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Saturday, 14 May 2011

BOOK REVIEW: Snakehead(Anthony Horowitz)

Book: Snakehead

Author: Anthony Horowitz

Rating:  6.5/10

Recommended ages:  14/15 +


Splashdown!

The seventh book of the series starts literally with Alex splashing into the sea in a space capsule after the events in Ark Angel( the previous book).
But as soon as he recovers the A.S.I.S-the Australian Secret Intelligence Service proposes a mission.
Infiltrate the Snakehead run by Winston Yu, a member of Scorpia.

Alex of course says no then they bring out their secret, the other agent on the mission is Ash. Alex's godfather,his dad's best friend, and the last one to see his parents alive!

How can he say no to a doorway into his parents lives?

So he goes deep undercover posing as an Afghan refugee being smuggled into Darwin by the Snakehead, but is their a traitor in the ASIS. the previous 2 agents have been killed and Alex seems to be in trouble from the start ,although  Ash seems to get away lightly at times.

Alex realises he's being followed and half recognises the person following him but who is he?
he follows the man into a church like area and is shocked by the presence of Mrs Jones for MI6 and Ben Daniels aka Fox from his SAS training that was the stalker. It turns out Yu has stolen a very powerful and hi tech new bomb of the British government called Royal Blue and all MI6 want him to do is  keep an eye out whilst he continues his mission. he's given gadgets and then left to continue.
But what he discovers is horrifying, Yu is going to wipe out a conference of celebs who want to make the world a better place, Scorpia were  contracted to make it look like an accident and with the help of Royal Blue and astronomy Yu has the perfect weapon to create a perfect disaster.
Then Alex s caught and sent  to a fate worse than death he is going ot be cut up and donated ot the highest bidder who needs a new body part. This new prison in the outback is a sick place and Alex has just 48 hours to escape before he loses his eyes and Yu succeeds in his plot to destroy the conference and half the Australian coastline.

Ingenuity and luck come together as Alex must get out and warn MI6 and the ASIS and lead a crack squad of illegal troops into battle over a oil rig. And Alex is the only person in the world who can stop the bomb.



This is a great book, one of his best and the way it includes a whole load of action,criminal activity and terror makes it a great read. Definitely would NOT  recommend to young readers or people who are squeamish as this book has a lot of  horror and disturbingly real events that could happen in real life.
That being said this series and the book is a great read for any teenagers and above and again I   fully recommend the book and the series.


Hope you found this review helpful,

The Devonian Book Reviewer


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Tuesday, 10 May 2011

BOOK REVIEW: Percy Jackson: The sword of Hades(Rick Roirdan)

Book: The Sword of Hades

Author:  Rick Riordan

Rating: 4-5/10

Recommended Age:    9+,
 I would also recommend reading the first 3-4 books of the proper Percy Jackson series although it's not essential

Note: This book is a little aside book of the Percy Jackson series written for world book day.


In Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades, Percy the son of the Greek god of the sea Poseidon, is brought to a park with the children of Zeus and Hades to be brought into the underworld to recover a stolen sword of power that Hades was forging in secret. Hades wife Persephone has locked down the underworld but needs the three of them to hunt the thief down through the underworld before he escapes and gives the sword to the titan lord Kronos.
On the way they must fight daemons, traverse the field of punishment and avoid losing their memory in the river Lethe.

And what will they do when another titan beats them to the thief and the sword,and who forged the sword in the first place?

Discover this as you read.



This book,being a world book day short one, was a good short read but being as short as it was and having read the rest of the series i felt that it was a bit of a unnecessary extra but enjoyable none the less.


Hope you found this review helpful,

The Devonian Book Reviewer

UK :


USA:



Germany: