Review: Spy Quest: Polybius - The Urban Legend by Andy Briggs

In the dark amusement arcades of the 1980s, a new game is discreetly appearing - Polybius. It's addictive fun... but the machine mysteriously disappears as swiftly as it arrived. So too does the one kid who claimed the highest ever score... never to be heard from again... Over thirty years later, computer games have moved on - but the players are as keen as ever. SAM RAYNER is one such boy. His dreams of being a professional gamer, a virtual athlete on a million dollar contract -- dreams that are scoffed at by his twin sister, REBECCA. She secretly enjoys playing games, but would never openly admit that to her "geeky" brother -- that is until Sam wins an online competition, giving the entire family a free holiday at a luxury hotel. But it's not just a chance for his family to take a pampered break, it's a special games tournament and a chance for Sam to chase his dream. Or that's what he thinks - until he discovers a game has been mysteriously downloaded to his mobile phone. A game called Polybius - a name from the darkest reaches of urban legends.

Three was the magic number for Bob Dorough, Blind Melon and De La Soul, and it's also the magic number for these new style Book Zone reviews, as part of my seemingly endless quest for brevity when reviewing. So, here are three reasons to read Polybius - The Urban Legend by Andy Briggs:

1. The concept

I am always keen to promote anything new that may encourage a child to pick up a book and read it. Whilst working very well as a standalone book, Polybius - The Urban Legend is linked to a spy training game created by Polybius Games that started life being offered though hotels around the world (including Center Parcs and Walt Disney World, Florida). The game was next provided to schools across Scotland, and is endorsed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority as a learning platform and a White Paper has since been written on the benefits of the game by one of the worlds leading experts in game based technology. The book itself, is a spin-off from this game, but readers can also download an app to their smartphones which allows them to experience and augmented reality feature. You can find out more about the game at www.spy-quest.com.

2. The action

Anyone who has read one of Andy Briggs's previous books will know how good he is at writing fast-paced action stories. The plot of Polybius - The Urban Legend is fast and furious, and and from the moment main character Sam Rayner is drawn into the mystery it doesn't let up until the very last chapter.

3. The theme

The story's link to gaming is not just though the Spy Quest game. Sam Rayner is a gamer and dreams of making money out of his passion by turning professional. Sam wins an online competition which just may make this dream become reality, although there is a lot more to this prize than he initially realises. In a similar vein to stories like The Last Starfighter and Ernest Cline's Armada, the game is being used to find young people with certain skills and gifts so that they can be trained, in this case, as spies. Linking stories to gaming could be a great way of dragging gamer kids away from their consoles and in to the pages of a book. Older gamers may already be aware of the real life Polybius story - an urban legend that, again like Ernest Cline, Andy Briggs uses to establish his plot.

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Polybius - The Urban Legend was originally only available online, but I believe that it has now been released throughout book stores in the Uk as well. My thanks go to the author for sending me a copy of the book.

Book Zone Box Set #1 - The Alex Rider Series

I love DVD box sets! I have piles and piles of them here at Book Zone HQ, and sometimes, when I'm in the mood I will watch a whole season of a TV show back-to-back over a week, often whilst I'm getting on with school work of an evening. Over the past year I've been rewatching, amongst others, the complete X-Files, Stargate SG-1 and CSI: Miami. As I was reaching for Season 7 of the X-Files this morning I realised that the box set concept would make a nice new occasional feature for this blog: Book Zone Box sets.

As a child and a young teen I was much the same with books. If I found a series I liked I would read as many of them as I could get my hands on: Enid Blyton's various mystery series; The Three Investigators; the Hardy Boys; Agatha Christie's Poirot; the Conan books published by Sphere back in the 70s/80s; the Destroyer books by Sapir and Murphy... the list goes on and on. And I haven't changed - it's great to discover an author I've never read before who has a significant back catalogue of great books.

Many kids, and boys in particular, share this love for series books, so when people ask me to recommend books for their children I will often include a handful of first-in-series books, as if their child likes one of them it could be the catalyst to them becoming a keen reader. It worked on my godson (and his brother) when  gave him the first Percy Jackson book, and it has worked many times since. In this new feature I will put the spotlight on a series of books that I have read an enjoyed, and would highly recommend to any parent asking about suitable books for their child. For clarification, in my mind a series constitutes four or more books, i.e. trilogies do not count.

And what better place to start than with one of the very best series of books for 10+ aged reader from the last twenty years?

