Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin (Alex Rider Adventure)

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Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin (Alex Rider Adventure)

Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin (Alex Rider Adventure)

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Description

Why should we adults be given rubbish written by Dan Brown, Jeffrey Archer etc. when children are given pearls like this? I don't like spoilers, so won't get too specific, but I assume the reader is familiar with Yassen from Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, and Snakehead. In this book, Yassen and John Rider's relationship and their time with Scorpia simply isn't in sync with the other books, especially with Snakehead and the story Alex's godfather Ash tells about Malta. This is yet another triumph for the man who must, surely, be our finest living author of children's books. Fourteen year old Yasha Gregororvich is set on a life changing journey when his childhood home is destroyed by a powerful criminal. As Yasha grows into a man, he is bullied, mistreated, and must fight to survive, all the while being pulled into a world of evil and death he has no desire for, but won't let him go. In the end, it will be the pull of a trigger, and not his own choice, which decides his fate...

And what if that 14 year-old boy was Alex Rider, one of the best-loved heroes of children's literature? The final book in the #1 bestselling Alex Rider series with over 6 million copies sold in the U.S. alone! I enjoy Yassen's character greatly because of the human qualities we can see in him despite the brutality of his profession and the events he's suffered through in his life. He's a strong character because of the things he's dealt with, and he's a fascinating person to read about and consider. Much of this story is told in the format of a diary, and that made the reader-character relationship much more personable and gave a real sense of life and intimacy to the character and his story. The last thing I would like to say is a thank you to Anthony Horowitz for creating this character. Yassen Gregorovich is not perfect by any means, but he is intricate and complicated and compelling. The story of Yassen begins in Russia and his life is fairly regular to start off. He has a mother and father, lives in a small town, and he has friends he spends his days with. He's a rather unremarkable young boy, but suddenly one day things change for him, and everything that he thought was his life is severely tested. He's thrown into a whirlwind of events that are out of his control, and it's not hard to see why he ended up as he did. I think this recap is just what the series needed, and it's an excellent companion story for the Rider books.

And I loved every second of it! Seeing how Yassen grew up, his friends, how he came accross Scorpia.... I would like to apologise for the ridiculously long time it took me to read this. It is in no way a reflection of how much I enjoyed it because damn, this book was good. But when he finally escapes being a slave, it's only because an assassin made a mistake. And then Yassen finds himself caught up in that world and still, it seems to be the only thing he can do to survive, right? Obviously, once you're in too deep, you can't just 'leave' an organisation like Scorpia... And he meets John Rider. And John, or Hunter, is like "you're not cut out for this life. You should use your new skills to hide from Scorpia and start a new life". Yassen very nearly does this. YASSEN ALMOST IS NOT AN ASSASSIN.

I believe that Yassen was only doing a lot of his things to try and save people that he really cared about even though the way he did them wasn't really the right way i can see why and how he did things. This is technically book 10 in the Alex Rider series, although it follows the story of Yassen Gregorovich - an assassin who works for Scorpia. All that sadness. All that anger. It is the smoke that gets into your eyes. If you do not blow it away, how can you hope to see?

Customer reviews

I've been waitin for this book since like....2008! or something like that, ever since Anthony mentioned it. I'm not going to lie, I didn't realise this was a prequel until I actually started reading it. Usually I intensively study a blurb before I read the actual book, but in this case I didn't bother since either way I was going to read it - it's Alex Rider so, obviously. So yeah, I was pretty surprised when it was suddenly in first person from the perspective of Yassen Gregorovich at age 14 - before Alex was even born. What's impressive about Anthony Horowitz's new book, `Russian Roulette', is that, for me, the answer to all those questions is yes. Horowitz has created a powerful and original story in which the bad guy is not only the `hero', but also someone you wish you could save. The tenth book in the Alex Rider series isn’t about Alex Rider at all. Instead, we follow a character introduced in the very first Alex Rider novel, Stormbreaker, a contract assassin by the name of Yassen Gregorovich. It’s an interesting choice for a protagonist as most readers will already know Yassen’s profession and fate before ever diving into this book. However, as expected, Anthony Horowitz pulls it off with great effect and actually turns what could have simply been a “spin-off” one-shot book into an important entry in the overall series. This book was really different because even though this book is set in the same world it follows a different character a main character who is a villain. This novella is focused on Yassen Gregorovich and it follows his life from when he was younger right up until the time he became the assassin that we know from the main series.

