Book Review : SpyHigh Episode 5

1) Title : Spyhigh Episode 5 - The Soul Stealer
Author: A. J. Butcher

2) Summary
Ben was feeling tremendous pressure as the final examinations draw near. To make matter worse, Ben's mentor and idol , Uncle Alex made a pass at Lori resulting in the young couple's falling out. Things escalated and Ben lost his leadership of the Bond Team. He was also in serious jeopardy of a mindwipe if he fail to graduate the elite spy college. Meanwhile, strange things were happening at the Temple of Transformation, a sinister cult. However, when Cally's Uncle Mac was viciously attacked and the Bond Team was assigned to investigate, they put aside their differences and united in their efforts to finally get to the bottom of the mystery.

3) Even though the setting was 2050 and the characters were special teenagers in a spy school, the author was able to make them seemed real by focusing on their relationship and internal struggles. The author slowly built up suspence by giving information about the characters bit by bit over the story.

a) Main Characters :
Ben Stanton
Lori Angel
Cally
Eddie Nelligan
Bex Deveraux
Jake Daly
Alexander Cain

b) Characteristics :
Ben - proud, perfectionist, competitive
Lori - beautiful, capable, sensitive
Cally - courageous, streetsmart and determined
Jake - loyal, reliable
Eddie - seemed a joker but can be counted on when it matter
Bex - rebellious, humourous
Alex - rich, powerful, mysterious

c)How the personalities play out in the story to make the story more alive and interesting?
Ben - supposedly super rich, smart and good looking but he had his own struggles making him easier to relate to.
eg But now, as the computer fed code after code into his brain, he felt that clarity slipping, muddied by other considerations.
Lori - Is not confident even though she is beautiful and smart, making her more believable.
Cally's incredile bravery and determination was seen in her superhuman effort when she rescued uncle Mac from the burning building.
Eddie seemed to be happy-go-lucky but is actually clear about what he wants and is able to adapt to situation.
Jake, silent, dark and handsome and gentlemanly. He is the 'Knight to the rescue' for Lori.
Bex is the daughter of the founder of the Spy school yet she shows her rebellious streak in the way she coloured her hair and her piercings. She is also very witty.
eg 'Hands up...' Bex wondered idly, raising her hands as if it didn't matter. 'Don't worry, Ben. I've got underarm protection.'
Uncle Alex- Walked off the cliff, frightening the then six year old Ben. It turned out that he was wearing Air walkers. He in influential in Ben's life. Teaching Ben to have courage, strength and belief. In a surprising turn, he showed his ugly self when he made a pass at Lori at Ben's 16th birthday. This gives us a hint of his sinister side.
3d)What did you learn from the author about building interesting characters?
The author made use of surprising twist and in consistency in the characters to add dimension to the characters and made them more interesting. I learnt to describe characters along the story, not all at the beginning so that suspence can be bulid up.
4)Share some interesting learning of writing style if any.
The author used powerful descriptive phases, making it easy for the reader to imagine what the author has in mind.
eg : Age. On the faces on the screens, the decades could almost be counted in the deep cuts in the flesh, the parchment skin like ancient maps marking routes to forgotten citties, wrinkled like the heads had been stitched by blind seamstress. Wisps of hair like grass in the desert. Weak, sunken eyes. Teeth, vampire white, that were not he same age as the rest of the body. Age. And plenty of that.

He contrasted the exciting spy stuff with possible problems to make the story more real.
eg : The increased leisure time promised by the dawn of computer, machines to perform mundane tasks, robots to run the world while human frollicked in a endless kind of summer did not come to pass. Rather than liberating them from their labour, computers had opened way for people to do more in the same time. They threatened job security...

5) Recommendation
The story is interesting, an escape to the future. The plot is simple, good verses evil. I was very surprised to find that I enjoyed the book as in the beginning, the title of the book 'The Soul Stealer' put me off because it conjured images of violence and occult. The descriptions are very good.
Stars
4 Stars for entertainment
5 Stars for learning