I love the Alex Rider books, almost as much as I love the Harry Potter books, both for their brilliant stories and the impact they have had on getting children, and boys in particular, reading for enjoyment. So well known are they, that it is very easy to fall into the trap of assuming that all book-loving children have at the very least read Stormbreaker, or that parents trying to encourage their children to pick up a book have tried the first in this series, but that is not the case. As such, Stormbreaker is top of every list I give to parents who approach me for book recommendations.

And now is the perfect time to start reading this marvellous series. 2015 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the first publication of Stormbreaker and earlier this year Walker Books published brand new editions, with top-smart new cover designs, produced by the Walker design team and creative studio Two Dots (see their stunning artwork at the end of this post). And there's more... the Walker editorial team have also gone through every one of the books in the series and updated them slightly. The changes do not affect the story in any way, other than to make the pop-culture references more relevant for today's young readers. This, in Stormbreaker, the modified gadget that Smithers provides Alex becomes a Nintendo DS when previously it was a Gameboy. In Scorpia, Alex is now wearing a Superdry t-shirt, and in Ark Angel the TV on the table in Alex's hospital room becomes an "Ultra Slim HD TV mounted on the wall". Small changes that some may feel are unnecessary, but I am sure young readers will appreciate them, without even knowing they have been made.

I realised earlier this year that even though I had read Stormbreaker a number of times, I had only read the other books in the series once each. Thanks to the generosity of the fabulous Paul Black at Walker I came into possession of a set of the newly rejacketed Alex Rider books, and decided that now was the time for a re-read. And just like a watching a TV series box set, these books are even better when read back-to-back. I remember when I first read each book that I found it very difficuly to put down, and on a second reading nothing has changed and it being the school summer holidays meant I had the luxury of being able to read for several hours at a time without interruption.

With so much time between the publication of each book, it is very easy to lose touch with the fact that the nine Alex Rider adventures take part over a period of  just twelve months. Yes, incredibly there is only one year between Alex being drafted into an MI6 investigation against his will, to his final battle against Scorpia, via a crazy number of near-death experiences. Reading them in this way we see how his character develops from a fun-loving, average 14-year old schoolboy, albeit one who is grieving the loss of his only close relative, to a battle weary 15-year old who has seen and done things that no young person ever should. What also becomes clearly evident is how different each of the books is - Anthony Horowitz managed to create a nine book series where each new outing for the teen secret agent seems fresh and without repetition.

Although only one of these (Scorpia) ends on a cliffhanger, and technically each book could be read as a standalone, or out of series order, as each story contains a new, discrete mission for Alex, to be fully enjoyed these books should be read in order. It isn't just Alex's character that is developed over the series, but also that of Jack Starbright, Alan Blunt, Mrs Jones and, of course, Smithers (and he may only make a cameo appearance in each book, but it is almost worth getting to know him by reading the whole set just for that one special moment in Scorpia Rising, a twist that I am willing to bet that no one could possibly have seen coming).

Seriously, for getting 10+ kids into reading, and boys in particular, they don't come much better than Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series. And the icing on the cake? When you've finished the nine books you can read the mighty fine Russian Roulette, the Yassen Gregorovich origin story.

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

Cover Illustration by Two Dots © 2015 Walker Books Ltd

My Life That Books Built: The KnowHow Book of Spycraft by Falcon Travis and Judy Hindley

One of the first Usborne books to be published, in 1975, and Peter Usborne's all-time favourite. As used in evidence at the high court trial of Soviet spy Oleg Gordievsky, who testified that this book gave away the KGB's tradecraft. The author, Falcon Travis, remains a mystery to this day.

When I was a child I wanted to be a spy. Or a detective, but mainly a spy. Whether this was fuelled by my love of the James Bond films (especially at the time those of Roger Moore which seemed to be on TV every Bank Holiday Monday in the days when we only had three TV channels) or not I do not remember. But what I do remember is the collection of spy craft books that I gradually manage to build up by saving up my pocket money. I can remember all the titles (and some of their authors), though sadly many of them are out of print these days. Titles such as The Secret Agent's Handbook by Peter Eldin, Spy School by Gyles Brandreth and Whizz Kids How To be A Spy were read over and over again, as me and my friends tried (and failed) to learn morse code and left coded messages for each other at dead letter boxes. 

Sadly, my copies of these books were lost many years ago, most likely as a result of me being the eldest of five as many of my things got passed down (except for my precious Three Investigators books, that it). These days I could not describe the contents of any of these books (should anyone be desperate enough to inquire), but there were two other books in my collection that have lived long in my memory, and even today I could wax lyrical about them. Coincidentally, both are published by Usborne, and even better, both of them are still in print (and I have copies of their modern editions - hurrah!). One of them, The Spy's Guidebook, I have mentioned on The Book Zone before, but the other has never had a mention until now, and that is The KnowHow Book of Spycraft.

