Alex Rider: Secret weapon by Anthony Horowitz
Walker Books, 2019. ISBN 9781406387476.
An anthology of short stories about reluctant teenage spy Alex
Rider. Much like Horowitz' other novels, it is fast-paced and an
interesting read for lovers of the series.
The nature of the short stories, however, leaves little room for
character growth, but the recurring major characters are at least
well established, even without prior familiarity with the series.
This leaves this particular novel easy to pick up for new readers of
the Alex Rider series. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the
antagonists of each story, which seem to be one dimensional stereotypes.
The plots aren't much to speak of, generally being one single action
set piece, but for short stories, that's exactly what is expected.
The anthology does leave a lot to be desired when it comes to
examining themes. There is a lot of potential left on the table. For
example, one story has Alex's 'normal' friend caught up in one of
his escapades, but rather than examine the stress of living a double
life, status quo is immediately re-established as Alex decides
without thinking twice to keep lying. A common element throughout
the stories is how Alex's uncle conditioned him from childhood to be
a spy, and while this is resented it still goes unexamined for what
amounts to parental abuse. There's also a really uncomfortable
jingoistic undercurrent, with the longest story being about bombing
a cell of Middle-Eastern terrorists, and even the shortest story
finds time to engage in Churchill apologia. The settings of the
stories are deliberately somewhat non-specific, either a fictional
part of a given country, or very broadly 'London', and vaguely
modern time.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, as it helps avoid the
stories dating themselves. The first person perspective somewhat
hurts the writing style of the anthology, as any descriptive
language comes through the filter of a 14-year-old. Still, the
light-hearted tone suits these one-shot action stories well.
Vincent Hermann