Book Review #1-An Alex Rider Adventure: Snakehead Book #7 by: Anthony Horowitz

Hey everyone! Here is the first letter, to anyone who wants to read it, for the last Lit Circle book of the year. My book is Book 7 of the Alex Rider Adventures. I hope someone comments on this. Just an FYI, I don't have a Lit Circle Partner, but it's all good because I can work independently. So now lets begin.

The first part to my book is right after the end of book 6. It is about a 14 year old boy named Alex Rider. He was blackmailed into working for the MI6-Britain's top secret intelligence agency. His father, uncle, and godfather all worked for MI6. But then both his parents were murdered by Scorpia, the top terrorist organization in the world, when he was only a few years old. Then when he was 14, his uncle Ian was shot and killed by a contract killer, Yassen Gregorovich. Since then, Alex has been used countless times like a puppet on strings. He has been recruited by MI6 and forced to investigate Lebanese millionaire Herod Sayle, who plans to kill all of Britain's schoolchildren with his "Stormbreaker" computers. His next mission was to investigate Dr Hugo Grief, a South African scientist who runs Point Blanc, an academy in the French Alps. He later foiled a Triad plot to fix Wimbledon games, and is in danger of assassination, so he is forced to leave the country, and MI6 sends him on a mission to Cuba with the CIA, where he encounters a former Soviet general, Alexei Sarov, with plans for a nuclear holocaust and world domination. Soon after he finds himself with Damian Cray, a world-famous pop star, who hopes to destroy the world's drug-making countries by hijacking the United States' nuclear arsenal. Suspicious of him, Alex takes Cray on without the help of the skeptical MI6. His 5th mission takes him to the criminal organization "Scorpia" to find out the truth about his father. On his most recent adventure, he finds himself working for the CIA a second time to gather information on Russian billionaire Nikolei Drevin, who is financing the space hotel "Ark Angel", and the eco-terrorist organization, Force Three. Now finally we come to the 7th mission where so far, Alex has been recruited by the Australian Secret Service, after he has just returned to Earth from space where he destroyed the Ark Angel before it had the chance to crash and kill hundreds of people at the Pentagon in Washington. His newest mission leads Alex to his godfather, Ash. Ash was the closest friend to Alex's father and was there the morning his parents were killed. He originally worked for MI6, but later emigrated to ASIS. In order to make Alex agree to help, ASIS partners Ash and Alex and has them flown off to Bangkok so that they can investigate the snakeheads who is a ruthless gang that smuggles drugs, weapons, and worst of all, people. Their job is to replace the father and son, Karim and Abdul, and secretly investigate the snakeheads while they are smuggled back to Australia.

"I don't know, Jack..." Alex looked at the ice cream, melting on his spoon. He wished he could explain how he felt. He didn't want to work for MI6 again. He was sure of that. But at the same time...

The meaning in this quote is always repeated in every one of the Alex Rider series. Alex is always used, manipulated, and his life is treated like crap. He is always asked for help, and one way or another, they eventually get him to agree. But once he agrees, everyone starts treating him like a kid. They don't care what happens to his life as long as he cooperates. They don't give him weapons to protect himself. How can they send a child somewhere where he can't fight on equal grounds with them?

That's about all there is in part 1 of my book. Come back next time to see part 2 of Alex's latest adventure. Until then, see ya!

Book Review #1-Wild Magic by: Tamora Pierce

Hey everyone! This is not part of the weekly blog post, but a letter to Grant who is reading the same lit circle book with me. I hope you like the book so far. When I chose the book, all I was thinking was, "I loved this book. I just couldn't put it down". It was unfair of me to choose the book this way because I wasn't thinking if you would like it, or if ANY guy will like it. But then I read your letter to me and I was glad that you liked it so far. And of course the beginning is boring. The beginning is where the author introduces the main character and describes what's going on before the exciting part happens. I mean, name one book where the beginning was not boring. I can't even name one, and I read a lot of books, which you already know. So anyway, here is my summary of the book in part 1. Just an FYI, I am very bad at summaries.

