Ark Angel

Alex Rider #6

by Anthony Horowitz

Shot outside the offices of MI6 and left for dead by Scorpia, Alex Rider awakens in a top-secret hospital, glad simply to be alive. But danger has a way of following Alex, and when the boy in the next room is the victim of a kidnapping attempt, it is Alex who saves him; only to be kidnapped himself. The man behind the kidnapping? None other than Nikolei Drevin, wealthiest developer in the world, and the man who single-handedly is funding the first luxury hotel in outer space, Ark Angel. Yet the project is hemorrhaging millions of dollars along the way, and Drevin will stop at nothing to cease the bleeding. Even if it means blowing up Ark Angel. Even if it means sacrificing his only son. . . .

ISBN: 1406360244

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, Action, Espionage, Thriller

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2005

About the author

Anthony Horowitz, OBE is ranked alongside Enid Blyton and Mark A. Cooper as "The most original and best spy-kids authors of the century." (New York Times). Anthony has been writing since the age of eight, and professionally since the age of twenty. In addition to the highly successful Alex Rider books, he is also the writer and creator of award winning detective series Foyle’s War, and more recently event drama Collision, among his other television works he has written episodes for Poirot, Murder in Mind, Midsomer Murders and Murder Most Horrid. Anthony became patron to East Anglia Children’s Hospices in 2009.

On 19 January 2011, the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle announced that Horowitz was to be the writer of a new Sherlock Holmes novel, the first such effort to receive an official endorsement from them and to be entitled the House of Silk.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/anthon...

Reviews

[Percy Bolondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a list of all the best alex rider novels.

1- Ark Angel: Since 1979's Moonraker, sending spies up in space was almost a taboo. But in the sixth edition of the AR series, Horowitz has made it sensational to read and even more fantastic to imagine. Major thumbs up, the best!

2- Point Blanc (or Blank, depending where it was released): An ingenious plot. Usually cloning would be a rather overlooked thing, but it was pitched perfectly in this book. Especially the fight at the end, absolute gold!

3- Scorpia Rising: The last book in the series is one of the best. One of the saddest plots of the series though, with one of the main characters dying. But that makes the book even better. Alex is the edgiest he's even been in the final installment. A classic.

4- Scorpia: A very good book, although slightly overrated. Scorpia is still a good read, with scintillating twists and turns.

5- Stormbreaker: Pretty dry at first, but livens up later on. Shortest book in the series, but still a fan favourite.

6- Eagle Strike: One of the more overlooked books in the series. Entertaining, but not as good as the first three.

7- Skeleton Key and Snakehead: Those two are tied for seventh. Skeleton Key is an entertaining read, but somehow the plot just becomes rather unrealistic and Snakehead was good fun, but it lacked a glue that previous stories had.

9- Crocodile Tears: Probably the most disappointing entry into the Alex Rider series. Although it has its good moments, such as Alex winning the poker game and the car veering off a cliff, the book seems rather strange and the plot sometimes seems a bit ridiculous. I won't give it a miss, but probably not up to the standards of the previous books.

[Ryan Buckby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes it's the tiniest things that can mean the difference between life and death.


another thrilling story apart of the Alex Rider series thats full of action, humour and suspense this series is just getting better and better.

Plot: This story picks up after the events of the previous book where Alex is now in hospital after surviving an attack where he was almost killed by an assassin. I love that these books always give a refresher on the previous book so if you ever take a break from this series you always get a refresher on the events from the other books.

Alex in this book is broken and wanting to leave MI6 and being a spy behind but now that he is so far deep into this world he cannot leave it. But i really enjoyed seeing the emotion that Alex was showing in this book because he was ready to leave but after a group of guys come in looking for someone he snaps back into action. This is a recurring theme throughout the book because you can truly see how broken Alex is and he doesn't know who to trust anymore and rightly so.


I would like to see Alex have some friends to actually stay in his life and not leave him because with him only being 14 years old, i feel like he could use some friends to help him through everything that he's being through and not just up and leave him.

