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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Odd name for a hero - fab story!, 26 April 2009
This is a great book! Alfred Kropp is a fab hero - not gorgeous and unreal like so many paperback heroes, but clumsy, a bit odd looking, and honest with a good heart. He doesn't spend most of his time looking suave and sophisticated, instead he spends quite a bit of time confused and uncertain about the best course of action, which is why he's such a good choice for a hero. Don't get me wrong I love Alex Rider and the Young Bond books, but Alfred Kropp is a slightly more real character. I hate spoilers, but without giving too much away there's lots here to appeal - secret organisations out to save the world - and other organisations out to destroy it, an out of control agent of darkness, strange mystical dreams and a sword shrouded in mystery. Combine that with a beautiful heroine and driving some of the world's most expensive cars (oh, boys and their toys!) and you have an excellent spy/ mystery/ adventure story. I thoroughly recommend this book to early teens, although there's no reason why younger readers wouldn't enjoy it if they're into this sort of story, and as an adult I enjoyed it too! (I'm really pleased to see there are two more books out!)
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Clever fun. Looking forward to more, 10 Sep 2009
Alfred Kropp is as ordinary as the next guy. People don't really notice him much. In fact, he's just sort of there. He tries to speak up for himself, but people tend not to listen to him. This is equally true when his uncle Farrell is drawn into a shady deal with a man called Myers. Myers claims that Uncle Farrell's boss stole something from him and Myers wants to pay Uncle Farrell a lot of money to get it back. Alfred has a lot of questions, like how can he be certain that Myers really owns this thing? But Uncle Farrell, blinding by the idea of a quick fortune, won't listen to any of Alfred's concerns. And worse, he makes Alfred help out with the stealing.
This starts one big endless series of unfortunate events of which Alfred is smack dab in the middle and trying to make right again.
The idea of James Bond meets King Arthur tickled me. I couldn't wait to read this story and found it clever and fun. I enjoyed Arthur's plainness and think that many teens will relate to him. I liked that Alfred always tried to do the right thing, even if he wasn't very loud about it. The whole story is about Alfred trying to make up for his involvement in the theft of the sword. And I love what we discover about Alfred's past. I wouldn't mind reading more of Alfred's adventures.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 11 April 2008
Alfred Kropp is big enough to play football, but too clumsy to be any good, and too dense to remember the playbook. In fact, Alfred doesn't really excel at anything. Except for his height and big head, he's pretty much average. Ordinary. If only he were smaller, he could go through each day unnoticed.
He has no father and his mother died of cancer when he was only twelve. For two years he's been juggled between various foster homes until his Uncle Farrell appears and takes him in. And that's when his life becomes anything but ordinary.
A slick, devious stranger offers Uncle Farrell one million dollars to steal a special sword back from Mr. Samson, Farrell's boss. Alfred has many questions. How do they know it really belongs to the stranger? What happens to him if his uncle gets caught for stealing? Why is this man asking them to steal it? Uncle Farrell threatens Alfred. He has no choice. He either helps steal the sword, or he goes back to foster care.
As soon as Alfred wields the sword in his hands, he knows it is no ordinary sword. He finds out he's holding Excalibur, King Arthur's sword. The same sword that knights have been guarding for centuries. From the moment Alfred steals the sword he is pitched headlong into a world unlike any he has ever known. A world that clashes with knights, swords, fast cars, helicopters, daggers, guns, and much more.
Alfred, the ordinary foster kid, finds he has a not-so-ordinary connection to a world forgotten, and through that connection, he has been charged with saving the world by saving Excalibur. An extraordinary task for an ordinary kid.
My fourteen year-old son grabbed this book from my shelf before I had a chance to start it and daily badgered me to read it once he'd finished. I will be adding the second and third installments of this series to my library. This action-packed adventure is a must read. I dare you to try to put it down once you've begun. In THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ALFRED KROPP, Rick Yancey has done the impossible by merging a world of knights in shining armor with today's age of technology, an extraordinary combination! Amazing!
Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger
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by Rick Yancey
by Rick Yancey
by Derek Landy
by Dominic Barker
by Robert Muchamore
