Book: Skulduggery Pleasant
Author: Derek Landy
Rating: 7.5/10
Recommended Age: 10 +
Gordon Edgely was a renowned writer, A collector of rare items and literature and the rich uncle of Stephanie Edgely, and his death came as quite a shock to everyone.
But Gordon's death is only part of the story and its' his funeral that Stephanie saw the man in the tan overcoat
Stephanie was alot like her uncle and amid as rather weird and crazy family this made her stand out, strong-willed and intelligent, that's the words she uses to describe Gordon, and those are the words he uses to describe her. Her father is abit forgetful and her other uncle Fergus married someone thoroughly despicable, a sharp unkind women called Beryl who has 2 horrible twins who are older than Stephanie and refuses to think she's wrong about anything. So it's the funeral that introduces these character, and the man in the tan overcoat.
Later in the reading of the will, everyone is in for a shock. Gordon Edgely was a rather rich man from his writing success and owned a huge mansion,a french villa, boats and all sorts. surprisingly he has left Stephanie something as well so they are all there waiting with Fergus to see who gets what, and once again there is the man in a tan overcoat.
Fergus gets the car,the boat and a brooch, which beryl is none to happy about.Stephanie's parents get the villa. The man in the tan overcoat,who now is revealed as a Mr Skulduggery Pleasant gets some advice. Then the shock. Gordon has left his mansion,his money and his royalties all to Stephanie. This is very unexpected,which is just what Gordon would of thought was great about it.
Now the story properly starts. Stephanie has been left alone in the mansion overnight due to unforeseen circumstances and that's when things change. A strange man appears wanting to come in and threatening to kill her. This is when Skulduggery burst through the door and starts fighting the mysterious intruder, and then starts throwing Fireballs! The man flees and when skulduggery turns round come the biggest surprise of them all.
He's a skeleton.
Stephanie is introduced to a secret world, a world of magic, a world with all new mysteries and adventure, a world with a skeleton detective.
Drawn into it due to the fact that a unknown evil believes she holds the key to releasing dark gods Stephanie soon becomes a partner to Skulduggery and tries to learn all magic has to offer.
They believe the people behind the attack and her uncle's Murder is Nefarian Serpine, and that when a evil wizard rose up hundreds of years ago Serpine was one of his most trusted allies.. he seeks to finish what mevolent started with his war and bring back their Gods: The Faceless Ones. To do this he believes he needs the scepter of the Ancients the very tool they sent the faceless ones from this world. A weapon Gordon Edgely was in possession of.
It becomes a fast paced magic adventure with fights, allies,enemies and treachery and will keep anyone drawn in until the end. And all centered around a 12 year old girl, a Skeleton and religious maniacs.
This book Is a great book combining action,adventure and mystery/detective books together. It's a great read and once you get past the intro will keep you gripped until the very end.
I thoroughly recommend it.
Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer
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Tuesday, 17 May 2011
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
UK :
USA:
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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
UK :
USA:
Germany:
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:
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:
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