Alex Rider

For the title character of the series, see Alex Rider (character).
Alex Rider
Author Anthony Horowitz
Country United Kingdom (UK)
Genre Spy fiction, thriller(Adventure)(Action)
Publisher Walker Books (UK)
Puffin (US,CAN)
Philomel (US)
Published 2000–2013
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
DVD

Alex Rider is a series of spy novels by British author Anthony Horowitz about a 14–15-year-old spy named Alex Rider. The series is aimed primarily at young adults. The series comprises ten novels, as well as four graphic novels, three short stories and a supplementary book. The first novel, Stormbreaker, was released in the United Kingdom in 2000 and was adapted into a motion picture in 2006 starring Alex Pettyfer. A video game was released in 2006, based on the film which received negative reviews. The novels are published by Walker Books in the United Kingdom. They were first published by Puffin in the United States, but have been published more recently by Philomel Books, also an imprint of Penguin Books.[1] The audio books are read by Simon Prebble. The graphic novels are published by Walker in the United Kingdom, and by Philomel in the United States. The tenth novel, Russian Roulette, was released in September 2013. Horowitz has had great success with the series.

Novels

Stormbreaker

Main article: Stormbreaker

Stormbreaker was published in 2001. Alex, the main character, is recruited by MI6 after discovering the truth about his uncle's life and death. He's sent undercover as a scholar to explore suspicious rumours of some sort of virus at Herod Sayle's manufacturing plant in Cornwall.

Point Blanc

Main article: Point Blanc

Point Blanc was published in the United Kingdom in 2001, and in North America in 2002 under the name Point Blank. Alex Rider investigates Dr Hugo Grief, a South African scientist who runs Point Blanc, an academy in the French Alps. It turns out that Dr Grief is replacing the sons of rich, influential people with clones of himself, which have been modified to look like the boys themselves, through plastic surgery, so that he himself will be in these positions of power. Alex is at risk since he entered the academy pretending to be one of these rich sons. It's a matter of life and death for Alex, who must escape from the academy and report back to MI6, before he is killed and cloned.[2]

Skeleton Key

Main article: Skeleton Key (novel)

Skeleton Key was published in 2002. After foiling a Triad plot to fix the 2001 Wimbledon tennis tournament by knocking out one of their members with a carbon dioxide tank, Alex is in grave danger of assassination. Forced to leave the country, MI6 sends him on a mission to Cuba with two CIA agents (one of which believes that he isn't helpful), where he is the only one of the three to survive. He encounters a former Soviet general, Alexei Sarov, with ideas for a nuclear holocaust and world domination, starting at the Russian nuclear submarine base.

Eagle Strike

Main article: Eagle Strike

Eagle Strike was published in 2003. Damian Cray, a world-famous pop star, hopes to destroy the world's drug-making countries by hijacking the United States' nuclear arsenal. Suspicious of him, Alex takes Cray on without the help of the sceptical MI6. Cray releases a state-of-the-art games console called the 'Gameslayer'. Its first game, 'Feathered Serpent', is much more than it seems. It is up to Alex to discover the connection between the pop star, the video game, and the bombing of his vacation home. In the end, he will uncover a much larger plot, one involving the US government and the world's security.

Scorpia

Main article: Scorpia (novel)

Scorpia was published in 2004. Following the advice of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex tries to find the criminal organization "Scorpia" to find out the truth about his father. He is soon recruited by Scorpia and trains as an assassin where he discovers that he will assassinate Mrs Jones.

Ark Angel

Main article: Ark Angel

Ark Angel, published in 2005, follows Alex's second mission for the C.I.A. He investigates Nikolei Drevin who builds a hotel in outer space called "Ark Angel". Drevin secretly tries to destroy Washington D.C., the capital of the U.S. and targets the Pentagon, hoping to destroy files on him that the US have acquired. Alex must fight for his life in this novel.

Snakehead

Main article: Snakehead (novel)

Snakehead was published in 2007. Taking place immediately after Ark Angel, the novel sees Alex recruited by ASIS, Australia's secret service, to infiltrate a Snakehead organization by posing as an Afghan refugee. Alex meets his godfather, Ash (Anthony Sean Howell), and confronts the organization Scorpia for the second time.

Crocodile Tears

Main article: Crocodile Tears

Crocodile Tears was published in 2009. MI6 coerces Alex into spying on activities at a GM crop plant during a school trip.

Scorpia Rising

Main article: Scorpia Rising

Scorpia Rising was published in 2011. In the book, Scorpia is hired to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Scorpia's plan includes the laying of a false trail to Cairo and blackmailing MI6 into returning the Marbles. MI6 falls for the trap and Alex is sent to Cairo, where he is dismayed to find that Scorpia has been pulling the strings all along.

Russian Roulette

Russian Roulette was published in 2013. It serves as a prequel to the series and describes the life of Gregorovich, unlike the other books in the series which centre mainly on Alex Rider.

Franchise

Novels

  1. Stormbreaker - released 4 September 2000. Adapted as a graphic novel, released 3 July 2006.
  2. Point Blanc - released 3 September 2001. Adapted as a graphic novel, released 27 December 2007.
  3. Skeleton Key - released 8 July 2002. Adapted as a graphic novel, released 7 September 2009.
  4. Eagle Strike - released 7 April 2003. Adapted as a graphic novel, released 6 July 2012.
  5. Scorpia - released 1 April 2004. Adapted as a graphic novel, released February 2016.
  6. Ark Angel - released 1 April 2005. Will be adapted as a graphic novel in 2016.
  7. Snakehead - released 31 October 2007.
  8. Crocodile Tears - released 12 November 2009.
  9. Scorpia Rising - released 21 March 2011 in Australia, 22 March 2011 in the US and 31 March 2011 in the UK.
  10. Russian Roulette - released 12 September 2013 in the UK and on 1 October 2013 in the US.

Supplementary books

Short stories

Films

Video games

See also

References

  1. ↑ Archived 30 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ http://alexrider.com/missions/point-blanc
  3. ↑ Anthony Horowitz (9 November 2009). "Alex Rider exclusive: Incident in Nice". The Times (London). Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  4. ↑ "Midsomer writer's dreams of France". Connexion France. Retrieved 17 December 2012.

External links

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