Storm: The Infinity Code -- E. L. Young

Will is an inventor, a loner, and oddly, a born leader.  Gaia is an explosives expert with a photographic memory and a talent for languages.  Andrew is a computer genius and the bankroll.  They are all off-the-charts brilliant, and they are all fourteen years old.  Together, they will become STORM:  Science and Technology to Over-Rule Misery.

If you read the copy on the back of the book:  "Watch out, Alex Rider!  There's a STORM on the horizon!", it's pretty easy to deduce what market they're going for with this one. 

Alex Rider fans will be looking for gadgets, globe-trotting, thrills, chills and of course, Kids Saving the World from a Madman.  Unfortunately, though there were certainly gadgets and globe-trotting, there wasn't much in the way of thrills and chills.  There were occasional moments of suspense throughout the book, but not much until the last fifty pages (out of a little over three hundred), and the characters never felt real.  They felt like... pieces in a board game. 

Granted, this was their first outing as a team, but they never seemed to come together -- as a team, or as friends.  Suddenly, at the end, I was expected to believe that they had fused into a unit, but there just wasn't much to back that up.

I did like the fact that all of the gadgets were based on real-life inventions and research, and I loved that the author included information about that in her Author's Note as well as information about other science that figured into the story.  Also, the Gadget File appendix was fun -- especially Spencer Wilson's illustrations.

I assume that it's the first book in a planned series.  If it isn't, it feels like one*.  Pilots are difficult -- all of the characters need to be introduced, their situation needs to be explained and conflicts have to be set up for the future.  I realize that.  But in this case, it didn't make for a great read. 

*Which made me think of Brian said yesterday about his frustration/irritation with books clearly being written with a movie deal in mind, except in this case, obviously, we're talking about a book series. 

Comments

[memory]

It is possible to develop a photographic memory with a lot of hard work and perseverance. You can check out http://www.photographic-memory.org, they have all the information that you will need about photographic memory. It definitely helped me, and I can see an improvement in my memory already.

[Brian F.]

I'm reading this now. DEFINITELY a "movie book." Henceforth, any YA that starts with a Prologue, I'm going to mentally substitute the words "Pre-credit scene."

[Leila]

Heh. Always glad to be agreed with.

[Trisha]

Alex Rider fans will be looking for gadgets, globe-trotting, thrills, chills and of course, Kids Saving the World from a Madman. Unfortunately, though there were certainly gadgets and globe-trotting, there wasn't much in the way of thrills and chills.

So true. I *tried* reading this yesterday but gave up after about a hundred pages. I was expecting action, especially with the Alex Rider comparison. As interesting as the gadgets were (and I did flip to the back for the Author's Note and Gadget File. I agree, very cool), I kind of felt like they were the most important element of book, not the characters or plot, and if I wanted to read about cool gadgets, I would have picked up a magazine or non-fiction book instead. I think the book is more similar to Evil Genius (um, except for Evil Genius being a much better book, I mean), but with the geniuses on the side of good, obviously.

[Josh]

I liked this book, it was smart, quick and what it lacked in action it more than made up for in smarts.