Alex Rider
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The Alex Rider book series is written by Anthony Horowitz, primarily for young adults.
The books are about the life of Alex Rider, a 14-year old orphan schoolboy working for MI6. He is often referred to as a youthful James Bond.
The six books are:
- Stormbreaker
- Point Blanc
- Skeleton Key
- Eagle Strike
- Scorpia
- Ark Angel
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Plot Summaries
In Stormbreaker, Alex's uncle, Ian Rider, dies mysteriously in a so-called car accident. Alex is then forcibly recruited into MI6 after learning that his uncle was an agent. In Alex's first mission, he stops a crazed Lebanese industrialist from infecting the United Kingdom's schoolchildren with a genetically modified strain of smallpox, and in that book he meets Yassen Gregorovich.
In Point Blanc he stops a South African scientist named Dr Hugo Grief from replacing the teenaged sons of influential people with clones of himself - the Gemini Project.
Skeleton Key sees him stopping a Chinese triad from sabotaging the Wimbledon tennis championships, and then finds himself in Cuba, where he has to stop insane Russian General Alexei Sarov from using a nuclear weapon to make Russia a communist state.
In Eagle Strike he stops Damian Cray, a pop singer and fanatical environmentalist, from using the US nuclear armoury to destroy the world. At the end of that book he is told by the dying assassin Yassen Gregorovich that he must go to Venice if he wanted to find out the truth of his long dead father.
Alex follows Gregorovich's dying wish in Scorpia, and ends up stopping a criminal organisation using radio waves and nanotechnology to kill London's schoolchildren and sabotage the American-British Alliance. In the end he is told the truth about his father (he was a spy who joined the criminal group Scorpia and reported back to MI6) and is shot in the chest by a sniper.
In Ark Angel, Alex saves Washington DC from having a space hotel dropped on it from orbit by a Russian criminal boss, Nikolei Drevin.
Characters
Alan Blunt
Alan is the head of MI6 Special Operations. He is an aloof, impassive and ruthless man who insists on Alex's continued use, regardless of his youthfulness, the death of his uncle in an intelligence case, and the fact that he has brushed with death more times than most intelligence agents would in their careers. Blunt is totally dedicated to his job and has a very analytical mind.
He always wears a grey suit and grey glasses, and drives a Rolls-Royce.
Alan is married, but his wife is not mentioned in the series.
After Alan Blunt dismissed Alex's suspicions of Damian Cray and his attempt to destroy half the world, he was severely dressed down by the Home Secretary, narrowly keeping his position.
Tulip Jones
Tulip Jones is second in command at MI6, and is Alan Blunt's closest associate; however, Alan insists that their personal and professional remain separate. Tulip has never even been in Mr Blunt's house, in spite of knowing him better than anyone in Special Operations. Mrs. Jones has two children; both of them were taken by someone at a young age. Probably as a result of this, she has a soft spot for Alex. In her well-guarded flat, she has a large library, a cat named Q and an expensive DVD Player.
Her operation on Albert Bridge led to her promotion to deputy head.
Jones is referred to as Mrs. Jones, until the mention of her first name in the fifth book of the series.
Other central characters
- Smithers, the gadget expert at MI6
- Jack Starbright, Alex's caregiver
- Yassen Gregorovich, assassin
- John Crawley, a senior MI6 agent
- 'Wolf', an SAS commando
- Sabina Pleasure, friend to Alex