Customer Reviews

Alex Unlimited, Vol. 1: The Vosarak Code

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
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Okay, the book jacket says: "Alexandra Benno can instantly summon parallel-dimension versions of herself, but these duplicates are always super-idealized: smart, fast, tough, and often the most beautiful girls in their world - while Alex herself is a clumsy, frizzy-haired wallflower. So when the government recruits Alex for top-secret espionage work, it's always her alternate who gets the action and, consequently, receives all the credit. Sick of being her own sidekick, will Alex be able to crack the Vosarak Code and complete her latest mission ... or is she destined to live in her own shadow?"

I got the book. I read the book. I read it again. I'll more than likely read it yet again during the coming week. It's just THAT much fun.

To say that the jacket blurb doesn't do the book justice is sort of like saying an industrial plasma torch gets warm. Alex is the most personable, most compelling, most REAL character it has been my privilege to get to know in quite a while. Comparisons with Charlotte Doyle or Stanley Yelnats spring to mind.

The villains are thrillingly and unabashedly evil, though of course they don't see it that way. Blaise Pascal once said, "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." That could apply equally well in the case of the trio we meet in these pages.

Dan Jolley has a facility with getting inside his characters' heads that occasionally pulls a goofy grin across my face. I'll read an action sequence and watch how the character behaves and it'll hit me, "That's spot-on! Internally consistent! Believable!" How he managed to do that with an 18-year-old girl speaks volumes either for his imagination or his tenacious research ... or both.

Alex is a curious blend of strength and vulnerability, intelligence and naiveté; on the cusp of becoming an adult, but oddly ill-prepared for the trip. The reader can't help but love her. I have a daughter nearly her age, and I spent a good bit of the book in "daddy" mode, wanting to protect her, wishing there were SOME way I could HELP her. I wanted to bring her to a safe place, to try to let her know that it was going to be all right, that she was a better person than she knew. And the cool thing is that she arrived at those conclusions on her own.

This is a delicious read. Dan Jolley's descriptive prowess and droll turns of phrase are a delight. The action is paced perfectly, not TOO fast to begin with, as we get through the introductions, but soon building ... quickly, logically, as secrets come to light and connections develop. It all just makes so much SENSE it's spooky.

My suggestion would be for the reader to assure herself of sufficient time to devote to reading the last two-thirds of the book without stopping. If something interrupts your reading in that span, you will know the very measure of frustration until you can return to the tale.

Get the book. Read the book. You'll thank yourself.

This is the first volume in Dan Jolley's original series, 'Alex Unlimited.' It's a charmingly written story with a realistic and emotionally relatable main character. It's not full of age or genre jargon and is suitable for a wide audience. It's _most_ likely be appropriate for a 14-17 year old girl, considering that the book's strength is in representation of the heroine. It would also be enjoyed by a younger boy who enjoys youth-as-spy stories. The story reaches its stride in the middle of the volume, as both Alex's inner voice and physical actions become the focus of the reader's attention. Readers are left with a suitable cliffhanger and an ending with a lot of personality.

This is also the first prose novel published by Tokyo Pop. It's a fast read with short chapters, paced very similarly to an illustrated volume. In fact, it feels very similar to a 'youth-as-spy' genre cartoon with a slightly more mature bent. I would recommend the book to anyone above 14 who liked secret identity stories.

My wife and I bought a copy of the first Alex Unlimited novel about a month back for our niece. She's not a big reader and we were trying to get her interested in the activity. The cover caught our eye it sounded like the kind of thing she would enjoy, but we weren't sure. We checked some of Dan Jolley's other work and saw he had also worked on the manga for "The Warriors", a series we heard was popular with children our nieces age. We ordered it and sent it off, hoping for the best, and that's exactly what happened. She loved it! We've gotten several emails from her exclaiming how much she loves the book and can't wait to read the rest. We'll be getting those for her very soon!

This book is wonderful. From a 17 year old's point of view. I'm close in age with Alex and I feel what she feels. Whenever I read this book I just feel like I'm there. I would say this is one of the most excellent book's I have ever read. It show's alot of what girls really feel. I love the action in it. The secrecy and the little hint of romance. It's not too much , but it's just enough. I really enjoy this book and I would sugest it to anybody who needed a good read. =)
~Brenttnie

Like Alex herself, this series has a lot of potential.

