Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin (Alex Rider Adventure)

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This book was really different because even though this book is set in the same world it follows a different character a main character who is a villain. This novella is focused on Yassen Gregorovich and it follows his life from when he was younger right up until the time he became the assassin that we know from the main series. I love the Alex Rider books, I think that they are a great series which is very exhilarating and enjoyable to read through and I love the characters and plots of each book. This book feels like a follow on rather than a prequel because it does recount things which happen within the Rider books, but it also feels like an older and more mature storyline than that of Alex.

The character I fell the most sympathy for is also Yassen Gregorovich as his friend, parents and grandmother died when he was young. Also he worked as a slave in Russia, Moscow for around 3 years. Horowitz's writing style is perfect for teenagers (and even for elderly readers like me). He is never patronising. He resists the temptation to which so many other writers for children (and even adults) give in to lecture and educate. He just tells a story beautifully and grippingly. What's impressive about Anthony Horowitz's new book, `Russian Roulette', is that, for me, the answer to all those questions is yes. Horowitz has created a powerful and original story in which the bad guy is not only the `hero', but also someone you wish you could save.I think it’d be interesting to return to the original series just to see where the connection actually does exist. Ultimately, The White Carnation is a rather fascinating psychological look into the personality of the assassin and the experience that shaped him and his mind for his actions in the Alex Rider novels. It’s small and definitely isn’t a necessary read for anyone, but it’s still something I found quite cool to be able to read. Spoiler alert.Now, there is a plot hole in this story, but I feel compelled to correct a mistake I made in an earlier review. I falsely stated that Yassen felt no loyalty to John Rider after discovering he was an agent for MI6. I reread the book, however, and saw what I had, eh, skipped. What’s impressive about Anthony Horowitz’s new book, ‘Russian Roulette’, is that, for me, the answer to all those questions is yes. Horowitz has created a powerful and original story in which the bad guy is not only the ‘hero’, but also someone you wish you could save.

All in all, the book was very good, giving us a very different picture of the seemingly bloodthirsty killer from "Strormbreaker" and "Eagle Strike". Yassen feels as though he was never given a chance to be anything but an assassin, and, in sympathetic understanding, tries to give Alex the shot for freedom he never had in a cool rewriting of the last scene in "Strombreaker," when Yassen kills Sayle. All that sadness. All that anger. It is the smoke that gets into your eyes. If you do not blow it away, how can you hope to see? This is book number 10 in the Alex Rider series but in actuality it recounts events which happen before the series even begins. This is the story of one of the bad guys from Alex's adventures, his name is Yassen Gregorovitch. Everyone knows the story of Alex and how he was badgered into becoming a spy, but no one knows how Yassen ended up in his line of work - a hired killer - and their stories are not too far apart from one another. We are told the story of his life and how he became the assassin we first meet in Stormbreaker. Starting from his small town life in Russia, through various places around the world we see how different, yet how similar his life was/is to Alex's. Some may question the morality of a children’s book that makes young readers empathise so strongly with a contract killer, but I found Horowitz’s exploration of what might cause a child to grow up to become a deadly assassin to be sensitively handled and one of the reasons why, for me, this is the best book he’s written.

The Story of an Assassin

When Ian Rider died at the hands of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex, ready or not, was thrust into the world of international espionage--the world's only teenage spy. Alex vowed revenge against Yassen and the two have battled ever since. Yet, years ago, it was none other than Alex's own father who trained and mentored Yassen, turning him into the killer he would eventually become. I know this is rambly but I just need to talk about John for a minute. John is a spy, deep undercover in Scorpia as an agent. He gets teamed up with a new recruit and realises that this kid does not have the heart for killing people. Yes, part of him is surely like 'undermine Scorpia by ruining their new recruit's confidence'. BUT DO NOT EVEN TRY TO TELL ME that a big part of it is not just John trying to help out Yassen. The interesting thing is that although we know what Yassen will become, we continue to root for him as he fights the intense external and internal pressures to kill. And the great irony is that the person who tries hardest to save Yassen from this cold heartless fate, is the one whose actions finally push Yassen to kill. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR 'EAGLE STRIKE' THE FOURTH ALEX RIDER BOOK AND MILD SPOILERS FOR SCORPIA RISING THE NINETH BOOK IN THE ALEX RIDER SERIES.

