Book: Ark Angel
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Rating: 6.5/10
Recommended age: 10-16
Book 6 of the Alex Rider series starts with Alex recuperating in hospital after an assassination attempt. Whilst there he becomes friendly with Paul the boy next door, a Russian who is the son of a wealthy Russian Drevin.
But when he goes for a stroll in the middle of the night he witnesses a group of people breaking in to the hospital shooting the receptionist and making it clear they're after Paul.
Alex has only minutes to think of something, he runs and manages to trick them into believing he's Paul and a chase all over the hospital begins, Alex takes out all four of the men in various ways but fails to notice a fifth who was driving. He finds himself kidnapped at gunpoint by the group who now appear to be part of a new group of terrorists called "Force Three".
And when they discover he's not Paul he's soon left to die in a burning building stopped from escaping downstairs by a man with a gun, leaving the only choice the roof.
Using a mixture of skill and luck he manages to survive just and gets invited for 2 weeks holidaying with the Russian multi millionaire and the son he saved, on Flamingo Bay a island leased to Drevin by the British government and the site of launch for Ark Angle; the first hotel in space. First he gets to spend some time on their mansion in oxfordshire and starts a race with Drevin senior who quickly shows his competitiveness and desire to win.
Later at a football match one side owned by Drevin he see's some members of Force three again and the striker who missed a penalty turns up dead.
It seems Force Three are launching a campaign of violence against Drevin.
But All is not what it seems, as they fly to Flamingo Bay via New York Alex gets pulled up by immigration and sent to the C.I.A who want to arrest Drevin on numerous criminal dealings with almost every known criminal gang, it seems he's the money man for half the criminal underworld.
Alex is asked to watch him nice and simple.
But soon everything goes wrong, Alex is left to die underwater saved only by another surprising discovery.
But everything will be overshadowed by the enormity of what Drevin is planning to stop himself getting arrested and the key to it is orbiting the earth 300 miles above and Alex is going to experience life as a astronaut with no training and a bomb to find. What awaits him on Ark Angel and will he return?
Read the book to discover
This was a very good book with Alex Rider once again caught up in a world in which he has little choice though this time down to himself and the C.I.A. It is once again completely different to previous stories and Iwas once again hooked on it. It's a great story and there are many surprises for anyone reading it.
I would recommend the series to any teenager.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Reviewer
UK :
USA:
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Wednesday 4 May 2011
Tuesday 3 May 2011
BOOK REVIEW: Rangers Apprentice- The Ice Bound Land (John Flanagan)
Book: The Ice Bound Land
Author: JohnFlanagan
Rating: 7-8
Recommended Age: 11+
In the third book of the series Will and Evanlyn are being taken to Skandia as captives of Erak, a fearsome but fair Skanadian wolfship captain after being captured destroying a key element of the evil Moragarth's invasion plans in the second book and thus causing him defeat. The two of them are the only profit Erak got in the ill-fortuned venture with Morgarath and intends to sell them as slaves.
Meanwhile Halt has sworn to rescue him but he isn't given permission as he's needed to help track down Morgarath's remaining lieutenants. Frustrated at the number of fake bandits pretending to be the feared men in order to rob people he comes up with a desperate plan to release him from duty.
He goes into a bar and starts drinking heavily, then he makes some "unpleasant" remarks about the king. This get him arrested for treason. Punishment for which is death or banishment. As one of the Kings closest advisers Halt who has saved the Kingdom on many occasions has created a awkward problem but one which the King soon solves: He is banished form the kingdom! but for only a period of one year.
And so Halt is free to go and save Will from his soon to be life of slavery . And he does not leave unaccompanied, With his and Will's horse and more surprising Will's friend Horace , a young but natural swords man he sets off to travel to Skandia to rescue his apprentice.
This book on details mainly on Halt and Horace travel through Galica. A country with a weak king and run by warlords who claim and seize power through strength and fear rather than loyalty. A country where on almost every Bridge there will be a knight waiting to rob you. it's a huge nuisance to Halt but not for long. He sits back and Marvells at Horace's skill as he neatly dispatches each opponent they come across. and continue there journey.
By this point Will and Evanlyn are on the last leg of their journey to Hallasholm, the main city where the Skandian ruler lives. Here they are taken in as slaves. Evanlyn is set to work in the main house with the kitchen staff but Will is sent to work in the yard. Merciless outdoor work in the cold winter. Yard slaves generally don't live long and get addicted to a dug called warmweed which keeps them warm but numb and senseless. This seem thing happens to Will and before long he has lost all recollection of the past and personality and only loos forward to his next dose of the drug.
