Customer Reviews:
 Rider's still got it! December 30, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Well, like many of the other reviewers I feel I am perhaps getting a little too old for this book. I was around 14 when Stormbreaker came out and i've loved all of the Alex Rider series, including this one. But I must admit, the bad guy reminded me far too much of previous villains Alex has encountered and I did guess correctly on a lot of the twists.
However, Horowitz yet again amazes me on his ingenious plots to destroy the world and Alex's character is still fascinating to read.
I was expecting this to be the last book as I feel, like many others, that the fact Alex has not yet turned 15 since this all began, is a little of a let down. Still, I am looking forward to reading the next book and to just congratulate Horowitz on writing yet another book I just couldn't put down!
Good, but not as good as some of the others... December 19, 2007
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I love the Alex Rider books, particularly Eagle Strike and Scorpia, and I couldn't wait for Snakehead. I DID like it quite a bit, but still, some things about it irked me. Alex's main opponent in the story, Major Yu, gives me deja-vu - a number of Horowitz's villains seem to follow a similar pattern - namely, a love-hate relationship with England. Herod Sayle of Stormbreaker, Alexei Sarov of Skeleton Key, and Nikolei Drevin of Ark Angel, and now Major Yu, are all foreigners with either a healthy respect for the British or are improbably obsessed with them. I'm afraid there's a bit of delusion on the part of the author that all the world secretly wants to be British. Of course, Major Yu has to give a drawn-out speech about how much he adores all things British, and Horowitz manages to throw in, "The computer was a British invention - as was the World Wide Web." The first one is arguable, depending on your definition of "computer." I guess Horowitz is referring to Charles Babbage's computer, which was certainly nothing like what we think of as computers today. I really can't stand the international bickering over who was "first" to do or invent something. I mean, saying the British or the Americans or the French are a great people because they did this or invented that first is like saying, look how great the male gender is because it did most of the inventing, conquering, and speechifying of the past, and all that. It's also like saying, look how wonderful the white race is, because they conquered a third of the world, etc., etc. People would be unlikely to agree that these last two examples are indicative of superiority, so why is it any different with national pride?
Okay, I just got way off topic there, but seriously, patriotism is such a stupid concept, it just ticks me off. The Alex Rider books seem to suggest, by their use of villains, that non-Westerners are more likely to do bad things, while the Anglo-American alliance is essentially good even if it resorts to the same tactics as those it is up against. Of course, Ash, who was supposed to be a former MI6 operative, and who then worked for the Australians, but then turned out to be bad, was described as being easily able to pass for an Afghan.
Yeah. In the case of Snakehead, I felt the plot followed the Alex Rider formula, but without some of the originality or extremely memorable scenes that were thrown into some of the others. So that aspect of this book and others annoyed me, but don't get me wrong! I still love the books, and this one was no exception. It's still definitely worth reading, but in my opinion, it doesn't beat Eagle Strike or Scorpia.
 lost a little magic December 17, 2007
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
so ive read all 6 previous Alex rider books and i thought that there has been a genraly downwards slope in them. this one was to be the biggest let down yet however. fist off he is still 14!!! after 6 missions, they happened in the same year? come on. its all a bit silly. the bad guys are to predictable, the 'i am going to kill you but not after i tell you my entire plan first', its just too 1960's james bond esc. i think for the little ones maybe but if your from the generation who were 14ish when these started, horowitz hasnt made his characters grow older like JK did meaning this just seems way to babish
The Worst Alex Rider Book Yet December 12, 2007
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
I really didn't like this book because there is too much description and it could have ended earlier. I loved the first six Alex Rider books because they don't change settings so often and are more exciting. Out of the last 7 books in the series I think Ark Angel is the best because when Alex gets to the space hotel things get good. I will not talk about the other books because I am not reveiwing them am I?
Perhaps I'm too old... December 8, 2007
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
I've read the other 6 Alex Rider books and plenty of other Anthony Horowitz books (Granny, The Diamond Brothers series, Power of 5) and did enjoy them. I thought that I should read this one as well but was fairly disappointed from the beginning. To start with, there are so many mistakes! Just little things that maybe some people wouldn't notice, but i think someone tells Horowitz that something's wrong and so half of them are corrected and half aren't. The jokes are becoming a little contrived - things happen to allow the punchlines to work, not the other way around. the plot seems slightly implausible and it gets a little predictable too. There's also a small sense of 'look at me, i can put real things in a fiction book' in particular, the boxing day tsunami. He mentions the date and reverentially remembers all the thousands that lost their lives, completely ruining the flow of the moment. Finally, there's the badly changed names: Rob Goldman (blatantly meant to be Bob Geldof) and several others.
It's not a bad book, but I think I must be too old for it (16) as it just didn't have the same immersing magic as so many other books do. Probably younger children, or people who are more prepared to suspend belief and scan over the mistakes would enjoy it, but I found that just a little too much.
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