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{{Short description|Sixth book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz}} |
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{{About|the novel|other uses|Arkangel (disambiguation)}} |
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{{Infobox book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] --> |
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| name = Ark Angel |
| name = Ark Angel |
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| image = Anthony Horowitz Arkangel Cover.JPG |
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| title_orig = Spacecraft |
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| |
| caption = First edition cover |
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| author = [[Anthony Horowitz]] |
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| ⚫ | |||
| image_caption = First edition cover |
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| |
| language = English |
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| illustrator = |
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| cover_artist = |
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| ⚫ | |||
| language = [[English language|English]] |
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| series = [[Alex Rider|Alex Rider series]] |
| series = [[Alex Rider|Alex Rider series]] |
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| genre = [[Adventure novel|Adventure]], [[Spy novel]] |
| genre = [[Adventure novel|Adventure]], [[Spy novel]], [[thriller novel]] |
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| publisher = [[Walker Books]] |
| publisher = [[Walker Books]] |
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| release_date = |
| release_date = 1 April 2005 |
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| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]]) |
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]]) |
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| pages = 326 |
| pages = 326 |
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| isbn = |
| isbn = 0-7445-8324-1 |
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| isbn_note = (first edition, paperback) |
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| congress = PZ7.H7875 Ar 2005 |
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| ⚫ | |||
| oclc = 58984041 |
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| ⚫ | |||
| followed_by = [[Snakehead (novel)|Snakehead]] |
| followed_by = [[Snakehead (novel)|Snakehead]] |
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}} |
}} |
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'''Ark Angel''' is the sixth book in the [[Alex Rider|''Alex Rider'' series]] written by |
'''''Ark Angel''''' is the sixth book in the [[Alex Rider|''Alex Rider'' series]] written by British author [[Anthony Horowitz]]. The novel is a [[spy thriller]] which follows the attempt by the title character, Alex Rider, to stop the space hotel Ark Angel from destroying [[The Pentagon]]. |
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The book was released in the United Kingdom on 1 April 2005<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anthonyhorowitz.com/alexrider/books/arkangel.html |title=Ark Angel announced |access-date=2009-09-14 |publisher=Anthony Horowitz |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225122357/http://www.anthonyhorowitz.com/alexrider/books/arkangel.html |archive-date=2009-02-25 }}</ref> and in the United States on 20 April 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anthonyhorowitz.com/news/archive/feb2006.html|title=Ark Angel in the USA|date=February 2006|access-date=2009-09-14|publisher=Anthony Horowitz news}}</ref> Initial reviews of the book were positive. |
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At a security conference in London, lecturer Max Webber is telling the audience of a dangerous eco-terrorist group named Force Three. After leaving, he receives a call, and it is revealed he has been paid a large amount of money to give this lecture. Webber is warned to be careful, as he is now an enemy of Force Three. The phone explodes, killing him. |
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[[Alex Rider]] is in a hospital, recovering from his bullet wound. He is told that SCORPIA is no longer a threat to him. That night, he goes to the reception for a walk and sees four Force Three members walk in, who demand to see Paul Drevin, the boy in the room next to Alex. Alex takes them out strategically before being knocked out by another. When he comes to, he is being held hostage by Force Three, who think he is Paul. He meets Kaspar, the leader, whose head is tattooed with the world map. Kaspar explains that Nikolei Drevin, Paul's billionaire father, is an enemy of Force Three. Drevin is funding the construction of a space hotel, Ark Angel, a threat to the environment. Alex manages to convince Kaspar he is not Paul. Kaspar decides to kill him anyway, setting fire to the building. Alex manages to escape off the roof. He debriefs MI6, and is released from the hospital. Nikolei Drevin calls to express his gratitude for Alex, inviting him to stay at his house, and to watch Ark Angel being launched. |
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Former [[Special Air Service|SAS]] member Max Webber gives a speech criticizing Force Three, an [[Eco-terrorism|eco-terrorist]] organization. His phone later explodes, killing him. |
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At a soccer match, Alex notices a Force Three member in the crowd. He rushes down to the locker room, where Force Three members are presenting player Adam Wright with a medallion. A Force Three member points a gun at Alex's neck, but Alex escapes. Wright is killed, as the medallion was an explosive. Drevin takes Alex to an island near [[Barbados]] called Flamingo Bay to watch the rocket launch. |
