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The nature of ALIAS on television series allows plenty of scope for us to learn about Sydney Bristow's early years at SD-6, and Recruited is the first in a series of novels that fills this gap.

We know from TRUTH BE TOLD, that in her freshman year at UCLA, Sydney was a painfully shy and lonely student before she was recruited into what she thought was the CIA.

RECRUITED explores this in more depth. Sydney is estranged from her father, who regards every contact from his daughter as a request for cash. At UCLA her only friends are Francie and her boyfriend, her interaction with the opposite sex is non-existent and she can't even hold down a waitressing job for more than a few hours.

Into this comes an unexpected encounter with Reginald Wilson, who claims to be a recruiter for the CIA. Obviously Sydney is sceptical about his claims, but she's still intrigued by the idea of working for the Agency and after some deliberation she gives it a go. Okay, so that was pretty much a given, and sensibly Lynn Mason doesn't string it out too much.

Since the book is set well before the television series starts, there aren't too many familiar characters. Obviously Sydney and Francie at the main ones, with Sloane only being introduced towards the end and Dixon putting in a cameo.

This leaves the author free to develop her own characters, although these are kept to a fairly small number - Wilson, who provides Sydney's way into SD-6, and her favourite singer, Raul Sandoval, being the main ones.

As well as showing us Sydney's initial training as an SD-6 operative - albeit a deskbound one for much of the time - we also get to see her first mission. This appears to come as a big surprise to Syd, which is fairly dim of her since I twigged it immediately - and she's supposed to be superintelligent!

The story rattles along at a fairly decent pace, although the fact that we know how Sdyney was recruited means that there aren't too many surprises. In fact, anyone expecting something that twists and turns like the television series will be in for a bit of a disappointment. Not only is RECRUITED pretty self-contained (I doubt if the novel series will be anything like as arc-heavy as the television one), but it's also pitched more at the sort of viewer that Channel 4 are aiming for. You know - kids.

So whilst it's readable, it's unlikely to take more than a couple of hours to get through, which is disappointing considering the more adult approach the DARK ANGEL prequel novel took. Nice shot of Jennifer Garner on the cover, though... BACK TO THE TOP

RECRUITED

Written by LYNN MASON

PAN MACMILLAN/CHANNEL 4 BOOKS

£5.99


RATING: 7/10


NEXT RELEASE:
A SECRET LIFE