Scorpia Rising marks the end of an era for me. Not quite up there with Harry Potter, but close. So very close.

Anthony Horowitz is an amazing writer and without a doubt had a chance to absolutely shine with his Alex Rider series. His teen spy books were packed with spectacular action sequences, nifty gadgets, near perfect descriptions of exotic locations and most of all wonderful characters. From the good guys such as Alex, Jack Starbright and Sabina Pleasure to the very screwed up ones such as Damian Cray, Dr. Grief and Yassen. They were all unique in their own right and no matter how small their part in the series they all had proper character development and Horowitz really made you either care for them, well, or hate their guts.

The final instalment in this series is no different. Set in Egypt for the most part it ties up most lose ends from the previous books as Alex gets send on a mission one last time to defeat quite possibly the most evil organisation this series has brought us. Old favourites make appearances and people we've known for eight books suddenly take us by surprise by revealing their true identity. Storyline wise Scorpia Rising has everything the loyal readers could've hoped for: a fab story, more nifty gadgets and an amazing location setting which has no doubt been thoroughly researched by Horowitz to get that authentic feel his books are known for.

Yet...

I didn't give this book 5 stars because I was slightly disappointed in its ending. I knew something bad was going to happen and expected fairly early on what would occur. Yet the pain Alex felt because of this did not feel real (for a while there I genuinely assumed that in fact Alex had died and the roles were still reversed). The last few sentences in particular; surely Alex isn't getting over this enormous emotional trauma already? There was too little focus on this major plot twist and not enough time for the character and readers to mourn.

But that is the only flaw I can remark upon in this book, other than that it's a perfect ending to a near perfect series.