Alex Rider
The first novel, Stormbreaker, was released in the United Kingdom in the year 2000 and was adapted into a film in 2006, starring Alex Pettyfer as the titular protagonist.Alex discovers that the Stormbreaker computers contain a lethal variation of smallpox and that Sayle plans to ruthlessly kill thousands of schoolchildren around the country with it.After foiling a Triad plot to fix the 2001 Wimbledon tennis tournament and befriending Sabina, Alex is in grave danger of assassination.He encounters former Soviet general Alexei Sarov, who tries to adopt Alex and expresses ideas of a nuclear holocaust and world domination under communist rule.Popstar Damian Cray hopes to destroy the drug-making countries of the world by hijacking the United States nuclear arsenal.Alex uncovers a plot involving the US government and the international community but is caught spying and forced into a real-life version of 'Feathered Serpent' which he manages to escape by cheating.Following the advice of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex seeks the criminal organization Scorpia to find the truth about his father.They also explain his parents' death, ordered by Julia Rothman after she was noted of his father's treachery along with the true details of the event that happened on Albert Bridge.After recovering from a Scorpia assassination attempt, he is sent to investigate businessman Nikolei Drevin, who built a hotel in outer space called "Ark Angel."After Alex's cover is blown, Drevin learns that the CIA is gathering evidence against him and plans to retaliate by attacking the Pentagon.The Snakehead organization and its leader, Major Winston Yu, a Scorpia board member, reportedly stole a powerful bomb called Royal Blue, which MI6 wants to intercept.Indeed, McCain provokes industrial disasters to divert the humanitarian aid his association collects, and is responsible for a nuclear accident in India.The book ends when Alex escapes and moves to San Francisco with Sabina's family, changing him forever and disallowing him to return to his spy life.Gregorovich receives orders from Scorpia to kill Alex Rider, which sparks memories of his teenage years in a small, isolated Russian village where his parents work at a pesticide laboratory.After being given a glimmer of hope about her survival, through an unknown email, Alex is thrust into the horrors of his past in a battle to recover his friend from the dead.Four of these short stories were already previously released by author Anthony Horowitz, but "Alex in Afghanistan", "Tea with Smithers" and "Spy Trap" were all written exclusively for this collection.There, he learns that Nightshade is using twenty-three brainwashed children (originally 25 but 2 were killed in a "training accident") to work as mercenaries for a group of four Americans calling themselves the "Teachers".Alex's cover is blown by Nightshade's client, and he is used as a distraction while Frederick, Sofia, and 'Number Eleven' try to kill many at St Paul's Cathedral.Still hoping to rescue Mrs Jones' son William from Nightshade, Alex and Ben Daniels travel to Nice.There they meet with Wilbur White, a rich art dealer whose son had an accident while playing 'Eden Fall' (Real Time's popular AR game).Meeting the Pleasure family again, Edward tells Alex about Jon Lucas, a young philanthropist who used to work for Rudolph Klein, the CEO of Real Time.Lucas helps Alex gain entry to the Arena where he and other players test the newest update of Eden Fall after meeting Klein and confronting him about the accidents.When he figures out what is really going on, he is captured by Brother Mike and taken to El Dorado, a mockup Western town owned by Nightshade's new client: Jon Lucas.The public outcry of these accidents will bankrupt Real Time, giving Lucas the opportunity to buy it over and merge it with his own company.Alex holds Lucas at gunpoint and orders him to stop the bugs from killing people while the Numbers fight the remaining Nightshade employees.When the airstrike commences Alex, Ben and the numbers escape through an old mine while Lucas stays behind, choosing to die in the bombing instead of going to jail.The White Carnation was later included in the short story collection Alex Rider: Undercover, which was published exclusively for World Book Day 2020.Sony Pictures Television's international and worldwide distribution divisions under Wayne Garvie and Keith Le Goy were attached to the film series.