The KnowHow Book of Spycraft was one of the very first books published by Usborne, shortly after Peter Usborne set up the publishing house back in 2013. This year is the 40th anniversary of this momentous occasion and in order to help celebrate their birthday Usborne have published a shiny new edition. After 40 years The KnowHow Book of Spycraft is still Peter Usborne's favourite Usborne book, which is quite an achievement considering the number of amazing books that they have published over the past decades. I was incredibly grateful to receive a copy of the 40th anniversary edition from the lovely people at Usborne, and the moment it arrived and I turned to the first page I was hit by a wave of nostalgia. Although the matter-of-fact and easy to follow (and highly instructive) text does play a part in this, I think it was mainly due to Colin King's brilliant and distinctive illustrations. Colin also illustrated The Spy's Guidebook (and its companion The Detective's Handbook) and the reason I remembered these books more than the other I mentioned earlier is down to the style of the illustrations and their vivid colours.

However, this book is not just a nostalgia piece for forty-year-old men. It is just as relevant and enjoyable for today's kids as it was for me back at the tail end of the 1970s. The illustrations and text are timeless, and it is perfect for boys (and girls) who struggle with reading fiction, but love fact books and anything else that feeds their imagination without them having to follow a story plot. I was already a massive reader by the time I picked up this book as a child, but some of my friends were not, and this (and its like) were possibly the first books they actively chose to read outside of the classroom. I would imagine that most of them would be just as happy as I was to get their hands on this new edition, and it never ceases to amaze me how books like this can resonate with people through decades.

The new edition of The KnowHow Book of Spycraft is due to be published on 1st June, although a certain online retailer already has copies in stock. For a cover price of a mere £5.99 you could do a lot worse this weekend than buy a copy for your reluctant reader son or daughter, although don't be too surprised when they start acting furtive, go through your clothes in search of disguises and add an extra potato to your weekly shopping list so that they can make invisible ink.

Review: I Spy: The Constantinople Caper by Graham Marks

Trey is thrilled to be accompanying his father, influential Chicago businessman T Drummond MacIntyre II, on a trip to Constantinople. Armed with a suitcase packed full of his favorite tales of super-sleuths and daring detectives, Trey can't wait for his holiday to begin. So imagine his excitement when, as father and son board the Orient Express, Trey thinks they are being followed by a mysterious stranger. Surely Trey's been reading one too many spy capers? However, as they make the journey across Europe, Trey's father appears distant and evasive. Is he simply busy with work, or is something more untoward happening? When T Drummond MacIntyre II goes missing, Trey is plunged into the secretive and dangerous world of 1920s espionage, trawling the chaotic streets of Constantinople in search of his father's whereabouts. But while Trey has always dreamed about being a spy, nothing can prepare him for the breathtaking escapades that await him in this exotic and enticing city.

The publishers have touted this as a cross between "James Bond and Indiana Jones", but to be honest there is less of the James Bond and more of the Bulldog Drummond in this story In fact, Trey's middle name of Drummond may even be a small tribute to the character created by Sapper back in the 1920s. As for the Indiana Jones comment? Think more "Young Indiana Jones" than the adult incarnation.

I found this to be a hugely enjoyable read, with a fast-paced story and a number of engaging characters who appear once Trey reaches Constantinople. Some reviewers have criticised the journey to Istanbul on the Orient Express, and Trey and his father's stop-off in Venice, as being a little superfluous to the overall story. However, Trey is just an ordinary boy with a love of pulp detective magazines, and I feel the journey makes the reader wonder whether Trey is actually being followed or is this just a product of an over-active imagination?

Once the action hots up in Constantinople Marks steers clear of the unbelieveable - everything that happens to Trey could happen to a normal boy caught up in events he doesn't really understand. All of the action scenes are perfectly plausible and made more real by the author's use of real-life characters (such as pilot Mario de Bernardi) and his descriptions of exotic 1920s Constantinople.

I have just one small criticism of this book. The first part of the book is written solely from Trey's point of view. However, half way through, following a key event in the story, this suddenly changes and there are then various viewpoints for the rest of the book. I cannot imagine an author of adult books 'getting away' with this so it shouldn't really happen in books for younger readers either.

Overall, this book may not have the complexity of many adult spy novels, but it is certainly an entertaining read for boys, and would be a great book for boys to read with their dads.