YASSEN - The Final "Alex Rider" Novel

[DoubleONothing000]

I looked around and couldn't find a topic SPECIFICALLY about theorizing on the Yassen novel, so I started this.

So what does everyone think this book will bring to the table? I know it's more a biography than anything but I think we'll also get a fair amount of new information about Yassen of course, but also some of the other main characters who were around in Yassen's time. Some things I hope will be included in this book are:

*Mrs Jone's children - If this is revelant at all to the series, I could see a plot involving them and Scorpia come up. I mean did you ever wonder what got a nice person like Jones into this kind of business anyway? Maybe we'll find out.

*More about Alex's Dad and/or Ian Rider - We don't know very much about these characters, specifically their personality.

*John Crawley - He was supposedly one of the agents who fought against Scorpia before getting injured. Could become a great plot device in Yassen. I am really expecting this one, because it IS set in the past, probably far enough back that Crawley was still a field agent.

[Rocket]

I think that we'll find out even more secrets, something like Ian was linked to Scorpia...

It'd be nice to find out more about Helen too, because you never know, she might have been vital to something. It's kinda unexpected though. Did Scorpia know John was married when he went to Malagosto?

[DoubleONothing000]

Well we know the book ends where Stormbreaker begins. So let's get something clear for anyone reading this. YASSEN DOES NOT come back to life. If the book ended at Eagle Strike I might think so but no. What confuses me is, one time AH said "Yassen will end where Stormbreaker began." But also he said "Alex will appear but only briefly." So how does Alex appear? As a child? Will we see more of his childhood or something? I don't care what they do with the character of Ian as long as they exapnd on it more. He seems so pointless. His only point was to set up the series start so far. I don't know if they knew he was MARRIED but they knew about Helen and John being together. Because Rothman said so in Scorpia I believe. Speaking of Rothman, remember in Scorpia just before her death she told Alex that before he died, she wanted him to hear something about his parents? Well most people believe that it was " We were responsible for their deaths" and they're probably right, but I like to theorize it means something else...

[Rocket]

Yeah I didn't think that it was that Scorpia killed his parents. Well, Rothman had set Alex up to die, and so it could have been anything, good or bad. If it were bad, Alex probably couldn't have done anything about it... If it were something MI6 had done, then it wouldn't have made much difference. What were your theories?

[DoubleONothing000]

Well the worse thing that she could have told Alex before she killed him would be "Your parents are still alive. But you're about to die so you'll never meet them." But I'm guessing I'm wrong since the main series is already over. But it could also be that we find out they are alive in Yassen, and this "Secret Book" AH has planned for years down the line could be Alex as an adult finally metting his real parents. It would be cool but they're probably dead for real. Just hopeful thinking.

[Rider rules]

yeah, that would be SO cool! I saw AH yesterday(!!!) and he said that he's writing the power of 5 and then Yassen

[DoubleONothing000]

You saw him and didn't ask him any questions about Scorpia Rising?! Or was he just giving a talk or something?
But yeah, I'm not expecting Yassen until 2012 probably at the earliest.

[Rider rules]

Pooh! Why bother writing about it NOW, then?! This is ridiculous! 

[DoubleONothing000]

I would have thought it could be out this year, but now that you said Po5 is coming first, there's probably no chance it'll be this year. Since it's the last Po5, he'll prob take his time with it.

[ClareM:)]

I think this is  going to be a really interesting book as Yassen is so similar to Alex but he took his life in a completely different direction. It will be interesting to find out what events turned him into an assassin.

[Rider rules]

There was a disaster or something when he was 13, wasn't there?

[DoubleONothing000]

Yes, a disaster that killed his parents. Later today, I'll get it my Mission FIles book, because that had a preview about Yassen in it, with more information than given in the books. I'll put it up on here.


Not a great deal is known about the origins and early years of international
assassin Yassen Gregorovich, although it is a story that must one day be told.

He was born in 1966 in Eastern Russia, in the small town of Estrov. At the age
of thirteen he was a bright student and a superb athlete, popular at school
and destined for great things. That something went badly wrong is obvious--
and is undoubtedly connected to an accident at the Estrov Pesticide Factory,
where his father worked. This "factory" was in fact a top secret military
installation involved in the manufacture of chemical and biological weapons,
all records however, were subsequently destroyed by the Soviet Authorities.
His father, along with hundreds more, was killed in the blast; his mother was
severely injured, dying not long after.

It would appear that, following the death of his parents, fourteen-year old
Yassen Gregorovich found himself with no family. Travelling west to Moscow, he
worked as a courier and occasional food taster of the notorious criminal boss
Vadim Dragunov (The Dragon). It was in Moscow that Yassen came into contact
with Scorpia; his appearance at their training facility on the island of
Malagosto supports this assumption.


Here, the young Gregorovich became proficient in guerilla warfare, espionage,
demolitions, and close combat. He displayed a relentless determination to
improve his own skills; by the age os twenty two he spoke four languages
fluently, and was a master at several martial arts. He was also one of the
first non-Israeli experts in Krav Maga (O:), the military hand to hand
combat system. He was also an Olympic class shot with rifles and pistols.

It is a strange irony that the later part of Gregorovich's instruction fell
to an MI6 double agent, John Rider, who under the code name Hunter, had
infiltrated the training center as part of a wider brief to gather information
on Scorpia. It is even possible that the two of them became friends, this would
certainly help to explain Gregorovich's reluctance to kill Rider's son Alex on
two occasions.

Working under the code name Cossack, Gregorovich completed his first assignment
for Scorpia in the company of John Rider; the killing of a Peruvian cocaine
baron in the Amazon jungle. this led to a string of similar assignments
throughout the late 1980's and 90's. During this period the assassin is known
to have crossed paths with MI6 a second time, in Malta, in an operation that
went disastrously wrong. Several MI6 agents were killed and the senior field
agent known as Ash was severely wounded. Yassen escaped.

As time went on, Yassen began to take on more complex and demanding work, his
most high profile assignments being the Stormbreaker and Eagle Strike affairs.
For the former, Scorpia hired him to obtain and deliver a genetically modified
smallpox virus for Herod Sayle, a mission which involved the hijacking of a
Chinese nuclear submarine. When the plot was defeated, the assassin was ordered
to eliminate Sayle himself.

Gregorovich's final mission took place the same year. He had begun to think
about retirement, although only thirty five he had deposited over ten million
dollars in Swiss bank accounts, and had bought a yacht (the Fer De Lance).
Damian Cray offered him a huge final payday to oversee his plan, and he accepted.
Following his attempted murder of Edward Pleasure, Gregorovich commanded the
operation that took over Air Force One.

Gregorovich was eventually shot by Cray after refusing to kill Alex Rider; his
second and last encounter with the boy. Before he died, he revealed that he had
worked with Alex's father. There are rumours that Yassen kept a diary of his
whole life. So far this has not been found.

[Rider rules]

Wow! But a contract killer keeping a diary!?

[DoubleONothing000]

I know, that part is kinda weird But he was always described as feminine, But they had to make some way for the Yassen book to make sense, and a diary is probably the only way anyone would know all this.

[Rider rules]

Oh! That could be interesting... what if someone found the diary and tried to expose Alex as just a little 'side story' and MI6 deal with it.