Back with Halt and Horace and they have been taken to the castle of Deparieux the local warlord, whose cruelty shows no bounds, he constantly flogs his staff and puts them in cages. He isn't sacred of Horace and his reputation and seems more interested in Halt and his mysterious abilities.
They have no choice but to wait until he relaxes convinced they are no danger or useless to him then leave or deal with him.
Meanwhile Erak see's what has become of Will and meets Evanlyn to try and help her and him escape. working together they lay a false trail and manage to get Will and Evanlyn herself to relative safety in the mountains. There's a hunter cabin and dry rations that should last them. now all Evanlyn needs to do is slowly ween Will off his addiction and pray he recovers.
And Halt and Horace finally find a way to deal with Deparieux.
Will Will Recover?
Will Halt and horace ever survive and find them?
and what will become of Will and Evanlyn ever see home again?
Read this great book to find out.
This was yet another great book in the series and the adventure and suspense is always changing but somehow always is right. It's a great book in what looks like a great series and I would say buy it.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer
UK :
USA:
Germany:
Author: JohnFlanagan
Rating: 7-8
Recommended Age: 11+
In the third book of the series Will and Evanlyn are being taken to Skandia as captives of Erak, a fearsome but fair Skanadian wolfship captain after being captured destroying a key element of the evil Moragarth's invasion plans in the second book and thus causing him defeat. The two of them are the only profit Erak got in the ill-fortuned venture with Morgarath and intends to sell them as slaves.
Meanwhile Halt has sworn to rescue him but he isn't given permission as he's needed to help track down Morgarath's remaining lieutenants. Frustrated at the number of fake bandits pretending to be the feared men in order to rob people he comes up with a desperate plan to release him from duty.
He goes into a bar and starts drinking heavily, then he makes some "unpleasant" remarks about the king. This get him arrested for treason. Punishment for which is death or banishment. As one of the Kings closest advisers Halt who has saved the Kingdom on many occasions has created a awkward problem but one which the King soon solves: He is banished form the kingdom! but for only a period of one year.
And so Halt is free to go and save Will from his soon to be life of slavery . And he does not leave unaccompanied, With his and Will's horse and more surprising Will's friend Horace , a young but natural swords man he sets off to travel to Skandia to rescue his apprentice.
This book on details mainly on Halt and Horace travel through Galica. A country with a weak king and run by warlords who claim and seize power through strength and fear rather than loyalty. A country where on almost every Bridge there will be a knight waiting to rob you. it's a huge nuisance to Halt but not for long. He sits back and Marvells at Horace's skill as he neatly dispatches each opponent they come across. and continue there journey.
By this point Will and Evanlyn are on the last leg of their journey to Hallasholm, the main city where the Skandian ruler lives. Here they are taken in as slaves. Evanlyn is set to work in the main house with the kitchen staff but Will is sent to work in the yard. Merciless outdoor work in the cold winter. Yard slaves generally don't live long and get addicted to a dug called warmweed which keeps them warm but numb and senseless. This seem thing happens to Will and before long he has lost all recollection of the past and personality and only loos forward to his next dose of the drug.
Back with Halt and Horace and they have been taken to the castle of Deparieux the local warlord, whose cruelty shows no bounds, he constantly flogs his staff and puts them in cages. He isn't sacred of Horace and his reputation and seems more interested in Halt and his mysterious abilities.
They have no choice but to wait until he relaxes convinced they are no danger or useless to him then leave or deal with him.
Meanwhile Erak see's what has become of Will and meets Evanlyn to try and help her and him escape. working together they lay a false trail and manage to get Will and Evanlyn herself to relative safety in the mountains. There's a hunter cabin and dry rations that should last them. now all Evanlyn needs to do is slowly ween Will off his addiction and pray he recovers.
And Halt and Horace finally find a way to deal with Deparieux.
Will Will Recover?
Will Halt and horace ever survive and find them?
and what will become of Will and Evanlyn ever see home again?
Read this great book to find out.
This was yet another great book in the series and the adventure and suspense is always changing but somehow always is right. It's a great book in what looks like a great series and I would say buy it.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer
UK :
USA:
Germany:
Monday 2 May 2011
BOOK REVIEW: Rangers Apprentice-The Burning Bridge (John Flanagan)
Book: Rangers Apprentice- The Burning Bridge
Author: John Flanagan
Rating: 7/10
Recommended Age: 10-11 +
In the second book of the series the kingdom of Araluen is preparing for war against Morgarath.
