Customer Reviews

Spy High Mission One (Spy High (Little Brown and Company))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Spy High:Mission One is a really great spy book. In the book, 6 teenagers end up in a school that teaches them to be spys. Because this group of kids aren't doing to well together, the school sends them on a camping trip. They hope the kids will get to know each other more. Instead, the kids get involved with a mad scienctist who works with group of terrorists. This book has alot of action and suspence in it, and I'm glad the AJ Butcher had some imagination when he thought of spys. I recomend it to everyone who likes action, spys, and the like, although maybe not to younger kids because the ending might be to scary.

I picked up Spy High from the library because it looked like fun. It wasn't. It's 196 pages of bad banter, ludicrous villains, cardboard cut out characters, and a plot with holes big enough to ride a SkyBike through.

From the outside, Deveraux Academy looks like a normal boarding school. However, it's not. It's actually a cover for a school to train future secret agents. Deveraux's students call it Spy High.

Usually, Spy High students are flawless, but one of this year's teams, Bond Team, is falling short. The constant bickering between the elected leader, Ben, and Jake, a fellow team member, threatens to tear the team apart. When they fail an important test, their teacher decides they need a to take a camping trip so they can bond as one big happy family. Unfortunately, when giant mutant creatures attack the campers, all of Bond Team have to fight for their survival. This time, if they fail, they'll die.

Spy High is such a mess that it's hard to know where to begin. First, there's the characters. There are six teens on Bond Team, three girls and three boys, and they are all completely one-dimensional, unsympathetic, and unbelievably irritating. Their personalities are inconsistent from scene to scene, which makes them all names without any distinct personality traits.

Of course, since there are an equal number of boys and girls, everyone needs to be pairing up every minute. Ben and Lori. Cally and Jake. Never mind, Jake didn't really like Cally, so make that Jake and Jennifer. Now Cally's feelings are hurt. Pair-up Cally and Eddie. In my opinion, no one in their right mind would ever want to date Eddie, since he is useless, flirtatious to the point of gagging, and keeps up and endless stream of banter and bad jokes.

In fact, the entire book seems to be an endless stream of banter. For example, on page 118:

"I agree with Ben," said Jake... "And if you want my opinion, we carry on regardless. Those guys were jerks, and even if King Kong or the Frankenstein Monster or something else has taken up residence in the near vicinity, we're all secret agents in training, aren't we? We're Bond Team. We can handle them."

Or on page 7:

" 'Fraid you'll just have to put up with me," said Cally. "And as for motivation, if you don't get moving now I'm gong to be motivating you by squeezing somewhere that hurts."

Or on page 19:

"You're just a cliche, Stromfeld," groaned Ben... "You're just an entry in a textbook. A porker in a uniform."

Or on page 159:

"Names are unimportant," the anonymous face said. "Names are part of the ordered, rational society that we reject and despise. It is enough that we are agents of CHAOS and chaos we will bring to all the world."

It may not seem that annoying, but imagine 196 pages of endless banter. After a while, you just start wishing everyone would shut up and get on with the story.

The villains are equally annoying.

Let's imagine for a moment that you're a villain who wants to take over the world. You discover a group of kids trying to sabotage your nefarious plans. Do you:

a. Shoot them immediately.

or

b. Explain your evil plan for world domination to them in extreme detail, then think of the most convoluted way to execute them possible so they have a chance to escape and stop you and/or leave them in an unguarded room for them to escape from.

If you picked b., congratulations! You should be the next villain in the Spy High series! Unfortunately, if you're female, you probably won't be picked, because all of the villains are male. The author seems to think that girls can't be evil too.

There's also the problem of the villain's plan for world domination. The villain, who amazingly enough turns out to be descended from Dr. Frankenstein (isn't it funny how all evil crazy people turn out to be related?), has developed "gene gas" which can mutate people's DNA if they inhale it. I'm sorry, Mr. evil villain, that would not work in real life.

