#everything about eagle strike & scorpia...

[sunlitlemonade]

you been real quite since you finished skeleton key bestie 🤨 (or is it just that you haven't gotten around to reading eagle strike yet dfkjenrje) (only asking because i love your commentary. also because i was shrieking with laughter when you said you weren't ready for eagle strike, cus i don't think any of us ever are once we know what happens with yassen 😭)

No need to attack me like this nonny 💀

I have in fact finished Eagle Strike! The reason why I haven't given much - or rather any sajsajkla - commentary on it is because of the same reason I wasn't ready to reread it: it makes me insane :]

And YEAH!!! YASSEN!!!!! He's literally the sole reason why I'm so not normal about this book actually ngl. [years and years later I'm very much still in denial. Alex was concussed and delirious okay??? He was literally in no condition to judge whether Yassen is okay or not + the fact that we never find out what happens to Yassen's 'body'. Like Tulip told him that Henryk, the pilot, broke his neck on landing...... But we never get to know how Yassen was handled. ALSO find it hard to believe that my man wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest. At this point I'm convinced Horowitz just wanted Yassen out of the picture because had he been a part of the storyline going forward..... Alex would be with Scorpia or at least have never worked for MI6 again. And no, I don't mean in the sense that Yassen would convince Alex to. Nope. I just mean that Eagle Strike was a PERFECT set up for Alex to go looking for Scorpia. Because we see how MI6 doesn't care for Alex (Smithers being an exception), don't believe him, manipulate him and his friends and are overall just shitty to him. Yassen on the other hand genuinely cares for Alex and if he wouldn't be able to convince Alex to be part of the normal world again with his protection to keep MI6 away (it's easy to imagine since he did say he was retiring after Cray's stupid plan and was free to do whatever he wished to,,,, looking after Alex would be one of those things is something I like to believe) he would train him. Maybe. Or just not let MI6 get to him. Which would effectively end the series 💀 anyways sorry for that tangent-]

I have soooo many annotated parts and it would be a long ass post. I may or may not put them out sometime depending on how insane it makes me look skakaskjzjs. I gotta say tho, it made me smile to see someone actually likes my silly lil musings on the books hehe, thank you <3

Just started with Scorpia though and getting constantly reminded of why it was my favourite almost every single line.

[pongnosis]

ponggggggg bestie do you think yassen names his guns. DO YOU THINK ROSS NAMES HIS KNIVES. i think yassen would be a little averse to the whole naming thing considering hunter told him not to refer to his victims by names because it made them human. i feel like he would internalize that and think of his guns as mere weapons, as convenience, as tools and nothing more but still i'm sort of curious because some part of me also thinks he could name them. idk. he was petty enough to become an assassin just to spite him and the fact that he has a fav gun??? [it was a beretta right?] but this is also somewhat a useful tip. idkkkk im sleepy and feeling rambly and im making it your problem. also i bet gordon gives them the goofiest or the most poetic names. no in between. man's got a sense of humour but also has that shitton of history ping-ponging [heh] around in his head. anyways i think i'll go & try to catch some sleep. byeee <3

I think the only sentimental thing Yassen might have is the Fer de Lance, and that's one hundred percent headcanon, given that she might as well be a charter (or SCORPIA-owned) based on the information we got on her in Eagle Strike (look, I like ships, don't ship-shame!). I just really like the idea of Yassen having one thing that is his, and the unwelcoming looks of her, the tinted glass in the windows, and the name all seem like something he'd like. Everything else, especially his weapons, I think he has a very pragmatic approach to. They're something to be used and discarded if necessary, chosen based on the needs of the operation, and little else.

… except the Grach. I HAVE OPINIONS ON THIS ONE.

So. SO. Eagle Strike, page 49 in my version (Walker Books 2015 edition, from the box set, so who knows what the line originally said, but I've only ever seen the Grach referenced in fandom): "The gun was a Grach MP-443, black, with a short muzzle and a ribbed stock. It was Russian, of course, new army issue."

