What do You think about Eagle Strike (2006)?
Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz has the basic problem solution plot structure, while being dreadfully slow. This book was meant to be an action story; however, it practically put me to sleep. In this book, Alex Rider is a 14-year-old spy! That’s about as unrealistic as it gets, even for a realistic fiction novel. This novel contains explosives, high speed chases, gun fights, assassinations, murders, real life video games, plane crashes and hostage situations, while all being completely predictable and boring. As unrealistic as it is, I could predict everything that happened through the voiceless text. Alex escapes death a multitude of times; where as any other adult would have died several times if they were his situations. Alex saves his best friend, Sabina Pleasant, from a psychopathic serial killer on a mission to launch nuclear missiles to 26 parts of the world; to re-birth the world and give everybody a chance to start over, what’s left of them. He does all of this completely solo without any special gadgets from his employers, MI6, and without the help of any adults except his babysitter! The psychopath is a pop star! One of the most famous pop stars, Damian Cray, is planning a world catastrophe, and is stopped by no other than Alex Rider, who has survived his sadistic real life video game, has escaped over 50 guards and a top security system, broke out of Cray’s prison more than once, and manages to crash and airplane and kill more than three of the craziest people on Earth, one of them being Damian Cray, and one of them being a contract killer.tIn this book, Anthony Horowitz makes Alex cocky and sarcastic in the face of danger, to a point that Alex has almost no emotions and practically says everything he is thinking leaving nothing for the reader to figure out themselves. He portrays Damian Cray as a complete and total madman who is good with public speeches but probably dreams of horrific events of like 9/11 and kicks puppies as a hobby. He has no self-control and will kill anyone in his way, however he never seems to kill Alex, no matter how many chances he gets, which also seems unrealistic about the story. Also, Damian Cray explains everything he is planning through dialogue, as if he wants Alex to stop him. Horowitz somehow managed to include some good word choices, while making the text and dialogue so boring that I almost couldn’t read it. He did a much better job in his previous books. Frankly the only character I liked was Cray because he tried to kill Alex, even that would have been a better ending than having Alex crash Air Force One, kill his to captives and save his girlfriend. Overall, I do not recommend this book unless you are trying to fall asleep.
—Karley Kent
After reading Eagle Strike, I found that it is a very easy read and a great book. It's about a teenage boy, Alex Rider, who was trained from a young age to be a spy. His uncle took him under his wing and began the training after his parents were killed. He didn't ask to become a spy but he was just kind of forced into it which he was not happy about at all.This book was about Alex trying to enjoy himself on vacation with a girl he likes very much, but then he spots and old enemy and decides to investigate a little bit.He follows him for awhile but then decides that he was on vacation and this wasn't his problem. That was something he would soon regret. After mi6 refused to go into further investigation of the problem that Alex brought up, he took matters into his own hands. I really liked this book, all the books in the Alex Rider series are very easy reads and always have you sitting at the edge of your seat. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something exciting and suspenseful!
—Josh Anders
Eagle Strike critiquetSir Damian Cray is a philanthropist, peace activist, antidrug crusader, and the world's former most famous pop star. But he’s going to need to do things different to not be caught by Alex Rider. Most of the time people like Alex Rider has the support of the government. This time, he only has himself against the most popular man on earth.tThis book is about a teenager trying to save the world from the most powerful man on the planet. It includes, gun fights, assassinations, murders, plane crashes and hostage situations. Another thing that I enjoyed about the book was that the way the author, Anthony Horowitz described the setting and the characters. Although the best part is the high-speed chases it keeps the reader entertained and fascinated through the whole book. Then later in the book he uses a real life game to set up traps for Alex Rider to stop him from destroying the overall plan that only he knows. This book is about a young boy “underdog”, which inspires me to work hard for the better of the people, similar to the founding fathers of the United States. This book is really adventures which I liked.tThis book is good for any age readers that like action and adventure because it’s filled with it.
—Dor Moskowitz