I'm not sure how much time has passed in this book but i would love to see Alex age a little bit maybe go up to either 15 or 16. However over the course of these first six books Alex has matured so much and grown over the course of the books you could mistake him for being a little older.


Alex makes a jump over the pond and leaves Europe for this mission and we see Alex off to the USA where he is asked by the CIA this time for help on this new mission. Alex however is really reluctant to join this mission and actually wanting to leave this life behind however he finally accepts and moves forward with helping the CIA.


One thing that i wasn't expecting was for the CIA to literally blast Alex off into space to stop a bomb going to Ark Angel to destroy Washington. In true Alex rider fashion he is able to stop the bomb and gets out of any danger and descends down back to earth.


Now Alex has landed near Australia and i think the next book will be centred in Australia and i cannot wait to see where the plot is taken next in book seven.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0 stars ...

Prob'ly my most favorite ... so far! 🤯
Such a super exciting series!! 😁

[Art Hyrst · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/20...

We're disappointed but not surprised that we're still on the 'evil people have something physically wrong with them' train. I'm not going to spend ages talking about this, because if you've read all the reviews so far you'll be sick of me complaining about this - but disfigurement/unconventional appearances doesn't make people 'a freak' or 'hideous' and saying that just makes you a dick 🙃 This one wasn't as bad as other entries in the series, but I'm already partway through the next book at time of writing this and I know it's not getting better. Sigh.

I do love the chronic pain rep in this. I'd forgotten all about it, but I like the fact that Alex being shot in the chest in the previous entry isn't just healed up and forgotten about. He doesn't have plot armour, he was seriously injured and it explicitly talks about the fact that Alex will have chronic pain for the rest of his life. A lot of books will injure characters seriously, then totally gloss over any long term implications of that. Ark Angel is only in the first stages of his recovery, but I'm hoping that this won't be forgotten in later entries in the series because it's nice to see some respectful, sensible chronic pain rep and realistic healing processes. I hope we see some realistic chronic pain management and rep in later books, because it's not something that's shown a lot in younger audience books. I really get the impression from these books that Anthony Horowitz puts a lot of research into this series, and in my editions of the books there's an afterword in each discussing different aspects (i.e. locations, weapons, gadgets) and I find them really interesting to read. I'd love to get a look at his writing research notes.

The threat in this series is really pervasive. I love seeing Alex in a situation that's supposed to be safe when we know that he's absolutely not safe at all. It made an interesting change to our usual dynamic where Alex is on edge and prepared for disaster. I was stressed, waiting for Alex to catch a goddamn clue. There's a scene in a shipwreck that is so damn unnerving that I think it might have made my fear of the ocean worse just by reading it. I love thriller writing that can have that effect on me, I want to feel scared even though I know it's going to end up okay. The main antagonist of Ark Angel is one of my favourite 'Rider villains'. He really creeps up on you, and it's brilliant writing that makes the cracks start to show and the reader start to feel like something is not right before we actually know what's going on.

The space aspect of this book? God, it's just fucking nonsense and I love it. The CIA and NASA sending a fourteen year old boy up into space in a ship built to carry a chimpanzee because he's their last chance at saving the world and they definitely couldn't find a grown, trained adult with a small frame? Perfect, I love it. The space aspect gave us a gory anti-gravity scene that was literally so gross I cringed, and it generally made the book's 'evil plot' unexpected and fascinating. I really loved the way that the plan developed into something completely off-the-wall and it was nice to see something very different after having a few nuclear threat focused stories in a row, and Force Three were fun to read about after again having a few homogeneous terrorist organisations. They also had a few very valid points about the environment and sustainability so it's a shame they ended up being supremely evil.

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Sometimes it's the tiniest things that can mean the difference between life and death.”

[AziaMinor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall Rating : B-

"Sometimes it's the tiniest things that can mean the difference between life and death. Now two words were going to drag him back into the world he though he'd left behind.
'Let's go.'"

Middle grade me was so happy that this book came out after the gut wrenching ending in Scorpia.