This is yet another enty in "Why Timelines Are, Like, Vibes Man", the ongoing saga by Ahorz.

The Grach MP-443 (wiki link) was developed in the nineties but didn't enter service until 2003, and while it was adopted as the standard sidearm, this did by no means happen immediately. It took YEARS for mass production to really start. For years after, there were - and still are - other Russian guns that were in far more common use and much easier to get a hold of for Yassen, who would presumably want to replace his gun fairly regularly to avoid inconvenient evidence.

Ignoring the timeline issue of exactly what year the books are set in (and whether the Grach was even in actual production by then), it seems like a very deliberate choice by Yassen. The Grach is not the best gun out there. It's not the most reliable, not the easiest one to find, not the most common (and more anonymous). It was, however, the new standard sidearm for the Russian military - the country that took everything from Yassen - and going out of his way to choose a weapon that most of the Russian military still hadn't been issued, one after the other to discard of when they became evidence, seems just like the sort of deliberately petty move he would like. A subtle 'fuck you' to his former home.

ALSO. I agree, Ross absolutely names his favourite knives. He'll rant about the bad ones if you get him going, but his favourite, most perfect knives, those get the adoring names. He's so the type to have an original V-42 stiletto in beautiful condition that he's named Rose.

[thirteen-cats-in-a-trenchcoat]

OK I *need* to say this.

I cannot stop thinking about it.

Basically, at the end of Stormbreaker, Yassen and alex are described as being on 'two opposite sides of the glass' or smth. Then they raise their hands in a gesture alex is unsure about, and Yassen raises it as a farewell.

Then they are said to on opposite side of the glass, trapped in different ways.

Like omg the symbolism in that sentence.

They are both stuck in lives they both don't want

But alex is stuck on Mi6, and is on the 'good' side

Whereas yassen is stuck with Scorpia on the bad side

Alex manages to keep his morals when faced with everything, Yassen did too, but eventually he broke, and became Cossack.

Both Mi6 and Scorpia are cruel to take advantage of children

Yassen and alex are both stuck in a world they did not choose to be in

I think yassen is a representation of what alex could become, if he lost everyone and his morals.

But yassen doesn't want that, and he risks it all, his life, money and reputation for alex. Because he wants to help.

But they're both trapped, on opposite sides

(as in yassen is 'bad' and Mi6 is 'good')

But the world isn't black and white, just shades of grey

They are both being puppeteered, and the similarities between the two is just-

Yes.

Also, they mirror each other in many more ways.

Like their relationship with John rider

Like how ash compared yassen and alex, because in mdina, Yassen could have gotten the job done quickly, but he waited.

Like he owned the place

And alex in Eagle strike, snoops around Damian Crays stuff, looking for more. And alex always plays it cool and acts confident.

The parallels between two seemingly opposite characters (a government spy and a n assasin) are just - yesss

Thank you for listening to my Ted talk [rant]

[nighty-night-nh]

I finished two books in the span of a month, be proud of me.

Here I stand on the other side of Eagle Strike and I have some Thoughts. A little negative to start but we go up from there.

First off, not gonna lie, I think I was less engaged with the book than the others for the first half. Unfortunately I didn’t find Damian Cray an interesting main villain at the start or when it was all over. He’s at the bottom of favorite main bad guys for me at the moment behind Julius Grief, and I like Grief so that’s an oof for him. He does get brownie points for the pennies execution method and his own ‘Syndrome from The Incredibles’ adjacent death.

Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely bits at the start I enjoyed. Like the fact that we hardly get 300 words into the book and Yassen is just There to ruin Alex’s holiday and the matador moment but overall it was a slightly sad “Ok he’s dealing with a madman with nukes that thinks he’s doing the world a favor two books in a row. Sarov did this way better than you months ago and this book is rapidly ending. Where is the third act shoe-drop that makes people like this book?”

And, um, the shoe certainly did drop. Several of them.

