Sometimes green... Sometimes red... Sometimes blue... Sometimes yellow... Sometimes orange... Sometimes purple... Sometimes pink... No, I'm not a Chameleon

Thursday 12 April 2007

Beautiful Books

My current favourite form of entertainment is reading:

I recently bought all 7 CHERUB novels, and just finished my sixth one.
They are about a secret branch of Military Intelligence where orphans are recruited from foster homes and trained to go on undercover missions. They are an advantage because criminals and terrorists are often conscious about people spying on them, but rarely suspect children because they seem a lot more innocent than adults, and are 'less intelligent'. What they don't know is that CHERUB agents are black belts in karate, speak several languages fluently, and are very intelligent. If you loved the Alex Rider series, or the Young Bond books, these are definitely for you!
I know I loved those series', but, being one of those people that can just sit down and read a book cover to cover in one sitting, I am often disappointed by not having any more books to read. This series is more of the same thrilling spy adventures, and an essential top-up to book-thirsty kids who just like lazing around all day with a glass of lemonade and a comfy sofa.

Also in my favourite books collection is Chris Ryan's Alpha Force and Code Red Adventure series'.
Alpha Force is similar to the CHERUB/Alex Rider/Young Bond books, about 5 teenagers that group together to tackle criminals. Having 5 heroes means that you can increase the action, and have two or three different stories going at once. Although these books are essentially about facing bad guys, this includes survival to increase the tension. Including obstacles that aren't created by the enemy adds variety and makes the story a lot less predictable, which is nice.
The Code Red Adventure books are quite different to the spy books altogether, though still retaining tension. These are about disasters that occur in cities, and are really cool because you just don't know what's going to happen next. They contain very good imagery, and use such description and emotion that I often find myself almost willing the characters on. These books also feature two or three main stories, and each time the text changes to one of the others, there's left an unbearable cliffhanger. To crank up the feeling of disaster even more, they occasionally incorporate small stories about other people in short chapters. It an amount of emotive language such that these mini-plots don't require an awful lot of the book to be told, but enough that you grow quite attached to the characters. These 'spin-offs' often make you think the people involved are just going to make it out alive, but the way they are killed (often in a not very nice way) in a couple of short sentences manages to maximise the feeling of urgency while using emotion as well. Really good reads.

So yeah, I'm liking my books

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