Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Alex Rider
Alex Rider- manga style!
For fans of the Alex Rider graphic novels Stormbreaker and Point Blank, the wait is finally over. Alex is back! Featuring the same actionpacked, manga-esque style as the previous installments, Skeleton Key brings all the thrills and gadgetry to life in colorful, page-turning form.
For readers of this worldwide phenomenon, or for those just discovering it, Skeleton Key: The Graphic Novel is sure to excite.
Is there a single innovative moment in this graphic adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s third novel of teen super-spy Alex Rider? Not really, no. From the “pre-credits” sequence to the Bondian gadgets, from the megalomaniacal villain with a penchant for explaining things to the nuclear bomb–defusing climax, even the most inexperienced spy-fiction reader is likely to see what’s coming next. Does the adaptation contain any real substance or insight? Oh, come now. When the orphaned 14-year-old notes that he may lack a proper family but at least he gets to sun himself in five-star hotels, you can rest assured they’ve given up human drama in favor of bang-up action set-pieces. Does it have a place in your collection? Absolutely. It will be much enjoyed by those looking for a lightweight adventure with a high body count, a propulsive (though wordy) plot, and well-choreographed action rendered in capable illustration. Such readers might also be directed to Charlie Higson’s more thoughtful and involving Young Bond series, which is due to be adapted into graphic-novel form in 2010. Grades 7-10. --Jesse Karp
About the Author
Anthony Horowitz lives in London, England.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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.
This review is from: Skeleton Key: The Graphic Novel (Alex Rider) (Paperback)
Skeleton Key: The Graphic Novel provides a vivid Alex Rider action story in full color where the teen superspy is sent to Skeleton Key - an island near Cuba - to thwart an insane Russian. Intrigue and manga-style art contribute to this third Alex Rider adventure for all ages.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This one is enough to make you hate every bit of arrogant posturing that some Russians have ever pulled off. The contrast even in temperament and personality type between the nemesis - a former Soviet general - and Alex is truly striking, and is made all the more so by the general's surprising request to adopt Alex as his son to replace the son he lost in Afghanistan. To put it in a nutshell, the general admires what Alex does - he is every whit as versatile as the general's late son - but in the end rejects what Alex is, with tragic consequences. Oh, and along the way Western Europe almost becomes a radioactive wasteland - because the general would have it so (and wants Alex to acquiesce, one way or another).
In other words, I loved this graphic novel, so I won't give away any more of its plot.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Skeleton Key: The Graphic Novel (Alex Rider) (Paperback)
My son (11) received 3 of these for Xmas. He read them all in a day. He LOVES them, but he told me there was a lot of violence. This is a comic book. He has the regular books. I am hoping that reading these comic books will inspire him to read the full written version. We'll see...
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
