Customer Reviews

Stormbreaker (Alex Rider Adventures)

5 star:		(126)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a teacher, the Alex Rider series is my number one recommendation to get boys reading. It has never failed yet! The plot is gripping from the start, it's every boys fantasy, and is the answer to getting reluctant boys in to reading. Very exciting, very engaging, bang up to date, every boy (or girl) I have recommended this book to has been hooked from the start, and gone on to read the whole series. The only slight drawback is that you do then catch them sneaking round the school pretending to be spies!

My nine year old son has just read all six of the Alex Rider books and so they came with a high recommendation. I tried Stormbreaker on holiday and got through it easily in a day - the first time I've done that in some time. It's a roller coaster ride, brilliantly written and paced as fast as the most exciting thriller movie. If you haven't yet tried Alex Rider give yourself a treat and buy this. You won't be disappointed.

Loved It .
Never read a story so dramatic before.
For some strange reason i feel sad for Sayle.
Best ever book

I volunteer in a school, and my main job is to encourage children to read for pleasure, particularly boys. Many of the boys in the older classes (primary school so ten and eleven year olds) are obsessed by the Alex Rider books, of which this, Stormbreaker, is the first in the series. I decided that I should read it so that I could get to grips with the kind of thing they enjoy and meet them where they're at, rather than expecting them to start with Pride and Prejudice.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is plot and action heavy and the pace is fast. The chapters are short and punchy and there isn't a great deal of philosophy or serious emotional stuff going on here. The book starts with the assassination of Alex's uncle, the man who has been his guardian since he was a baby, and Alex copes with his loss remarkably well. The story just speeds forward onto the next action sequence and the next. It is written very much like a computer game, one problem gets solved, the next one immediately springs up, and it is generally one which requires a great deal of physical action and not a terrible amount of anything else.

It was silly, and implausible, and at times, my rather more rational grown up head just wanted to shout 'no! that's rubbish!' but the part of me that just appreciates a very silly action romp shouted it down.

It is a relatively quick read, which I think is also an enormous part of the appeal.

I would say ten is probably the youngest I would recommend this too unless you have a particularly precocious reader on your hands. There is a lot of violence, a lot of casual death and some fairly gruesome events which may not sit well with younger readers/listeners.

If you are looking for something if your child has read the Alex Rider books I would suggest trying Charlie Higson's young James Bond series which are the next level up, slightly wordier, slightly more thought provoking, but just as exciting.

The villains are as colourful as any created by Ian Fleming and the background for the evil plot was well thought out. The actual diabolic plan and described results were in fact highly unrealistic, but that did not matter one iota to this gold nugget of a story. I read the entire book in about three and a half hours and will be quick to go and find the subsequent volumes in the series.Where the story of Alex Rider differs hugely from the run of the mill James Bond stories is the distinct lack of female characters. Given Alex's tender age, this is not a criticism, more of an observation and keeping the book to the boy hero conquering adult villains against all odds storyline was an excellent path to tread.
Both the boy and I both enjoyed this book.

Within moments Uncle Ian is dead and Alex Rider a reluctant spy - subjected to rigorous SAS training before despatched to find out what Herod Sayle really has in mind. Why the billionaire's gift of ultra-modern computers (Stormbreakers) to every British school? An act of supreme charity or something very sinister indeed?

Great fun. A likeable young hero, colourful characters, narrow escapes, gory deaths. (Beware that jellyfish!). Much humour too. One person has "the sort of face you forgot even when you were looking at it". Also enjoyed was Smithers, the equivalent of Bond's "Q", Alex's ingenious gadgets masquerading as a yo-yo and a tube of zit cream.

The 2010 edition includes afterthoughts by Horowitz, he describing how the novel came to be. He had been devoted to Fleming's Bond books (rather less so to many of the post-Connery Bond films - until Craig revitalized). Suddenly the thought - why not a young agent? Why not indeed! Readers could not have enough - this an instant hit, first of a series. (Unfortunately only one film, although it did the book proud.)

Recommended to all who remain young at heart.

I read this book in a couple of days and I was not dissapointed. Anthony Horowitz set the scenes perfectly and I WILL be reading the rest of the series.

this book is so good i love all the action in it.If you like the book get the film it is also very good.I cant wait to read the next one!!

im 13 years old and i thought it was quality! the story line was great, the entire book was exciting and it was generally a fantastic book for all ages!!

My son was very pleased to receive this book so quickly and it must have been the first book he read through unprompted since starting school. He is now twelve which is a perfect age for this range of books.