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Meanwhile, Alex Rider is recovering in a hospital after being shot.{{refn|as depicted in [[Scorpia (novel)|the previous novel]].|group=N}} He meets Paul Drevin, the son of Russian billionaire Nikolei Drevin. One night, four men break into the hospital and attempt to kidnap Paul, but Alex overpowers them. However, he is captured by Kaspar, the leader, and imprisoned in an abandoned building where the men reveal themselves as members of Force Three. The men set fire to the building after realizing that Alex deliberately foiled their plan. Alex escapes from the fire and returns to the hospital, where he is debriefed by John Crawley, [[MI6]] Chief of Staff, and later discharged. Back home, Nikolei Drevin convinces Alex to stay with him for two weeks as thanks for preventing his son's kidnapping. |
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When Alex passes through U.S. customs, he is told his passport has expired, forcing him to stay at the aiport.Passport officer Ed Shulsky takes Alex to a secret [[CIA]] base. Joe Byrne, deputy director of the CIA, tells Alex that Drevin is considered to be the biggest criminal in the world. The CIA plans to arrest Drevin, but need Alex to make sure doesn't does not escape. MI6's [[Smithers (Alex Rider)|Smithers]] gives Alex an listener [[iPod]], an inhaler-grenade, and a bottle of "bug repellant," which attracts insects. Alex reluctantly agrees to go to Flamingo Bay. However, Alex's cover is blown when head of security Magnus Payne tells Drevin that he is from MI6. Drevin tells Magnus to kill him. The next day, Alex goes wreck diving. The guard he swims with locks Alex in an old wreck to die. Tamara Knight, Drevin's employee, shows up with Alex's fake inhaler which Alex uses to free himself, and finds out Tamara is a mole. That night, he and Tamara try to alert Byrne's backup team. The pair are caught by Drevin. |
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At a hotel, Drevin holds a press conference about his space project, Ark Angel, which will be the first-ever [[space hotel]]. Alex is treated well by Drevin, but starts suspecting him after realizing that Paul had been given no protection before the Force Three attack, despite claims of always being "a target". Investigating, Alex discovers that Drevin owns the building where Alex was interrogated by Force Three. The following day, Alex participates in a race on Drevin’s private [[go-kart]] track; Alex beats Drevin when the latter attempts to cheat, revealing his hatred of losing. Later, Alex watches a soccer match at [[Stamford Bridge (stadium)|Stamford Bridge]] with the home team, [[Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea]], up against a team owned by Drevin, Stratford East, which loses. Alex encounters Force Three members giving a medal to the team captain who missed the final penalty. Alex is captured by one of the Force Three men, but manages to get away. Alex tells Tamara Knight about Force Three, but the soccer player is killed when the medal, made of [[caesium]], catches fire in the shower. |
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There, Drevin tells Alex everything. He knows of the CIA's investigation, but cannot destroy it, as the investigation is based in the [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]]. He tells Alex that he is placing a bomb on Ark Angel, which will make it fall on the Pentagon, destroying any evidence against Drevin along with [[Washington, D.C.]]. He then tells Alex that he created Force Three to create an enemy. He was going to blame the destruction of Washington on them, conclusively proving it by having them attempt to ambush Flamingo Bay, showing their bodies as proof. When asked how he will fake it, he reveals he doesn't intend to. He has Magnus kill them, who reveals himeself to be Kaspar. |
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Drevin, Tamara, Alex and Paul fly to [[New York City]], but Alex is apprehended at the airport by an immigration official who claims that his passport has expired. This is actually a ruse by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to bring Alex to Joe Byrne, the [[Director of the Central Intelligence Agency|CIA's director]]. The CIA have investigated Drevin's wealth and found it to be attained through underworld contacts; they plan to arrest him for [[money laundering]]. Worried that Drevin will slip away, Byrne assigns Alex to report to him if he sees anything unusual at Flamingo Bay, Drevin's private island, from where Ark Angel [[rockets]] are launched. On Flamingo Bay, Alex intercepts a phone call from Drevin, who will be meeting someone the following night. Later, however, Drevin finds out about Alex's true identity from the security chief, Magnus Payne, and decides to have him killed by sending him to dive into a shipwreck, in which he is locked in. Right when Alex is about to run out of air, Tamara saves him, revealing that she has been Joe Byrne's inside man all along. The two go undercover to investigate Drevin, and see him meeting with Force Three, but are caught when Tamara accidentally sets off an alarm. |
