Hour 14.5

Hours Read: 8
Books Read: 3.5
Pages Read: 879

Alex Rider: Stormbreaker Anthony Horowitz

After his uncle, his only living relative, is killed under suspicious circumstances, Alex Rider discovers that he was really a spy for M-16, and killed shortly before stopping something big. M-16 decides to press Alex into service to finish the job. Alex doesn't want to, but is blackmailed into it.

He is sent undercover to a computer facility building the new Stormbreaker, a revolutionary new laptop that is going to be given to every schoolchild in England. Alex knows something's not right about the scene. He also knows that Herod Sayle, the owner and mastermind, and his band of cronies (straight from any spy movie, although Mr. Grin might be a little more Joker-esque) are probably onto him as well.

I do really enjoy the teen-spy-novel genre. I tend to enjoy the ones staring girls more (I'm a sucker for a romantic subplot) but this one was very, very good and if you like teen spies, check it out. (Although, you probably have. This is like, the first/biggest/main teen spy series, and I don't know why I haven't read it before now.)

Here's a really striking quotation-- something that I think a lot of teen spy heroes feel (all in trouble with the law, though many tricked into breaking the law so there's something to hold over them) and with no families, etc (exception being Gallagher Girls and The Squad):

In the end, the big difference between him and James Bond wasn't a question of age. It was a question of loyalty. In the old days, spies had done what they'd done because they loved their country, because they believed in what they were doing. But he'd never been given a chance. Nowadays, spies weren't employed. They were used.

More Books for the Beast

Because it's finally nice and cold and I'm actually wearing a sweater today, today's song is Ten Degrees and Getting Colder performed by Nanci Griffith.

A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray

After the murder of her mother, Gemma Doyle is shipped from India to a stuffy finishing school in England. There she deals with the regular issues of popularity and clique-dom, as well ominious visions that have a bad habit of coming true. All she knows is that Circe is coming, but what that means besides growing shadows, she can't say.

Part historic fiction, part supernatural thriller, Bray attempts to explore the gilded cages Victorian women were forced to live in. In doing so, she's created a cast of thoroughly modern characters who never feel guilty for going against society's, and their mothers', expectations of them. It works much better on a supernatural-thriller level than the historical fiction level. The modernity of the characters in action and attitude didn't sit right.

I'm looking forward to reading Rebel Angels.

Raven's Gate (The Gatekeepers) Anthony Horowitz

Matt was given one chance to stay out of jail. He can go live in a remote village with a creepy, old lady, or go to jail. Once there, things are horribly worng. Anyone who tries to help him dies. When he tries to escape, all roads lead back to the same intersection...

I'll have to admit I haven't read it since I was in 4th grade, but it vaguely reminded me of The Dark Is Rising Sequence, but I can't put my finger on why.

Overall, a little underwhelming-- I expected more from Horowitz.