Storm: The Infinity Code

Storm: The Infinity Code by E.L. Young, Dial, 2008

Storm: The Infinity Code follows in the footsteps of Alex Rider, Young Bond and Jimmy Coates as an action-caper storyline.

We meet Will Knight, age 14, testing his latest invention, a wall "ascender," at his school in the early hours of the morning. His pre-dawn activities were observed by a classmate named Gaia. She introduces Will to another teenager, who is a sort of adolscent Bill Gates, named Andrew. Andrew earned a fortune in the software business as a computer programming savant when he was ten years old and he has an idealistic dream that somehow fourteen year olds, with money and brilliance, can do things to improve the world situation that adults cannot.

Will is dealing with the death of his father and his mother has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He agrees to join Andrew's team, STORM (Science and Technology to Over-Rule Misery,) when a solar flare threatens Earth. Now these young brainiacs cannot stop solar flares but they do safeguard the the landing of a passenger plane when communications are disrupted.

When a teen astrophysicist, Caspian Baraban, becomes involved in the design of a super weapon the trio are off to St. Petersburg, Russia on a quest to save the world.

Author, E.L. Young is a science writer and the Australian editor for New Scientist magazine. The book is full of science theories and jargon. The gadgets are cool and I loved that they were invented by the teen heroes themselves, not handed to them by an adult "Q" character. Young also includes some background on actual research behind the book's inventions and scientific ideas.

The storyline is over the top espionage fantasy like any James Bond, Bourne Identity or Ocean's (insert Roman numeral here.) Seriously, don't we all have access to a electromagnetic pulse generator that can put out the lights in Las Vegas?

I have an enormous fondness for espionage fantasy capers though, so I'm in.