The Doomsday Watchers by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore - Barrington Stoke Book 12

I only realised The Doomsday Watchers was a sequel (to The Doomsday Virus) a few pages in. The story and characters are nicely re-established, but I always prefer to read a series in order, and I think it would of helped here.

In addition, it feels very much like the middle book of a trilogy or longer series. Not much actually happens in this book, whilst the previous book sounds a lot more action-packed. I did like the four key characters. The young hero and his authority figure enemy are both very arrogant; neither is actually very pleasant! Their respective side-kicks are much more attractive personalities.

The book is in Barrington Stoke's FYI: Fiction with Stacks of Facts range, and there is lots of nice cutting-edge equipment to discover. There is also a glossary of terms at the end of the book, a nice introduction to this style of presenting information. All of the technology does mean there are some tough words and phrases, such as "Hard disc recorders linked to uni-directional microphones".

I love the black-and-white illustrations. I hope there is a third book in the series to round off this story.