Point Blanc
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Point Blanc | |
 First edition cover |
|
| Author | Anthony Horowitz |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Alex Rider series |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, spy |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
| Publication date | 4 September 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 274 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7445-5971-5 (first edition, paperback) |
| Preceded by | Stormbreaker |
| Followed by | Skeleton Key |
Point Blanc (North America, Point Blank) follows on from Stormbreaker and is the second book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2001 and in North America on April 15, 2002, as Point Blank.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
In the beginning Alex sees guys selling homemade drugs to some of the students attending his school. To punish them, he takes control of a crane and lifts up their boat, intending to park it in front of the police station. During the incident, however, other crane operators turn off his crane, causing it to destroy a police conference room instead. The police detain him, and release him to custody of MI6 after learning of his secret status.
The head of MI6, Alan Blunt, blackmails Alex Rider into investigating the death of billionaires Michael J. Roscoe, CEO of Roscoe's Electronics, and Viktor Ivanov, a high-ranking Russian. The only thing connecting these two deaths is that their sons both attended an academy in the French Alps called Point Blanc. David Friend, who runs a chain of supermarkets, agrees to take Alex Rider in a fictional "son," and Alex Rider becomes Alex Friend. He spends a week at the Friend estate. Afterwards, he is picked up by Stellenbosch, the only other teacher at Point Blanc. After dinner checking into his hotel room, Alex Rider realizes that the Coke that he drank during dinner was spiked. After losing consciousness, he is taken to a laboratory where every single bit of his body is photographed.
When Alex Rider arrives at Point Blanc, he meets a boy called James Sprintz who shows Alex Rider around the school and the pair quickly become good friends. Sprintz tells him that he believes the boys are being replaced, as a few boys that used to be mean to him and didn't go to class suddenly became obedient overnight. Sprintz is soon replaced. Alex pokes around and finds out what has happened, finds the incarcerated real boys, and promises to help them, but Stellenbosch catches Alex and turns him over to the director, Dr. Hugo Grief.
Grief explains his plans to Alex Rider, collectively called Gemini Project. In the 1980s, Grief was in South Africa during apartheid (which he greatly supported) and cloned sixteen copies of himself. When the boys were at Point Blanc, he had a plastic surgeon surgically alter his clones to resemble the real boys and the clones study the real boys to mimic their mannerisms. After a short while, the clone and the real boy are swapped and the clone is sent to the boy's home. As the fathers die and pass on their inheritance – assets controlling mines, supermarkets and more – Grief will eventually control the world (in order to reinstall apartheid...this time on a more global scale).
Grief then incarcerates him. Alex Rider takes one of Smithers' devices (who is a technology director at MI6), an exploding ear-stud, blows up his cage and escapes with a makeshift snowboard made out of an ironing board. Upon discovering that Alex escaped, Grief sends two of his men on bikes. Alex Rider manages to escape, but crashes and is hospitalized. When Stellenbosch pays a visit to the hospital, MI6 agent Mrs. Jones (Alex's supervisor) arranges for the hospital to tell her that he is dead.
Alex Rider then joins Wolf and a team of other SAS agents to raid the school. Stellenbosch finds him and beats him up, but Wolf saves Alex Rider. In the climatic sequence, Alex sees Dr. Grief taking off in a helicopter. Alex takes a snowbike, runs it off the ski jump, and dives to safety as the bike smashes into Grief's helicopter and kills him.
When Alex Rider returns home, he is told by his housekeeper Jack that the rescue mission was a success and that all of the boys were rescued and that fifteen clones were disposed of. Alex Rider is then called to his school, where he discovers that the sixteenth clone, who Grief's surgeons had surgically altered to resemble him, eluded capture. Alex and his clone fight throughout the school and to the roof, at which point the chemistry lab blows up beneath them.
[edit] Film
Horowitz has stated that he has completed a script of a movie version of Point Blanc, and it is scheduled to be released in 2008, though Alex Pettyfer may not return to play Alex Rider as he is too old. [1]
[edit] Critical reception
Reviewer Chris High said, "For first class spills, thrills, and adventure, Anthony Horowitz can be safely said to have cornered the modern market...influenced greatly by Ian Fleming's work." Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz review! Read Hot calls it a "must read for all teenagers". Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz The School Library Journal says, "Spy gadgets, chase scenes, mysteries, and a cliff-hanger ending will keep even reluctant readers interested in the second novel in this series." Book list also says that Point Blanc is a great read for any reluctant teenager ready for a thrilling spy adventure.
[edit] Awards
- Shortlisted for the 2002 Children’s Book Award.
- Winner of the 2004 Children's Book Award
[edit] References
[edit] See also
|
|||||||||||||||||
