• Main Page
• List of Titles
• Author Information
• Characters
• Fast Facts
• First Book Published:
  May 2001
• Word Scramble
• Word Scramble #2
• Trivia

Fast Facts

1. Alex Rider never knew his mother or father. They both died in a plane crash just a few weeks after he was born.
   
   
2. In order to prepare for his encounter with Herod Sayle in STORMBREAKER, Alex undergoes intense, military-style training. He must overcome a great deal in order to prove he is ready for his first mission --- including a demanding sergeant, an assault course and a fellow trainee who constantly taunts and humiliates him.
   
   
3. The Academy at Point Blanc is more like a prison than a school, with metal doors, alarms, and guards with machine guns. And the rules are strict (to say the least): bedtime is exactly 10:00, there is to be no contact with the outside world without permission, and the students are only allowed in certain parts of the building.
   
   
4. The only boy who Alex is able to get along with and relate to at the Academy is James Sprintz, who was expelled from his old school for wounding a teacher with an air pistol. Alex and James become close friends.
   
   
5. For Alex, one of the best parts about being a ball boy at Wimbledon is spending time with Sabina Pleasure, a ball girl with dark hair, bright blue eyes, and freckles. Her parents treat Alex as if they have known him his entire life.
   
   
6. General Alexei Sarov is such a heartless man that he did not even attend the funeral of his own son, who was killed in Afghanistan during the war. As second-in-command of the Red Army, the General refused to abandon his men --- even though it would have only been for a day.
   
   
7. In the first chapter of EAGLE STRIKE, Alex is having the time of his life in the South of France with Sabina and her family. Unfortunately, Paradise lasts only a page, and Alex once again must take a break from being an "ordinary" teenager.
   
   
8. The Gameslayer is a state-of-the-art game system developed by Cray Software Technology at a cost of $150 million. What is so unique about the system is that it "offers graphic quality and detail like no other system on the planet" and a "pain synthesis" has been built into it.
   
   
9. The name "Scorpia" is drawn from the criminal organization's four main fields of activity: Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence, and Assassination.
   
   
10. In SCORPIA, Alan Blunt informs Alex that Mrs. Jones was married at one time and that her two children had been taken from her. He offers no further details.
    
    
11. Readers of SCORPIA learn from Dr. Rachel Stephenson that nanoshells are tiny bullets that are one-thousand times smaller than the tip of a human hair. Nanoshells play a major role in Scorpia's plot to destroy the relationship between Great Britain and the United States.
    
    
12. Focusing solely on their physical appearances, Alex gives names to the four men who attempt to kidnap Paul Drevin: Combat Jacket, Spectacles, Steel Watch, and Silver Tooth.
    
    
13. Nikolai Drevin promises Alex a luxurious lifestyle for two weeks and is certainly true to his word. Alex's bedroom consists of a plasma-screen TV, a console with DVD, video and Playstation, a phone with about a dozen buttons for the different services it provides, and a bathroom with a power shower and Jacuzzi.
    
    
14. In ARK ANGEL one of the gadgets Alex is given that will help him in his undercover work is a small white box with a set of headphones, which allows him to hear the conversations of people who are up to 50 yards away from him.
    
    

Back to top.