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Post by Dante on Jun 3, 2017 2:10:48 GMT -5
I read pretty widely and you will never know how many series I am a fan of, though I'd also make a distinction between series one is a fan of and series one merely reads. But it's also true that I've always enjoyed Anthony Horowitz's work, no matter what genre it's in. If the series were to have begun today rather than seventeen years ago(!), I might think twice about trying it, but the author's record would probably overcome my qualms about a genre I ordinarily don't have much patience for.
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Post by Dante on Oct 14, 2017 13:02:31 GMT -5
Well, I've read the new book now, having managed to obtain a paper-over-board edition at a ludicrous discount. With any luck, cwm, you'll return and elaborate on your own previous comment: So, so much for "the final chapter". Six years on and Alex is back. I *liked* Never Say Die, but there is a fairly huge problem with it... which I won't spoil for anyone who's not read it yet. It'll become apparent what it is when you read it. It's rather an unusual book, isn't it? While admittedly my memory of many of the Alex Rider volumes is distinctly dim - I would have to look some of them up to remember what they were about at all - then I can't remember any that are quite like this one, which is perhaps appropriate for a book intended to resurrect the series after it was supposed to be laid to rest, but actually just feels rather odd. Well, perhaps that's the nature of the "problem" you discuss - I had thought you had said "plot hole," but a problem is more general. I can think of two, though yours may be very different. It'll have to be for the spoiler tags, though: Firstly, the survival of Jack Starbright. This does seem to diminish what is really the key event of Scorpia Rising and indeed of Alex's psychology. Even at the time, it was unclear if, really, he had ever come back from Egypt. Wishing Jack back into existence rather erases a lot of that psychodrama rather than attempting to let Alex move on in a more natural and realistic way. I admit that, had I been writing the book, I would have had his journey turn out to be something of a wild goose chase, a great misunderstanding and misinterpretation which would nonetheless draw him back into what we fans may blithely call "adventure." But the books I would write would always be more disheartening, really. This is also the first part of what makes the story unusual - that we are not at first unravelling a great villainous plot, but going over old ground, engaged on a rather more personal errand.
Secondly, this is really the only Alex Rider novel I can remember - as I indicated above, there may be others I have forgotten - in which his objective and final achievement is not really in any sense to "save the world." Or at least, prevent a major geopolitical event; save the status quo, more like. Really, he's just saving a few children's lives, and saving their parents some money. The plot (the villains', that is) is nonetheless wildly cartoonish in the best way (and, knowing Horowitz, I'm sure he researched it meticulously), but this seems like a very different kind of story to ordinary Alex Rider fare.
So yes, I'm definitely not sure about rolling the series back to something resembling a status quo, and the villains are comparatively small-time for the series, but the tease for the inevitable next novel is at least rather intriguing and more in the usual line. Did I like it? I think so. It was fun and inventive enough. An odd entry in the series, though - although I suppose far less so than Russian Roulette, at that.
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sᴍᴏᴋᴇ sɪɢɴᴀʟs
Reptile Researcher
be cunning and full of tricks
Posts: 26
Likes: 15
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Post by sᴍᴏᴋᴇ sɪɢɴᴀʟs on Oct 15, 2017 20:31:21 GMT -5
ooooo i forgot there was a new alex rider book out! i love that series, although i always seemed a little silly reading it : p i havent read the last few in a long time, id better actually sit down and read soon.... soon the "books i want to read" list on my phone will be so long itll crash the notes app ahha
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Post by cwm on Dec 24, 2017 13:06:11 GMT -5
Well, I've read the new book now, having managed to obtain a paper-over-board edition at a ludicrous discount. With any luck, cwm, you'll return and elaborate on your own previous comment: So, so much for "the final chapter". Six years on and Alex is back. I *liked* Never Say Die, but there is a fairly huge problem with it... which I won't spoil for anyone who's not read it yet. It'll become apparent what it is when you read it. It's rather an unusual book, isn't it? While admittedly my memory of many of the Alex Rider volumes is distinctly dim - I would have to look some of them up to remember what they were about at all - then I can't remember any that are quite like this one, which is perhaps appropriate for a book intended to resurrect the series after it was supposed to be laid to rest, but actually just feels rather odd. Well, perhaps that's the nature of the "problem" you discuss - I had thought you had said "plot hole," but a problem is more general. I can think of two, though yours may be very different. It'll have to be for the spoiler tags, though: Firstly, the survival of Jack Starbright. This does seem to diminish what is really the key event of Scorpia Rising and indeed of Alex's psychology. Even at the time, it was unclear if, really, he had ever come back from Egypt. Wishing Jack back into existence rather erases a lot of that psychodrama rather than attempting to let Alex move on in a more natural and realistic way. I admit that, had I been writing the book, I would have had his journey turn out to be something of a wild goose chase, a great misunderstanding and misinterpretation which would nonetheless draw him back into what we fans may blithely call "adventure." But the books I would write would always be more disheartening, really. This is also the first part of what makes the story unusual - that we are not at first unravelling a great villainous plot, but going over old ground, engaged on a rather more personal errand.
