H.I.V.E.: Mark Walden’s Higher Institute of Villainous Education and Otto Malpense’s Great Escape
Otto Malpense, an unusual boy from a London orphanage, stands out from a very early age. He knows he is not like the others, and uses his intelligence to make life comfortable in the orphanage where he lives. When he sees that the comfort he has built up over years is threatened by measures the government wants to introduce, he does not hesitate to defend his position, and manages to fool the most powerful man in the country: the Prime Minister.
Author: Mark Walden
Title: H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education (2006)
Format: English paperback (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), 320 pages
Series: Book 1 of the H.I.V.E. series
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/141693572X (ASIN 141693572X)
A School for Villains
At just thirteen, he is the perfect candidate for H.I.V.E. Students chosen for their talents are kidnapped and taken to a remote island, inside a volcano, where the school has been hidden for years. All the children are elite: the most athletic, the most technically advanced and the most intelligent in the country.
Inside the cavernous marble rooms, the illuminated hangars and the steel doors, students are enrolled in Villainy Studies and Stealth and Evasion. But Otto soon realises that this is a six-year programme and that leaving is not an option.
New Friends
With the help of his new friends, a martial-arts expert, a beautiful world-famous jewel thief and a brave computer genius, can Otto achieve what has never been done before and escape from H.I.V.E.?
Inside the Volcano
H.I.V.E. is a school for the children of the criminal world and for youngsters whose talents make them ideal future villains. Its headmaster, the calm and menacing Dr Nero, answers to a shadowy global organisation of villains, and pupils are divided into streams according to their gifts: future criminal masterminds, technical experts, political and financial operators, and henchmen. Classes include villainy studies, stealth and technical education, and the school is watched over by H.I.V.E.mind, an artificial intelligence that has its own surprising role in the story.
Otto’s Friends
Otto, a silver-haired genius with a talent for seeing how any system can be beaten, quickly forms a team: Wing Fanchu, a quiet martial-arts master; Shelby Trinity, an American heiress who secretly leads a double life as a world-famous jewel thief; and Laura Brand, a Scottish computer expert. Their schemes to escape the island, involving stolen uniforms, sabotaged security and some very unpleasant mutant plants, give the book its brisk, comic energy.
The Author
Mark Walden worked in the video-game industry before writing H.I.V.E., and the book’s fast pace, gadgets and set pieces show that background. The first volume was followed by a long series that follows Otto and his friends as they discover the truth about the school and its masters, beginning with The Overlord Protocol (2007).
Why It Works
The joke at the centre of the book, a boarding school for villains rather than heroes, is irresistible to young readers who enjoy rooting for the bad guys. But Walden is careful: Otto and his friends are clever and rebellious rather than cruel, and the story is about loyalty and friendship as much as villainy. Parents can relax; the tone is closer to a Bond spoof than to anything dark.
Who Will Enjoy It
Readers of about ten to fourteen who like Alex Rider, Artemis Fowl or spy films; reluctant readers too, since the chapters are short and the action never stops.
Tip
Good for reading aloud too.
Who Is It For?
It is a fun, fast-paced book for readers of about ten to fourteen, a kind of Hogwarts for future James Bond villains, and the first of a long series.
As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
Part of the reading recommendations featured on books.sapiensverbum.com.
