Libby Carey

My new favourite book (although probably not for long). A true masterpiece. It's engaging, exciting and thrilling. The Victorian era language wraps you around its little finger and captures your soul. You will never forget this book.

The ending is incredibly cliché and he struggles to create the tension he's achieved in his other novels like _Raven's Gate_ . Furthermore, he adds new ideas about the characters at the end that should've been introduced nearer the beginning. For example, the fact that, unlike James Bond, Alex didn't choose to be a secret agent. This should have been one of his first thoughts when he was confronted by Alan Blunt in Royal and General. Also Anthony Horowitz needs to learn that a Physalia Physalis (otherwise known as the Portuguese Man o' War or just Man of War) is not actually a jellyfish but a sophonophore, a colonial organism made up of specialized animals of the same species - zooids or polyps. Further more, the pace is too fast, and it skins over important parts of the main storyline, for instance when Alex's training summed up in one chapter, but somehow that gives him enough experience. Most fourteen year old boys wouldn't karate chop and defeat a trained body guard so easily. I'm afraid to say that the characters have no depth and are increasingly cliché. For example, Nadia Vole and Herod Sayle are both foreigners, which is a common stereotype from the James Bond movies. Furthermore, we have no idea where Vole, Grin and Sayle are from or who they are except downright evil. They have no moral or physical weeknesses apart from the basic human limits. The plot would have had a nice twist if one of them helped or aided Alex, or if they betrayed Sayle in some way.

This is a - what do you call it? A modern classic? Definitely.

When you've read as many books as I have you rarely find a book that truly entrances you, that captures you, that makes you desperately buy the whole series before you've finished the first book. I would say that Julie Kagawa has hit the nail on the head with her Shadow of the Fox series. I love that it's based off Japanese folklore and culture, with extra flares of Kagawa's own imagination. The characters are loveable, and each one is as good as the next. Each individual character's story and arc is exciting and intriguing. Thank you for this book.