Crocodile Tears Discussion & Reviews.

[Tai]

yeah same with my brother he just wont read anything i suggest

[MarieLovesMaik]

Hello!

Can anyone tell me when this book come out in germany?

If I am not right here with my question, I am sorry!

[explosive eagle]

the car underwater scene is cool ,but I don't think it's realistic. First, a guy could bear about 2 minutes without water in the maxium, after that they won't die, but they will continue breathing. Alex, open the car door, get out of the car, get back to the car, drag Edward out, drag Edward out of water, how much time did he use? 4 minutes, at least. And at that time it's so cold, they would already freeze to death before they reached the shore.
the next is that when you are underwater for a long time, when you get up, you have to do it slowly, otherwise because of the water's pressure you might burst your guts. But Alex and Sabina didn't even have some nose bleed.
must be some mistakes.
don't get negative ideas, though, I am a Horowitz fanatic, and this book is the best yet. 

[Tai]

A. he did hum on the way up wich would solve the gut busting problem.
B. Special forces soldiers can survive more than double than normal humans can in cold water (national geo test to prove it) and since alex did go through some of the same training and the fact that he is nearly invincibly lucky  he could survive therfore realistic

[AlexRider:Afterwards]

Yeah its totally possible.  People can hold their breath way longer than that.  David Blaine held his for 17 minutes and 4 seconds; I think Alex could hold his for at least 5, as most people can.  and as for freezing and stuff, the loch might not have been super deep or anything and they nearly froze to death anyways.  Its only if you were under for a really long time that you would freeze before making it out and although the scene was drug out to dramatize the event, it still only occurred in minutes because the agent(I can't remember his name now) rushed over as soon as possible and he was just arriving as they surfaced.  I think AH probably did his research before he wrote it to make sure it was possible, as always.

[MadCatta]

Most people can last five minutes without a breath?! Dude, I play a wind instrument so my lung capacity is bigger than normal and I can only just last a minute! I think trained people can last five minutes, so maybe Alex can too.

[Tai]

yeah alex is almost Un-killable so he would have done that and survived

[AlexRider:Afterwards]

Most people can last five minutes without a breath?! Dude, I play a wind instrument so my lung capacity is bigger than normal and I can only just last a minute! I think trained people can last five minutes, so maybe Alex can too.

I bet you can last longer.  and most people can last about 5 before passing out,, is what I meant.  Its completely different than holding your breath until you give up and decide to quit. Its mostly mental really.  Sometimes I'll just sit at the bottom of our pool for a few minutes and then go up and take a breath and go back down.  its kinda relaxing for some reason

[Tai]

yeah special forces soldiers have said its mostly mental like a specific mindset

[MadCatta]

...You have a pool?! I'm jealous!

Yeah... I have bad mental control... xD the only thing I can do is change my moods. I can do that really well!

So maybe Alex could do it all... Yeah, he's awesome. Of course he can. xD

[AlexRider:Afterwards]

haha yeah.  in reality no one could do all of the things he does because no one would be that lucky.  but each thing that he does is possible for someone to do.  Does that make sense?

and yeah we got a pool a couple of years ago but its not much use right now, it's frozen 

[masterwolfie]

***SPOILERS BELOW***

There may have been a discussion about this, but sometime in the past 10 pages, but I don't have time to read all of them, so I apologize if I'm being redundant, but I really liked Rahim! It's a pity he wasn't around long enough for his character to develop in any way though : \ Not like Tamara Knight in Ark Angel. He was just sort of like a guardian angel - he saved Alex, he was gone, he saved Alex again and was gone, and he saves Alex again and he dies xD

I'm not sure if David Blaine is really human xD Anyways, Alex had that whole deal in Scorpia where he had to swim out from the Window's Palace through the tunnel. That was probably pretty traumatizing, so he's probably been practising holding his breath ever since xD

****END SPOILERS****

Hello!

Can anyone tell me when this book come out in germany?

If I am not right here with my question, I am sorry!

Check on German Amazon - I went and it said this: "Lieferung bis Montag, 11. Januar: Bestellen Sie in den n?chsten 10 Stunden und 38 Minuten  per Overnight-Express" I'm not even sure if that's the right passage, but it looks like it says January 11th (so it's already out?)

[MadCatta]

Yeah, only you might want to ignore the next bit... "Buy in the next 10 hours and 38 minutes for express next-day delivery" xD

[Wandrin Dreamer]

Two months later and I FINALLY managed to get my hands on the story.  But then that is what I expected being stuck in South Korea for months (and with at least 7 months more to go.)

I won't rehash everything that has been said, because I think we all agree that the actions scenes were pretty awesome.  What I do want to comment on is how Alex's character has evolved over the books. 

At the end of every story, we are shown how Alex's adventures chip away at his 'innocents'.  He would always feel that he was losing something - that the adventure had taken something away from him or poisoned him in some way.  I thought it quite appropriate that in Crocodile Tears we seem to get the result of an experienced and hardened Alex.  He was a lot colder and a lot more ruthless.  He wasn't only responsible for two deaths - the guard in the Poison Dome and McCain, but all the Kukuyus too.  They were still a part of his calculation with the destruction of the damn.  And although we get Mrs Jones mentioning at the end of the book that MI6 had had a psychologist talk to Alex, this is the first book where we don't see Alex being introspective about what had happened.  And in this book, Alex had more to be introspective about.


Take the death of the guard in the Poison Dome, for example.  He could have overpowered him in another way.  (It is all up to AH afterall, and anything could have been made possible.)  But Alex (AH) chose to kill him.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I think that the guy has had enough of people trying to kill him to want to get in there first for a change.  But I thought it was an interesting choice from AH's point of view.  It seems as though the 'darker', harder Alex Rider is very intentional.  I also see this only leading to one thing.  And that is that Alex, no matter how much he claims he doesn't want to be a spy, is going to be destined for that line of work one way or another.  Honestly, how can he ever return to being a 'normal' kid (or human being, for that matter) after what he has been through and what he has done? It is almost as though Alex has crossed a line, the point of no return, in Crocodile Tears. 

Another character development that I appreciated was that of Blunt's.  It has taken us many, many books to see something human past his grey exterior.  To see his concern for Alex was a welcome relief.  Once again, though, it is making me wonder where this is leading for the future.  That is if Blunt has a future with MI6, because that part was never tied up (one thing I found completely annoying!)

And that leads me to the one thing that I did find annoying, and that was very little of the loose ends were tied up.  Was the PM ever told about what really happened?  Or is he still thinking that Alex is an attention-seeking child?  What will happen to Blunt?  What was the result of the psychologist's chat with Alex?  Is Alex going to be removed from duty because of the PM's request, or don't MI6 answer to the government?  I suppose the next book will tell.  But I really don't want to wait a year for another one...

Over all, I will give Crocodile Tears a very good rating, the dark, new Alex bumping it up my list of favourite Alex Rider books.

[Tai]

nah alex would never be removed from duty seriously the PM might have him banned but i mean Blunt could practically launch a nuke in the PM's front lawn and get away with it (its his job to do things of the book)
When did alex chat with a psychologist?