Don't be fooled by all this talk of adventure. When we start the novel, Alex is a frustrated young woman whose gift means that she cannot experience the missions she sets in motion. She goes to amazing places, but only because the Other Alex will vanish if the two get too far apart from each other. She spends most of her time during missions locked in a nondescript black vehicle. Fortunately for us and for her, Alex demands and gets more independence -- along with the difficult choices that come with being independent.

This is a spy story, a science-fiction story, a coming-of-age story. There are delightful villains, strange tech, allies-of-questionable-allegiance, and plenty of fight scenes. The Vosarak Code is the start of something great fun.

When I was young, I wanted to be a writer, an astronaut, a teacher, a doctor, a catburgler, and a dancer on "Solid Gold." I remember being very disappointed when my father explained that one person couldn't do it all - at least, one person can't be the best in every profession. As we make choices in our lives, some of those possibilities become reality (I've been both a teacher and a writer), and some merely continue to exist in our imagination (I still think I would have rocked it on "Solid Gold.") Alex Benno doesn't have those limitations, though. Alex has access to every possibility, every alternate reality, which means, Alex can find a "best" version of herself for any situation.

For Alex, this gift is a mixed blessing. Yes, she can always find the alternate Alex who has the right skills for the job at hand, but she never gets credit for the amazing things these other Alexes can do. As the cover of "Alex Unlimited" explains, Alex is her own sidekick.

Dan Jolley skillfully writes Alex as a young everywoman. We feel her insecurities as she notes her frizzy hair or her frumpy clothes, especially in comparison to her alter egos. But unlike most of the usual stories in the young adult genre, "Alex Unlimited" has an interesting twist: that amazing girl the heroine wishes she could be is actually herself.

"Alex Unlimited" is fast-paced and cleanly written. Jolley, a former comic book author, is an excellent writer and has shown his skills in a number of genres. But beyond good writing, Jolley has hit on something real - the notion that we must learn how to become ourselves. Like Sethe in Toni Morrison's Beloved, we must find how to become "our own best thing."

Because of that message, Alex (for all that she is a frizzy-haired, frumpy mess) is an inspiration. So what if "Solid Gold" was canceled in 1988? Get Marilyn McCoo on the phone! I'm going to practice my signature dance moves right now.

I have to start off by saying that I really, really, really enjoyed this book! It's got action-adventure, it has alternate realities, it's got a great main character. In essence, it's got everything you need for a great read. Actually, it's got everything you need in a book you'll want to read more than once!

Alexandra "Alex" Benno isn't your typical teen. Alex has the ability to sift through alternate realities as if they were snowflakes. Ever since she can remember, she's been trained to use her gifts by a secret government agency. Now she uses those same gifts to bring different versions of herself to this reality whenever they're needed. Alex is able to sift through those realities and choose the version of herself that is the best fit for whatever job is at hand.

There's only problem (as there always is!). All of the "other" Alex's are beautiful, tough, [...]-kicking girls who get to see all of the action and ultimately save the day. Unfortunately, the "real" Alex (the one in this reality) is more of a quiet, pretty-but-not-beautiful, stay-in-the-background type of girl. And, frankly, she's tired of it. Tired of not getting the kudos that she deserves for bringing the other Alex's in to the rescue. Tired of always being treated like a little girl who never gets to have a hand in any of the action.

So when the powers that be decide that the current mission is safe enough for Alex to take a front-seat, active role, she's thrilled. Alex needs to work to decipher the Vosarak Code (along with an alternate reality Alex, of course) and stop some bad guys from trying to take over the world. But things don't go exactly as planned, and the real Alex realizes that there might be a reason she never sees much action.

This is a great start to what I hope will be a long-running series in the ALEX UNLIMITED books. You'll immediately be hooked by Alex and all of her alternate versions, and, if you're like me, will be eagerly awaiting the next book in the series to find out what happens next!

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"