Now that I'm rereading the series, it comes across as a desperate attempt to keep alive a popular series. Still, not made for my demographic anymore so I shouldn't complain to much. Amd like I said, younger me devoured this as soon as it came out, so it definitely did what it was published to do 😄

[Feyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bisher der beste, aber auch aberwitzigste Band. Ich bin sehr gespannt, was noch kommt! Ist zwar für jüngere Leser*innen, aber ich fühle mich gut unterhalten!

[Mitchell Mcconnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book Ark Angle it was about an English schoolboy who was only 14 years old. He was recruited into the MI6 British secret intelligence; they are sort of like CIA but a British version. The story seems to sort of have 2 different stories to it but it is still one story. In all the books they take place in London the main characters name is Alex Rider, in the begging of the book he tends to all ways make trouble and in the middle of the book he ends up being safe and at the last 40 pages he tends to be in the worse life or death situation. My favorite part of the book was the ending when he has about 25 seconds to get into the escape pod in Ark Angel, which is supposed to be the first hotel space satiation in space for tourist. This book so far in the series is my favorite and met past my expectations. What made me read this book was title sounded cool.

I recomened you read it.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fun. Poor Alex can't catch a break, but the escapes get more crazy with every book!

[Winter Sophia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging, Emotional & Brilliant Action!

[Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

«I thought most kids would give their right arm to go into outer space. Haven’t you ever dreamt of becoming an astronaut?»

«No,» Alex said, «I always wanted to be a train driver.»

I really didn't think this book could get crazier than Scorpia. And then Anthony Horowitz sent Alex to space to defuse a bomb. So yeah. That's a thing that happened.

The audiobook narrator makes the most insane American accent in this, I think it's supposed to be a New Yorker accent and it sounds bonkers. But even with that, the audiobook is excellent as always, he makes Alex sound so sassy, it's amazing.

This was definitely crazier than book 5, Scorpia, and I know I said in that review that I base a lot on my rating on how crazy it gets, but I'm still giving this a lower rating, because I didn't think there was a lot of interesting character work in this one. I felt like Scorpia really taught us something about Alex and gave him a new depth, and Ark Angel just didn't have that.

The thing is, this series does a very typical middle grade thing where the main character doesn't really progress. Alex is still the same age as he was in book 1, when he should be older. Nobody is saying that he needs to be 26 by the time the series ends, but maybe have him get a year older every four books or so? He could be 14 in books 1-4, 15 in books 5-8, and 16 in books 8-12. That way he doesn't get a lot older, he doesn't age out of being a teenage spy, he doesn't need to get serious about girls and relationships (not that you ever need to do that), but there is still some progress. (Of course that depends on hoe long Anthony Horowitz is planning to keep this series going.)

Because it's not just Alex not getting older that is the problem, there is also not a lot of character development for Alex. It's book 6 and he still just wants to be an "ordinary school boy". Don't get me wrong, half of the entertainment in these books comes from Alex being he most unwilling spy ever, like he is grumpy and we love him for it, but it wouldn't hurt to sprinkle in just a little character development for him.

All of this isn't really this book's fault, it's the same for all the books in the series so far really, but this is when it finally started to annoy me.

I didn't think there was anything especially problematic in this book, but as always I'm not the expert. There is this one character who is kind of a business woman, and Alex complains about her not smiling enough, not being friendly enough when she's so pretty, and it's all very annoying to read about. (And then it turns out that she was just acting, pretending to be unfriendly, because of course a pretty woman can't just be focused on her career and has to be super friendly to 14 year old boys all the time). But that's just a small complaint.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Alex Rider, the victim of an assassin’s bullet to the chest at the very end of the previous book, is recovering in hospital in London. He befriends another lad in the room next to his who, unbeknownst to Alex, is the heir to one of the biggest fortunes in the world. When a group of thugs come to kidnap the heir, Alex switches nameplates on the doors and proceeds to take the fight to the enemy in his usual clever ways.

