The Power Of Five

I first discovered Anthony Horowitz when I started reading his Alex Rider series a few years back and I quite enjoyed his style of writing and story telling. However I have only ever read four of the books in the series because it takes me a long time to finish a book no matter the length. Honestly, some times I am lucky to get through two a year! I blame my PS3 and DVDs. I have been reading the first Game of Thrones book since early Summer! My friend lent me the next three and I did warn him it would be a long time before he saw them again!

Anyway, after reading Alex I found another series Horowitz had written called 'The Power of Five' and as I enjoyed Alex Rider I thought I would give it a go. Also the main character is called Matt so I had to buy it! Sad I know, and it was spelt with two T's but what can you do? I'm one of those rare Mathew's who spells their name with one T you see, some don't even know we exist!

The Power of Five is basically about 5 gatekeepers who are tasked with protecting the world from the Old Ones who are a bunch of ancient monsters and demons who were banished from the Earth many years ago by the old gatekeepers. The 5 turn out to be 14 year old teenagers and each one has a special power. 

Matt (cough *Mat* cough) Freeman is the main character and leader of the 5. He is introduced in the first book and is hunted down by a coven of witches who want to perform a blood sacrifice on him to release the Old Ones back into the world. He has the power of telekinesis and is aided through the series by his good friend Richard Cole who is a journalist and believes in Matt.

Pedro is a Peruvian boy who Matt meets in Lima who saves him from being beaten up and it turns out that Pedro has the power of healing. So basically if he was in an RPG he'd be a white Mage :)

Scott & Jamie Tyler are twins who have the power of telepathy and mind control over their enemies which can come in real handy. They spend most of their time fighting against the evil Nightrise corporation.

The last member of the 5 is Scarlett Adams who has the power to control the weather! That would be awesome to use in the winter! I am actually quite cold while writing this. She ends caught up in events in Hong Kong unaware that the city is under control by the Old Ones.

The series focuses on the battle against the Old Ones and in the last book, Oblivion, all hell breaks loose. The Five being just kids go through an awful lot during these books and I was shocked at some of the things one of the characters has to endure in the final book. I even had to stop reading and just think after one part. 

All in all the series was great and I enjoyed the range of characters and plot twists. This would make an awesome TV series or a series of films so I hope one day it will be picked up. Alex Rider had a movie right? So why not this?

Anthony Horowitz has quite a talent and I hope that one day I will be able to write a series as successful as this.