Conclusion: While everything that happens to Yassen leads to his becoming an assassin, it really isn't until the very end that we see what major event truly made him turn. And it is perhaps the most depressing moment in the whole book. It's also the most satisfying; the entire time, I really wanted Yassen to be able to get his revenge against Sharkovsky. We're not disappointed. I was thrilled with Russian Roulette. My favorite character finally got his own book! And it was amazing! It made me love his character more than ever, and it explained a lot about him and about John Rider. I wasn't expecting it to be so emotional, but it was, and it really couldn't have been any other way. If you have already read through Alex Rider series then, chances are that you have finished this too, if not then remedy that and then just keep on reading. So, what do you do with this new perspective on Alex Rider’s nemesis? Go and re-read the series from the beginning, obviously. The tenth book in the Alex Rider series isn’t about Alex Rider at all. Instead, we follow a character introduced in the very first Alex Rider novel, Stormbreaker, a contract assassin by the name of Yassen Gregorovich. It’s an interesting choice for a protagonist as most readers will already know Yassen’s profession and fate before ever diving into this book. However, as expected, Anthony Horowitz pulls it off with great effect and actually turns what could have simply been a “spin-off” one-shot book into an important entry in the overall series.

And he meets John Rider. And John, or Hunter, is like "you're not cut out for this life. You should use your new skills to hide from Scorpia and start a new life". Yassen very nearly does this. YASSEN ALMOST IS NOT AN ASSASSIN. And what if that 14 year-old boy was Alex Rider, one of the best-loved heroes of children's literature? And I loved every second of it! Seeing how Yassen grew up, his friends, how he came accross Scorpia....

The Alex Rider novels have always fascinated me with their pulpy thriller writing. It's much like reading Matthew Reilly (without the expletives and really high-stakes escapes) and I definitely believe there is a place for this type of fiction in the market. Some may look at it and go: 'does it teach anything? Does it uplift at all?' Interestingly, this is a book that certainly for all the thrill and racing plot, does have a moral lesson. It is a book about good and evil being existent in the choices made by individuals. This book was everything and more! I absolutely love the Alex Rider series and although I can't really say it's because it was 'my childhood series' (because I started reading them at 13 years old and finished at 15 last year) they are as close as it gets to that. Therefore I have such a strong attachment to this series and these characters and strangely as this is a companion novel following a very minor character from the Alex Rider series, who definitely is not a hero within that series, I found myself so emotionally invested in this book and in his story. This is technically book 10 in the Alex Rider series, although it follows the story of Yassen Gregorovich - an assassin who works for Scorpia. Yes, Yassen does, as I just said, figure out his mentor, Hunter, John Rider, the father of Alex Rider, was sent to infiltrate Scoria. The betrayal scars Yassen, and actually becomes the final domino in his journey as a killer.

Customer reviews

I believe that Yassen was only doing a lot of his things to try and save people that he really cared about even though the way he did them wasn't really the right way i can see why and how he did things. Could anyone else have made a paid assassin into a sympathetic character for young readers? I doubt it. But Horowitz pulls it off. We follow the young Yassen on his journey through life, from the disaster which destroys everything he knows, including his parents, his best friend and his grandmother, to his becoming one of the most successful killers in the world. And that journey is appalling. But, somehow, Yassen retains his humanity through most of it. I'm not going to lie, I didn't realise this was a prequel until I actually started reading it. Usually I intensively study a blurb before I read the actual book, but in this case I didn't bother since either way I was going to read it - it's Alex Rider so, obviously. So yeah, I was pretty surprised when it was suddenly in first person from the perspective of Yassen Gregorovich at age 14 - before Alex was even born. But Yassen did not reveal John to his superiors for two reasons - one, John had saved his life. Two, although he worked for them, Yassen hated Scorpia, and didn't care what happened to them.