Adapt or Die: The Youth Spy Who Sparked a Passion for Discipline | Stormbreaker BOOK REVIEW

A 14-year-old is thrust into the shadow world of espionage, where every move is a fight to survive—and grow up fast.

My book review on an oldie but a goodie, Stormbreaker by Anthony Horrowitz

(00:00) – You're Never Too Young to Die
(00:47) – First Encounter at 14
(02:15) – Spy Fantasy Meets Realism
(03:38) – Plot Recap & Absurd Action
(05:41) – Philosophy: Adapt to Survive
(07:18) – Final Reflections

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
You're never too young to die.
Welcome back, the immortal lines. I've got a very special book review for you today.
It's a book that perhaps you might recognize that if you're a little bit older and used to read books,
youth fiction books back in the day.
Perhaps,
if you're a bit of a younger individual listening to this, you go, what is this book?

(00:23):
Stormbreaker
by Anthony Horowitz.
Stormbreaker
was and it'll actually pop up when when this book was actually, released. It was 02/2005,
and
throughout this book, and I don't believe that in this particular book, it does mention it, but it's in the next one in the series.
Regardless, the individual, at least when I read this book, I was 14, 15 years old, and the protagonist in this book,

(00:50):
Alex Rider, is 14 years old. I believe they revealed that, I think something like he was born in 1987
in one of the books, so he was very similar in terms of age and fifth or slightly,
older than, I guess, I would have been when I was reading this particular book. And, look,
it's a youth fiction book.

(01:10):
Is there things that now as an adult reading in? The reason I'm doing a book review is it's got a couple of of very sentimental pieces about it, but it's also a book that I've recently reread as well, inclusive of all of the series. So,
this book, you know, read it well back in the day when I was 14 years old, and it and it hooked me. Right? It was one of those where it was my first sort of set of series,

(01:32):
series,
of fiction books that I really enjoyed. I went through the entire series. In fact, I've read it multiple times, this particular series. And one of the reasons why I've started to reread it again is I actually noticed that Anthony Horowitz
had more books added to the series. I don't know when the latest one, came out, but I went, you know, the the inner young one wants to kinda go and reread them again and pick them up. And, obviously, back then, I wasn't doing the the podcast, you know, the mere mortals. And I thought, you know what? I'll just do a bit of book review on on this one and and take me back a little bit as well. So

(02:05):
the the whole principle of Alex Ryder,
is a teenage spy. In fact, I think it's the right at the back of the book, again,
normal sort of blurbs, every board schoolboy's fantasy, only a thousand times funnier, slicker, and more exciting
genius.
And it is. It's it's really it's a really, really fast paced book. So

(02:25):
it it's all around teenage spy doing
loads of crazy stuff to try survive and save the world. As you might imagine, something like this book would have it. Stormbreaker
was turned into a movie as well, which I remember watching and going, man, this is
horrible. What is going on?
Into the book, the actual story itself is, you know, his uncle, Ian Ryder, passes away. He goes and figures out that, you know, someone actually shot at him, then he goes into the space of training with the SAS and MI six in terms of becoming a a spy, and he finds out that he's been trained all all his life by his uncle, and all ultimately, his parents have become a future spy. And in this particular

(03:05):
book in the series, the very first one, it's all about him trying to stop a a man, my name is, Harold Sale,
from releasing toxins and killing all these kids, through computers. Now a few things, you know, it's 2025 as I'm reading this, and this was released in 02/2005.
A lot of the little intricacies within the book, you know, talking about the latest and greatest technology,

(03:26):
you know,
shows you the the dating of some of these things, which are, you know, I find really interesting where you're talking about the Stormbreaker, which is the name of these computers and what it means for them to be the the latest and greatest of technology.
And as you'd imagine or at least me reading it now, I go,
wow. This is, you know, ancient ancient technology. But, of course, at the time, you know, when I was reading this book, oh, it felt like, you know, this is, like, the the latest. This is pretty amazing.