Alex has a history of getting dragged into one dangerous adventure after another, whether by design of MI-6 or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And despite swearing to never get involved again, he just can’t turn his back on a friend in need. The hospital adventure is just the beginning of a trail of connected perils including having to escape from the top of a burning building, surviving a high-speed go-cart race with a deadly opponent, escaping a scuba-diving death trap in a sunken ship, evading gun-wielding criminals while kite surfing, and being launched into space to prevent an explosion that would destroy Washington DC.

It’s quite a journey for Alex Rider but Anthony Horowitz does his usual fine job of telling the story with adrenaline-charged plotting mixed with a passionate regard for his character. Part of the action this time around occurs in the US and with the CIA so Alex is gaining a reputation in both hemispheres now. Once again, the MBGC (main bad guy character) is a worthy one, similar to the diabolical masterminds of typical James Bond villains.

These books are pure fun to read. I suppose they can be read as stand-alones (each one is a distinctly separate adventure) I would highly recommend they be read in order. The larger story arc that details Alex’s development is fundamental to the series.

Bring on the next one!

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ll ever not love and enjoy the Alex rider books. They’re so nostalgic and packed with drama and adventure. I’ll never tire of reading how Alex gets out of his dangers and scrapes (which of course, are many! Especially in this one) and they’re so entertaining to read.

I loved the plot in this story and it was so addicting to read. I love how Anthony Horowitz writes and they are effortlessly easy to binge read! I can’t wait to read more and I’m loving making my way through the entire series. I seriously hope he never stops writing them because I could really read them forever!

If you want an action packed, spy adventure epic, then this one is your book!

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outrageously good. I can't believe he actually goes to space in this one!

[Shah Si Pencinta Buku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex Rider sudah biasa beraksi di daratan malahan dalam lautan. Tapi kali ini dia bakal beraksi di angkasa pula. Bermula dengan membantu seorang remaja secara tidak sengaja, Alex mula terjebak dengan satu lagi yang yang memerlukan penglibatannya.

SH suka dengan gerak hati Alex yang sebenarnya sangat membantu dia jika didengari. Contohnya Alex berasa ada yang kurang beres dengan Drevin. Gerak hatinya sudah mengatakan sesuatu namun dia tidak mengikuti gerak hati sendiri dan akan ada akibatnya. Nak tau akibatnya kena bacalah kan.

Kesian juga dengan Paul yang begitu mendambakan seorang teman gara-gara hidupnya bak 'burung di sangkar emas', mewah namun tidak bebas. Hinggakan tidak dibenarkan bersekolah kerana risaukan keselamatan dirinya.

Tapi pengakhiran cerita ini SH rasakan agak tergesa-gesa berbanding dengan beberapa naskah sebelum ini. Berasa pengakhiran agak tiba-tiba dan kurang kemas. Kalau diperkemaskan dan diketatkan lagi plot yang agak longgar di hujung cerita mesti akan lebih menarik.

[Brandon V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really good, I like how the CIA keeps getting alex to come back and do one more job for them.

[Hailey Butterfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty predictable but good

[Akshita · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most bizarre yet fulfilling book I've read in quite a while. So glad I picked this series up .
Rtc

[Siddharth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous books were exciting, but going to space takes this to a whole other level. I really liked this book and I found it really fascinating. The climax is epic! There was a nice fight to end the story.

[Tracey Dyck · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the last book's cliffhanger ending, Alex Rider returns, and he's thrown right back into the action. Lots of creative, high-stakes action scenes, some that I quite enjoyed. The villain with the map tattooed across his head was memorable. And I did NOT expect what happened in the last couple of chapters. I don't think Alex could get much more death-defying than that!

[Jerome Otte · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book Alex is 14 years old. The book begins with him in the hospital (evidently the fallout from something at the end of book 5). In short order, he's disabled 4 men and then is kidnapped by a 5th while Alex is trying to prevent the kidnapping of the patient in the room next to him. He almost has a finger chopped off, must escape a burning building from a locked room, almost gets killed in a vicious go-cart race, sees the death of a big-time soccer star, has a secret meeting with the CIA, gets locked away in an underwater wreck while scuba-ing, sneaks into a guarded spaceport, is locked into an animal cage, is sent into space, has a life or death fight in a space station, moves a bomb, and barely detaches from the station in time to avoid sure death. All this in approximately 300 pages.
Sending a freaking kid into outer space with a few injections and some brief instructions was a bit much...
And the terrorists at the beginning figure that locking Alex into an old building and setting it on fie from the basement is th ebest way to kill him...but still one guy disobeys orders to stay in a freakin' BURNING BUILDING just to fire a few bullets at Alex for personal revenge...which Alex somehow dodges by leaping backwards...

[Yulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 6th book in the Alex Rider series and one were Alex has little to do with MI6 at all, but seems to be 'at the wrong place, at the wrong time'.
Honestly I don't really know why but this book didn't really pull me into it as much as the others. I feel like the plot here was much more predictable, and what he was expected to do by adults simply insane. However I have to say that in the end i did enjoy it despite the predictable plot. Alex Rider was as always a fun character to read about, especially the way he seems to get out of absolutely any situation.

***** SPOILERS AHEAD *****

The parts of the plot that were most predictable were the fact that Tamara was with the CIA. I mean I didn't know it straight away but i did know it as soon as the CIA said they had an agent there. I also knew straight away that Magnus Payne was Kaspar.. I really don't know how i connected that but probably because of how his face was described as fake looking..

I did enjoy that Alex actually got to speak to someone more his own age, but I don't think they will meet again...

I really don't know what else to say about this other than the fact that I really want read the next book so i can get to the last one... I can't wait to read about that assassin... so end of rant.

[Katrina Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

That.

Was.

EPIC.

It doesn't quite get five stars (actual rating is proooobably 4.5?) because the first 3/4 or so of the book isn't very exceptional. Still really, really good, of course! But OH MY GOODNESS, THAT LAST SECTION. So much wow. So much epic. So much heart-pounding, awe-inspiring amazingness. EEEEEEEEEK!!!!!

The following is a big spoiler, so be ye warned: ALEX WENT TO SPACE. HE EXPERIENCED ZERO GRAVITY AND FLOATED AROUND IN A SPACE STATION AND GOT TO SEE EARTH THROUGH ONE OF THE WINDOWS AND I'M FREAKING OUT BECAUSE IT WAS AWESOME AND ALEX IS EPIC AND... AND... YEAH.

I love Alex Rider. The series and the character. I just love it - him - SO MUCH.

[Marte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd have given this 2.5 stars if possible, but I have rounded it up to three to be nice. I enjoyed the use of an MRI machine to take out a bad guy, learning the secret behind tightrope walking, and the diving and space scenes. I didn't like how extremely unrealistic this series is becoming, the use of yet another rich, crazy villain and the rushed ending. I thought the book would end with a cliffhanger, with the main action happening in the next book, but in the end the author rushed the scenes in the space station and the novel came to an abrupt halt. I will still read the next two (and the 9th when it comes out), and I hope they will be more along the lines of Skeleton Key and Scorpia.

[issi⁷ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can look past fighting off a shark, operating a crane to dump a drug dealer’s boat into the Thames, tightroping between buildings after escaping a burning one, skiing down the Alps on an ironing board, even fighting an assassin in a hot air balloon BUT I draw the line at sending a fourteen-year-old into space!!! This might be where I quit Alex Rider. I genuinely can’t find much I enjoyed about this one…

[Fabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

first review: 4 stars
A.MA.ZING! U did it once again Anthony, in truly impressed!

second review: 3.5 stars
idk why i didn’t like this as much. maybe it’s because the plot was less interesting. i mean nothing would top Scorpia. But this plot was ok, with the whole space plot. i didn’t really like it as much. it was not too thrilling but it’s still Alex Rider, so of course i enjoyed it haha.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, written well but it was disappointing that the "real" action only begins in the last half of the book. Overall it was another great book of Anthony Horowitz but as said, the actual story begins in the middle (more to the end) of the book.
Overall I did enjoy reading it, the book was written well.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 This was actually better than I remember as a kid, but the ending is still ridiculous! I mean, I do know it's for kids, but I definitely found it ridiculous back then too.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked it

[Tahera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5*