YA
SF | WARP The Reluctant Assassin | Eoin Colfer
So,
last review I said I'd tell you about a coincidence. The last book
had a protagonist named Rylee, and this one has a protagonist named
Riley. How's that for coincidence between two YA thrillers? Oh, so
the title says YA SF? Big deal. Can't an SF book be a thriller?
Usually, they all are. Thrilling, I mean.
Let's
get on with it. Riley is an orphan from Victorian London. Chevie aka
Chevron, is a teen FBI agent (it's an experiment by the FBI, being
abandoned). How do they meet, you wonder. Not so tough. The FBI has a
top secret program called WARP, in which witness protection is done
by hiding the witnesses in the past. Chevie, in some kind of disgrace
for saving some people she was watching over (yeah, yeah, you know
how it goes), is sent to London to mind the WARP machine, but not
told by Agent Orange what it's all about. (Please groan along with me
if you get the Agent Orange reference, since we soon enough find
that's not his real name).
Just
to get some things sorted out for you, Agent Orange's dad invented
WARP, and is sulking in the past, along with the timekey. Which means
nobody else can go to the past, and the people there are stuck.
Now,
someone wants to assassinate the dad, and pays our friend, the evil
villain Albert Garrick, to do so. Albert in turn wants Riley to do
so. Somewhere in the process, Riley tumbles out in our century.
Garrick, an erstwhile stage magician and enthusiastic assassin,
realises that something is afoot and he can gain power, maybe even
rule the world (muwahahahahaha!) Somewhere in the transfer when
Garrick hits our century, he gets super powers as well as a lot of
information about the present. (Not telling you how; that would be a
spoiler).
So,
you have a story with a supervillain, and ordinary teenaged heroes,
each with his or her own weaknesses and strengths.
Eoin
Colfer never promises a smooth ride, or even a happy ending. The
process of beating the villain is complex, nail-biting, and never to
be taken for granted. You may even find that the villain is not fully
beaten, but only a temporary truce has been formed. Other villains
pop up and help or hinder, depending on their own needs and outlooks.
If
you liked the Artemis Fowl books and The Airman, the chances
are good you'll like WARP. There's more historical reference and less
fantasy in WARP than in Artemis Fowl, and more fantasy and
less historical reference than in The Airman. Just so you
know.
Recommended!
