Action and Spy books are very easy to get into. They usually are sleek and easy to read. Action novels get your adrenaline pumping, because its main purpose is to get you rooting for the main characters. Spy novels are all instant classics, whether they are published today or ten years ago. They all borrow elements from James Bond, incorporating gadgetry, a world threat, and slick characters. Who doesn’t like that?
The Killing Joke by Anthony Horowitz
This is a comedy thriller, not a hardcore action novel. This page fits this story best, however, because there is plenty of action. The Killing Joke is about Guy, a man who’s an actor who’s been down on his luck. His girlfriend walked out on him, and so he goes to a bar to attempt to wash away his troubles with alcohol. He hears a nasty joke, and becomes obsessed with tracing the origin of it. He wants to find out where jokes come from. But it leads him into some deep water. The three key points to this book are characters, writing, and plot. Before I analyze this book, let me make it clear that this book has some bad language and adult humor. It’s not for those who can’t see the word ‘poop’ and hold back laughter. It requires a bit of maturity. The characters are very strong. The conversations are very realistic, and they each have an individual voice. All of them are strong, and Guy is very well explained to us. Some characters are actually used as outlets for some deep symbolism. Still, there were three characters that are agents searching for Guy (you find that out early, so it’s not a spoiler) who aren’t strong at all. In fact, they felt forced. I think Horowitz felt a temptation to create three antagonist agents just for the heck of it. Unfortunately, I never felt a connection or understanding of them, and they seemed unnecessary. Still, the other characters were channeled well through their actions and dialogue. The writing was fantastic. There is a lot of humor sprinkled throughout Guy’s thoughts, and everything is explained clearly. Like I mentioned before, there is quite a bit of language, but the writing explained everything in a complex yet simple way. Here’s one of my favorite lines.
The boat made a wonderful sound when it pushed forward, the oars suddenly rhythmic, cutting through the river like scissors through silk.
Scissors through silk. Awesome. The writing was well done, which I expected from the author of the Alex Rider series. Lastly, the plot was quite interesting. It deals with the origin of an idea, something that can lead to some deep explanation and a moral. The last big thing to talk about the origin and purity of an idea was Inception, and remember how deep and complex that was? The Killing Joke is no Inception, however. The plot builds slowly, and when everything is explained, you feel as if you took away a message. It got me thinking, and every time a book gets gears turning in my head, I tend to enjoy it. This book is no exception. The Killing Joke is a well-matured T-Bone.
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Bunker 10 by J.A Henderson
Have you ever read a book and thought, This is so military cliched and trying to be a high intensity action movie that I can hardly take it seriously? No? Then read this book. Bunker 10 has a mysterious vibe to it, when really, it’s just suspense that pushes you to read, so I’ll stay true to the description from the back of the book. This is the story of the last day of 185 military personnel and 7 teenagers, right before Pinewood military base blows up. Yes, very mysterious, I know, so I don’t won’t to spoil anything. Either this plot summary catches your eye or it doesn’t. The three key points are the characters, writing, and atmosphere. All of the characters are developed very well, even though the military figures were very cliched. There was one character, however, who talked like he was from the ghetto, when really, he’s super smart. Even though his brain-power isn’t in language arts, it would have made more sense just to have him speak like a person. I found myself rereading his lines to try to dig up the humane meaning from the slang words. All of the characters are extremely cliched, but it feels great. (I’ll get to that soon.) The writing is nothing too strenuous. I finished this book in three days, but it could easily be read in a couple of hours. The writing is easy to stomach (and not so easy, considering how detailed the author describes gore and blood.) The action scenes were being played out in my head as they happened, and J.A Henderson can seriously write action sequences. Over all, the writing is easy to swallow and a pleasure to read and understand. Lastly, the atmosphere of this book was 100% cliche. The characters, the soldiers, the generals, the scientists…everything was from a military movie, and to conclude the clicheness, there are a ton of bad jokes that made me chuckle. This book could be taken seriously, but at the same time, it’s funnily cliche. That’s what hooked me. I wanted a spy novel, and I got a spy novel, though it has many subtle sci-fi elements. Over all, Bunker 10 is a T-Bone. If you want a good action novel to hold you up for a week, take it. You will enjoy every cliche second.
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Alex Rider: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, is the first book of a nine book series, and it starts it off with a bang. It is about Alex Rider, a teenage boy who finds out that his uncle has died in a car accident. Alex, however, thinks that there is more to it when he discovers the car, and finds bullet holes in the windshield. Alex finds out the shocking truth: His uncle was a spy, and now, the MI6 forcibly recruits him to finish what his uncle started, as a spy. A 14-year old spy sounds far fetched, but Anthony Horowitz has published 9 of these Alex Rider books, so he has to be doing something right. The three key points to this book are plot, writing, and characters. The plot sounds incredibly far fetched, but it works. It works because it is set up in such a way that shows that Alex can become a spy. He has his uncle’s knack for spy-work. He investigates his uncle’s old room, he looks for the car in a junkyard, and he does some other pretty cool stuff which I would rather not give away. I am making the book sound like a corny Sherlock Holmes story with a 14-year old, but I assure you, it’s not. Once Alex accepts his role as a spy, he goes through training with the big boys, gets his gadgets, and is put into action. The plot follows the plot of a typical spy, aside from the fact that Alex is a teen. The fact that Alex is a teenager elevates the danger, but also takes away from it. Who would kill a kid? Then again, the bad guys in this book, and the many others, are all merciless, so the danger is still there. Overall, the plot is great because it contains so many of the classic spy themes: training, getting the gadgets for the first time and being warned, hearing about what’s restricted and what intelligence was recovered. If you like spies or spy movies, you’ll like this book. Still, action isn’t the only thing offered. There is also some deeper conflicts. The writing in this book is what has most likely hooked so many young adult readers to its pages. The style of Anthony’s writing is very…natural. In other words, he uses exclamation points and oh’s, and there is a character with no tongue, so there are lots of guttural noises, and italicized words. In other words, it is very to the point and easy to read. The only issue I had with the writing was that it gets a bit too repetitive. Not repetitive in word choice, but repetitive in plot. There is always a new bad guy in every book, and always a dinner with them and a delaying of information given to Alex. By book 5, I almost vowed not to continue if book 6 was too similar, but thankfully I was satisfied. It is interesting to see how some of these bad guys are famous and high in authority, and to hear their twisted plots, but they could be taken as too fictional, considering the fact that there is total social connection and media power these days. Either way, the writing is easy to stomach, and it is easy to comprehend.
The characters each have their own thing going on. Mrs. Jones is always sucking on a peppermint, Alan Blunt is, well, blunt, and Herod Sayle says , bliddy, every other sentence. The good thing about the characters is that you don’t really like all of the good guys from the beginning, or even at the end, so there is more room for character expansion. The characters are all unique, especially the bad guys, and you can envision them easily. Overall, this book is a T-Bone. It is very enjoyable, and it sets the bar for the other eight books, but I feel like this was only a story/character set-up for the next books. Some other books in the series are much better, but this book wasn’t too shabby. I wouldn’t stop you from reading it. In fact, I would encourage you to read it, because the next books are very good. It is a very well done series.