Another problem is the descriptions. They are overly long and overly dramatic. For example on page 118:

Cally felt that the night surrounding her was like a yawning black mouth that could close upon them and devour them at any time.

First of all, there's a grammatical inconsistency (the night surrounding HER... could close upon THEM and devour THEM), but there's also the fact that it's a waste of words. You could shorten it to:

Cally was scared of the dark.

Wow! I just cut eighteen words, and the description makes more sense!

There are more of these descriptions. On page 120:

Jennifer's voice crackled like the logs on the fire...flames writhed in her green eyes, caressed her skin as if they recognized one of their own.

Just wondering, how can someone's voice crackle like logs on a fire? And how can the flames be in her eyes and caressing her skin? Wouldn't she get burned? Is this supposed to be symbolic? Who knows?

Also on page 123:

Cally heard its leathery wings flapping, the sound like mummies applauding.

Well, first there's the fact that this sentence is also grammatically incorrect, but then there's also the applauding mummies. Let's suspend disbelief for a moment and say that, yes, mummies can applaud. I would love to know where the author was able to find applauding mummies that he could listen to. Also, did he compare the sound of applauding mummies to the sound of mutant bat wings flapping, or did he just suppose that they sound the same?

There's also the gigantic plot holes. For example, on page 109, Eddie says, "Camping?...As in tents and rucksacks? Didn't that go out with the ozone layer?"

If the ozone layer has disappeared, then there should be massive amounts of UV radiation. As anyone who has ever learned anything about UV radiation knows, it is not a good thing to be exposed to. However, the kids spend a lot of the book outside, and have no protection against UV radiation, even though, as Eddie said, the ozone layer is gone. You've gotten stuck in a plot hole!

The ending is also so unbelievable and ludicrous that I could spend several more paragraphs debunking it, but I won't just in case someone who reads this review wants to go out and read the book. I'd rather not spoil the ending for them. Suffice to say, it could never happen in real life, and it conflicts with "scientific evidence" from earlier chapters.

Needless to say, don't read Spy High, don't buy it, stay far away from it. Life is too short to waste reading wretched books.

Have you ever had a chance to change your life completely? If you read Spy High Mission One , by A.J. Butcher you'll find out that six kids by the names of Ben Stanton, Jake Daly, Eddie Nelligan, Lori Angel, Jennifer Chen, and Cally Cross get that chance. Senior tutor, Elmore Grant, selects these six kids to attend Devoraux Academy (Spy High) and become spies. In order to pass the Stromfeld program in their 1st year the Bond team must learn the importance of teamwork and trust. If they fail they won't just fail, but they will also meet their fate. Their adventures continue in Spy High Mission Two. If you like mystery, action, and romance all in one book then this is the book for you!
Sometimes it is confusing because dialogue from characters that aren't even present at the time is intermixed with dialogue from the characters that are present. On the other hand Butcher uses good vocabulary so it is easy to visualize what is happening. I hope you get the chance to change your life completely.

The Bond team is on a mission...to get through their training. The best of the best brought together, to form one awesome team...but so far they can't even get along. Their clashing personalities and the need to lead keep them from success. At Spy High you get three chances, and they are one mission away from striking out. Each wants to succeed for their own reasons; the Bond team must work together in order to save the world...and graduate.

This book is different from any that I have read before; fresh, new ideas that really bring you in to their lives and emotions. It will keep you guessing up till the very end.

This series is definitely one for those who enjoy books such as the Alex Rider series and other spy books. Set in a futuristic setting, Deveraux Academy is not justthe elusive high school as it seems: it's much more. A high school (rightly nick-named Spy High) that trains students as (you guessed it) spies, to be exact. The Bond Team students have been hand picked and marked to succeed- but will the differences of its six members make things worse when they are put into a real (non-holographic) situation? The characters are enjoyable and easy to relate to- and even though it can be a bitsy predictable at times, the books' fast-pace, energy, characters, and thrill make up for it. And I for one, enjoyed this series quite a lot. :)

Enjoyed this book immensely- it was great! Just a quick review to say how wrong the prvious reviewer is!!! An amazing book, first in an amazing series, and oh, yeah, edward red is out! woooooooooooooo!

