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
