Book Review- Fledgling: Jason Steed

By Mark A Cooper

Published By Source Books

Released September 2010

Source: The Publisher

Ages 11 years old & up

5 stars- An Awesome Read

Tormented by his mother's death....

Taken for granted by his father.....

Trained in deadly martial arts.....

Jason Steed is looking for a place to call home. He finds what he's looking for in the Sea Cadets0an elite group of British youngsters being groomed for lifelong service in the military. But when a routine training exercise goes awry, Jason finds himself in the middle of a secret mission. The future of the world hangs in the balance...and Jason might be the only one who can save it.

This is a brilliant read! I felt a wide range of emotion while reading this action packed book. Mark does a such a great job at showing both Jason's life now in the present, and his life growing up, and it sets the tone for the resilient young man he really is. It also show cases the broken and then on the mend relationship he has with his father, Lieutenant Commander Steed of the HMS ARK Royal, based out of London, England.

By the time Jason was almost 8, he earned two black belts and a 2nd Dan black belt. He can speak numerous languages including Chinese (which is where he grew up, until his father moved him back to the house he grew up in London, England), Japanese, English and more. He can complete an military assault course in less than 7 mins, and fly a simulated plane. Jason starts off broken and throws himself into martial arts, where he learns a great deal about his own personal inner strength. This strength mixed with his strength prove to be a life saver with Jason finds himself among an elite group from the British army, in enemy territory.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jason Steed. He has a great young male voice that many tween readers and even teen readers will enjoy. While the martial arts was amazing, and the war scenes brutally awesome and very real, being set in the 1960's-1970's make the book appealing to older readers. Jason and his Dad are invited to the Royal Palace more than once, and the Royal family have minor rules. I liked that Princess Catherine and Jason have a sweet, innocent connection or "puppy dog" love.

At only 11 years old, this young hero has his head planted firmly on his shoulders, but also enjoys doing what some of the kids his age do. He is a boy after all and with his best friend Scott, they do have a few minor mishaps. There's nothing Jason can't get handle and through the course of his story, I was moved to tears a few times. I got so caught up in Fledgling, that I had to remind myself that Jason Steed's story isn't real, as often times it felt like it was.

Fans of Alex Rider will be highly entertained with Jason Steed. It's an awesome, action packed, modern day Karate Kid story with a lot more fight. I highly recommend this book, but be warned there is a few war scenes and while they're not all gory, they are real. I'm looking forward to reading more of Jason's story.

You can find out more about Jason's story here http://markacooper.com