Review: Orca Rising by Chris Hannon

Published: February 2018, Thistle Publishing

Pages: 164 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis:

“16-year-old Ocean Daley needs to get away from school, his seaside town and wasting his summer working for his mother’s irritating boyfriend. When his mysterious Uncle Frank offers him a place at a summer school for a select group of gifted teens, he jumps at it.

But the school isn’t like any other, with classes in hacking, bike racing, psychological tricks and combat. Orca, the secretive organisation behind the school, needs fresh recruits…but for what? Ocean’s father co-founded Orca, and joining the organization feels like a way to honour his memory, as well as strengthen bonds with his strange uncle.

Orca demands each teenager push themselves beyond the possible and in return each student gets an impressive salary, international travel and exhilarating field missions — a double life. There is one catch. Joining Orca is a life-binding commitment to support their ‘noble' cause. For Ocean, it’s the challenge in life he’s been looking for.

Others might call it a trap.”

Rating: *****

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I received a copy of Orca Rising in exchange for a review.

The most obvious comparison to others works are the Alex Rider and H.I.V.E. series, which aren't bad company for Chris Hannon and Ocean to be in at all!

Orca Rising was written in a very mature and professional manner and I'll admit I was surprised when I discovered that it is only Chris Hannon's second novel. The writing came across as that of an incredibly seasoned professional, and I am interested and excited to see where Chris Hannon's writing career takes him.

Orca Rising was well paced with plot developments given at the right time mixed with character development. I have a feeling there will be more books following Ocean, and Orca Rising set the scene perfectly. I do worry that perhaps the "teenage spy" thing has been done before but hopefully something new can be added to the genre.

I would recommend Orca Rising to fans of the spy genre and to readers who wouldn't usually read young adult fiction.

A very exciting new author!