Chapter 1 was about a thirteen year old girl named Veralidaine Sarrasri, but she prefers the name, Daine. She is from the town of Snowsdale, but she left her hometown is search of a job with her horse, Cloud. She went to the town of Cría, which is the capital of Galla. She met a woman named Onua Chamtong of the K'miri Raadeh. The K'miri are people from the east, and Raadeh is the name of her tribe. Onua is searching for an assistant to help herd her ponies to the capital of Tortall. The ponies are for the new trainees of the Queen's Riders. The Queen's Riders is an army the Queen made and it consists of both boys and girls. So anyway, Daine asks for the job and is interviewed. Immediately the readers learn that there is something mysterious about her. She is hiding a big secret that she will not tell. Onua senses this, but decides to see how well she is with the ponies. Daine passes the test with flying colors. She went right up to the leader of the herd and established domination over him and ultimately, the entire herd. Onua was debating whether she should take her on or not because she was still so young, but in the end she trusted in her Gift, or magical abilities, to keep them both safe from the rumored monsters, so she hired Daine. They left early the next morning. Later on, Onua said Daine might also have the Gift, but Daine simply called it a knack with animals (She also have a knack for archery or hunting). She explained how her mom was a hedgewitch, and how she was trying to teach her how to use the Gift. She said she didn't have a single ounce of magic in her. When she brought up her mom, she paused like she was having great pain talking about her and continued. Later that night, Daine had a dream about a badger saying how he had to come to the Human Realms to finally find her and how he promised Daine's father to keep an eye on her. He said he's been watching her since she was a kid. He said how he didn't want to come back to the Human Realms to search for her again, and how they have to be connected in some way if she wanted to wander, so he bit off one of his front paws and spit it on Daine's lap. A new claw was already growing. He said the claw was to keep track of time and was a way for him to find her (Time passes differently in the Human Realms). He vanished and Daine woke up. She thought it was a dream until she saw her hand locked around a large animal's claw made of shiny silver. Later she wore it around her neck.


Chapter 2 is about a week later where the can finally see Tortall. The badger visits again and gives Daine a little hint to help her in the future. It is part of a lesson he is teaching her. She woke up and sensed there was trouble coming, but wasn't sure what. They packed and headed toward a marsh. After they entered, they heard shrieks. They looked up and saw Stormwings. They are monsters. They have a human head and chest with a bird's legs and wings. the talons and feathers were steel. They were chasing a hawk, but Onua distracted them so they lost it. They decided to get them back for what they did. The birds all around started helping Daine and Onua fight. Daine and Onua started shooting arrows and killed all but one who now holds a grudge on Daine and says she belongs to their queen, Zhaneh Bitterclaws. When she left, Onua explained that they are one of the rumored monsters that lived on the battlefields, desecrating bodies, but that was 3 or 4 centuries ago, and they are just legends. They decided they should go before more come back, but Daine saw so many birds die trying to help. She started crying and fainted. Onua knew for sure that some of the birds were dead. One even had there head chopped all the way off, but when Daine fainted, every one of those birds stood up shakily, and flew away completely healed. She looked from Daine to the birds, and then decided they should leave. Cloud brought Onua who was holding Daine and the ponies to a clearing. Daine woke up and Onua said she had to go back and get the hawk. Daine wondered what was so important about a crow, but in the end, decided to get him for Onua. She returned and put the badger's lesson to good use. She listened to the sounds around her and knew exactly what each animal was doing. She found the hawk because a fox lead her to him and thought that he looked like a strange hawk. He wasn't wrong like the Stormwings, but he wasn't right either. He was hurt, so she bandaged him up and brought him back. They traveled some more, the hawk got sick and was going to die. Onua contacted a mage who was nearby to come and help. Daine was taking care of him in the mean time, but was sure he was unlike and animal she had ever nursed. The mage finally came. She is Sir Alanna of Pirate's Swoop an Olau, also known as the king's champion or the knight they call 'the Lioness'. She told her the bird won't eat and is dizzy all the time. She questions her on why she thinks he's dizzy but says she has a knack for animals. Alanna takes the bird in the tent and tries to help bu fails. She has Daine help her by having her do the same thing she did when finding him and call his childhood name, Arram (He changed his name to Numair Salmalín 8 years ago). When she did it, she heard a snap of the bird's splints and looked where the bird was, but instead of a bird, a naked man was laying in the bird's place. Out of confusion, she started getting angry and saying "The bird would never get better", "Where is he?" and "Where'd that man come from?" Before she could get any answers, she was told to go outside and that they would explain everything later. That's my summary. Yeah, I know. It is way too long for 2 chapters, but I warned you I was bad at this. Anyway, see you at school and please don't make fun of my summary.