Starting with Sabina’s kidnaping at the hospital. Not only was it the first ‘normal’ thing in the book grounding it to reality but it just made me feel sick to my stomach because something like that happens to girls often irl. I really hope she does ok until the next time we see her. Then there’s the whole business with the plane. I’m not American but as somebody who watches videos speculating on hypothetical WWIII start points, the hijacking of air force one did properly freak me out.

And finally, what you’ve probably been waiting for me to get to: Yassen and The Big Reveal.

Yall just watched me get attached to this man knowing full well this is the book he died in, huh.

I was so enjoying him fighting himself on what he was doing with Alex and trying hard not to strangle Damian. Of course there’s the conflict of interest: Money vs not being able to live with himself if he killed the son of the man who saved him. No wonder he spoke so fondly of him. I mean he still put him in the bull ring but w/e. But this isn’t everything. He may be dead now but I’m still in the dark about a part of his story. Why and how did he start? How did he get to be this good, and this hardened to contract work? Where exactly did his code of not killing kids come from? It couldn’t have been from Alex, he already didn’t kill kids. I have so many questions that’ll probably get answered in the next few books.

My last point of note is realizing the Rider brothers were on two sides of the same coin. They both killed. John was a contract killer for money, Ian worked for MI6 and both hid it from people in their lives. Did they know? Did they ever know? We can’t ask dead men questions, can we.

Now with all of that out of my system, I move onto Scorpia. Which is the book I am actively scared of. I heard whispers of it in Never Say Die, Its consistently voted the favorite of the entire series and I’ve heard it’s the start of Alex’s even emo-er arc which he 100% deserves by the way.

I am in for a world of pain for this next book n’ I don’t think I’m ready.

[icebluecyanide]

Alex Rider pre-S03E08 Thoughts

Because I once again had a full night to sleep on the episodes and obsess over them, here’s some more thoughts before I watch the finale:

I had a sudden ‘one fear’ meme moment when I realised that maybe Yassen did actually know about John already, but Julia didn’t know that he knew when she told him about it. Like, maybe he’s just not obsessed about revenge and still considered John his friend despite John being a secret agent. I guess there could be another reveal next episode, though gosh this story has already been complicated enough what with them spreading the reveals out. I suppose it doesn’t make too much of a difference for Yassen if he’s determined not to be emotional about it, but I’m not a fan of how it would mean he lied to Alex about his dad dying.

I think that if you join a secret criminal organisation, they should at least take your phone away and isolate you from your friends

Thinking about that ep where the data scientist dies and Smithers says something about the cover story being that it’s a car accident and that she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. Which is an Ian reference of course, but ironically, in the show what they told Alex was that Ian was speeding.

I’m fascinated by how they moved the John was a spy reveal closer. In the book it was sort of strangely added on at the end there, but I did like Alex acting like his dad without realising it and how he actually ended up disillusioned with John in the book before Mrs Jones tells him the truth. Loved the Father’s son thing in the show a lot tho, but I do wonder what Alex thinks Mrs Rothman wants from him. Like, he doesn’t know about the nanoparticles yet, but he has to know that she wants him dead, right?

We haven’t actually heard the names Cossack and Hunter yet (or at least I didn’t), so I guess maybe they left those out. I guess they were always sort of just there so we wouldn’t know it was Yassen and Alex’s unnamed dad in the Eagle Strike prologue, since I don’t think either of the names were mentioned in Scorpia the book, but still a shame.

Also I haven’t finished the show yet, but I do prefer the book when it comes to everything around Mrs Jones’s assassination and the immediate aftermath and Blunt’s interrogation. The show is not mean enough to Alex sometimes, and refuses to seriously engage with the idea that Alex joined Scorpia and planned to kill her.

I hope Julia Rothman gets her ‘give me your gun’ moment where she shoots one of the guards with his own weapon.

Interesting how even Blunt didn’t know about who set the bomb on the plane, but makes sense with them thinking Scorpia was done for and destroyed.

