H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education
I read this one for two reasons: I fancied reading some action-heavy children's books in order to get better at writing them and because I'd bought Rogue without realising it was the fifth instalment in this series and felt kinda silly.
It's about an enormous school hidden in a bit of a knock-off of Thunderbird Island that trains kniving, mischevious, ingenious children to become James Bond-style supervillains. Man, that's a great concept.
I had something of a journey with this book; when I first started reading it, I was shocked, worried I'd be in for the most disappointing book ever. In the first chapter, these "child characters" were awful! They spoke more like androids than actual kids. At first the school and its villainous teachers seemed kinda boring, but be patient with this book because the more you see of the H.I.V.E, the better it gets.
The book lives up to its premise, introducing countless memorable villains with plenty of laughs, a fairly exciting story and some pretty good action. The young child-villains are all quite likeable characters. Otto is a great anti-hero, in my opinion better than Artemis Fowl. He and his friends all have really cool backstories. Admittedly I wish Walden saved some of it for later on in the series, so that I'd get to know the characters well to evoke more of a reaction when I saw where they came from, but Otto's best friend, Wing Fachu has a lot of mystery surrounding him, so I'm looking forward to the next book.
To top it all off, this book has one of the best climaxes I've ever read in a children's book - the action is just so intense and yet still fun and exciting, keeping to the tongue-in-chic tone of the rest of the book. It's better than Stormbreaker any day.
It's about an enormous school hidden in a bit of a knock-off of Thunderbird Island that trains kniving, mischevious, ingenious children to become James Bond-style supervillains. Man, that's a great concept.
I had something of a journey with this book; when I first started reading it, I was shocked, worried I'd be in for the most disappointing book ever. In the first chapter, these "child characters" were awful! They spoke more like androids than actual kids. At first the school and its villainous teachers seemed kinda boring, but be patient with this book because the more you see of the H.I.V.E, the better it gets.
The book lives up to its premise, introducing countless memorable villains with plenty of laughs, a fairly exciting story and some pretty good action. The young child-villains are all quite likeable characters. Otto is a great anti-hero, in my opinion better than Artemis Fowl. He and his friends all have really cool backstories. Admittedly I wish Walden saved some of it for later on in the series, so that I'd get to know the characters well to evoke more of a reaction when I saw where they came from, but Otto's best friend, Wing Fachu has a lot of mystery surrounding him, so I'm looking forward to the next book.
To top it all off, this book has one of the best climaxes I've ever read in a children's book - the action is just so intense and yet still fun and exciting, keeping to the tongue-in-chic tone of the rest of the book. It's better than Stormbreaker any day.
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