| Stormbreaker (novel) | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Anthony Horowitz |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Alex Rider series |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, spy, thriller |
| Publisher | Walker Books |
| Publication date | 4 September 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 240 pp (first edition, paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7445-5943-X (first edition, paperback) |
| OCLC Number | 44562574 |
| Followed by | Point Blanc |
Stormbreaker is the first novel in the Alex Rider series by British author Anthony Horowitz. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2000 and in the United States on 21 May 2001. The book has sold more than nine million copies worldwide.[1]
A film adaptation, starring Alex Pettyfer as Alex Rider, was released on 21 July 2006.
Contents |
A fourteen-year-old boy, Alex Rider, learns of the death of his uncle and adopted parent, Ian Rider, in a deadly car crash. Alex is suspicious (because in spite of what the police told him after the crash, Ian Rider always wore his seatbelt), and decides to investigate. He finds that Ian Rider did not die in a car crash, and after events, reaches the head-quarters, where he discovers that his uncle was, in fact, a spy who had been killed before completing his mission. He had actually been training Alex (who already speaks German, Spanish, French, English, Japanese, and is a black-belt in karate) for a career in MI6.
Alan Blunt and his second-in-command, Mrs Jones, of MI6, ask Alex to pick up his uncle's assignment, investigating Herod Sayle, a Lebanese billionaire (Egyptian in the American version) who is giving free "Stormbreaker" computers to every school in Britain. This seems very suspicious, as the Stormbreakers must have cost a fortune. As an undercover agent, and equipped with an abundant amount of gadgets, Alex travels to Sayle's home in Cornwall, and, following the path drawn by his uncle, discovers a large computer manufacturing facility, where the Stormbreaker computers are being tainted with smallpox virus. The Prime Minister is going to release, the virus, to which school children will be exposed. This is because the Prime-Minister bullied Sayle going back to school-days. Before he can communicate with MI6, Alex is caught. Sayle leaves Alex to die in a tank with a Portuguese Man o' War and heads off to the Science Museum in London, where the Prime Minister is to activate the Stormbreakers, unwittingly releasing the deadly virus.
Alex eludes Sayle's compound, parachutes out of a hijacked airplane, and smashes through the roof of the Science Museum. With a stolen gun, he fires eight bullets at the Stormbreakers and Sayle, hitting the Prime Minister in the hand and destroying the trigger that would have released the smallpox. After a debriefing by MI6, Alex gets into a taxi, intending to head home. The driver is Sayle, who had survived the attack and fled. He pushes Alex to the top of a building, intending to shoot him; Sayle, however, is himself shot from a helicopter by Yassen Gregorovich, a mysterious assassin who was earlier contracted to kill Ian Rider. Alex tells Yassen he will one day kill him, but Yassen shrugs the comment aside, telling him to go back to his normal life and to forget about being a spy.
CommonSense Media says, "...while the books are incredible sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat action, the book is not for readers who look for logic, common sense, or good dialogue in their readings."[2] Yet, Shvoong.com said that Stormbreaker was, "A Must Read! Stormbreaker is a fast, exciting and action-packed novel that you will never regret reading!"[3] The School Library Journal said, "With short cliff-hanger chapters and its breathless pace, it [Stormbreaker] is an excellent choice for reluctant readers."[4] VOYA says, "Although it [Stormbreaker] offers little that a Bond movie does not, sophisticated readers will find it simplistic."[4]
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