Customer Reviews

The Lab (Lab (Scholastic Mass Market))

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Meet Agent Six of Hearts. He's the strongest, fastest, most clever, and most effective member of a special group of field agents working in the Deck, a vigilante organization intent on establishing justice in a dangerous and corrupt world. Six is the best of the Deck's agents--and he's only sixteen. What the people at the Deck don't know, and can't find out, is that Six is the product of a genetic experiment by the Lab to create superhumans, the very kind of thing the Deck fights to prevent. When Six is assigned to investigate the Lab, he risks exposure. If the Deck learns of his identity, he'll likely be treated as a traitor and subsequently punished. And if the Lab discovers that Six is out and about, he knows he'll be pursued until capture. Either way, this is going to be Six's most dangerous mission yet.

The Lab starts with a dramatic action scene and continues to be action packed until the very last page. There are seriously very few pages in this novel that don't include a fight scene, chase scene, or danger. All this makes for an undoubtedly exciting and edge-of-your-seat suspense filled story that is quite difficult to put down. As with many purely action novels, the book starts to break down with characterization. Protagonist Six is superhuman, and unfortunately, a cold and distant personality results from it. Six's inability to relate to the normal humans around him makes him almost inhuman and inaccessible to the reader. Heath does attempt to develop Six's character, but it's a little sloppy, especially at first. Six's questioning of this identity, origins, and their significance is awkward and out of place amidst the nearly constant danger Six is usually immersed in. Since this novel is primarily action based, this isn't a big deal since the plot is more than enough to keep the reader interested and satisfied.

The Lab will be enjoyed by fans of other futuristic action packed novels such as Skinned by Robin Wasserman, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Unwind by Neal Shusterman. I can't wait to check out the sure to be exciting sequel, Remote Control.
[...]

I was initially hooked by the unique take on creating an agency utilizing a deck of cards. Clever, original. Hooked.

At first, the story drug a little. I wasn't entirely taken in until the action truly picked up and Agent Six realized he was being followed. The chase scene involving running, malls, parking garages and destroyed cars was well written and fast-paced. I was right there with Six.

Towards the latter half of the book, I could not put it down. The action did not cease and Six only became a deeper and more intense character.

I subsequently looked on here for additional books, hoping it was a series, but couldn't find any. I did a Google search on him and found his Australian website. This is the first book in a series of FOUR. His fourth comes out this fall in Australia. I found out that Scholastic has picked up the remainder of the series and will be releasing them over the next few years here in the States. Fantastic!

I would recommend 2 things:
1. Read this book.
2. Check out the guy's website. There are some short stories and details of his other series. Yes, an entire other series based on a brilliant teenaged girl who pulls off high-stakes heists.

I love that I have found a new and engaging writer. Thank you, Scholastic!

Agent Six of Hearts works to save innocent people and uncover the truth. He participates in many dangerous missions, often getting himself nearly killed. But Agent Six has never failed a mission -- and he's only sixteen years old.

But that isn't why Agent Six seems to be so perfect. The truth is that Agent Six was made to have almost super-human powers, to be a killing machine. And now Agent Six must save his country and also hide from the corrupted government officials who are trying to find their super-killers that they created.

Jack Heath writes a mysterious and action-packed novel that is sure to please any 007 fans. He creates a world where people are terrified under a suppressive government and it's up to The Deck, a super-secret organization, to save the innocent civilians and uncover the government's secrets.

With a cliffhanger at the end, THE LAB is sure to be the next Alex Rider series...

Reviewed by: Steph

Jack Heath has developed an interesting character in Six of Hearts. One begins to think of concepts of perfection, greed and living a life of purpose. He also raises an interesting thought when he shares his vision of a world filled with robots. A world where humans wouldn't need to work, and money wouldn't be needed as the robots would provide for all our needs. What a novel idea! Certainly creative and thought provoking.

Positives: Creative names of characters basing them on a deck of cards. Some parts of the novel were engrossing, but these were too few for my liking.

Negatives of novel: First chapter didn't captivate me...I persevered and in some respects I am glad that I did...Did the novel offer any meaningful insights about life or even our possible futures? Maybe. Some parts were overly descriptive and I don't believe there was enough in the 318 or so pages to engross the reader in the story. More depth is needed please Jack.

I rate this novel a 3/5 because it was a good book and it poses some interesting ethical questions regarding cloning, robotics and our future.

I highly recommend this book. This book is excellent, it's written very fast-paced (like the Matthew Reilly books) the action scenes are excellent and the characters well writen! I also recommend the sequel to it - Remote Control. A must read!!! Excellent, wonderful, thrilling book.

It's true that the action doesn't stop in this novel. From page one to the last page the book goes and goes and goes, and there barely is time to stop to take a breath. That being said, this book has some flaws. The book introduces a lot of concepts that it doesn't really go into depth about. The story is set against the backdrop of the future where something bad has happened. That's pretty much all you know in this book. Somewhere there are pieces of the exposition that seem left out.

The action sequences (and there were a ton of them) were good, but the fact that there were so many sort of slowed the story down. That may just be my personal reading taste, but it just seemed like... "Here we go again with another action scene." I like action as much as anyone else, I'm a huge fan of James Bond and the novels of James Rollins and Jeremy Robinson, but there is a point where you want a break in the action.

That being said, I don't think this book is a bad book. It did have some interesting elements to it, and some of the action scenes were inventive. I do want to read the sequel to see if there is more of the story of this future.

This book intrigued me from the get-go, but the premise turned out fairly unoriginal. Still, i gave it a chance and i'm glad i did.

The Lab is about a young 16 year old superhuman agent named Six of Hearts. Six was made to be a human weapon by The Lab and works for a vigilante agency called "The Deck".

In this future, the city is run by a company called ChaoSonic and they control the lives of the citizens. Six and his agency work to stop evil corporations like ChaoSonic from trying to control everyone.


This story is similar to the Alex Rider series, but had much more of a Sci-Fi feel to it. Very action packed and violent, it's definitely fun to read. I liked how Jack Heath didn't try to make this story too personal or make Six a tragic hero like some spy movies do. We don't learn that much about Six, but we get a feel of his personality.

However, there are some flaws. For example, the structure of the book is convoluted. The first few chapters basically act as an intro. Bullets were flying, stuff blew up, but no explanation. Then, all of a sudden we're forced to listen to a few explanations about the future they live in and the agency that Six works for. Then, the book becomes divided into 3 parts or "missions" which kind of bothered me. The supposed central plot was to basically find out about Six's past, but it didn't happen uniformly. While i enjoyed the spy thriller aspect, i thought it tried too hard to be cool or stylish. The direction of the story could have been much smoother without making it complicated. I suppose a complicated plot is part of spy stories, but it still bothered me a little.

Another footnote: Jack Heath was born in '86 and started The Lab at a young age. I'm not going to say that i assumed he was younger, but Heath has potential. Reportedly, there's a 90,000 word version of the story somewhere(the published version is only 70,000). His publishers apparently told him to shorten it. Either way, i thought it was a good attempt. There is a slight "kiddy" feeling to it, much like the Alex Rider series, but it's still enjoyable. I'm glad i read it, but i hope Heath improves upon his writing.