Halt and his apprentice Will, are tracking a small group of Wargals, foot soldiers and beast recruited and control by Morgarath. They have been spotted passing through Redmont pursuing someone.
Their target is soon found as Halt and Will stumble across the Wargals attacking one man. Despite their intervention the man is killed and Will panics when faced with charging Wargals and misses his shot,luckily Halt and Tug(Will's horse) deal with them but Will has had a huge knock to his confidence.
Looking at the dead man they find a copy of Morgaraths battle plans, this could give huge advantage in the upcoming war.
Weeks later in the middle of the night Halt's former apprentice Gilan turns up looking for help. He needs 2 people to travel to Celtica with him and wants Will and one other who can be spared to go with him. This will fulfill the Celtic requirements for a embassy invoking an alliance.
So the next day Will,Gilan and Will's friend Horace are off into Celtica to invoke the defence treaty between the two countries.
But all is not what it seems, The border post is unguarded, the towns deserted. It seems that the people have just disappeared. They make a camp and while Gilan does some investigating Will and Horace practise the combat skills using sticks, so they are left seemingly helpless when 2 bandits arrive. Fortunately Horace still has his sword behind a rock near him and manages to dispatch the 2 opponents with ease, he's a natural swordsman after all and these are just armed thugs.
They have learnt an important lesson and with the return of Gilan restrain the thugs. This is when the Araluen girl Evanlyn appears. She know the reason no one is around. Morgarath has sent his wargals into Celtica and driven the population to the south whilst kidnapping the miners and workmen and taking them somewhere unknown.
Gilan rides off ahead to report to the king leaving the other 3 to follow him back. but then they see Wargals and their prisoners heading somewhere and decide to follow them. Then they make an important discovery, Morgarath is building a bridge across the fissure to allow his army to go through Celtica. But none of this was on the battle plans. Morgarath has tricked them into assembling then he's going to crush them with attacked from the west and south with wargals crossing the bridge and Skanadian mercenaries from the west.
The kingdom is sure to be defeated in a 3 sided attack unless they find a way to prevent at least one element from succeeding.
what do they do? (The clue is in the title). Burn the bridge
But when Will and Evanlyn get caught on the other side of the fissure after making sure the fire didn't go out they seem doomed. Prisoners of the Skandians and sentenced to slavery they are taken away. leaving Horace to ride back to Araluen to report the happenings and warn everyone.
In the coming battle will the Kingdom be able to defeat the wargals of Morgarath and the other Skandians from the west?
Will a Apprentice warrior defeat the the lord of the mountains of rain and night in single combat?
and will Will ever see Halt and Araluen again as he's taken away on a warship?
Read the book and enjoy a adventure that keeps getting better.
A great second book of the series which conclude some things and opens a whole new adventure. The series keeps getting better. It's a must read for anyone interested in adventure and you'd be mad not to buy the series.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer.
UK :
USA:
Germany:
Author: John Flanagan
Rating: 7/10
Recommended Age: 10-11 +
In the second book of the series the kingdom of Araluen is preparing for war against Morgarath.
Halt and his apprentice Will, are tracking a small group of Wargals, foot soldiers and beast recruited and control by Morgarath. They have been spotted passing through Redmont pursuing someone.
Their target is soon found as Halt and Will stumble across the Wargals attacking one man. Despite their intervention the man is killed and Will panics when faced with charging Wargals and misses his shot,luckily Halt and Tug(Will's horse) deal with them but Will has had a huge knock to his confidence.
Looking at the dead man they find a copy of Morgaraths battle plans, this could give huge advantage in the upcoming war.
Weeks later in the middle of the night Halt's former apprentice Gilan turns up looking for help. He needs 2 people to travel to Celtica with him and wants Will and one other who can be spared to go with him. This will fulfill the Celtic requirements for a embassy invoking an alliance.
So the next day Will,Gilan and Will's friend Horace are off into Celtica to invoke the defence treaty between the two countries.
But all is not what it seems, The border post is unguarded, the towns deserted. It seems that the people have just disappeared. They make a camp and while Gilan does some investigating Will and Horace practise the combat skills using sticks, so they are left seemingly helpless when 2 bandits arrive. Fortunately Horace still has his sword behind a rock near him and manages to dispatch the 2 opponents with ease, he's a natural swordsman after all and these are just armed thugs.
