Alex Rider
| File:Alex Rider books.jpg Covers of all the books in the Alex Rider series. | |
| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Spy fiction |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
Publication date | September 4, 2000 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Alex Rider is a series of spy novels by English author Anthony Horowitz about a young spy named Alex Rider. Seven novels have been published to date. The first novel, Stormbreaker, was first released in the United Kingdom in 2000 and was adapted for a motion picture in 2006. The novels are published by Walker Books in the United Kingdom and by Puffin in the United States. Due to primarily being spy fiction, the series is compared to James Bond, the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore[1], the Six of Hearts books by Jack Heath and the Jimmy Coates series by Joe Craig.
Story
Plot summary
The first book opens with a 14-year-old orphan Alex Rider learning that his guardian and uncle, Ian Rider, has died in a car accident. Suspicious about the circumstances of his uncle's death, Alex decides to investigate and discovers that Ian was assassinated while working for MI6. MI6 recruit Alex and place him in a gruelling SAS training camp, before sending him undercover to continue his uncle's investigation of Herod Sayle, a Egyption businessman. Although successful in his mission, Alex decides not to continue as a teenage spy, but MI6 keep finding new missions on which he would be useful and new ways to rope him in. The Alex Rider series has been a great success and has introduced many teenagers to reading. The book Stormbreaker was also made a film.
Characters
When not on missions, Alex lives with his best friend Jack Starbright, a young American woman. After his uncle's death (due to assassination by Alex's worst enemy and professional killer - Yassen Gregorovich), Jack became his legal guardian and stayed in England to care for him. She and Alex live in Chelsea, London, where he attends the local Brooklands School. His school life is often interrupted by the missions set by MI6. Alan Blunt, head of MI6's Special Operations Branch and his second-in-command, Mrs Jones, frequently appear in the novels, usually to brief and debrief Alex about his missions.
New Books
During an interview with Faheem Shaikh, a relatively unknown journalist from Batley, Anthony Horowitz exclusively revealed an excerpt from his new book about teenage spy Alex Rider:
"Alex, do you really think you are the only one?" he said "We offer a way out, an escape, they chase us but we live. Help us save others who are bound by the same shackles, Alex. Join us."
Anthony Horowitz will start writing the eighth Alex Rider book in October/November 2008. Although he had previously said that it would be about the teenage years of the assassin Yassen, he now has that in mind for the ninth book. He plans to set the eighth book partly in Africa, and also stated that there would be two more after it, meaning that there will be a total of ten books in the completed series. [2][3]
Franchise
Novels
- Stormbreaker (September 4, 2000)
- Point Blanc (September 3, 2001) (entitled Point Blank in the United States)
- Skeleton Key (July 8, 2002)
- Eagle Strike (April 7, 2003)
- Scorpia (April 1, 2004)
- Ark Angel (April 1, 2005)
- Snakehead (October 31, 2007)
Graphic novels
- Stormbreaker: The Graphic Novel (July, 2006 - UK) (October, 2006 - USA)
- Point Blanc: The Graphic Novel (September 2007 - UK) (December, 2007 - USA)
Supplementary books
- Alex Rider: The Gadgets (October 17, 2005)
- Alex Rider: The Mission Files (October 6, 2008)[4]