Ark Angel (Alex Rider Adventure) [Mass Market Paperback]

Anthony Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Alex Rider Adventure

The sniper’s bullet nearly killed him. But Alex Rider managed to survive . . . just in time for more trouble to come his way. When kidnappers attempt to snatch a fellow patient from the exclusive hospital where Alex is recovering, he knows he has to stop him. But the boy he saves is no ordinary patient: He is the son of Nikolai Drevin, one of the richest men in the world. The eccentric billionaire has been targeted by Force Three, a group of eco-terrorists who claim his project Ark Angel—the first luxury hotel in outer space—is a danger to the environment. Soon Alex discovers that Force Three will stop at nothing to destroy Ark Angel, even if it means sending four hundred tons of molten glass and steel hurtling down to Earth and killing millions . . . unless Alex can stop them.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-10-Alex Rider is giving it up. Being a teenage secret agent is just too dangerous. He wants his old life back. As he lies in the hospital bed recovering from a gunshot wound, he contemplates the end of his career with MI6, the British secret service. But then he saves the life of Paul Drevin, son of multibillionaire Nikolei Drevin, and once again he is pulled into service. This time his mission involves eco-terrorists, rockets to space, maniacal killers, and a less-than-idyllic tropical island. Is it all in a day's work, or will this truly be Alex Rider's last mission? The action-filled plot develops quickly and keeps readers on the edge of their seats. The over-the-top characters, with their exaggerated quirks and personalities, work well in this James Bond-like novel. Detailed background, technical, and political information, essential for any spy story, is uncomplicated and easy for most readers to understand. Though there are some references to previous missions, this title can certainly stand alone. Recommend it to your reluctant readers and get ready for them to line up for the rest of the series.-Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 6--9. In his sixth adventure Alex Rider runs afoul of a group of murderous "eco warriors" and befriends Paul Drevin, the lonely son of venerated multibillionaire Nikolai Drevin, who isn't what he seems. In fact, neither is Paul, as Alex finds out when he accompanies the father and son on a vacation to the family's luxurious home in Flamingo Bay, which happens to be the launching site of a rocket that will carry the observation module for Drevin's hugely publicized Ark Angel, the first hotel in space. Readers will need to suspend disbelief more than usual this time: Alex's solo trip into space is unquestionably over the top, and there are a few glitches in plotting. What's impossible to resist are the imaginative gadgets and the breakneck action, which Horowitz handles with his usual assurance and skill. Expect very high demand for this. The first title in the series, Stormbreaker (2001), is being released as a movie, and to celebrate the event, the publisher has redesigned the series' book covers to incorporate a snazzy holographic foil. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Speak (April 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142407380
• ISBN-13: 978-0142407387
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Family Life > Orphans & Foster Homes
  • #9 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Boys & Men > Fiction
  • #26 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Literature > Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror > Mysteries, Espionage, & Detectives

More About the Author

Anthony Horowitz's life might have been copied from the pages of Charles Dickens or the Brothers Grimm. Born in 1956 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a family of wealth and status, Anthony was raised by nannies, surrounded by servants and chauffeurs. His father, a wealthy businessman, was, says Mr. Horowitz, "a fixer for Harold Wilson." What that means exactly is unclear -- "My father was a very secretive man," he says-- so an aura of suspicion and mystery surrounds both the word and the man. As unlikely as it might seem, Anthony's father, threatened with bankruptcy, withdrew all of his money from Swiss bank accounts in Zurich and deposited it in another account under a false name and then promptly died. His mother searched unsuccessfully for years in attempt to find the money, but it was never found. That too shaped Anthony's view of things. Today he says, "I think the only thing to do with money is spend it." His mother, whom he adored, eccentrically gave him a human skull for his 13th birthday. His grandmother, another Dickensian character, was mean-spirited and malevolent, a destructive force in his life. She was, he says, "a truly evil person", his first and worst arch villain. "My sister and I danced on her grave when she died," he now recalls.
A miserably unhappy and overweight child, Anthony had nowhere to turn for solace. "Family meals," he recalls, "had calories running into the thousands&. I was an astoundingly large, round child&." At the age of eight he was sent off to boarding school, a standard practice of the times and class in which he was raised. While being away from home came as an enormous relief, the school itself, Orley Farm, was a grand guignol horror with a headmaster who flogged the boys till they bled. "Once the headmaster told me to stand up in assembly and in front of the whole school said, 'This boy is so stupid he will not be coming to Christmas games tomorrow.' I have never totally recovered." To relieve his misery and that of the other boys, he not unsurprisingly made up tales of astounding revenge and retribution.


Anthony Horowitz is perhaps the busiest writer in England. He has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. He writes in a comfortable shed in his garden for up to ten hours per day. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he has also written episodes of several popular TV crime series, including Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. He has written a television series Foyle's War, which recently aired in the United States, and he has written the libretto of a Broadway musical adapted from Dr. Seuss's book, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. His film script The Gathering has just finished production. And&oh yes&there are more Alex Rider novels in the works. Anthony has also written the Diamond Brothers series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Angel Here ..., April 20, 2006

By 

T. J. Jones "TJ" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ark Angel (An Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

'Scorpia' is a hard act to follow, being the best and most emotionally draining Alex Rider adventure yet, and while 'Ark Angel' reached no where near the caliber of intensity that can be found in 'Scorpia', it is still as fun as ever.