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Alex tells Tamara of Drevin's plan, and she helps him escape. Alex goes down to the house, where he sees Paul, who was told Alex was an enemy. Unable to convince him of Drevin's identity, he knocks him out. Alex steals a power kite and tries to fly to Barbados. CIA men arrive on a boat, and Alex tells them about Drevin's plan as the rocket is launched. Alex is told to stay put and let them handle it, but goes to Drevin's house. Drevin finds him there, about to leave. Drevin heads for his seaplane to leave. Alex, however, attached two canoes to the seaplane's floats, which cause it to crash. Shulsky tells Alex that Drevin was the only one capable of pressing the self-destruct button. |
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Alex is brought to Drevin, who intends to destroy Ark Angel with a bomb and send the wreckage crashing down on [[the Pentagon]] in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington D.C]]. As the project has gone over budget and Drevin stands to lose money if he continues to finance it, he plans to recoup his losses with an insurance payout from the station's destruction, while at the same time destroying the CIA's evidence of his criminal activities. Force Three are actually hired hands, formed to act as scapegoats for Ark Angel's destruction. Payne kills them all, and reveals himself to be Kaspar, the leader of Force Three, with a tattoo of a globe on his head. Alex and Tamara are imprisoned, but Alex escapes and meets the CIA team stationed in [[Barbados]], but the [[Atlas rocket]] with the bomb launches off to Ark Angel. The CIA team storm Flamingo Island and Drevin attempts to shoot Alex in the chaos, but Paul gets hit instead. Drevin leaves Paul and tries to escape, but his plane crashes, killing him. |
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Alex is the only one able to fit into the capsule, and is told to go into space and move the bomb to let it explode without harm. Alex is sent into space. He enters the observation module, but finds Kaspar there. Alex realizes that sending the bomb into space armed would have caused it to go off before it reached Ark Angel, so Kaspar had been sent up with it to arm it when he got there. Alex disarms him before kicking him into a knife. He places the bomb in a toilet and goes back in the [[Soyuz]] module. Ark Angel explodes just as Alex returns to Earth. He lands off the east coast of [[Australia]]. |
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As there is no way to stop the bomb on the ground, Alex travels to Ark Angel in a second [[Soyuz-Frigat]] rocket to deal with it manually. He encounters Kaspar aboard Ark Angel but overpowers him using the effects of zero-gravity and the sun, and Kaspar is stabbed to death by his own knife. Alex then moves the bomb away so that the wreckage from the detonation will simply break up and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry. Ark Angel explodes and Alex falls back to Earth, landing a hundred miles off the coast of [[Australia]]. |
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==Characters== |
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* Alex Rider |
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* Paul Drevin |
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* Nikolei Drevin |
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* Kaspar |
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* Tamara Knight |
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* Joe Byrne |
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{{main|List of Alex Rider characters}} |
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==Reception== |
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Philip Ardagh at ''[[The Guardian]]'' gave ''Ark Angel'' a positive review, stating "It's perfectly pitched at its readership. Ark Angel reads the way a children's thriller should read" and "This is a welcome new addition [to the series]."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/09/featuresreviews.guardianreview30|title=Alex rides again|date=9 April 2005|author=Philip Ardagh |access-date=2009-04-07|work=The Guardian}}</ref> |
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== Notes == |
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{{reflist|group=N}} |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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{{Alex Rider}} |
{{Alex Rider}} |
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{{Anthony Horowitz}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:2005 British novels]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Alex Rider novels]] |
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[[Category:Novels set in Antarctica]] |
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[[Category:Eco-terrorism in fiction]] |
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[[Category:2005 children's books]] |
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[[Category:Walker Books books]] |
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Latest revision as of 20:47, 10 December 2023
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Alex Rider series |
| Genre | Adventure, Spy novel, thriller novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
Publication date | 1 April 2005 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 326 |
| ISBN | 0-7445-8324-1 (first edition, paperback) |
| OCLC | 58984041 |
| LC Class | PZ7.H7875 Ar 2005 |
| Preceded by | Scorpia |
| Followed by | Snakehead |
Ark Angel is the sixth book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The novel is a spy thriller which follows the attempt by the title character, Alex Rider, to stop the space hotel Ark Angel from destroying The Pentagon.
The book was released in the United Kingdom on 1 April 2005[1] and in the United States on 20 April 2006.[2] Initial reviews of the book were positive.
Plot
[edit]Former SAS member Max Webber gives a speech criticizing Force Three, an eco-terrorist organization. His phone later explodes, killing him.
