Horowitz+Snakehead


 * Snakehead - Anthony Horowitz**

Author: Anthony Horowitz (Author of the year 2007)

Title: Snakehead Released: 2007 Genre: adventure, spy thriller, action "Dark and damn clever" - The Sunday Times "Snakehead goes deeper than any previous book in its vivid portrayal of pure evil… it deserves prizes" - The Times

"No sooner has Alex splashed down off the coast of Australia than he finds himself sucked into another adventure. This time his working for ASIS - the Australian Secret Service - and his target is the criminal underworld of South-Asia: the ruthless world of the Snakehead. But this time Alex isn't working alone. He's teamed up with Ash, once his father's best friend and now a secret agent with the key to unlock Alex's past. But the odds are stacked against them. An old enemy has returned with a plan that will destabilize half of the world. Caught between two secret services, with no one he can trust, Alex will need all his wits to survive. "

I think the motive in this book is about how important family and friendship is. Alex and Ash have never met each other, but they get close while they have to cooperate to survive. The importance of friendship is always a theme in Anthony Horowitz books. And also how peoples lives suddenly can turn up side down so fast that they can't react to stop it from happening. In this serie Alex is sent out on missions over and over again. But after every single mission he tells himself: never again. There is always a new reason why he have to take the mission anyways.

The book starts "in media res". It begins right into action without any background information. This information the reader was supposed to know after reading the previous books in the series. The book is written in chronological order.

I think the action curve in this book is very varied. It goes up and down through the whole book. The text gets to the climax at the end, as usual, but the book has many action points through the rest of the book. Something I really like about this book is that action scenes can appear out of the blue without you knowing anything. This makes the book hard to put on the bedside table and go to bed.

Anthony Horowitz writes in third person singular. He describes Alex as "he", but he also writes like we are inside of Alex's head and hear his thoughts. The author portrays the people directly. The main character Alex is broadly described throughout the book. The personal gallery is not very large, so it's easy to know who is who. Horowitz always especially describes the landscape on new places were Alex is. He always gives you a little hint about something that stands out, this often happens to help Alex on his escape. He portrays very much if Alex is caught as prisoner. He describes every little detail, so that the reader should be able to think about Alex's escape route before Alex escapes. I feel that the Author always explains where Alex is, so the reader can make his/hers own picture of how it looks around Alex. The story takes time in present.

In this book Alex Rider are heading to Australia to confront the criminal underworld of southeast Asia. The story takes place in Australia, Asia, and a little bit in England. The Mafia name themselves "Snakehead". They are operating with smuggling of narcotics, weapons and humans. The Snakeheads is one of the most wanted and notorious organizations among intelligence services and police. In this book Alex is "lend" out from MI6 to an Australian intelligence service called ASIS. He finds out that his partner is his godfather, Ash, who knows a lot about how Alex's parents died in a "flycrash". Alex learns more and more about his parents throughout the book. Another famous and notorious corporation called Scorpia has employee eight assassins to kill some political persons under a secret meeting in Australia. The assassins finds out that the easiest way is to blow up the entire meeting and half of Australia. They steal a military project called "Royal Blue". Royal Blue is the biggest nuclear bomb ever made. It is the largest in damages it would cause, and the smallest in size. Alex and Ash are sent out on a mission to find out how the snakeheads are conducting theirs human trafficking. But on their way to Australia disguised as an Afghan boy and his dad, they finds out that something terrible is about to happen. Some people are going to blow up Australia to peace's.

The book is number seven in a serie of eight books. I think that both the book and the serie is very good and entertaining. It is easy to read and has a lot of action. The Author has won many prices such as best teen author, which he won the year this book was released; 2007. I will recommend this book or the serie to those who don't enjoy reading so much or those who are looking for an easy and thrilling book to read on a acceptable length.


 * Sebastian Sommer **