Remote Control by Jack Heath

It’s official. Since Agent Six of Hearts’ last mission, everyone knows exactly who or what he is—superhuman. Somehow Six is able to tolerate this unwanted attention, maybe because he gets to work with his brother Kyntak. But when Kyntak is kidnapped while on a mission and everyone at the Deck, especially the Queen of Spades, starts to think Six is a double agent, Six realizes that he must go solo if he’s to have any chance of survival and rescuing Kyntak. With an unknown and the most cunning adversary Six has yet faced, few available allies, and danger lurking around every corner, will Six be able to beat the odds and bring his brother back?

To no one’s surprise, Remote Control is just as fast paced as its prequel The Lab. Readers are immediately immersed in a sea of nonstop action that keeps things interesting. It is very difficult to write a satisfying sequel to a novel so heavily reliant on action plot because readers look for new and exciting action sequences as well as some character development, and unfortunately, the variety of different types of action for novels such as this one is limited and smooth characterization in the midst of all this is very rare. So although the plot of this story is certainly exciting and suspenseful, it’s not entirely original. As in The Lab, Heath attempts to develop Six’s character, but it still feels very awkward. Here there’s Six pondering humanity and what it means to be human—or superhuman—but at the same time, there are a bunch of people trying to kill him over there. Perhaps it’s because of how Six was initially portrayed, but it doesn’t seem like there is any natural way to make Six really be more, well, human. Remote Control isn’t a terrible sequel, but I will be looking for much more in any future installments, if any, in this series to come.

Fans of The Lab by Jack Heath will want to check out its sequel. Remote Control will also be enjoyed by fans of Skinned by Robin Wasserman and the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.

Rating: 3.75

Review copy from publisher Scholastic