They have learnt an important lesson and with the return of Gilan restrain the thugs. This is when the Araluen girl Evanlyn appears. She know the reason no one is around. Morgarath has sent his wargals into Celtica and driven the population to the south whilst kidnapping the miners and workmen and taking them somewhere unknown.
Gilan rides off ahead to report to the king leaving the other 3 to follow him back. but then they see Wargals and their prisoners heading somewhere and decide to follow them. Then they make an important discovery, Morgarath is building a bridge across the fissure to allow his army to go through Celtica. But none of this was on the battle plans. Morgarath has tricked them into assembling then he's going to crush them with attacked from the west and south with wargals crossing the bridge and Skanadian mercenaries from the west.
The kingdom is sure to be defeated in a 3 sided attack unless they find a way to prevent at least one element from succeeding.
what do they do? (The clue is in the title). Burn the bridge
But when Will and Evanlyn get caught on the other side of the fissure after making sure the fire didn't go out they seem doomed. Prisoners of the Skandians and sentenced to slavery they are taken away. leaving Horace to ride back to Araluen to report the happenings and warn everyone.
In the coming battle will the Kingdom be able to defeat the wargals of Morgarath and the other Skandians from the west?
Will a Apprentice warrior defeat the the lord of the mountains of rain and night in single combat?
and will Will ever see Halt and Araluen again as he's taken away on a warship?
Read the book and enjoy a adventure that keeps getting better.
A great second book of the series which conclude some things and opens a whole new adventure. The series keeps getting better. It's a must read for anyone interested in adventure and you'd be mad not to buy the series.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer.
UK :
USA:
Germany:
Sunday 1 May 2011
BOOK REVIEW: Time Riders (Alex Scarrow)
Book: Time Riders
Author: Alex Scarrow
Rating: 7.5/10
Recommended Age: 11-16
Wonder what happens when mankind invents time travel. Everything goes wrong. Supposed do-gooders travel back and make things worse. the whole of history is affected. What can be done to stop this?
A secret agency without a name, whose operatives are tasked with watching out for time shifts and correcting history when it goes wrong. These people are known as Timeriders.
Liam O'Connor should have died when the Titanic sunk at sea in 1912 trapped on deck E as she fills with water and buckles. But then he See's the man offering him a way out.
Maddy Carter should of died in 2010 in a plane crash. But then She sees the man offering a way out.
And Sal Vikram should of died in a fire in 2026. Then she See's the man offering a way out .
They have been recruited into the Timeriders agency tasked to protect time and stop time travel from changing and destroying the world. They are trained by the man Foster, the one who saved them into their 3 roles. Sal needs to spot changes, Maddy locate them and Liam travel back to fix them. Transported into a time bubble at New york the day before and after the Twin towers terrorist attack so that no one will pay them any undue attention.
Here they are trained using a point in time where anything they will do will correct itself . Liam goes in with foster and changes history, then Maddy and Sal have to work out where and what's changed.
Meanwhile in the year 2066 in a world dying through over population,smog and global warming. A person called Kramer is trying to track down the original time machine, then one supposedly destroyed by it's creator after he realised the danger of time travel and the international law banning it was brought into place. In a museum archive Kramer and his troops search for the machine with armed police closing in all the time.
When they do find it they hasten back in time and space to Der Kehlsteinhaus in 1941. Also known as Hitlers bunker the Eagles Nest. Their he fights his way into Hitlers chambers before the garrison is awoken and 300 troops come storming at them and advises Hitler on how to win the war.
Back in New york suddenly everything changes. The city changes into part of a greater Reich under the command of Kramer. he deposed Hitler and conquered all of Europe and America. Now it's the first chance for the team to work together to fix history.
Liam is sent back in time to 1956 with a humanoid AI support unit named Bob who has all the data necessary to travel in Germany and return to their time. But when they arrive in America for a information gathering mission they find the white house under attack from the Nazis, and the last American Resistance fails under the onslaught of Kramer's troops. They find out that history was changed over 10 years earlier with Kramer's arrival and his ascension to Fuhrer status in the Greater Reich. So they need to go back another 10 years. But when Liam is captured and they miss the return time window. Bob changes his orders. He needs to rescue Liam and he starts doing that by raiding prison camps looking for him and releasing the other prisoners. With his Ai mind and body he takes a lot of shots before getting damaged and can heal himself over time. This makes him a perfect symbol of resistance and is soon followed into his raids by those he saves.
Kramer on the other hand is slowly going mad and is convinced that someone is going to stop him from changing the world. He realises that it would be a kindness to end the world now to stop it from becoming the smog-filled ,over populated Hell it will become in the future. he joins an atomic bomb to a newly designed time frame to magnify it's power and boom.