Although I anticipated this book because of its concept, and gave it two stars for that concept, I have to admit that I'm really disappointed by this book. The characters are cardboard cutouts of teens who don't seem to have any feelings other than the need to win--whether it's in class, training, love, or virtual reality. The characters quickly got on my nerves because they were so one-dimensional. The supposedly witty repartee felt forced. It was unbelievable. The chapter headings and endings (in a font that's nearly impossible to read) aren't tantalizing--because they float above the story somewhere, unconnected. This could have been a great series. It has a great premise, but it's nearly impossible to read--and I try to finish everything I read to give it a fair chance. Not this book.

This book is about a group of people selected
to train to be spies on a team at a college
nicknamed "Spy High". The group called the Bond
Team fail a simulated test due to lack of team
cooperation so the Head Master send them on a
real mission. The Bond Team must stop an evil
doctor named Frankenstein who is turning people
into mutants that he can control as his private
army. Since they have no chance at beating the
stronger, more numerous mutants, the Bond Team
must use the talents of the entire group to
destroy Dr. Frankenstein's mind control computer.
As they attempt to do so, they learn the
importance of trusting each other and real life
danger.
I really liked this book and I couldn't put it
down. I liked the fast pace of the writing and
the frequent close calls in the dangerous
situations. The high tech gadgets and the
numerous battle scenes made the book more
interesting to me. I thought it was really neat
how they would defeat guards and escape from
rooms and prisons. This book is similar to a book
called Artemis Fowl where Artemis has to fight
imaginary creatures, so if you liked that book,
you'll like this one. The ending of the book was
very good, because it set up the next volume in
the series.
Rating: 9
MY Flamingnet Book Reviews www.flamingnet.com

When Jake, Ben, Lori, Eddie, Cally, and Jennifer are invited to the illustrious and exclusive Devereaux Academy, they don't know what they're signing up for. The Academy is a cover for a covert training facility, affectionately known as Spy High where young "students" are trained to be spies. The six are assigned to the Bond Team, but where the other teams seems to be coming together, Bond Team has some difficulty working as a team. Ben is too concerned with being a hero, Lori can't seem to say no to Ben (yeah, she's the lamest of the characters), Jennifer is too ready to jump into a fight, Jake is resentful of Ben's snobbery, Cally has no faith in herself, and Eddie can't take things seriously. In an attempt to get them to click, they are sent on a camping trip. The camping trip turns out to be anything but singing songs around a fire and they must use all their wits and training to survive.

Surprisingly, despite there being so many characters to follow, we get a pretty good idea of who everyone is. Not everyone gets quite the same amount of attention (Lori, Eddie, and Jennifer get the least while Ben, Jake, and Cally get the most), but even so we get to know each of them. It is most unfortunate that we don't get to know more about Jennifer, since she apparently has some sort of secret and seems interesting. Anyone hopping for a fight must have some interesting backstory, right?

Book one did a good job of setting up a larger story (specifically an organization called CHAOS) while establishing the different kids. I would have liked Lori to be more complex (right now she seems to just be the pretty face she doesn't want to be with no specific skills to contribute to the team) and I am surprised that before they voted for team leader they weren't given a speech about how scores aren't everything when it comes to leadership.

I would also like to know how things work when they graduate. For example, do you work with the teams you train with? Does the bigger spy organization have a name? How does Devereaux get his intel? Some or all of these things may be revealed later in the series, so it is hard to complain about it just yet.

I was upset after I bought this, it was a real struggle to read the whole book. The author uses much taken from other books, such as you'll never guess what they call the spy team? They call it tean 'Bond'. Come on is that the best you can do.
The book was slow, jumps from charater to character and is hard to follow, the story is ok.