Russian Roulette (Alex Rider)

Product Information

Alex Underground - published 8 August 2008 in the News of the World Summer Reading Special (post- Ark Angel) 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.

Julia Rothman of Scorpia also averts this, as she pointedly doesn't tell Alex what her plan is, leaving him to figure it out by himself. Although he manages to do so, Rothman is the most Genre Savvy villain of the series, and her plan ultimately fails for reasons largely beyond her control. Sarov intends to kill millions of people by nuking a nuclear submarine repair shipyard, making it look like an accident, and blaming it on the Russian government's incompetence. Fans of the Alex Rider series are eager for the arrival of this book, Yassen Gregorovich becoming and remaining one of the most popular characters in the series since his first appearance in Stormbreaker.Scorpia condemned Damian Cray as a madman.However, this is a debateable example, as their comments could be based on his Utopia Justifies the Means mentality (some SCORPIA Members are implied to be involved in the Drugs trade, which Cray plotted to eradicate in Eagle Strike) as much as his crimes. One of Scorpia's senior members is disturbed by them developing a bioweapon that specifically targets children and accordingly makes plans to retire from the organization. Trauma Conga Line: Alex's entire life, especially after becoming a spy. By the end of Scorpia Rising he has lost the only adult he truly trusted and is unlikely to ever really recover. Discounting Stormbreaker, the author seems to make it a point to have Alex appear shirtless at least once in each book. He became known as Yassen instead of Yasha when an injury to his face made it sound like he was saying Yassen when introducing himself.

Alexander "Alex" Rider is a title character and the protagonist of the Alex Rider novel series by British author Anthony Horowitz. He has also been featured in three short stories written by Horowitz based in the same canon as the series; Secret Weapon, Christmas at Gunpoint and Incident in Nice. Internal Reveal: In Scorpia Rising, the reader is aware from the beginning that Alex's mission is a trap to deliver him to Scorpia. The school in Point Blanc claims to specialize in dealing with teenage boys who have this problem. Given two (technically one due to the other being Alex's cover identity) of the enrolled are arsonists and a third shot a teacher, they might not be far off. Scorpia Rising is the exception to the rule; it basically describes the book's entire premise, but is never dropped in context. 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.Shoehorned Acronym: SCORPIA: Sabotage, CORruPtion, Intelligence, Assassination. More than half the letters are taken, more or less randomly, from one word. It's lampshaded and justified when they make their debut: "it was a fanciful name...but they had to call themselves something", and as a global network of spies they wanted a name that works in several different languages.