Point Blank (Alex Rider Adventure) [Hardcover]

Anthony Horowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2002 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Alex Rider Adventure

They look like they're supposed to. They talk like they're supposed to. But they sure don't act like they're supposed to. Sixteen boys in a remote boarding school, children of some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the world. Juvenile delinquents, all: drugs, shoplifting, vandalism. Yet suddenly they're perfect, well-behaved and studious. Identical in every way-or almost every way. Something is wrong. Very wrong. And only fourteen-year-old secret agent Alex Rider can save these boys from themselves. Should he fail, one man's sinister plan to conquer the world will become reality.

Full of heart-pounding adventure, technological wizardry, tongue-in-cheek humor, and a James Bond-like spirit, this sequel to Stormbreaker is a thrill ride you won't want to let up.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Powerful, privileged and screwed up, 16 boys in a boarding school suddenly turn into model students. It's up to 14-year-old Alex Rider to find out why and to face the maniacal man who has engineered it all in a bid to take over the world in Point Blank: An Alexander Rider Adventure by Anthony Horowitz, the follow-up to last year's Stormbreaker.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-10-After two influential businessmen die in separate freak accidents, MI6, England's spy network, once again calls upon 14-year-old Alex Rider to infiltrate Point Blanc, a private school in the French Alps for out-of-control, wealthy teens. Armed only with his wits and some 007-type devices, he stumbles upon an evil mad scientist's plot to take over the world using clones as replacements for prominent sons. Spy gadgets, chase scenes, mysteries, and a cliff-hanger ending will keep even reluctant readers interested in the second novel in this series. Familiarity with the first novel is not necessary as the plot fills in past information when needed, but many students will want to go back and read Stormbreaker (Philomel, 2001) to see how Alex first became involved with MI6.
Kim Carlson, Monticello High School, IA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 215 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (April 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039923621X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399236211
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (148 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Assignment: Certain Death, July 27, 2002

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Point Blank (Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

Alex Rider, the youngest spy ever recruited and forced into service by MI6--Great Britain's premiere espionage agency, returns in POINT BLANK with a vengeance. Only a few days have passed since Alex's last adventure when he helped catch the man responsible for murdering his uncle, Ian Rider, who had also been a spy. His excuses, a doctor's note no one quite believes, have barely been made before he's spirited off by Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones, the head of Special Operations. Two deaths of rich and powerful men, one of them a personal friend of Blunt's, have triggered an investigation into the matter of those deaths. One man was killed violently while the other, a VERY careful man, apparently died by an unfortunate accident. The common denominator: both men had problem children, sons that were sent to a new school in France called Point Blanc. Blunt assigns Alex to infiltrate the school on a Search and Report mission. Once there, Alex discovers that the boys attending the school are all eerie, all acting like little puppets who answer every command of the creepy Dr. Hugo Grief and Mrs. Stellenbosch. In no time at all, Alex Rider fourteen year old spy extraordinaire is once more facing a grim and certain death if he doesn't use every ounce of cunning and intelligence he possesses.

Anthony Horowitz is a novelist and TV writer. In addition to the two Alex Rider novels he's written (STORMBREAKER and POINT BLANK), he's also penned THE DEVIL AND HIS BOY, a historical thriller, THE DEVIL'S DOOR-BELL, NIGHT OF THE SCORPION, THE SILVER CITADEL, and short story collections, DEATH WALKS TONIGHT and MYTHS AND LEGENDS. He's written television scripts for POIROT and MIDSUMMER MURDERS, and recently created two television series for the BBC.

The pacing in POINT BLANK rivals the breakneck speed shown in STORMBREAKER. The story yanks the reader along, as if daring him or her to keep up. Although the book is written about a fourteen year old spy, the prose is keen and precise, rivaling any of that in today's thrillers. The book can be enjoyed by young readers as well as adults, and for the very same reasons. The action sequences are some of the best, tight and intricately planned. Horowitz stays just this side of SF and blends the effect neatly into the spy story. His villains are definitely of James Bond caliber, unique and attention-getting while at the same time vile and loathsome. Alex's tools of the spy trade, delivered by his very own Q-type spy inventor, are neat and plausible. Getting to see SAS soldier Wolf (from the first novel, STORMBREAKER) again was great. It seems Horowitz is going to create a world for his young spy and keep it interactive, weaving threads in one book that will come to fruition in successive novels.

There could be, perhaps, a little more dialogue in the book. Reading narration can be fun, but a reader's ears stay pricked for the conversations a character has. Of course, Alex isn't exactly overly verbose, but other characters could talk to him as well. And there needs to be a little more about Jack Starbright, Alex's housekeeper. So far, all the reader knows is that she is from America. What brought her to Great Britain and why does she continue to stay? Maybe the author has even more secrets to unveil.

POINT BLANK is a wonderful novel of action and suspense. Any reader waiting anxiously for the release of Vin Diesel's new movie, XXX, or the new James Bond film will definitely find a story in this book to meet the driving excitement in those properties.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sequel shaken - not stirred, May 2, 2002

By 

Erika Soeterik (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Point Blank (Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

Alex Rider is the youngest member of Britain's elite M16 spying agency. He didn't think it would be too bad, but it's hard to be James Bond when everyone thinks that you are too young to carry a gun. After barely surviving his last adventure Alex is back at school - but M16 has plans for Alex. Shipped off to Point Blanc Academy, Alex is about to face a dangerous foe. Dr. Grief - the academy director - has plans for Alex, plans that place him in danger. Alex has to figure out what is going on - before he becomes the latest subject in Project Gemini.

This book is one of the best sequels that I have read for a long time. I loved the opening action scene where Alex manages to cause a lot of damage with a crane and a barge (I won't ruin it by saying anymore) - and the rest of the book kept up with that opening scene. I found that this book was more gripping than the first because it was tricky - just when you thought you had it figured out the author changed the rules.

Girls and guys alike will enjoy this fast-paced, action-packed novel. I can't wait until the next book in this series comes out. I have also recommended these books to my brother who reads Tom Clancy and he enjoyed them too. The best part about this Alex Rider adventure is that the end will leave you thinking about the book for a long time (but if I tell you why it will ruin the ending so you have to read this book for yourself).

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Point Blank, May 2, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Point Blank (Alex Rider Adventure) (Hardcover)

Point Blank is the most action packed book I've ever read besides Stormbreaker. Alex Rider saves the day again! Working for the british secret service, Alex is sent into the acadamey of Poin Blanc. Alex has only a few gadgets to save the world from an evil scientist. Once again Alex Rider must save the world. This time from cloning!