Alex has survived the sniper's shot and is convalescing in a private hospital for the rich and famous. His room is next door to Paul, the son of a Russian multibillionaire, which allows him to fool kidnappers into taking him instead. Eco-terrorists have been trying to sabotage the Russian's rocket launch headed to a private space station. The billionaire is grateful to Alex and invites him for a two week vacation at his island in the Caribbean where the launch will take place. However, Alex's vacation is less than restful when he is recruited by the CIA to make sure that the billionaire remains honest.

Even though Ark Angel predicts the privatization of space travel 15 years before it actually happens, it is still a very far fetched entry in the Alex Rider series. Once again, we are treated to action, suspense, and adventure, but many of the events in the the story are extremely unrealistic. The best part of the story is the beginning when Alex makes himself the target of kidnappers. Overall, though, Ark Angel doesn't add much to this ongoing series. ( )

Alex Rider is recovering from a sniper shot in a London hospital when thugs show up to apprehend the 14-year old son of a Russian oligarch. After almost winning, Alex is captured, mistaken for the boy. After a daring escape, the Russian rewards Alex by asking him to finish his convalescence on a private island in the Caribbean to watch the lanuch of a rocket to a hotel he is building in space in partnership with the British government. Alex begins to suspect something is wrong when the Russian tries to run him off a racing cart track, just to win. Alex has to go into space on a rocket to thwart the Russian's insane plan. ( )

This book starts off slow with a boy named Alex who is walking outside of a comferance room where he is wrongfully shot and transferred to a hospital, while in the hospital he meets a boy named Paul, while they are there they talk a little bit but nothing much. One night a few days before Alex gets to go home from the hospital, he decides that he will sneak out to get some fresh air. While he is just about to get outside a group of people walk in and demand access to Pauls room, when the desk clerk says that there are no visitors aloud at that time one of the people in the group of men shoots the clerk. Alex then gets in the way and tries to stop them, then he gets kidnapped after the group of men when the men think that he is Paul. The men take him to a room and he sees a man with his head tattooed like the earth, and he threatens to cut off one of his fingers if he doesnt tell him what Pauls dads plans were. When Alex had convinced them that he was not paul they had locked him in a room and set the building on fire. Alex managed to escape but it was close

This were some outrageous parts of the storyline - but maybe that is what makes an Alex Rider book particularly amusing. Alex should learn that if something seems too good to be true it probably is. ( )