Don't even gets me started on the actual 'Russian Roulette' game because I don't think I can talk about it. It was so awful. I also really wish (and this is a spoiler for EAGLE STRIKE so if you haven't read that, then um... lol why did you read this one?) The style is slightly different from the rest of the series as most of it is written in first person instead of third person, but it's still a really enjoyable read! Yes, Yassen does, as I just said, figure out his mentor, Hunter, John Rider, the father of Alex Rider, was sent to infiltrate Scoria. The betrayal scars Yassen, and actually becomes the final domino in his journey as a killer.

The Story of an Assassin

Some may question the morality of a children's book that makes young readers empathise so strongly with a contract killer, but I found Horowitz's exploration of what might cause a child to grow up to become a deadly assassin to be sensitively handled and one of the reasons why, for me, this is the best book he's written. I really wish that Yassen could have changed his ways or something before he died. I wish there could have been more closure for his character. I feel like he deserved so much more. He never even wanted to become an assassin in the first place and then he just died 😭 Believability: No complaints, except one: Yassen's narration is supposed to be his journal, and his journal is written in Russian; yet he defines Russian words several times. Why would he do that in his own private journal when Russian is his native language?

I highly recommend this to everyone who's read the other 9 books of the series, and even for those who haven't, it's the perfect place to start! the series comes fully circle. This is the beginning of Alex's journey as well, since it involves his father somewhat This is book number 10 in the Alex Rider series but in actuality it recounts events which happen before the series even begins. This is the story of one of the bad guys from Alex's adventures, his name is Yassen Gregorovitch. Everyone knows the story of Alex and how he was badgered into becoming a spy, but no one knows how Yassen ended up in his line of work - a hired killer - and their stories are not too far apart from one another. I’ve always been a pretty big fan of Anthony Horowitz. This started with his Alex Rider series, of course, and so naturally, I couldn’t help myself when I found out that he’d written a short story about one of his side characters. I didn’t really have a lot of expectations for this, of course, since it has firstly been a great deal of time since I read the series but also because the character this story is about was never one that I was particularly attached to. Still, I was curious enough to feel that it was worth reading. When Ian Rider died at the hands of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex, ready or not, was thrust into the world of international espionage--the world's only teenage spy. Alex vowed revenge against Yassen and the two have battled ever since. Yet, years ago, it was none other than Alex's own father who trained and mentored Yassen, turning him into the killer he would eventually become. I love the Alex Rider books, I think that they are a great series which is very exhilarating and enjoyable to read through and I love the characters and plots of each book. This book feels like a follow on rather than a prequel because it does recount things which happen within the Rider books, but it also feels like an older and more mature storyline than that of Alex.But that begs a new question, even as I correct my false claim. When Yassen dies in "Eagle Strike," why does he encourage Alex to work for Scorpia? Why does he did he seem to have such respect for Alex's father? "He was a killer like me..." What? Now Yassen is proud of himself? Adults don't become spies because they're manipulated into it. So John must have had a heart for helping people, yes? Then it makes sense that he meets Yassen, hears about his history, and tries to give him a way out. The main character in this novel is Yassen Gregorovich. He is characterized physically as a very active, adventurous and fit type of person, however he can be very caring about others. For example he did not want himself to take an antidote (the only one) to a biochemical weapon and instead wanted his parents to take it. His dialogue portrays him as very independent person.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
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