Wildfire

Code Red #2

by Chris Ryan

Ben gets the chance for a trip of a lifetime when his mum is invited to attend a big conference in Australia. In the midst of a drought, it's hot. And it's dry. Drier than it's been for years. And it only takes a spark to set off a fire...

Genres: Action, Adventure, Young Adult, Fiction, Australia, Thriller, Environment

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Colin Armstrong (b. 1961), usually known by the pen-name Chris Ryan, is a British author, television presenter, security consultant and former Special Air Service sergeant.
After the publication of fellow patrol member Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero in 1993, Ryan published his own account of his experiences during the Bravo Two Zero mission in 1995, entitled The One That Got Away. Since retiring from the British Army Ryan has published several fiction and non-fiction books, including Strike Back, which was subsequently adapted into a television series for Sky 1, and co-created the ITV action series Ultimate Force. He has also presented or appeared in numerous television documentaries connected to the military or law enforcement.

Reviews

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another awesome book :D Just as good as the first one. I can't believe I haven't heard of this series before now haha. Yet again, spot on with the different POVs and takes on the same event. One thing that I didn't like as much is the fact that the whole series of Code Red books are all from Ben's perspective. Because the book started off from someone else's, I thought maybe they would all be from different characters, but they're not. It's kind of unlikely that someone would be in that many different highly dangerous situations, but I guess it is just a book :p I like the action and the twists and just all of it :D Such quick reads.

[16evanscowellr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot of the story was very interesting the rest of the book was action packed and mysterious. The book kept me on the edge of my seat everytime something would happen because I wanted to know what happened next

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I had thought this would be a good story, after Flash Flood. Boy was I mistaken. Ryan has clearly never been to Australia, nor has any sense of the way bushfires work. The writing seems to be a Brit using American terms to refer to things happening in Australia. He would have been better sticking to the British ideas; they are much closer to Australian English. And Melbourne is not a ten minute anything from Adelaide. Nor is Coober Pedy. The equivilent for either would be saying someone just popped over from Berlin to London. Gah! No more of this series for me!

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like the first in the series, "gritty kids' story" would sum this up.

Ben is in Adelaide and gets ditched by his mum again. While he and his babysitter are tootling around in a microlight, the city gets smashed by fires. Again, like the first book, there's the baseline horror of the disaster ripping through a heavily populated area, but it has been spiced up even further with a conspiracy theory that proves to be correct.

I just am not feeling the formulaic setup of these books: start with a natural disaster, dump it into a high pop area, chuck in a smattering of death scenes, spice it up with a dash of villainy and for the cherry on top: a female Yoda for the young padawan to learn from.
The books are also too... emotionally detached from themselves. Like there are some pretty horrific scenes, but it's a bit like "s*@! happens, let's move right along to this exciting bit over here".
Just meh really. I prefer the Alpha Force series.

[Gary Parfitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

After the misery that was untouchable, I was prepared to give Chris Ryan a second chance. I was given these books by a family member and wanted to read them, for them. However it took the very first page to cement my impression of this author. It is just agonising, genuinely painful, enduring the sentences on these pages. I began to wonder whether the problem is just that the target audience is much younger than me, to the point where I am now slightly afraid to re-read some of my favourite series from my teenage years, in case they turn out to be this dire.

[XOX · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben is flying in a microlight plane

That's about it.

Ben is flying. His babysitter Kelly was supposed to fly the plane but she got hurt.

Then there is a fire.

They were trying to find Kelly's dad who was supposed to be kidnapped.

Part of the story is about how Ben's mom escape the fire.

It is a bit too much conspiracy theory to be likable. But as most of the Chris Ryan's books, there were a lot of action that is real enough to be good.

3.5 stars.

[Bill Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy read during the summer.

[Anne De Haar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It’s clearly meant for children, but I really enjoyed it.

[Daisy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read because I did not take enough books on holiday with me. Not good. Author has never seen Australia.

[Siobhán Bayertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt nearly the same as the first book except instead of a flood, it was fire that was involved.

It was however, still entertaining and there was a good amount of action throughout.

[Bernie Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had quite a few points of view but one of them where about a kid named Ben who learns to fly a microlight with a girl named Kelly, while the city begins to burn because of a person stealing a car and burning the flyers, this caused a small fire that eventually lit the whole city. Ben and Kelly had to fly around the inferno while trying to call their parents. Eventually they land in what seems like a deserted gas station to find out that there is a underground city there, as they return to the city they find that there is a secret US experiment lab and that Ben's mother is trapped in the fire so Ben lands the microlight to try to save his mom. He does manage to save his mom but he finds out that the lab is studying weather control.

I picked up this book because I needed to read books that weren't Sci-fi and post apocalyptic. I thought that this book would be OK, because there is still destruction and that I haven't read an adventure book in a while.

I finished this book because I found that it was a pretty good book because there were many point of view and I wanted to see if the writer managed to mesh all of them together in the end, and he did.

I think that maybe Kevish would like this book, because it seems to have some of the things Kevish likes in a book.

[George Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildfire is about a boy called Ben and he goes to Adelaide in Australia. When he gets there he goes in a microlight plane to see the sights of Adelaide. Suddenly a big fire starts that engulfs the city of Adelaide and his pilot gets burnt hands from touching hot embers so he has to fly the plane through huge fires. He then has to save his mum who is trapped on top of the tram depot but when he lands the plane wasn't slowing down fast enough and was racing towards a petrol station so they had to jump out of the plane while it was still moving.

This book is a good book so I rated it 4 stars and it has lots of action and adventure. My favourite part was at the end when he had to try to find a spot to land near the tram depot but when he landed the plane couldn't slow down and raced towards a petrol station. Chris Ryan is a good author as he always has lots of action in his books so it makes you want to read more.

[Nyamebekyere · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book Ben's mother invites Ben to Australia, where the mom is talking to the gorvenment about environment issues. Ben meets a girl who lets him fly a microlight (A very, very, VERY little airplane). When a forest fire starts! This book talks about how Ben and the girl find their parents in the middle of a forest fire that destroys Adelaide!!!

[Jim Whitefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second in the 'Code Red' series (for young teens) sees our young hero, Ben, encounter more adventures, this time in an inferno of a wild fire in Australia. Action packed and just right for the younger reader.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit boring compared to Flash Flood, all they seem to do is fly and fly and fly over Australia. But I enjoyed it....

[Daniel C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it so much

[Richard Marman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Chris Ryan's YA stuff. Good straight-forward adventure yarn to while away the hours on a long plane flight. Don't think too hard about the logistics though.

[Mii · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read!

[Jasper Tong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than the first book! :)

[16BarnesRiderA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another really good piece from Chris Ryan. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it had a gripping cliff hanger at every turn of the page. I loved the bits of drama when Ben had to rescuer bell from a blazing rooftop in the city on a flimsy motor propelled mini aircraft. I felt as if I was there in the book from page one. I don’t have any thing bad to say for this, I think it was another astoundingly good book by the author, and would definitely recommend this as an action book to other people.

[St Stephen's C C]

Ben gets the chance for a trip of a lifetime when his mum is invited to attend a big conference in Australia. In the midst of a drought, it's hot. And it's dry. Drier than it's been for years. And it only takes a spark to set off a fire... As world leaders gather and a student demo gathers pace, a small flame takes hold - and suddenly an unquenchable fire bursts into life and an inferno of flames up to l00 metres high tear through the streets, threatening homes and lives. And in the smoke and confusion, an important general is kidnapped! Ben - just learning to fly - finds himself at the controls of a microlite and on the trail of the kidnappers...