It Has Been a Fine Ride, Alex Ryder

Alex Rider #9:  Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz

Spy Thriller

I have loved this series from the very beginning and have followed it faithfully.  It has been a fine ride, Alex Ryder, and worth every minute I have spent with you (which is quite a compliment when you consider how many pages are in each book!).

In this last installment, Alex is absolutely fed up with MI6.  He's been an unwilling spy at the expense of his childhood, but he is determined to enjoy being a teenager.  Once again, though, he's roped into an espionage game that is way above his head.  He is sent to the far East to pose as a schoolboy.  He seems to hate everything about this new mission and, yet, he pursues it with the most passion I've seen yet.  As Alex is getting more mature, more dangerous and more grown up, so are the villains.  This one seemed impossible to beat.  The reader also gets to see much more of Jack in this book than every before.  It made their situation more dire to see the devotion between the two of them. 

The pages just flip themselves, so eager was I find out what happened next.  This book did my time, and the series, justice.  My biggest wish is that Horowitz would take Alex into adulthood and launch a new generation of 'James Bond' era books.  I would love for Alex to continue!