Alex Underground

[J2Rider]

WTF? Alex UnderGround in Yesterday's News of the World? Where can  I find this story?

I swear being a fan of Alex Rider and Anthony is a full time job and it's not  a fun one! WHy can't he just publish his works so we can read them? Why do we have to hunt them down all the time?

[J2Rider]

Please Mr. Horowitz I plea with you, even beg with you don't pull any more stunts like this ALEX UNDERGROUND thing. For a fan who is obsessed with your work, especially Alex Rider, it is especially time consuming and aggravating to have to hunt for a short story that only appeared in a Sunday Supplement and be faced with the fact that I might never be able to read an Alex Adventure that was published and had other readers...it's just so upsetting to me. Please don't do it again. I assume you have control over how these short stories are going to go out to readers and as a loyal fan of both Alex Rider and the Power books, I ask you please don't do it any more this way. This is the fourth or fifth time you've pulled this: it was done with Xmas at Gunpoint, it was done with Secret Weapon, Resistance in Training, and the Special Chapter from Snakehead. All of these were at varying degrees easy to difficult to get and for some time I thought I'd never see Secret Weapon or Resistance To Training, even translating it from Swedish at one point. If this is how your short stories are going to continue to go out, and torture me and others who want to read them but can't get them, please I beg of you, don't publish them or write them. Unless they are included in some book, don't even bother to write them as it's too upsetting to have to go through this all the time with you! It makes me not want to be a fan of your work!

[alexrider007]

I am in the US, I am mad as hell that some of it was released in a newspaper just to get a few extra news paper sales. That really sucks, Anthony should not have allowed that, I am sure the publishers want coverage and all that, but the readers are mostly under 16 and don't understand that. I think its pathetic.
Just release the book already.

[DilanMelis]

You didn't need two topics for it. I've merged the both of them.

As for the short stories thing, they're done for a reason, mainly PR. By posting short stories in magazines and in newsletters, AH is helping for new readers to become aware of the Alex Rider franchise. It's absolutely necessary from a marketing point of view. Therefore, there will always be short stories published in all different sorts of print media.

As a fan of Alex Rider, it's up to you to either wait to see if the story will be available on the forum or through the website or hunt it down. Generally, short stories don't effect the plot in any way, so by not reading it, you aren't really missing out on much. But if you really want to read it, then you're going to have to find them. Check your local library newspapers etc.

[kamakm1100]

I'm in Canada and I'm bafffaled. 
I've heard that there are short stories but I don't think they make it here 'cos i haven't even seen one ANYWHERE. Plus i don't know to many other Alex Rider fans near where I live so its even more difficult to get the new.

[kamakm1100]

I just found a couple of the short stories (actually only to: Christmas at Gun Point and the Extra Chapter for Snakehead) heres the link if u still haven't read them http://alexrider92.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

[J2Rider]

that is an insufficient answer. And  a slap in the face to Horowitz's fans. By saying the fans have to hunt them down and if you don't find them, you're not missing anything, I can't tell you how useless and upsetting that answer is to me and I imagine to Alex Rider fans everywhere. YOU ARE missing something when you don't get to read the short stories, it's part of athe overall story, whether it effects everything or not. I find it highly insulting and if that is the writer's answer then I'm not a fan of his but of Alex Rider and hope that he does not write any more short stories. It also smacks of consumerism and uncaringness about the fans that love your stuff. I am so sorry I ever became a   fan of this short sighted, highly annoying writer. WHo makes some things available to some people some of the time for promotion and for MONEY. I am very insulted and feel used byu this writer.

[DilanMelis]

Oh, just saw this response.

You not only completely missed the point, but just made a massive assumption. Grow up, learn a little about life, then come back and look at this thread again. Anthony doesn't do it for money. I said PR, so people are aware of Alex Rider. I live in Australia; it means I basically get nothing. But you know what? Anthony makes the effort to come down here for signings- that's what matters. Not some story that doesn't add to the plot at all. Think before you write.

[J2Rider]

I have thought before I wrote. I totally disagree with you. PR equals more money. It's still a slap in the face to fans who like anything Alex Rider. Your sillly assumption that fans don't want to see even short stories is both a slap in the face to fans and silly. If you knew anything about fandom or about people who like something as good as the Alex Rider books, they would want to read anything about Alex Rider and that universe, including, what you say is some small short story that doesn't matter. Of course they matter----they are a part of the story, if not the plot and they matter. It's  a testament to Horowitz that i and others like me want to read everything about Alex and that world...it's a compliment and to rob us of some stuff that others will get because he just feels like writing an Alex short story for some (and mostlly for PR which increases SALES)  and not for others is not fair or right.

Your replies are more and more angry, nasty, petulant, and accusory but granted, I feel all of those things toward Anthony for doing what he does with these short stories (basically keeping things from some and not from others) and now towards you for being so nasty and personal in your answers against my opiniions, which are just opinions.       

[DilanMelis]

I'm sorry. You're right, I should have been kinder.

I work within the PR industry. I should have stated that from the beginning. If Anthony wishes to continue writing, he needs to make money in order to survive. From a distribution standpoint, it's almost impossible to make things like short stories available to everyone; there's not much that can be done, which is why it's up to fans in order to find them.

I understand that you're upset as a fan, but you need to understand that some things are impossible to accomplish, which is what you're asking. Don't ask that everything is automatically put up on the website. Due to copyright issues, sometimes it's not possible. If you have any further questions, don't be afraid to ask them here.

[J2Rider]

Well thank you for that reply. It's appreciated.

[yassen_is_mine_XD]

Wow, I've heard about the stories on some Alex Rider sites, but I didn't know they were unpublished! I think it'll be hard to get a hold of, I'm in Canada, and I have a few friends that like Alex Rider, but I've never found anything Alex Rider related in the newspapers or anywhere.

[J2Rider]

You know, in trying to be civil, Dilan, I might also add that even if I understand about the PR thing...and that you can't publish things on the web site or Anthony cannot on his or Walker Books' Alex Rider Web site, the least thing that he or you or this site can do is let us know that there are short stories someplace. To have to find out from this from other loyal fans and not from the man who wrote them himself or from his web sites, is...leaves me with a feeling of being betrayed and overlooked. I would think that at least Anthony Horowitz could let us know he is writing these things and when and where we can get them on his own web site. Again, I don't want to start a fight but I do want to let you and other fans and indeed, the writer, know this is how I feel about this matter and as long as I continue to find other short stories that are not revealed to us that they even exist, I will continue to write about how I feel about this ongoing matter and I'm sorry if I offend anyone in doing so.   

[sandy]

i had no idea that he wrote short stories about alex rider.

where whould i find them in australia

[J2Rider]

I'lll try to post the ways you can find them. Resistance to Training is in KIDS NIGHT OUT either book one. The British Library has ALEX UNDERGROUND but I can send you a copy of it if you want if that's okay. Secret Weapon and Christmas at GunPoint are both on line. The extra chapter in SNAKEHEAD can be read in the paperback version of the novel  and is or was on line someplace, too. I'm not sure that covers all of them, or just the ones I know about, I suspect there are others but my frustration at collecting them comes not from there being so many but from the lack of helpl from the writer or the web site creators. Fans, on the other hand, have been great about letting me/us know about these.