.
Author: Chris Bradford
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Format: Paperback
ISBN 978-78112-849-7
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Part of the Conkers series of novels launched in 2015, where quality fiction and illustrations are essential qualities for a Barrington Stoke dream team. Here Chris Bradford teams up with artist Neil Evans in this superpowers, secrets and suspense thriller. Troy has to cope with life in a near future where he can stop bullets from killing him.
In Terminus City's mall, Troy survives an attack from the Army of Freedom. As is his first time being caught up in an attack he thinks he's handled it bad but as he's recovering from the incident a strange woman calling herself Medusa tells him he's bulletproof.
S.P.E.A.R. is a secret organisation that protects the rich and famous in Terminus City and people like Troy are needed more and more as time goes on. This is where Troy finds that he will be part of a group who already have special powers, though they are different from his own. One of Troy's gripes is that he thinks he will never get a girl, but he finds he can impress some of the girls in S..P.E.A.R., so he needn't think he's such an unlucky, lanky teen.
As he has no choice but to join them, Troy needs to learn the ways of how the team works, all of who have their own personalities and guts, and at first aren't so sure of why Troy wants to join them. Troy knows it won't be easy being a part of their group, but the rest of them make his initiation that more difficult due to his nervous manner and uncertainty that he will last the course. He has to be more than bullet proof, he has to be able to protect the VIPs he is assigned to. So for Troy, his time is spent honing his skills as a fighter as fighting off attackers is essential.
S.P.E.A.R. reminded me of the X-Men series of movies where Wolverine has to be accepted into the Xavier Academy; Troy has to prove himself good enough to be in their ranks, and being the lanky youth he is gives him a disadvantage, though his need to avenge his parents death should be a good enough reason. This, for Troy is a real test of courage and more so when he is assigned to Project Pandora where Pandora is the AF's new target, a Mayor Carlos and his daughter. The story is intense and the introduction of this project is where we first see how good Troy is in a tense situation. The pacing is well timed for its readership age and Troy plays a good underdog overcoming a series of hard times in his life, on the other hand, the rest of the team hope Medusa chose well when she brought Troy into their fold.
To be honest, I am used to reviewing the thinner titles for Barrington Stoke so it felt great to have a thicker book to read and get more of a detailed story from the multi-award winning and best-selling author of Young Samurai and Bodyguard series. S.P.E.A.R. is every nine-year-old's dream, to be part of a great secret organisation where you have and can use special super powers - I mean, who doesn't want that?
Publisher: Barrington Stoke
Format: Paperback
ISBN 978-78112-849-7
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Part of the Conkers series of novels launched in 2015, where quality fiction and illustrations are essential qualities for a Barrington Stoke dream team. Here Chris Bradford teams up with artist Neil Evans in this superpowers, secrets and suspense thriller. Troy has to cope with life in a near future where he can stop bullets from killing him.
In Terminus City's mall, Troy survives an attack from the Army of Freedom. As is his first time being caught up in an attack he thinks he's handled it bad but as he's recovering from the incident a strange woman calling herself Medusa tells him he's bulletproof.
S.P.E.A.R. is a secret organisation that protects the rich and famous in Terminus City and people like Troy are needed more and more as time goes on. This is where Troy finds that he will be part of a group who already have special powers, though they are different from his own. One of Troy's gripes is that he thinks he will never get a girl, but he finds he can impress some of the girls in S..P.E.A.R., so he needn't think he's such an unlucky, lanky teen.
As he has no choice but to join them, Troy needs to learn the ways of how the team works, all of who have their own personalities and guts, and at first aren't so sure of why Troy wants to join them. Troy knows it won't be easy being a part of their group, but the rest of them make his initiation that more difficult due to his nervous manner and uncertainty that he will last the course. He has to be more than bullet proof, he has to be able to protect the VIPs he is assigned to. So for Troy, his time is spent honing his skills as a fighter as fighting off attackers is essential.
S.P.E.A.R. reminded me of the X-Men series of movies where Wolverine has to be accepted into the Xavier Academy; Troy has to prove himself good enough to be in their ranks, and being the lanky youth he is gives him a disadvantage, though his need to avenge his parents death should be a good enough reason. This, for Troy is a real test of courage and more so when he is assigned to Project Pandora where Pandora is the AF's new target, a Mayor Carlos and his daughter. The story is intense and the introduction of this project is where we first see how good Troy is in a tense situation. The pacing is well timed for its readership age and Troy plays a good underdog overcoming a series of hard times in his life, on the other hand, the rest of the team hope Medusa chose well when she brought Troy into their fold.
To be honest, I am used to reviewing the thinner titles for Barrington Stoke so it felt great to have a thicker book to read and get more of a detailed story from the multi-award winning and best-selling author of Young Samurai and Bodyguard series. S.P.E.A.R. is every nine-year-old's dream, to be part of a great secret organisation where you have and can use special super powers - I mean, who doesn't want that?
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