What if there’s a stand off with Nile and Alex and Yassen like in the John/Yassen flashback? No idea how it would work exactly, but it would be cool. Yassen can save Alex’s life!

[numberonedragonmagazine]

This December, or starting November, actually, I'm going to try to make a dent in my TBR book pile. I haven't read probably half of my books and bought four more today, so it's time to get reading.

I don't have as many books as someone who likes reading probably should have, I only started collecting books after high school so it's a fast growing pile.

This is a list of all the books I have. I marked the ones I did read with ✅, the ones I have to read with ❌, and the ones I started reading but didn't finish yet with 🔶.

I'm restarting this blog to post updates, talk about the books, and hopefully get some encouragement to keep reading.

Listing Rick Riordan's stuff first because I have most of the books and read nearly all of them.

Percy Jackson

✅ The Lightning Thief

✅ Sea of Monsters

✅ Titan's Curse.

✅Battle of the Labyrinth

✅ The Last Olympian

✅ Greek Gods

🔶 Greek Heroes

Heroes of Olympus

✅ The Lost Hero

✅ The Son of Neptune

✅ The Mark of Athena

✅ House of Hades

✅ Blood of Olympus

Magnus Chase

✅ Sword of Summer

✅ Hammer of Thor

✅ Ship of the Dead

❌ 9 From the Nine Worlds (Shorts)

The Trials of Apollo

✅ The Hidden Oracle

✅ The Dark Prophecy

✅ The Burning Maze

🔶 The Tyrant's Tomb

❌ The Tower of Nero

That's it for Uncle Rick. I want to finish Apollo's series first, because of the new books releasing next year. I will add the Kane Chronicles to my collection at some point, but because of them being so unpopular, they're very hard to find.

Divergent

✅ Divergent

✅ Insurgent

❌ Allegiant

❌ Four

Stopped reading because at the end of Insurgent the book kind of went into a totally new direction. It felt like I was starting to read a different story and everything just fell apart so quickly. I did enjoy the story up until then, just never felt the need to continue reading. But I'll finish the series. Sometime.

The Hunger Games

✅ The Hunger Games

✅ Catching Fire

✅ Mockingjay

Loved it. Will read again. I know there are more books by Suzanne Collins that need to be bought, but I need to get through my TBR pile first.

Gone

✅ Gone

🔶 Hunger

Absolutely loved the first book. Read it within one weekend, which is great since I'm a pretty slow reader. I stopped reading Hunger because I wanted to buy the rest of the series before I continued but I could never find a store that sold them all and now it seems they're off the shelves. I'll have to buy the full box set and just donate the two books I have.

Alex Rider

✅ Stormbreaker

✅ Point Blanc

✅ Skeleton Key

✅ Eagle Strike

🔶 Scorpia

❌ Ark Angel

❌ Snakehead

❌ Crocodile Tears

❌ Scorpia Rising

❌ Russian Roulette

Love this series too, not as much as others but it did inspire a book I wrote in lockdown. Going to finish it. There are more books now. I think there are three or four new ones, I don't know, but I'll get them (My grocery list is getting LONG. How am I to afford all this?)

Poison Study

❌ Magic Study

❌ Fire Study

❌ Shadow Study

❌ Night Study

❌ Dawn Study

Those who are familiar with this series will notice that the first book is missing. I bought this set in a thrift store, brand new, not even a crack in the spines, but the first book is missing and I can't find it anywhere. There is one at our local version of Amazon, but the cover doesn't match the others.

Death Note

❌ I

❌III

Watched the anime until L's final appearance. These books are basically just a collection.

Game of Thrones

✅ A Game of Thrones

✅ A Clash of Kings

🔶 A Storm of Swords: 1

❌ A Storm of Swords: 2

❌ A Feast for Crows

❌ A Dance with Dragons: 1

❌ A Dance with Dragons: 2

❌ A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

❌ Fire and Blood

Making my way through these books at a snail's pace. I only read them in December because that's the only time I have enough free time to really sit down and read them. There are so many characters and plot lines that I can't keep track if I read just a few chapters at a time.

