After the traumatic events of Scorpia Rising, it looked very much like Alex had finally been allowed to go back to the life of an ordinary boy, moving to the States to live with his friend Sabina Pleasure and her parents. By submitting a review you grant us the right to display and use it in any way; please read our General Legal Notices for full details.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform, so if you choose to subscribe your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.Ever since MI6 recognized his potential, Alex Rider has constantly been thrust into the line of danger. It demonstrates a cynical willingness to exploit a young boy, and shows that, in essence, Alex’s whole relationship with Ian Rider was based on a series of lies, a hard lesson for him to learn and an even harder one to look back on, although there is an alternative explanation that maybe Ian was simply giving his nephew the skills needed to survive if Ian ever accidentally brings his work home. This book was good because I enjoyed finding out more about the character of Alex Rider and his determination to solve problems in a fearless way.

The book contains three new adventures as well as the previously published stories, and in writing those, Horowitz realised that there were still more tales he could tell, and so the series continued, and in a very satisfactory manner, too, proving that follow ups aren’t always a mistake.The story points up how Alex was trained by his uncle, himself a spy in the employ of MI6, from a very early age to follow in what was effectively a family profession. There are half a dozen stories I’ve written over the years for newspapers and magazines, and they wanted to bring them together.

The title story, Secret Weapon, pits Alex against someone from his past, a dangerous drug dealer with a grudge against the boy who was responsible for him ending up in prison. This is the latest book in the Alex Rider series and is my second favourite, with Scorpia being my first choice. Secret Weapon is the book that Alex Rider’s fans have to thank for the continuation of the young spy’s highly entertaining adventures. Without telling you the ending, you will be surprised about how it ends and you will certainly want to read more books by this author! Ever since MI6 recognised his potential, Alex Rider has constantly been thrust into the line of danger.The Man with Eleven Fingers starts with a rare glimpse into what Alex was like when his housekeeper – and later his closest friend – Jack Starbright first arrived in a house in Chelsea to help look after a truculent seven-year-old, then moves onto the case of Freddy ‘Fingers’, a man on trial for a massive case of embezzlement. And Alex’s concerns about some dubious chocolate bars lead to one of the few times he actually contacts Mrs Jones and Alan Blunt of MI6 of his own accord.

There is lots of adventure from the very start of the story, with plenty of action to keep me entertained. This collection of thrilling adventures features familiar and new assailants from the best-loved world of Alex Rider and also includes three never-before-seen stories. It was an exciting book and I was really keen to find out what was going to happen next and wanted to keep reading on. This variety kept me interested and entertained although I would say that I prefer the format of a full length story than the shorter stories as you can get into them more.In my view, Smithers is the only person in MI6 who never manipulated or lied to Alex and, as his creator revealed in Scorpia Rising, there’s a lot more to Smithers than meets the eye – or do I mean a lot less?