(03:54):
I got this vibe as well
reading it even now in comparison to way back in the day and that it's sharp. Right? Anthony's way of writing. And and I remember looking this up a long time ago. He he tries to
he did research into all the various things that he puts into the book. So even though it was a, you know, youth fiction book, he actually gathered a lot of real life things of, you know, what it is that happens at the SAS and the tracking and everything else. And then he puts it really punchy

(04:22):
writing,
fast sort of storytelling
that there's always action in these particular chapters. Now I
haven't
read a truckload of fiction books, especially maybe youth fiction books or maybe this is in general to find that they're,
so action packed. So forgive me if if this is just the the general norm. But at least for me, untrained in in these layers, I go, wow. There's always so action packed. Every chapter, something happens. Some you know?

(04:49):
Every couple of sentences, something else is happening. He's surviving, you know, testifying
circumstances.
And I think I just want a couple of things on top of my mind. Getting chased by quad bikes shooting at him on the grass, surviving, going on the ground on some water that's super cold and you can barely see,
almost getting killed by a gigantic,
jellyfish, like a men of war type jellyfish. So, you know, just ridiculous. I'm flying at jumping off a plane and

(05:16):
parachuting through
the glass roof to save and stop the, computers from being turned on.
It's just nuts. Right?
And I'm gonna take myself back because even even reading it as, as now as a thirty two year old,
I I enjoyed it. I really loved it. Right? Had all that action packed. It's taking me back to, you know, being a 14 year old kid when I read this. And,

(05:38):
yep, obviously, the action, the excitement, loved it. It's probably one of the things that, grew a lot of the passion of of me in reading.
But,
probably the if I was to take away a key effective philosophy from the book is the adaptability
factor. So adaptability in the physical sense, but also in the mental sense to survive, to get things done. And I'm I'm not I couldn't pinpoint if, you know, what exactly

(06:02):
led me down the path of more training and a more disciplined life and doing all these various things. But I've gotta say this must have some some level of influence because I remember as I was, growing up and I was younger, I did have the
fascination of special forces and, you know, it's part of this book,
kind of associated with the fact of, like, a teenage boy going through it. There was a physical prowess that was knowing different languages. I it's not in this particular book, but in another one. I remember you know, Alex Ryder being in France drinking a granadilla, and there's a particular drink that they drink then. I remember vividly reading that guy, man, this would be so cool.

(06:41):
And so, you know, the Anthony at at the very least in this particular book, as much as when I was young to today's world,
just
makes the
individual,
Alex Ryder, not come to life. Right? It's not there's not a very deep, you know, layers of or tendrils of of who the individual is and sadness if it gets better over time. But men doesn't pack a punch.

(07:04):
Men do not wanna, like, put this down, and you wanna just keep on reading it. This, along with all of the other books, this one's, you know, 200 plus odd pages, but the writing is really quite large and, you know, easy, plenty of margins on the book. I crush these. I can read these in a couple of days easily. Right? I'll some of them people would sit there and just go through more than half the book. I took one of these or at least this particular one on a holiday, like a short holiday, and I read it all almost on the flight down to the particular location. So

(07:32):
that's that's been my, book review, Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz, and a little bit of a, I guess,
a background story around, sir, why this sort of books is well fascinating, maybe gives you a bit of an idea of them here at the mere mortals book reviews, why we do some of the books that we do as well. I do know that Kyren also read this book, same as the Art of His Fowl series by Ewan
Ewan Colfer, I believe. So, you know, we've got similar backgrounds. So this is some of the the reading that has come.

(07:59):
But the the big the big the philosophy that I'd take away is the adaptability,
to survive. You know? This might be, fiction, youth fiction, but men, I I think the young one took away a lot of things into his life, and then today's world one really enjoyed rereading this. So, Anthony, thank you very much for putting together Stormbreaker and the character of Alex Rider. Man, have I enjoyed it. For now, me and mortal alliance, I hope you're well wherever you are in the world. One out.