Russian Roulette (Alex Rider)

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Punny Name: Lots. Horowitz has confirmed that since the series takes a lot of inspiration from Bond, several female characters have punny names (though since this is a young adult series, obviously teen-friendly ones). Sabina Pleasure ("it's been a pleasure") is the most notable; others include Fiona Friend ("phone a friend"), Tamara Knight ("tomorrow night"), and Diana Meacher ("dying to meet you"). The Man With the Wrong Shoes" (2020) (Story for World Book Day, included as part of Alex Rider Undercover: The Classified Files) Agonizing Stomach Wound: Yassen Gregorovich and Ash both spend several minutes slowly dying from taking bullets to the stomach.

Tagline: Originally the series' tagline was "Alex Rider, the reluctant teenage spy" (which gets dropped in context in Scorpia Rising). More recently this has changed to the original tagline for Stormbreaker, "Alex Rider - you're never too young to die". Several other books in the series have had their own taglines too: Snakehead: Possibly either Captain de Wynter (although, barring Yassen, he's the first Alex doesn't kill, instead being killed by Major Yu when he fails to stop Alex escaping the Liberian Star) or Ash Wise Beyond Their Years: Alex has been described as this by other characters due to the psychological damage he has taken from his missions, enduring horrors that nobody should have to go through and watching people die.

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Not So Stoic: Razim displays strong emotions for the first time in his life during his Villainous Breakdown. Horowitz came up with the idea for the series when he thought about creating a teenage equivalent of James Bond. Secret Weapon" (2003) (post- Skeleton Key. Revised and expanded version published in Secret Weapon) Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Averted. Alex misses most of his schooling due to his missions. It's gotten to the point that everyone, both student and faculty, somehow knows that there's something wrong with him and that there's more to him than just "illnesses."

All of the stories in Secret Weapon are set between, or even during, other books in the series (apart from "Christmas at Gunpoint", which is set shortly before Stormbreaker). In Eagle Strike, we find out Yassen worked together with Alex's father, and tells him MI6 are the ones who killed him. Nightshade has been advertised as being tougher and more adult than the rest of the series, with the intention being that as well as appealing to the series' target market, it will also be enjoyed by readers who read the first books when they originally came out 20 years ago. Eagle Strike: Yassen Gregorovich (again, though Cray shoots him for refusing to kill Alex & Sabina) Chekhov's Gunman: Julius Grief, with a six-book gap between his unknown fate at the dénouement of Point Blanc and his reappearance as The Dragon in Scorpia Rising.Averted, however, in Scorpia Rising, as Razim needs Alex alive and without any physical marks on him. He also refuses to tell Alex what he is planning—Alex only finds out from one of his stupider subordinates. The CIA's various regional headquarters in different countries and states are named with the exact same initials—Centurion International Advertising in Miami, Creative Ideas Animation in New York, and Cairo Islamic Authority in, well, Cairo. Arc Villain: Each book's Big Bad serves as the villain for that book alone; even though Scorpia, the Big Bad of the entire series, are the villains of four of the books, in each case there is one member of their executive board charged with carrying out a scheme who serves as that book's specific Big Bad. Overt Operative: This isn't a perfect example of this, in that the whole reason for using Alex Rider as a spy is that bad guys are supposed to think that he is Just a Kid. However, somehow the bad guys almost always find out who is really is and who he is working for, often by looking up his file in their Magical Database. Given how many times that his cover has been blown, it is amazing that he is still considered useful for covert operations.

Obviously Evil: If a villainous character is NOT this, they almost immediately cross the Moral Event Horizon. Just in case there was any confusion whatsoever. Russian Roulette directly contradicts what is revealed about Yassen in the main series multiple times, as the book leaves nowhere that the operation in Mdina described by Ash in Snakehead can possibly take place, and also reveals that Yassen was aware that John Rider was secretly a double agent, which Eagle Strike suggests he never knew. Beauty Equals Goodness: Played almost entirely straight with the villainous characters - particular with the Dragons, who are nearly always hideously scarred or deformed in some way, or just simply stated to be ugly. Even Julius Grief, who looks otherwise identical to the explicitly-attractive Alex, has self-inflicted claw marks on his face by the time he takes up a major villainous role in Scorpia Rising. The most blatant exception is Julia Rothman in book five, who is repeatedly compared to a movie star. In July 2018, it was reported that Sony Pictures Television had replaced ITV as Eleventh Hour Film's distribution and financial partner for a new Alex Rider television series. Sony Pictures Television's international and worldwide distribution divisions under Wayne Garvie and Keith Le Goy were attached to the film series. Burt had adapted Point Blanc, the second book in the Alex Rider novel series, for television. Horowitz will serve as executive producer for the series. [9] Interquel: Although the main body of Russian Roulette is a Prequel, the Framing Device is set immediately before, and during, the final chapter of Stormbreaker.Child Soldier: As Alex reflects, "...he'd never been given a choice. Nowadays, spies weren't employed. They were used." Within Crocodile Tears, Rahim qualifies in a heroic sense, saving Alex's life once at the beginning of the book and twice towards the end.

broun, lisa (16 December 2020). "Anthony Horowitz: Alex Rider". Cheltenham Festivals . Retrieved 11 December 2020. [ permanent dead link] Scorpia Rising - released 21 March 2011 in Australia, 22 March 2011 in the US and 31 March 2011 in the UK. Alex was originally to have had dark hair, but after Horowitz saw several surveys that said teenage girls preferred blonde boys, he created him as fair haired instead. Dr. Grief wants to perform an unanaesthetized vivisection on Alex. In layman's terms, he wants to give his class a biology lesson using Alex while he's still awake. invoked Skeleton Key was published in 2002. After foiling a Triad plot to fix the 2001 Wimbledon tennis tournament and befriending Sabina, Alex is in grave danger of assassination. Forced to leave the country, MI6 sends him on a mission to Cuba with two doubtful CIA agents, of whom he is the sole survivor. He encounters former Soviet general Alexei Sarov, who tries to adopt Alex and expresses ideas of a nuclear holocaust and world domination under communist rule. Alex then foils his plans saving the world for a third time.Eventually, Horowitz decided to write the final Alex Rider novel Scorpia Rising first, and decided to write "Yassen" sometime after that. The first novel, Stormbreaker, was released in the United Kingdom in the year 2000 and was adapted into a film in 2006, starring Alex Pettyfer as the titular protagonist. The second and fourth books were adapted into a TV series in 2020 and 2021 respectively, this time starring Otto Farrant. Walker Books published the first novels in the United Kingdom alongside Puffin in the United States. More recent entries in the series were published by Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Books.