Secondly, this is really the only Alex Rider novel I can remember - as I indicated above, there may be others I have forgotten - in which his objective and final achievement is not really in any sense to "save the world." Or at least, prevent a major geopolitical event; save the status quo, more like. Really, he's just saving a few children's lives, and saving their parents some money. The plot (the villains', that is) is nonetheless wildly cartoonish in the best way (and, knowing Horowitz, I'm sure he researched it meticulously), but this seems like a very different kind of story to ordinary Alex Rider fare.
So yes, I'm definitely not sure about rolling the series back to something resembling a status quo, and the villains are comparatively small-time for the series, but the tease for the inevitable next novel is at least rather intriguing and more in the usual line. Did I like it? I think so. It was fun and inventive enough. An odd entry in the series, though - although I suppose far less so than Russian Roulette, at that. I reviewed the book on my blog back in June, if you're curious: cwickham.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/alex-rider-never-say-die-review.html
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Post by Dante on Dec 24, 2017 14:46:45 GMT -5
I get the impression that we feel more or less the same way about the book overall. In some ways it is excitingly different, but in other ways it is a backwards step. A warning, perhaps, against ending an episodic series unless you are really, absolutely sure. Well, it will be interesting to compare to the sequel, when that appears.
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Post by cwm on Oct 18, 2018 11:46:24 GMT -5
The next book in the series, "Secret Weapon", is up for pre-order on Amazon with a scheduled release date in May 2019 - my understanding is that this is a collection of previously published short stories from various sources that have been rewritten and substantially beefed up for this release (such as Christmas at Gunpoint, which originally appeared in the Daily Mail, and Resistance to Interrogation, which was in some reprints of Stormbreaker), alongside a couple of new stories. A "proper" next book in the series is also in the works.
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Post by Dante on Oct 18, 2018 16:28:40 GMT -5
Has there been an Alex Rider short story collection yet? Probably about time - especially if they're going to be polished up a bit. I always think it's a bit of a con when they release new editions of old books with extra stories like that; it's as if the faithful early adopter is drawing the short straw. This also keeps the character current while we wait for Nightshade or whatever it ends up being called.
I was confused just now while searching Amazon to discover the title "Alex Rider: Steel Claw"! Turns out this is the German title for Never Say Die.
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Post by cwm on Apr 17, 2019 16:08:41 GMT -5
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Post by Dante on Apr 19, 2019 15:58:34 GMT -5
Good enough for me, CWM; if I had ever read half of those stories (which I doubt), then I'm sure I've long forgotten them. I'll probably hold out for the paperback, though, unless I see it for a paperback price as I did with Never Say Die.
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Post by cwm on Apr 20, 2019 4:13:34 GMT -5
I also happened to check the paperback version of Never Say Die when I had the opportunity in Waterstones the other day, and noted that several glaring continuity errors that were in the hardback have been fixed (most notably Horowitz accidentally confusing the characters of Wolf and Fox).
The TV series (adapting Point Blanc) has also just started filming, although nobody seems sure who's going to show it (ITV were originally attached but have pulled out).
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Post by Dante on Apr 21, 2019 2:11:35 GMT -5
I also happened to check the paperback version of Never Say Die when I had the opportunity in Waterstones the other day, and noted that several glaring continuity errors that were in the hardback have been fixed (most notably Horowitz accidentally confusing the characters of Wolf and Fox). You must know Alex Rider as well as I know ASoUE; I'm impressed.
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Post by Dante on Feb 5, 2021 4:47:58 GMT -5
I read the latest Alex Rider book recently (still have yet to lay hands on that short story collection). One of the interesting casualties of a series being published across a span of two decades is your sense of continuity as a reader; it's frankly surreal to me to read a book in which Alex is going to school as a normal teenager, hanging around with a friend who has clearly been established in the past as a major character but who I do not remember at all, playing pranks on dangerous men. I sense that Horowitz is perhaps trying something different with his new Alex Rider books, though; Alex is acting far more often on his own initiative, without the backing of the traditional James Bond gadgets, and there's a clearer sense of inter-novel continuity, with the previous novel and this one linking directly to the following volume in their endings. The way things are being set up is that the next book in the series is to be a fairly direct sequel or even a second part to this book, and that's quite exciting; it suggests that Horowitz has more of a long-term plan, where the earlier books were more episodic (at least to my recollection).
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