Randomly Reading: Blog Tour: Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz

Welcome to the Kids Know Best Blog Tour, a two part tour featuring two different books: Theodore Boone: The Accomplice by John Grisham and Alex Rider: Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz. For this tour, I chose to read the Alex Rider book.

And I have to confess, I have never read an Alex Rider book before, but chose it based on different things I have heard from young readers, who are fans of the series. So far, there are 11 books in the Alex Rider series, not counting Secret Weapon, which is a book of 7 short stories.

For those like me who don't know, 14-year-old Alex has been well trained to be a spy by his uncle, Ian Rider, who was a secret agent for MI6. After his uncle was killed, MI6 approached Alex, recognizing his potential, talent, and training. Now, Alex is working for MI6 and having some incredible adventures.

In the first story, "Alex in Afghanistan," Alex is sent to a remote area in the Herat Mountains, where Darcus Drake is holed up in a ancient citadel, hoping to get an old Soviet calutron working again, so he can quickly produce the uranium needed for bombs and offer it to every terrorist group in the Middle East. All Alex has to do is find it to prove it exists. Why Alex? The back way into the citadel is through some narrow ventilation pipelines.

In "The Man with Eleven Fingers," Alex's trip to the dentist for a sore tooth turns into a exciting day when he is given a free chocolate bar being handed out to passersby. But when Alex notices something wrong with the wrapper, he begins to follow the man who gave the candy out. He recognizes the driver that picks up the candy man, and decides to punt on the dentist and follow them to see what's up. No sooner does Alex figure out what's going on, then people all over London start dropping in their tracts. This was an interesting story and the ending really surprised me.

The third story is called "Secret Weapon" and involves a drug-dealer named Skoda, whom Alex had a run in with in an earlier book. Skoda has finally figured out how to sneak out of prison and take care of Alex. And his plan works, until it doesn't. This story also has a surprise at the end, and again, I didn't see it coming.

"High Tension" is a little different, as it doesn't involve any spy activity. Alex is on vacation with a friend in the South of France. When he finds himself with some free time, his host, Andrew Hale, insists that he go parasailing and enlists his wife Celestine to drive Alex to the beach. Not really wanting to parasail, Alex reluctantly agrees and is not sooner in the air, then the driver of the motorboat to which he is harnessed passes out. Getting out the air safely may require readers to really suspend their disbelief more than in other Alex Rider stories, but it's still a tense, action-packed story.

The fifth story, "Tea with Smithers" is not action-packed or a spy story, but rather a look at Alex's 'quieter' side of life. After a debriefing at MI6, Alex runs into Smithers, the man who invents and then disguises all of Alex's James Bond-like gadgets for fighting off bad guys. Smithers invites Alex to tea and when he shows up, he learns all about Smithers' life and how he became an inventor/disguiser for MI6. But when he challenges Alex to try to find his brand-new gadget, one sitting right in front of Alex, the ace 14-year-old is totally stumped. This was a fun story, and there are lots of hints as to what the new gadget is, but if you, like Alex, can't figure it out, it is a fun, surprise ending.

"Christmas at Gunpoint," the sixth story is the only one in which Ian Rider appears. During a ski trip to Gunpoint, Colorado, Alex meets Sahara Sands, a fellow teen, there with her dad, who does "something in government" The two teens have lots of fun skiing and snowboarding, but one night, he catches his uncle fighting with a man over a gun with a silencer, then he sees Sahara looking scared and being escorted into a gondola by two rather sketchy men. This is an exciting story, and Ian's lesson for Alex here is to closely observe the people he meets - how they dress, how they speak, what they eat and drink, and where they carry their guns: "You have to notice these things, Alex...all the details. People tell a story the moment they walk into a room. You can read them." (pg. 227) What does this advice have to do with the story - only everything.

The seventh and last story, "Spy Trap," Alex wakes up in what appears to be an MI6 hospital in an old abbey, and is told he was in an accident. Kept confined to bed, except for visits to a Dr. Feng, who claimed to be a therapist, Alex quickly suspects that things aren't what they appear to be. Yet, when asked questions about his life with MI6, Alex can't stop himself from speaking the truth. When he suspects his food is drugged, he stops eating and drinking and begins to control what he tells Dr. Feng. As Alex's memory returns, he begin to plan his escape, then discovers he isn't the only MI6 agent being held hostage.

To call these short stories thrilling and action-packed is an understatement. More than once, I found myself shaking my leg to release the nervous energy as the tension of a story built. I actually thought these stories all quite good. They are well-written, there is plenty of excitement, and even though it is pretty improbable that a 14-year-old would ever be allowed to be a spy, it is still fun reading about Alex Rider's adventures. I really liked that Alex is so detail oriented, as I am as well, so I enjoyed reading all the descriptions he relates about his surroundings and the people he encounters. And Alex is quite personable. I also found that not knowing anything about the Alex Rider series, there was enough information in these stories so I never felt lost.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I definitely do. Would I read another Alex Rider book? Well, I do have Book 1, Stormbreaker on a hold at the library.

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was provided to me for review purposes