About the Author

Anthony Horowitz balances his two careers as a prolific children’s book author and a writer for television, film, and theatre. His books have now been translated into well over a dozen languages, including Greek and Hebrew.

    Mr. Horowitz also writes for such internationally well-known television series as Poirot and Midsummer Murders, and has just created a new crime series for the BBC entitled Murder in Mind. His first stage thriller, Mindgame, was presented in London’s West End and his musical The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, based on the work of the same name by Dr. Seuss, will premiere in America shortly.

    Mr. Horowitz lives in North London with his wife, Jill, and their two children, Nicholas and Cassian. 😉

The Setting

The setting of my story takes place in Great Britain. This is where Alex was born so he knows how to get to places fast. It’s a good thing too, because (spoiler alert) if he didn’t, then when he was parachuting out of the plane he might not have gotten to the museum in time to stop the Prime Minister from pressing the button that releases a deadly smallpox virus from all the Storm Breaker computers, which just so happen to  be all over Great Britain. 🙂

The characters

The most important characters are…

• Alex Rider-the main character. Alex is fourteen well-built with the body of an athlete. His hair, cut short apart from two thick strands hanging over his forehead was fair. His eyes are brown and serious. Alex is very smart and quick on his feet. Determined and driven about most things in his life. He tends to be strong and serious about his work and clever for a boy of his age.
• Mister Alan Blunt– chief of MI6. Alan wears a grey suit, has grey hair, grey lips and grey eyes. Wears square gun-metal/steel-rimmed spectacles with thick lenses. Mr Blunt has no sense of humor, takes his job very seriously, never beats around the bush and is by all means the literal definition of the word BLUNT. All qualities that make him a very good leader and chief of MI6
• Mrs. Jones-head of operations for MI6. Mrs. Jones is usually dressed in grey or black, and usually sucking peppermint sweets. She used to have children of her own, and was married once. She lives in Melbourne House, on the ninth floor in Clerkenwell, near Smithfield. She also has Siamese cat, called Q. Mrs. Jones leads a private life, doesn’t say much unless she needs to. She feels like the kind of woman who could take care of herself in a fight, but she would never hit first and ask questions later. She’s smart and level-headed always wanting to think before she acts.
• Herod Sayle-the main villain. Herod was born poor in Beirut, one of nine children.  After saving the lives of an English couple on vacation in Beirut, Herod was adopted by the couple and sent to the best schools in England. Herod Sayle is a wealthy man, and owns a computer company as well as a string of racehorses. He invented a revolutionary computer called Storm Breaker.  Herod is über intelligent, but as we know there’s a thin line between genius and crazy and Herod is WAAAAAY over the line on the crazy side. Although dangerous he would never allow his own hands to get dirty. The best words to describe Herod are slimy and everything that’s ever been said about the Grinch that stole Christmas. And when I say he won’t get his hands dirty, that’s literal. Herod wears white gloves due to his germ-aphobia.
• Yassen Gregorovich – Herod’s associate/ highly paid assassin. Yassen is blonde, close-cropped hair with a smooth face. He has the body of a dancer with clear, hard blue eyes. He has a pale, expressionless face with almost feminine eyelashes and chiseled lips. He has a scar on his neck from a bullet graze.  He’s thirty-five years old, but he looks like he is in his late twenties. He speaks nine languages. He is a contract killer. Yassen is cold but not without a conscience. He’s every bit of a professional and calculating to a fault. Extremely good at what he does and seems to take pride in how good he is.  😉

The themes

The theme for my story was action-adventure. There was some fiction in it like having a fourteen year old be a spy. There was even a very faint hint of mystery in it, because Alex’s mission is to find out what Herod Sayle is up to. 🙂

The Review

I gave Storm Breaker four out five stars. 

I liked the fact that the author,  Anthony Horowitz, used someone of my age group and showed his normal real life and what a real kid’s expression would be when he was told that his uncle was a spy and died on the job and now they want you to become one too. However I didn’t like the fact that the MI6 agency had to train him even though he was already trained by his uncle. I found it kind of redundant. I mean I know it’s protocol and everything, but come on give him some slack. He’s just a kid and they’re going super hardcore on him. I’d recommend this book to people who like spy action-adventure books. 😉

The book

Storm breaker is an action-adventure novel following a boy whose uncle; Ian Rider and only living relative, was killed by a contract killer for being a SPY. So now Alex has to choose between either going bankrupt or forcibly joining the family business and becoming … A Spy himself!

Alex was a typical 14-year-old boy. Liked by his friends, good at sports, and loved going fishing with his uncle and had a black belt in karate which he had been studying since the age of 6. Alex was a master at chess, a game taught to him, as well as many things by his Uncle Ian. We’re never really told what happened to Alex’s parents but the assumption is that they’re dead and it’s up to uncle Ian to raise young Alex.  Alex was happy with his life until the doorbell rang at 3am one horrible foggy morning.  Alex was told that his uncle died because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt during the accident, but Alex knew his uncle never drove anywhere without wearing a seatbelt. Something was fishy and Alex was going to figure it out. After investigating his Uncle’s wrecked car, Alex found bullet holes in the windshield. Uncle Ian had been shot, but by who? Alex was on the right path but now he was in danger of being trapped in the car that was about to be destroyed. He was getting too close to knowing things he might not have been ready for, unless he was given help. Alex received a phone call asking him to come to the bank to discuss some paper’s belonging to Ian pertaining to Alex. Alex arrived at the bank to find out the “BANK” was really a secret headquarters for the international spy organization know as MI6. Alex was given a choice. Either he would go bankrupt or he would have to become a SPY like his uncle IAN?

Everything Alex thought he knew about his uncle was wrong and everything about Alex’s life was about to change. Alex finds himself infiltrating Sayle Enterprises to confirm MI6’s suspicions  that the STORM BREAKER computers were actually deadly bio weapons about to unleash a mutated smallpox virus into the world. Before Alex can become a super spy he has to be trained by the best MI6 has to offer. Is Alex up to the task? 🙂