And what a ride these books are. A fourteen-year old British schoolboy turns into a reluctant-yet-highly skilled government spy after the mysterious death of his uncle. Unlike Bond, Alex does not want this life, but M16 threatens and bullies him enough to get Alex on these missions. Alex breaks away from his school routine just long enough to stop deadly computers from killing all the country's school children, to destroy Project Gemini and its goal to develop a racist world, and to save Russia from a nuclear attack. Along the way Alex must outrace crazed brutes, fly down mountainsides, step behind a crane's controls to outmaneuver others, escape a shark, live through the Cribber -- and, of course, much more. And as with Bond, Alex is supplied with tech master gadgets for his espionage, though his gadgets are zit cream, yoyo, Game Boy, CD, book, others.
I raced through the three books, and I am not driven by action-based books. I found the boys in my classes, too, couldn't get enough of the books -- that is, if their reading ability was strong enough (about a fifth grade level).