Dragon Blood (Kindle)

❌ Balanced on the Blade's Edge

❌ Deathmaker

❌ Blood Charged

Snatched when it went on sale. Free or almost free, I don't remember.

That's it for the series's.

🔶 Merde in Europe

Very funny. Loaned it to a friend who loaned it to his uncle who loaned it to a friend. By the time I got it back I was already reading something else.

✅ Good Omens

Everybody loves Good Omens. Whoever doesn't like it is a liar.

🔶 The Hobbit

I know this is a children's bedtime story, I just didn't know it's as childlike as it is. Need to finish it so I can get the rest of the series.

🔶 Dark Lover

Part of a series. Don't like. Won't finish. Will Donate.

❌ 1000 Years of Annoying the French

A history book written by the same man who wrote Merde in Europe. I paged through it before buying but haven't gotten to reading it yet.

❌ Monstrous Devices

No idea what it's about. Bought it today on clearance. Something about a magic robot.

❌ Reaper of Souls

Bought today because I've seen it around stores and kept on thinking that I should buy it someday.

❌ The Language of Thorns

Bought today. No idea what it's about. My mom showed it to me when I was at the front of the line to pay, it looked like the kind of thing I would buy. It's a hard cover and it was really cheap.

❌ Some TikTok book about some kind of trial. A navy blue book with constellations on the cover. My sister wanted to read it. She never wants to read anything so I bought it so she can borrow it.

✅ Travelling Without Moving (Kindle)

Was a good book, very imaginative. Not the kind of thing I would normally read.

❌ The Oath and Blood Price (Kindle)

Used to be Twitter friends with the author. He's pretty cool. Read the first few pages, we have a very similar writing style.

These are the books I have. I used to read a lot as a kid, but I don't have those books anymore. Read mostly Wattpad stuff as a teenager, it's what we could afford at the time.

A few books I did read but don't own:

Maze Runner. Book one.

A School for Good and Evil. Halfway through book one, trying to ignore Netflix's prompts to watch the series (movie?) instead.

The Last Five Swords. A new release. I was one of the late beta readers but unfortunately didn't have enough time to finish. It's an amazing book and part of my TBR pile now.

Harry Potter 1-3

A few more I can't think of right now.

Then there are the books I said I would buy at a later stage.

Lord of the Rings

The Silmarillion

The rest of the Gone series

Rest of the Alex Rider series

The Kane Chronicles

Poison Study

Rest of the Death Note books

How to successfully rob a bank

That last GoT book to finish the collection

Maze Runner, probably

Those assassin books by Robin Hobb

Something by Suzanne Collins

I need to write a paper list that I can check.

[valaks]

You've featured a number of POVs in your stories so far - Alex, his classmates, Marcus... Is there someone who's perspective you haven't written from yet but would like to?

John Crawley.

Hear me out: John Crawley was a talented agent that early on into his career attracted SCORPIAs attention. He went on to have a successful career, enough that he is the Chief of Staff at MI6, the man who “when someone died with a knife in their back or a bullet in their chest, it would be Crawley who had signed the dotted line.” Someone critically important to the organization that took a very personal interest in Alex, his real handler. (Eagle Strike was an inside job to test Alex post Skeleton Key to see if he would take on a mission independently) A man who had worked with John Rider and Ian Rider and now has the child working for him (albeit somewhat unwillingly) every scene that involves Crawley hints of an investment that is uncharacteristic of someone in his position.

Crawley, the mentor that Alex needs to get over the black spot on his record that is joining SCORPIA, is who I want to write about.

