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A review by topdragon
Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz
5.0
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, [b:Stormbreaker|136782|Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, #1)|Anthony Horowitz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545541515l/136782._SY75_.jpg|833565], 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.
Yassen’s life has many parallels to Alex’s life. We get to see glimpses of his childhood in a small town in Russia, and how an innocent existence gets ugly fast when the whole town is wiped out by its own government forces in order to contain a biological weapon outbreak. Yassen is the sole survivor. We follow him through a series of tragic events and circumstances through his teenager years that lead him along an inevitable path to his future. He makes logical choices at each stage, merely trying to survive, but in subtle ways, these events change him and lead him ultimately to his working for SCORPIA at the age of 19, as an assassin. His interactions with Alex’s father in the later stages of the book are especially poignant and will lead to scenes we have seen before in [b:Stormbreaker|136782|Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, #1)|Anthony Horowitz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545541515l/136782._SY75_.jpg|833565]. The ending is quite satisfying, especially to see him exact revenge upon the one man who is primarily responsible for Yassen’s fate in life.
Happily, the Alex Rider books are not yet complete. I still have two more to read and I recently read an author interview saying he is planning on at least one more after that. I’ll be ready.
Yassen’s life has many parallels to Alex’s life. We get to see glimpses of his childhood in a small town in Russia, and how an innocent existence gets ugly fast when the whole town is wiped out by its own government forces in order to contain a biological weapon outbreak. Yassen is the sole survivor. We follow him through a series of tragic events and circumstances through his teenager years that lead him along an inevitable path to his future. He makes logical choices at each stage, merely trying to survive, but in subtle ways, these events change him and lead him ultimately to his working for SCORPIA at the age of 19, as an assassin. His interactions with Alex’s father in the later stages of the book are especially poignant and will lead to scenes we have seen before in [b:Stormbreaker|136782|Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, #1)|Anthony Horowitz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545541515l/136782._SY75_.jpg|833565]. The ending is quite satisfying, especially to see him exact revenge upon the one man who is primarily responsible for Yassen’s fate in life.
Happily, the Alex Rider books are not yet complete. I still have two more to read and I recently read an author interview saying he is planning on at least one more after that. I’ll be ready.