Yes people, he's back (you all thought he would be an angel ... shame), and Alex is madder than ever. After being shot by the unforgiving criminal orginization Scorpia, 'Ark Angel' picks up in a hospital where Alex is recuperating and ready once and for all to give up spywork and the heartless MI6. However, when Alex befriends the son of Russian millionaire Nikolei Drevin, Paul, in the hospital, everything changes as Alex is pulled along into another action-packed adventure after he saves Drevin's son from a high-stakes kidnapping plot. What follows are the always interesting tropical islands, rockets in space, and of course maniacal bad guys and trained killers.

As usual, this new adventure is full of Horowitz's trademark action sequences, humor, and unexpected plot turns that will keep the reader glued to their seats. Alex is still seething at MI6, but he is no where near as mad as he was in 'Scorpia'. As a character, Alex didn't do much growing, but how can he since he grew leaps and bounds in the last book? So no minus points there, but, the only problem this adventure suffers is the sometimes repetive action sequences. I know it's hard to recreate gun-shot escapes, but how many times can a bullet pass over your shoulder without taking a bit off? The essential political backdrop is there once again, and Horowitz makes it simple enough for any reader to understand. Some favorite characters make reappearences, while others don't. Mrs. Jones does not make an appearence and I hope that after her intense encounter with Alex in 'Scorpia', Horowitz has more planned for her character. While not the best in the series, readers will still love to plunge back into Alex's bond-like world and experience the reality and just plain coolness of being a teenage spy. I highly reccommend this adventure to all fans of the series and regular readers who want to know what it would really be like to be a teenage spy (no offense Carmen and Junie).

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 24, 2006

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ark Angel (An Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

Before you read the review of ARK ANGEL, you need to take into account that this is the sixth book in the engaging, entertaining, action-packed adventure series starring Alex Rider. If you haven't read the first five books in the series, you'll probably want to do that before you pick up ARK ANGEL. Although it can stand on its own, you'll feel more in the loop by reading the previous books first.

ARK ANGEL picks up immediately where Scorpia (Alex Rider Adventure), book five, left off. At the end of that book, we saw Alex Rider on the ground, wounded by a sniper's bullet. For those who thought that Anthony Horowitz was planning to kill off our favorite young MI6 agent, please be assured that ARK ANGEL does not in any way imply dead. Alex is alive and relatively well, recuperating in an exclusive private hospital in London. The sniper's bullet missed his heart, instead bouncing off a rib and exiting out his arm. Now, as he's recovering in posh room nine of the hospital, he becomes friends with Paul. The same Paul that turns out to be the son of Nikolai Drevin, one of the richest men in the world.

When Alex saves Paul during a kidnapping attempt, Nikolai invites Alex to finish his recuperation at his estate. Alex soon wonders at the wisdom of being in Drevin's company, however, when he learns that an eco-terrorist group known as Force Three has threatened not only the Drevin family, but the safety of the entire world.

Nikolai Drevin's latest project, Ark Angel, is in full swing. Designed to become the first ultimate luxury hotel in outer space, it contains everything the world's richest people could want. It's also, at least according to Force Three, a threat to the environment of Earth as we know it. Now the members of the terrorist group are out to stop Ark Angel from ever opening, and they'll do anything--and everything--they can to see their mission come to completion. Even if it means hurtling the hotel back through the atmosphere and onto Earth's surface.

ARK ANGEL is another action-adventure read that will keep you turning pages right through to the end. Alex Rider has come a long way since the fourteen-year old boy roped into complying with MI6, but there's part of him that's still determined to leave the spy organization for good. Yet he knows that his skills are needed, and the unending action of ARK ANGEL show in detail why that is. You won't go wrong with any of the books in the Alex Rider series, and I can say that I'm excited about the opening of the movie Alex Rider - Operation Stormbreaker (Widescreen Edition), the first Alex Rider adventure, which is in development now.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great addition to the series, April 1, 2006

By 

Gary H. Cassel "Flamingnet Teen Book Reviews" (Baltimore, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ark Angel (An Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

In the sixth Alex Rider Adventure, Alex is recovering from his encounter with a sniper who had been sent to kill him. In the hospital, he meets Paul Drevin, son of multibillionaire Nikolei Drevin. While in the hospital, kidnappers come for Paul. The kidnappers are part of Force Three, a group of eco-terrorists who are angry that Nikolei Drevin caused the extinction of several species of birds during rocket launches for his latest project, Ark Angel, a space hotel. However, Alex defends Paul against Force Three and prevents them from kidnapping him. Rewarding Alex for protecting his son, Nikolei Drevin invites Alex to spend some time with Paul and him in their extraordinary homes, leading up to the launch of one of the most important pieces of the space hotel. Alex finds that Force Three, Ark Angel, and Nikolei Drevin are not what they seem to be and despite Alex's refusal to once again become involved in the world of deception, and spying, he finds himself working to defeat "the biggest criminal in the world."

I generally find that books in the Alex Rider series tend to get a touch too repetitive. However, in ARK ANGEL, although it did have some parallels to other books in the series, Anthony Horowitz successfully threw twists into the plot that set the book apart from its predecessors. I also congratulate Mr. Horowitz on the great amount of research he did on topics covered in the book. He even threw in some physics, explaining rotational inertia and some nice examples of Newton's Laws! The setting for the end of the book was very unique and gave the book an exciting ending, but I wish that Anthony Horowitz did not put Alex Rider in so many life or death situations. I enjoy the creative ways Alex Rider slips away from his enemies, but it starts to get a little old when I find that for the third time in the book Alex has dodged a bullet that passes centimeters over his shoulder. ARK ANGEL as a whole has more positives than negatives and definitely is an enjoyable book that Alex Rider fans will love as a great addition to the series.

Reviewed by Seth Cassel for Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations.