One Team - One Mission - Alpha Force!
Alpha Force is a ten book Action/Adventure Series written by former SAS member Chris Ryan.
The story revolves around five teenagers- Alex, Li, Paulo, Hex and Amber- who, after being shipwrecked on a desert island and working together to escape it, form an elite team dedicated to fighting crime and natural disasters across the globe.
Books in the series:
- Survival
- Rat Catcher
- Desert Pursuit
- Hostage
- Red Centre
- Hunted
- Blood Money
- Fault Line
- Black Gold
- Untouchable
The series ran from 2002-2005, with Survival being the first book and Untouchable being the last.
Alpha Force provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Li and Amber are just as physically active and capable as the boys on the team. Li in particular starts the series with martial arts training.
- And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with all of the team getting invitations to join MI5.
- Asian and Nerdy: Averted with Li. She has a wide knowledge of animals and extreme sports, but the rest of the team have areas of knowledge that they also specialize in, and overall more focus is put on Li being one of the most energetic of the team.
- Author Appeal: Alex's training from his SAS father and his motivation to be in the army are styled after the author, a former SAS agent.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Amber and Hex bicker the most out of the team, but when the chips are down it's clear that they care deeply for each other, perhaps even to the point of attraction.
- Big Brother Instinct: Part of the reason why Hex is working on the Phoenix in Survival; he broke into a gym teacher's bank account because the guy was picking on his little brother, so they sent Hex to the Phoenix as punishment.
- Black-and-White Morality: The series is very clear with its morality: Alpha Force are good, and whatever Big Bad of the week they're fighting are bad.
- Buried Alive:
- In Desert Pursuit, Hex and Paulo are parked at the bottom of a dune when a sandstorm hits, collapsing the dune on top of them and burying them alive. The rest of the team dig them out just before their oxygen gives out completely.
- In Fault Line, the team are inside a museum when an earthquake hits. Much of the museum is buried underground- including Hex, who is trapped inside an air pocket. Even worse, he's claustrophobic and next to a woman who dies in front of him.
- The Charmer: Paulo is happy to woo any attractive woman that he meets. The exception is Li; partly because he's clearly attracted to her, and partly because she judo threw him over her shoulder when he tried the first time.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Deconstructed with Amber, as the trauma from her parent's death causes her to lash out at others. Once she learns that they died for a good cause, she's able to get over it.
- Cowboy: Paulo is an Argentinian boy who lived and worked on a ranch while growing up.
- The Cracker: Amber mistakenly believes that Hex is a cracker, someone who breaks into secure data for the sake of profit. He's quick to correct her- he's instead a hacker, someone who sneaks past security for the fun and challenge.
- Crazy-Prepared: Alex carries around a small survival kit that proves to be extremely useful for the team, whatever kind of mission they're on. Justified since the kit was given to him by a former SAS agent, who would know exactly what's required to survive in difficult situations.
- Deadpan Snarker: All of the team have their moments of wit, but Alex and Hex both excel in a dry, sarcastic delivery.
- Deserted Island: The series kicks off with the team drifting off into the ocean and ending up on an abandoned island. The crux of the first novel is their survival and eventual escape.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Amber is diabetic, but the others learn quickly not to treat her any differently because of it.
- Embarrassing First Name: Hex's birth name, as revealed in Red Centre, is Melvin. The others are shocked, and he's quick to assert that Hex is his "real" name.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The team couldn't stand each other before they were forced to work together to survive a deserted island. Afterwards, they're as thick as thieves.
- Fun with Acronyms: The name of their team and the title of the series comes from the first letter of their names- Alex, Li, Paulo, Hex, Amber. This also just happens to be the opposite of Amber's Omega necklace.
- Genki Girl: Li is the most excitable and energetic of the team, to the point that she finds it difficult to sit still.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Often the team will be visiting a country to deal with one problem, only to learn there's another, bigger problem at hand.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Alex always carries his knife around, makes sure it's in pristine condition, and can pin a wasp to a tree from fifty feet away.
- The Load: Hex thinks of himself as a burden in Survival, since his technological expertise isn't handy on a remote island. It gets worse when he's bitten by a komodo dragon and contracts septicemia, requiring the others to carry him around in a makeshift stretcher. Fortunately, he proves much more useful in later missions.
- Mission Control: John Middleton, Amber's uncle. His requirement for them forming a team is that he act as their guardian, keeping in frequent contact with them and providing resources and information when needed.
- Multinational Team: The team first meet as a result of them all signing up for an international 'eco-voyage', so their backgrounds are scattered across the world: Alex and Hex are English, Paulo is Argentinian, Li is Anglo-Chinese, and Amber is American.
- Oop North: Alex hails from North Cumbria. His accent is commented on by the others, and he fits the stereotype of being no-nonsense and trustworthy.
- Rich Bitch: Amber comes from wealth, and spends much of the first book as a whiny brat who won't shut up about how disgusting the deserted island is. She sobers up immensely when the others discover that she's diabetic, and then when they're at actual risk of getting killed. For the rest of the series she's much more lovable, if still sharp-tongued.
- Shown Their Work: Every book features a survival situation that Chris Ryan has either thoroughly researched or been through himself.
- Skewed Priorities: In Red Centre, Hex passes his state-of-the-art watch over to Alex before partaking in a dangerous climb. He says that he doesn't want it to get damaged- when Alex retorts that he could very well break his leg, he explains that a broken leg is much less hassle to deal with than expensive equipment.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Li disguises herself as a boy in Desert Pursuit so she can get close to the slave traders. Later in the book Alex and Hex perform a brief inversion, disguising themselves as ladies in order to approach Li in her prison.
- True Companions: Starting at the end of Survival, Alpha Force become a tight-knit group that weather together through thick and thin. By the end of the series, they've been best friends for close to a decade.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: While Li and Paulo are obviously attracted to each other, they never properly get together in the story.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The team loves to insult and bicker with each other at every opportunity, but much of it is in good fun and, at the end of the day, they're still the best of friends.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Hex develops claustrophobia in Hostage, after getting caught in an underwater cavern and nearly drowning. Afterwards, getting trapped in enclosed and dark spaces is a sadly frequent occurrence for him- he has to traverse through a pitch-black forest in Red Centre, gets Buried Alive in Fault Line, and has to rest in a decompression chamber after failing his stops in Black Gold.
- In Hunted, Li suffers from a fear of heights after seeing her old climbing instructor fall during abseiling and break her back. Learning to get over it is her sub-plot for the novel.
