General Information
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Title: The Lab
Author: Jack Heath
Read By: Erik Sandvold
Copyright: 2006
Audiobook Copyright: 2010
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Series Name: Six of Hearts
Position in Series: 1

File Information
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Number of MP3s: 7
Total Duration: 8:24:37
Total MP3 Size: 346.55
Parity Archive: No
Ripped With: audacity
Encoded With: LAME
Encoded At: CBR 96 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
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ID3 Tags: Set, v2.3

In a time far into the future in a city isolated from the rest of the world, ChaoSonic controls all of the residents. But, there is one group that refuses to stay under its thumb—the Deck. It has a secret weapon in the fight against the enemy—Agent Six of Hearts. He is like no other human ever seen; in fact, he isn't totally human. Created through insidious and illegal experiments by the Lab, a division of ChaoSonic, he is a clone made up of human DNA, cheetah muscle, bloodhound nose, shark skin, elephant brain, and peregrine bones and eyes. He's the best agent ever to work for the Deck, helping to thwart the organization that created him 16 years earlier. He escaped the Lab when he was a baby and has stayed out of sight ever since. Only his boss, the King of Hearts, knows his secret. Then he is captured by ChaoSonic operatives. Yet, one of them is different from the rest. In Kyntak, Six sees another boy whose past is the same as his own. Can he trust him? Can the experimentation, torture, and cloning at the Lab ever be stopped? Fans of Anthony Horowitz's "Alex Rider" (Philomel) or James Patterson's "Maximum Ride" (Little, Brown) series will be hooked on this novel. An action-packed, suspense-filled story.

Review..........
Meet Agent Six of Hearts. He's the strongest, fastest, most clever, and most effective member of a special group of field agents working in the Deck, a vigilante organization intent on establishing justice in a dangerous and corrupt world. Six is the best of the Deck's agents--and he's only sixteen. What the people at the Deck don't know, and can't find out, is that Six is the product of a genetic experiment by the Lab to create superhumans, the very kind of thing the Deck fights to prevent. When Six is assigned to investigate the Lab, he risks exposure. If the Deck learns of his identity, he'll likely be treated as a traitor and subsequently punished. And if the Lab discovers that Six is out and about, he knows he'll be pursued until capture. Either way, this is going to be Six's most dangerous mission yet.

The Lab starts with a dramatic action scene and continues to be action packed until the very last page. There are seriously very few pages in this novel that don't include a fight scene, chase scene, or danger. All this makes for an undoubtedly exciting and edge-of-your-seat suspense filled story that is quite difficult to put down. As with many purely action novels, the book starts to break down with characterization. Protagonist Six is superhuman, and unfortunately, a cold and distant personality results from it. Six's inability to relate to the normal humans around him makes him almost inhuman and inaccessible to the reader. Heath does attempt to develop Six's character, but it's a little sloppy, especially at first. Six's questioning of this identity, origins, and their significance is awkward and out of place amidst the nearly constant danger Six is usually immersed in. Since this novel is primarily action based, this isn't a big deal since the plot is more than enough to keep the reader interested and satisfied.

The Lab will be enjoyed by fans of other futuristic action packed novels such as Skinned by Robin Wasserman, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Unwind by Neal Shusterman. I can't wait to check out the sure to be exciting sequel, Remote Control.