In the future there is another shift as New York is turned into a post apocalyptic hell filled with mutated creatures who cannibalise themselves. It's now a race against time for Bob to find Liam and bring back the information needed to stop this from happening. The power is running out in the time bubble of operations and the creatures are closing in.
With limited power, a member captured in the past, the information required to fix things searching for him and a load of flesh hungry mutants. can they pull of the operation to fix history. or is the world doomed to be a hell filled with cannibals ?
Read this book to find out
This book is the first of what looks like a very promising series. It's almost a mixture of sci-fi,action and horror. The confusing workings of time and the effect of things in the past makes you have to think quite carefully and I found it to be a very interesting and enjoyable book.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer
UK and Europe:
USA:
Author: Alex Scarrow
Rating: 7.5/10
Recommended Age: 11-16
Wonder what happens when mankind invents time travel. Everything goes wrong. Supposed do-gooders travel back and make things worse. the whole of history is affected. What can be done to stop this?
A secret agency without a name, whose operatives are tasked with watching out for time shifts and correcting history when it goes wrong. These people are known as Timeriders.
Liam O'Connor should have died when the Titanic sunk at sea in 1912 trapped on deck E as she fills with water and buckles. But then he See's the man offering him a way out.
Maddy Carter should of died in 2010 in a plane crash. But then She sees the man offering a way out.
And Sal Vikram should of died in a fire in 2026. Then she See's the man offering a way out .
They have been recruited into the Timeriders agency tasked to protect time and stop time travel from changing and destroying the world. They are trained by the man Foster, the one who saved them into their 3 roles. Sal needs to spot changes, Maddy locate them and Liam travel back to fix them. Transported into a time bubble at New york the day before and after the Twin towers terrorist attack so that no one will pay them any undue attention.
Here they are trained using a point in time where anything they will do will correct itself . Liam goes in with foster and changes history, then Maddy and Sal have to work out where and what's changed.
Meanwhile in the year 2066 in a world dying through over population,smog and global warming. A person called Kramer is trying to track down the original time machine, then one supposedly destroyed by it's creator after he realised the danger of time travel and the international law banning it was brought into place. In a museum archive Kramer and his troops search for the machine with armed police closing in all the time.
When they do find it they hasten back in time and space to Der Kehlsteinhaus in 1941. Also known as Hitlers bunker the Eagles Nest. Their he fights his way into Hitlers chambers before the garrison is awoken and 300 troops come storming at them and advises Hitler on how to win the war.
Back in New york suddenly everything changes. The city changes into part of a greater Reich under the command of Kramer. he deposed Hitler and conquered all of Europe and America. Now it's the first chance for the team to work together to fix history.
Liam is sent back in time to 1956 with a humanoid AI support unit named Bob who has all the data necessary to travel in Germany and return to their time. But when they arrive in America for a information gathering mission they find the white house under attack from the Nazis, and the last American Resistance fails under the onslaught of Kramer's troops. They find out that history was changed over 10 years earlier with Kramer's arrival and his ascension to Fuhrer status in the Greater Reich. So they need to go back another 10 years. But when Liam is captured and they miss the return time window. Bob changes his orders. He needs to rescue Liam and he starts doing that by raiding prison camps looking for him and releasing the other prisoners. With his Ai mind and body he takes a lot of shots before getting damaged and can heal himself over time. This makes him a perfect symbol of resistance and is soon followed into his raids by those he saves.
Kramer on the other hand is slowly going mad and is convinced that someone is going to stop him from changing the world. He realises that it would be a kindness to end the world now to stop it from becoming the smog-filled ,over populated Hell it will become in the future. he joins an atomic bomb to a newly designed time frame to magnify it's power and boom.
In the future there is another shift as New York is turned into a post apocalyptic hell filled with mutated creatures who cannibalise themselves. It's now a race against time for Bob to find Liam and bring back the information needed to stop this from happening. The power is running out in the time bubble of operations and the creatures are closing in.
With limited power, a member captured in the past, the information required to fix things searching for him and a load of flesh hungry mutants. can they pull of the operation to fix history. or is the world doomed to be a hell filled with cannibals ?
Read this book to find out
This book is the first of what looks like a very promising series. It's almost a mixture of sci-fi,action and horror. The confusing workings of time and the effect of things in the past makes you have to think quite carefully and I found it to be a very interesting and enjoyable book.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer
UK and Europe:
USA:
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