Meanwhile, Alex Rider is recovering in a hospital after being shot.[N 1] He meets Paul Drevin, the son of Russian billionaire Nikolei Drevin. One night, four men break into the hospital and attempt to kidnap Paul, but Alex overpowers them. However, he is captured by Kaspar, the leader, and imprisoned in an abandoned building where the men reveal themselves as members of Force Three. The men set fire to the building after realizing that Alex deliberately foiled their plan. Alex escapes from the fire and returns to the hospital, where he is debriefed by John Crawley, MI6 Chief of Staff, and later discharged. Back home, Nikolei Drevin convinces Alex to stay with him for two weeks as thanks for preventing his son's kidnapping.
At a hotel, Drevin holds a press conference about his space project, Ark Angel, which will be the first-ever space hotel. Alex is treated well by Drevin, but starts suspecting him after realizing that Paul had been given no protection before the Force Three attack, despite claims of always being "a target". Investigating, Alex discovers that Drevin owns the building where Alex was interrogated by Force Three. The following day, Alex participates in a race on Drevin’s private go-kart track; Alex beats Drevin when the latter attempts to cheat, revealing his hatred of losing. Later, Alex watches a soccer match at Stamford Bridge with the home team, Chelsea, up against a team owned by Drevin, Stratford East, which loses. Alex encounters Force Three members giving a medal to the team captain who missed the final penalty. Alex is captured by one of the Force Three men, but manages to get away. Alex tells Tamara Knight about Force Three, but the soccer player is killed when the medal, made of caesium, catches fire in the shower.
Drevin, Tamara, Alex and Paul fly to New York City, but Alex is apprehended at the airport by an immigration official who claims that his passport has expired. This is actually a ruse by the CIA to bring Alex to Joe Byrne, the CIA's director. The CIA have investigated Drevin's wealth and found it to be attained through underworld contacts; they plan to arrest him for money laundering. Worried that Drevin will slip away, Byrne assigns Alex to report to him if he sees anything unusual at Flamingo Bay, Drevin's private island, from where Ark Angel rockets are launched. On Flamingo Bay, Alex intercepts a phone call from Drevin, who will be meeting someone the following night. Later, however, Drevin finds out about Alex's true identity from the security chief, Magnus Payne, and decides to have him killed by sending him to dive into a shipwreck, in which he is locked in. Right when Alex is about to run out of air, Tamara saves him, revealing that she has been Joe Byrne's inside man all along. The two go undercover to investigate Drevin, and see him meeting with Force Three, but are caught when Tamara accidentally sets off an alarm.
Alex is brought to Drevin, who intends to destroy Ark Angel with a bomb and send the wreckage crashing down on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. As the project has gone over budget and Drevin stands to lose money if he continues to finance it, he plans to recoup his losses with an insurance payout from the station's destruction, while at the same time destroying the CIA's evidence of his criminal activities. Force Three are actually hired hands, formed to act as scapegoats for Ark Angel's destruction. Payne kills them all, and reveals himself to be Kaspar, the leader of Force Three, with a tattoo of a globe on his head. Alex and Tamara are imprisoned, but Alex escapes and meets the CIA team stationed in Barbados, but the Atlas rocket with the bomb launches off to Ark Angel. The CIA team storm Flamingo Island and Drevin attempts to shoot Alex in the chaos, but Paul gets hit instead. Drevin leaves Paul and tries to escape, but his plane crashes, killing him.
As there is no way to stop the bomb on the ground, Alex travels to Ark Angel in a second Soyuz-Frigat rocket to deal with it manually. He encounters Kaspar aboard Ark Angel but overpowers him using the effects of zero-gravity and the sun, and Kaspar is stabbed to death by his own knife. Alex then moves the bomb away so that the wreckage from the detonation will simply break up and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry. Ark Angel explodes and Alex falls back to Earth, landing a hundred miles off the coast of Australia.
Characters
[edit]- Alex Rider
- Paul Drevin
- Nikolei Drevin
- Kaspar
- Tamara Knight
- Joe Byrne
Reception
[edit]Philip Ardagh at The Guardian gave Ark Angel a positive review, stating "It's perfectly pitched at its readership. Ark Angel reads the way a children's thriller should read" and "This is a welcome new addition [to the series]."[3]
Notes
[edit]- ^ as depicted in the previous novel.
References
[edit]- ^ "Ark Angel announced". Anthony Horowitz. Archived from the original on 25 February 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ^ "Ark Angel in the USA". Anthony Horowitz news. February 2006. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ^ Philip Ardagh (9 April 2005). "Alex rides again". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
