STORM: The Infinity Code by E. L. Young

• 01/16/2014
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STORM: The Infinity Code
E. L. Young
Dial Books for Young Readers (2008)
ISBN 9780803732650
Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 10) for Reader Views (3/08)

“STORM: The Infinity Code” by E. L. Young is the intriguing story of three brainiac kids who try to save the earth from the hands of an evil madman.  When fourteen-year-old Will Knight is invited to join STORM (Science and Technology to Over-Rule Misery), he thinks it is impossible for kids to help the world.  But when STORM member Caspian Baraban’s father is abducted by Russians and forced to create a dangerous new weapon that threatens the earth, Will, Gaia and Andrew use their brains and real science to save the planet.  Along the way, Will also discovers a shocking family secret.

STORM members Andrew, Gaia, and Will are not ordinary kids.  Computer geek and self-made multi-millionaire, Andrew provides plentiful funding for STORM.  Gaia has many talents, among them a talent for getting kicked out of school for blowing things up.  She is also fluent in many languages and has a photographic memory.  Gaia invited Will to join STORM when she witnessed him testing his invention Rapid-Ascent, a contraption that helps people climb buildings fast. Will is an inventor and is often called ‘The Maker’ by Andrew.  Together they are quite a team.

When they unexpectedly find themselves tailing a former STORM member from London to St. Petersburg, they have to go through passport control but they don’t have their passports.  So, Will uses the Speak Easy on the passport control guard making it seem as if the boy in front of them was saying “Mom, we should tell him – he’ll see my passport’s fake.  I shouldn’t have bleached my hair.” Taking advantage of the confusion this caused, Andrew, Will, and Gaia rush past the guards.  Once on the train, they use the Fly Spy (an insect-sized flying camera) to keep track of their target.  Will their brains and their gadgets be enough to stop the psychopath?

Author E. L. Young is a science writer, and she based all the gadgets in this book on genuine research and inventions.  At the end of the book there is an author’s note which provides references for the inventions and more detailed information about some of the science in the book.  She makes very clear the few fictional scientific aspects of the book.  There are even several pages of schematic drawings of the gadgets.

I would highly recommend this book to people who like action and adventure and science.  “STORM: The Infinity Code” was a terrific book, and I was thrilled to find out that this is the first in a series of four books that have already been released in the UK.