1/24/2024 0 Comments Alex rider book series![]() There weren't young spies, there weren't young detectives children's books still belonged very much in the children's world. Well, looking back on the world of children's books in the year 2000, when I wrote Stormbreaker, it's very interesting in that there was a sort of a before and an after, and one of the good things about Alex Rider was thinking about him at exactly the right moment. Were you surprised nobody had done something similar with a teenage spy? I don't see him as a junior James Bond, but that was the inspiration. And I should say that my aim from day one was to make Alex as unlike Bond as possible. That lightbulb moment stayed with me for about ten, 20 years before I finally went out and wrote Stormbreaker, the first book in the series, but that's where it all began. And the thought occurred to me, 'why can't Bond be a teenager?' By the time he made A View To A Kill, he was 57 years old, which is far too old to be Bond. It was inspired by a thought I had a very long time ago watching James Bond movies at a time when Roger Moore was playing Bond. We sat down with Horowitz to discuss the series that has engrossed several generations of teenagers, and will do for many generations to come. It's clear the teenage superspy isn't going anywhere. Last year, Alex came to Amazon with an acclaimed TV adaptation of the novel Point Blanc (originally intended to be the first books as well). His school work has suffered something rotten. ![]() He's faced down sharks, bulls, jelly fish and feathered serpents. He's been killed off, resurrected and launched into space. ![]() Readers have joined Alex in battling fanatical Russian Generals, insane pop superstars, vengeful clones, mysterious assassins and a nefarious organisation known as SCORPIA. Since Stormbreaker's publication at the turn of the millennium, more than 20 million Alex Rider books have been sold around the world. The stakes are high - Stormbreaker involves the attempted genocide of British schoolchildren, and that's one of the more grounded entries in that there isn't a nuclear bomb - and the body count higher still. ![]() Secondly, the stories are played totally straight: Horowitz saw himself as writing "an adult book for kids" and Alex's world is no less dangerous or brutal than Bond's. The echo of Fleming is notable for two reasons: firstly, Alex is a teenage spy who's saved the world nearly as many times as James Bond (13 times and counting). The quote could be taken from Ian Fleming, but in fact it is the opening line of Stormbreaker, the first novel in Anthony Horowitz's globally successful Alex Rider series. "When the doorbell rings three in the morning it's never good news." ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |