Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz is a suspenseful, action-packed book that has a variety of surprises. It is the first book in the Alex Rider series.
Alex Rider is a teenage spy who is semi-forced into working for the MI6. At the beginning of the novel, Alex wakes up and finds out that his uncle, his former parent guardian because both of Alex’s parents are dead, died in a car crash. After the funeral, Alex visits a local junkyard and finds his uncle’s car, ridden with bullet holes. After escaping from near death in the junkyard, he goes to MI6 headquarters, which is disguised as a bank. There, he meets Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones. They also reveal to Alex that his uncle was a spy for the MI6. They enlist his help to go undercover and investigate a wealthy businessman.
This book is rather suspenseful. Every chapter in the book ends with some sort of cliff hanger. For example, at the end of chapter 12, the last sentence is “He never even remembered hitting the floor”. This sentence jolts many questions into the reader’s mind. Who did this? Why? Where’d he come from? It is something to keep you reading to answer those questions. Another example is when Alex is about to be discovered in the junkyard. Just as he is about to be seen, he jumps into his uncle’s car. And just as his uncle’s car is cut into tiny pieces and smashes, Alex leaps out of the car. Yet another example is when Alex is trapped in the aquarium with the Portuguese-man of war to die. In the nick of time, he whips out a steel eating zip cream and is able to safely escape. He always escapes in the nick of time to keep the readers reading. The action in this book also keeps people reading.
Rambo would shake this book’s hand. If it had one. This book is extremely action packed. Alex fights people in the junkyard using a chain. He jumps out of his uncle’s car just as it is about to be pulverized. Later in the story, he steals a jeep and attempts to use a harpoon gun to anchor himself to a plane that is being taxied via a super strength nylon cord. He engages in a high speed chase with five cars armed with gun totting guards and two machine guns. He pulls himself into the plane just as his vehicle crashes, destroying three vehicles in an explosion and puff of smoke. He then parachutes through the glass ceiling of the Science Museum in London and shoots the prime minister a couple times.
This book has lots of surprises. For example, He follows Nadia Vole to his escape, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, she rats him out, and sends him through a chute into a jelly fish occupied aquarium. Another surprise is when, earlier in the story, Alex finds out that his uncle was not in a car crash, but rather brutally murdered, shot while driving. Yet another surprise that keeps the reader on his/her feet is when, at the end of the story, when Alex walks into a cab. Just as he finishes telling the cabbie where to drive, the cabbie takes out a gun and turns out to be Herod Sayle. This twist is one of many that keeps many of us reading.
Stormbreaker is perhaps Anthony Horowitz’s best novel. He created a suspenseful, action-packed book that has a variety of surprises. It has a unique, first book of the series feel to it. Perhaps Anthony Horowitz’s sequel shall be just as good as this book was.