The Amazon Experiment

Spy Force #5

by Deborah Abela

Could this be Max Remy's most dangerous Spyforce mission yet?

There's a new agent at Spyforce named Suave. He's good- looking, charming and does everything perfectly. Max Remy instantly dislikes him. Then a Spyforce agent falls ill with sleeping sickness, and the cause is traced to a parasite found only in the Triatoma bug of the Amazon jungle. Max has to put her personal dislikes on hold as Quimby equips Max, Linden and Suave for the mission to the Amazon. But before they can leave, Frond is kidnapped and a normally bumbling, office-bound Steinberger takes over the mission, desperate to save Spyforce and his not- so- secret love, Frond.

Thus begins an insect-ridden, plane- crashing, piranha- eating, alligator- munching, tarantula- crawling adventure through the Amazon Jungle to rescue Frond, find the Triatoma bug and return to Spyforce to save the agents from a terrible and certain demise.

Genres: Childrens

171 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Deb knew she wanted to be a writer when she was 7 years old. Her first story was about a man made out of cheese. It wasn’t very good. She’s had much more practice writing since then and strangely enough her first writing job was for a kids’ show on channel Ten called “Cheez TV”. After 7 years of writing scripts about everything from llamas to bungy jumping and how to go to the toilet in outer space, Deb wrote her first novel - Max Remy Superspy Part 1: In Search of the Time and Space Machine.

It’s about a feisty girl called Max and her best friend Linden who travel the world as secret agents fighting bad guys. It’s an action packed series based on loads of adventures Deb had, just after she left school. She’s slept beside alligators, been harassed by monkeys (and who hasn’t) was almost
traded for a camel and was thrown in jail at gunpoint, twice.
Deb still claims her innocence to this day.

Together with sport icon Johnny Warren, Deb also created
the Jasper Zammit (Soccer Legend) series. It’s about a
young boy called Jasper and his best friend Lil, who love
their soccer and dream of being soccer legends, just like
Johnny. Deb lives in Sydney with her partner Todd, who
is almost as cute as Linden.

Reviews

[Rogerio]

I think the star of the day was Steinberger, otherwise pretty much of the same. Toby disppears in this book while a new agent called "Suave" makes his debut.
I don't feel Harrison's confusion of words is funny (throughout all books) in that it is humour is quite poor and very often unrelated to anything going on.
Max drifting pages I have also started to skip as they add very little to the books. It does look like what she lives is actually her own writing (probably in the end).

[Mella]

I must have read this series a million times as a kid. I was even lucky enough to meet the author and have my books signed. I love Max. She's such a perfect example of the awkwardness of growing up and trying to be yourself and not knowing who that is and making friends and falling in love and all the happiness and fear and anger and insecurity of being a tween. Max is totally relatable and very likeable - even if she can be grumpy and standoffish and mean. In fact I liked her more because of it. She was experiencing all the crazy emotions I was - and she was a spy. Alex Rider was cool and all and the Cherub kids were awesome but they had nothing on Max.

I loved her friendship with Linden ( - he was so nice and you can see why she develops a crush on him - but I adored her relationship with Toby) and Toby and the relationship she builds with her aunt and uncle. Spyforce is everything you want a secret spy agency to be with weird and wonderful gadgets and fun and crazy missions.

Yes, for an adult it can be simplistic - but as a kid it's everything you want to read - funny and entertaining. Fantastic series. Solid 4-5 stars overall.

Frankly I want the author to revisit Max - as a young adult/older teen. I would love to read about an older Max and Linden and Toby and see what trouble they get into as high school emotions take over. Please Deborah Abela?

[Tiffany]

My favorite book of the series that I have read so far!