stars (for its age range) / 4 stars show less
I absolutely loved this book! It was the first book I read by this author and it prompted me to read every other Horowitz novel since then. It is a spy novel of a teenage boy named Alex Rider, who ultimately ends up joining MI6 in London. The best part about the novel was that it seemed realistic and was definitely not cheesy which was my major concern in reading a "spy book". The kid's life is not only extremely hard, but the situations he is in are actually frightening, dangerous, violent, and even tragic. Horowitz keeps the plot from becoming too "fluffy" with danger, suspense, and death. I thought the book was witty, and had an intricate and exciting story-line. I would definitely recommend it to friends and anyone who likes an show more exciting mystery and action novel. show less
I'm surprised I actually finished this. I'm not sure how a book about a teenage spy can be dull, but Horowitz somehow managed it. The characters are caricatures, even the mc seems like he's been cut out from boy's own magazine. It's hard to feel any connection to him. I would blame my dislike of the book on the fact that I'm not in the target audience, but I gobbled down the last two kids/YA series I read.
I'm sure this series is well loved by its young fans. It's targeted perfectly for them, unfortunately I don't think there's much in it for anyone else.
I wonder if the series improves in the next instalment.
I'm sure this series is well loved by its young fans. It's targeted perfectly for them, unfortunately I don't think there's much in it for anyone else.
I wonder if the series improves in the next instalment.
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Author Information
234+ Works 84,072 Members
Author and television scriptwriter Anthony Horowitz was born in Stanmore, England on April 5, 1956. At the age of eight, he was sent to a boarding school in London. He graduated from the University of York and published his first book, Enter Frederick K. Bower (1979), when he was 23. He writes mostly children's books, including the Alex Rider show more series, The Power of Five series, and the Diamond Brothers series. The Alex Rider series is about a 14-year-old boy becoming a spy and was made into a movie entitled Stormbreaker. He has won numerous awards including the 1989 Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award for Groosham Grange and the 2003 Red House Children's Book Award for Skeleton Key. He also writes novels for adults including The Killing Joke and The Magpie Murders. He has created Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders for television as well as written episodes for Poirot and Murder Most Horrid. He made The New York Times Best Seller list with his titles The House of Silk Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin and Moriarity.Most recently he was commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate to write the James Bond novel Trigger Mortis. Anthony was awarded an OBE for his services to literature in January 2014. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Notable Lists
BBC's Big Read (107)
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Has the adaptation
Has as a teacher's guide
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Stormbreaker
- Original title
- Stormbreaker
- Original publication date
- 2000-09-04
- People/Characters
- Alex Rider; Herod Sayle; Jack Starbright; Alan Blunt; Tulip Jones; Yassen Gregorovich (show all 10); Mr. Gin; Derek Smithers; Nadia Vole; Wolf
- Important places
- Cornwall, England, UK; London, England, UK; Brecon Beacons, Wales, UK; Science Museum, London, England, UK
- Related movies
- Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (2006 | IMDb)
- Dedication
- For J, N, C & L
- First words
- When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news.
- Quotations
- He had torn the fence out of the ground. Alex ran over to the man and examined him. For a moment he thought it might be Yassen, but it was a younger man, dark haired, ugly. The man was unconscious but still breathing. The... (show all) flamethrower lay extinguished on the ground beside him. Behind him he heard the other bike, some distance away but closing. Whoever these people were, they had tired to run him down, to cut him in half, and to incinerate him. He had to find a way out before they really got serious. (P. 139-140)
"This book is gripping from the first page. A phenomenal book in many ways. It is a must read book." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Alex stood where he was, watching it, until it had disappeared in the dying light.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Tween, Kids, Fiction and Literature, Young Adult
- DDC/MDS
- 823.914 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 1901-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PZ7 .H7875 .S — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Juvenile belles lettres
- BISAC
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- ISBNs
- 155
- ASINs
- 31