Ark Angel
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Ark Angel is the sixth book in the
The book was released in the United Kingdom on 1 April 2005[1] and in the United States on 20 April 2006.[2] Initial reviews of the book were positive.
Plot
Former SAS member Max Webber gives a speech criticizing Force Three, an eco-terrorist organization. His phone later explodes, killing him.
Meanwhile, Alex Rider is recovering in a hospital after being shot.[N 1] He meets Paul Drevin, the son of Russian billionaire Nikolei Drevin. One night, four men break into the hospital and attempt to kidnap Paul, but Alex overpowers them. However, he is captured by Kaspar, the leader, and imprisoned in an abandoned building where the men reveal themselves as members of Force Three. The men set fire to the building after realizing that Alex deliberately foiled their plan. Alex escapes from the fire and returns to the hospital, where he is debriefed by John Crawley, MI6 Chief of Staff, and later discharged. Back home, Nikolei Drevin convinces Alex to stay with him for two weeks as thanks for preventing his son's kidnapping.
At a hotel, Drevin holds a press conference about his space project, Ark Angel, which will be the first-ever
Drevin, Tamara, Alex and Paul fly to
Alex is brought to Drevin, who intends to destroy Ark Angel with a bomb and send the wreckage crashing down on
As there is no way to stop the bomb on the ground, Alex travels to Ark Angel in a second Soyuz-Frigat rocket to deal with it manually. He encounters Kaspar aboard Ark Angel but overpowers him using the effects of zero-gravity and the sun, and Kaspar is stabbed to death by his own knife. Alex then moves the bomb away so that the wreckage from the detonation will simply break up and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry. Ark Angel explodes and Alex falls back to Earth, landing a hundred miles off the coast of Australia.
Characters
- Alex Rider
- Paul Drevin
- Nikolei Drevin
- Kaspar
- Tamara Knight
- Joe Byrne
Reception
Philip Ardagh at The Guardian gave Ark Angel a positive review, stating "It's perfectly pitched at its readership. Ark Angel reads the way a children's thriller should read" and "This is a welcome new addition [to the series]."[3]
Notes
- the previous novel.
References
- ^ "Ark Angel announced". Anthony Horowitz. Archived from the original on 25 February 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ^ "Ark Angel in the USA". Anthony Horowitz news. February 2006. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ^ Philip Ardagh (9 April 2005). "Alex rides again". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2009.