Will also accept Brendan Chase:

After Snakehead Chase has taken over Yu’s territory, gotten Australia back, given ASIS a black eye at having a known SCORPIA mole even a dead one. He’s not the sentimental type but he’s a former numbers man, not a petty intelligence agent. If SCORPIA wants to rehabilitate its reputation then they need to get Alex Rider on their side and use his existence to implicate every person in that COBRA meeting. Destabilize the entire UK government because they let the fate of their country rest on the shoulders of a child soldier and did *nothing*. And that brings everything full circle - they got rid of a destabilized Rothman and Yu, cleaned your operations, got their revenge on MI6 and their actions with Rider will appear to be revenge on paper but in practice...they get a potentially elite agent. Another Hunter if they can raise him up right and if not, then another Nile - young and talented and most of all, malleable because he knows that there is no good and bad anymore. He owes the kid at least the chance for getting him his homeland back.

[alexrideraddict]

HEY SOCKS: DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ NIGHTSHADE!!!

[This is quite long but I believe this book deserves all this praise. Please read! There are NO SPOILERS!]

It BLEW MY MIND by how much it completely surpassed my expectations. Now I know most of us are most familiar and devoted to the early iconic AR novels, the ones with TONS of explosions and gunfire and witty puns and banter. In my opinion as the series went on some novels were more boring; it felt like the same thing each new book. (Crocodile Tears for example, I thought didn’t add much of substance.) I loved Scorpia but Scorpia Rising felt like scattered, leftover pieces of a storyline. I was super glad when Never Say Die came out, continuing the series chronologically, but the book was kind of a bummer for me because it felt formulaic, the same thing over again. It felt like AH was just dragging the storyline along. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love all the action scenes even if some seem repetitive in certain novels, but what I feel truly makes an AR book amazing is seeing Alex as a person, not just a spy. When you can feel Alex’s inner turmoil or sense of betrayal, like in Scorpia or even Snakehead with Ash, that’s what makes a novel great. Alex going over to Yassen at the end of Eagle Strike and accompanying him in his final moments spoke volumes about who he was as a person. The best Alex Rider books involve something personal to Alex where he shows his own character. 

Enter Nightshade. 

First off, we have a new criminal organization. I must say that Scorpia pales in comparison to Nightshade. (This isn’t a spoiler, it’s made clear from the beginning, even in the end of Never Say Die:) Nightshade uses children, which I think draws a stark comparison between them and MI6 with Alex. A huge tenet of the AR series is children being used in dark situations like spying, killing, etc. I think this new agency rings true to a this central topic of the series, all the more fitting for this agency to take hold in the storyline. Overall it’s like Scorpia but hitting closer to home for Alex because of the similar ages. 

This also means some of the main antagonists are Alex’s age. I won’t get too much into it here since many of you may not have read it yet but let’s just say that the dynamic between a teen spy and teen killer(s) is much different than one of a teen spy and power-hungry old guy who wants to take over the world (a.k.a. the main villain of basically every other AR novel lol). 

What I love most about this novel is that you see Alex’s character, his compassion even in the most unlikely circumstances, his care for people both close to him and even enemies. I don’t think any other novel illustrates this as much as Nightshade, not even close. And I think there’s a good reason earlier novels didn’t: when Alex first starts going on missions, he’s a little bit cocky and a smart-ass (all those iconic insults!). It’s not until much later in the series, especially Scorpia Rising, where we see the traumatizing toll his work has taken on him. Alex has grown up. Of course, there’s still some golden sassy one-liners in Nightshade, but my impression of Alex in Nightshade was one who was more cautious and careful, aware of repercussions, and thoughtful. There’s a hilarious chapter where he manages to cause a ton of chaos but overall, he wants to minimize who gets hurt. There’s definitely a shift in Alex that’s different from the most early novels, but I think it’s a good change that really shows his increased maturity and experience and takes the storyline to even greater heights. 

