The "Alex Rider" Series

Notes:

There's a temptation to overanalyse when it comes to series like this. So I shall try to resist. But there are a few things which seem worth saying. Firstly, by and large, the series is recommendable in a mostly-harmless fills-the-time way: there is action and excitement, gadgets, set pieces, heroism, love-interest and megalomaniac plots galore. Although Sabina is quite happy to wear a bikini “made out of so little material that it hadn't bothered with a pattern”, there's no sensuality, merely the occasional kiss or hug.

Family: Alex has no family to speak of. His mother and father were killed, he's told, in a plane crash. His uncle brings him up but then dies as the series begins. And they were not what they seemed to be, either. Jack, who becomes his legal guardian, is as close as anyone gets to him, but is not really family. Mr Blunt and Mrs Jones are happy enough to use him for their purposes, citing the greater good of the country or the world. At the beginning of Skeleton Key, Alex is enjoying the sensation of being part of Sabina's family. That's soon to end although the irony is that in the same book, he has to pretend to be part of a family — the “mother” and “father” are CIA agents — and then the Russian General wants to adopt Alex to replace his dead soldier son. Once or twice a teacher tries to help him out, but in the end, the demands of the work he does for MI6 alienate him from nearly everyone except Jack. There is no-one else he can turn to for advice who really loves him and has his best interests at heart. Sabina knows the truth, but is ill-placed to advise him.

Amorality: Without reading too much into the plots, which are as flimsy as you expect from this genre, one thing which stands out is the amorality of the key players. Obviously, the rich megalomaniac who wants to blow up the world is a bad guy who needs to be stopped. There's a fairly clear-cut case of self-defence. But many other of Alex's actions, and the actions of various other secret service members are definitely questionable, and you won't find any real answers here. For example, it seems that Alex's father was a contract killer. Although there's more to the situation than meets the eye, he did indeed kill several people. Mrs Jones says in Scorpia: “I'm not saying these people deserved to die. But certainly the world was able to get along very well without them and I'm afraid your father had no choice.” The “no choice” refers to his allegiance to the organisation he worked for. This is not a simple situation, but it is presented as though it is.

Responsibility: On another level, Alex himself causes all sorts of mayhem but it's all fine because he's saving the world. One episode in particular occurs at the start of Point Blanc when Alex, acting on his own initiative (read: impetuously), follows a known drug-dealer to his houseboat hideout. Taking the law into his own hands, Alex commandeers a tower-crane, lifts the boat out of the water and drops it, accidentally, onto a new conference centre where a drug-awareness conference is in progress. Ironic, certainly, but the consequences? MI6 sweep under the carpet several million pounds worth of damage, plus charges of criminal damage, trespassing and theft, because they want Alex to infiltrate an exclusive school for the sons of rich men.