Second, the plot itself is paced superbly and you don’t want to put the book down. The plot is interesting and this novel really does a great job of putting in foreshadowing that doesn’t hit you until the moment it is used and you just go “wow so THAT’S what it was for!” There’s less explosions/fighting than previous novels, but I didn’t mind because it goes with how Alex wants to minimize chaos. I was literally holding my breath for certain scenes. What really makes this story pop is how in certain scenes, I didn’t really know what Alex was going to do next. Once again, he shows his own character by some of the decisions he makes. Overall, though, I believe the storyline in Nightshade is way more well-constructed than most of the books in the series. The foreshadowing is awesome, when Alex gets out of certain situations it’s never in a cheap, deus-ex-machina way. This novel is quintessentially Alex 100%. That’s what I love about it. 

Third, you get to learn so much about MI6. Granted, MI6 is much different in this novel compared to previous ones due to Smithers and Blunt leaving earlier, so it’s basically just Mrs. Jones and Crawley. But you get to see a much more human side of them and their personalities, and MI6′s weakness at times. You learn SO MUCH about Mrs. Jones, and I’m really glad her story is becoming much more prominent in the overall storyline as it really ties the constant key players from the start of the series together now as time has passed. Personally, I’ve always kind of loved Crawley and he really shines in this novel as he has a much more prominent role. Something new I learned this book was that Crawley has ATTITUDE(!!) and is overall, a badass. #stancrawley

Fourth, this book highlights Alex and Tom’s friendship better than any other novel, even Scorpia in my opinion. Tom is also a badass, that’s all I’m gonna say. (Jack is also a badass, but let’s be honest, we knew that already since Stormbreaker.) Nightshade also highlights Jack and Alex’s relationship and overall, the bonds between everyone in this series. (Not rly a spoiler since it doesn’t have anything to do with the plot but there’s not even a mention of Sabina in this book but honestly I breathed a sigh of relief at that. Thank god we’ve escaped from her at last.) 

Lastly, the book really does take a new direction for the overarching Alex Rider storyline. There’s the organization of Nightshade and a bunch of new characters introduced, mostly antagonists. BUT THEY’RE ALL HIGHLY INTERESTING GREAT CHARACTERS THAT YOU WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT!! Early AR novels gave us the icons Yassen Gregorovich and Julius Grief, now Nightshade has given us ****** ****. (<-- not trying to give spoilers so once you have finished the book, figure out the name that spells this. Hint: monkey toy) This character has filled the hole in my soul that Yassen and Julius left. If you’re looking for a new baddie to appreciate, look no further than that guy. (I rly do be shipping him with Alex...) 

Basically, this Nightshade book has given me newfound hope in the continuation of the series. (Never Say Die took away this hope big time but it’s all back now!) I have been reminded of why I love this series from reading this book. Nightshade has everything you want in an AR novel but with deeper meaning and connections between characters. Anthony Horowitz, I forgive you for the infamous crime of the Fox/Wolf identity mishap; you have proven yourself with this book. I am so excited for the future of this series after seeing how good this book turned out.  

IN CONCLUSION, IF YOU LOVE ALEX RIDER PLEASE READ NIGHTSHADE ASAP. IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO WARRANT ME WRITING A WHOLE ESSAY HERE ON WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT!! REBLOG AND SPREAD THE WORD, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, GO READ NIGHTSHADE!!!

[valaks]

Updated WIPs list now that I took 5 off:

Americans: Alex thought he was done with SCORPIA. But they kept creeping back into his life in the most unexpected of ways. He thought he could at least count on it being on the other side until he gets teamed up with Walker, his former classmate and current CIA spy. Unfortunately he still hasn’t been able to figure out whose side Walker is really on - attempted deep cover op like his dad, repatriated rogue spy back on the “good” side, or SCORPIA double agent? He doesn’t know but at least he’s nice....in that obnoxious American way.

Brothers in Arms (Inverted Devil): Children didn’t belong in Selection. Most grown men couldn’t even cut it, so if the kid was here there had to be damn good reason even if the Sergeant couldn’t tell them why. Not that they could ask, they were soldiers, they didn’t get to ask questions so they took their orders to prepare a cot, snapped off a salute and stepped out of the hut into the Welsh mist. He stopped them before they even made it back to the hut and rounded on his men “I don’t like it anymore than the rest of you, but we’re gonna teach him everything we know. I don’t want to hear any bitching, understood.” S Unit would get him through. Marcus would make sure of it

Crossroads (post Crocodile Tears): Brendan Chase owed nothing to Alex Rider. Maybe a thank you at best for getting rid of Yu so he could have his home territory back. Pissing off Ethan Brooke and killing Ash while doing it had been a nice touch even if unintentional. The Board was right that a message needed to be sent to get their reputation back in line after 4 failed missions in a year but personal revenge against a teenager was not the way to go about it. Not when Rider was, himself, a walking piece of blackmail that could be convinced to strike against the government abusing him and get SCORPIA the ultimate revenge. And that’s how he found himself across from Alex Rider in a London restaurant, supposedly on a date with his housekeeper and trying to intervene before MI6 did something stupid and his own organization did something even stupider.

For Queen and Country (Devil): Alex always knew Yassen would send him back to work with MI6. He just hadn’t expected it to be so quickly.

Good Intentions: Yassen Gregorovich never thought he’d be anyone’s moral compass, he was no angel to sit in anyone’s shoulder but trying to keep Alex Rider from following in the ruthless footsteps of his father or worse his former handler, Alan Blunt is as close to hell as he can imagine. (Wherein Alex becomes head of MI6 we watch his morality slip away form the eyes of an increasingly frustrated and heartbroken Yassen - it all culminates when Alex uses a child “just as an informant, simple information gathering” but hidden behind the charming smile of John Rider and the brutal coldness of Alan Blunt’s words is Alex Rider dying as he says them (Yassen just hopes there’s still a part of the boy he once knew in there to mourn)

In All but Blood: Being Julia Rothman’s son was just an endless series of trainers and instructors and never being able to please a woman who told everyone else that she loved him but had never said the words to his face - usually because he never saw her. And when he did she just cupped his chin tilting it to either side and told him just how much he looked like “Hunter”. He was fated for Malagosto like some people were fated to attend their own parents alma maters. Until in a fit of teenage rebellion he tracks down the part of his past that Rothman hid from him - the brother he never had. Cossack. Hunter’s Apprentice and MI6s best operative.

Meld: Alex and Yassen are mirrors of each other, tied together by Fate herself closer than either thought possible. When Yassen finally closed his tired eyes, he woke up looking at his body and a startled “Yassen?” That wasn’t coming from a teenager but coming from within his own mind (Yassen and Alex mind meld post Eagle Strike - Moral crises, and teenage feelings were not how Yassen wanted to spend his afterlife but soon he won’t even realize it because they’re both sinking into the steady pull of becoming *one*)

My Brother’s Keeper: 4 years after Eagle Strike, Alex runs into a familiar face at a pub on Christmas Day and a tradition is forcibly started. Alex doesn’t mind. In another life, they would have been brothers at the least but who’s to say it was too late to start that now? (Pointless Hallmark levels of Christmas Fluff)

Red Son: General Sarov was a man who knew what he wanted and how to use the system to get it. Alex’s adoption paperwork and Sarov’s will were updated as soon as the plan fell into place and while Sarov was disgraced by the events in Murmansk his son’s actions in saving the country from them were not. The SVR were not going to let him go so easily *especially* when it was the CIA demanding him back. Wherein Alex gets involved in a paperwork pissing match and finds himself the heir of a rather sizable fortune once he’s old enough. The trouble is getting to that point. Thankfully his “father’s” oligarch “friends” and all of their nefarious connections are there to help.

Withdrawal (Devil): 3 years after the first time he had been asked to make an impossible decision, he found himself making them every day. A million little ones that tied into much larger plans responsible for the lives and deaths of thousands. He would say it was becoming routine but it wasn’t. They were a million little cuts but at the end of the day for all his planning and delegating there were still only 24 hours to make them - each one carefully allotted. He needed more time and if they wouldn’t let him stretch more hours in then he would just have to make what time he had more efficient.