Jason Steed's mother died during childbirth and his father is a remote Naval officer who is never around. Rather than wallow in self-pity, Jason has made himself strong, resourceful, and resilient. At 5 years old, Jason begins martial arts training and becomes exceptional by the time he is 11. When he decides to use his skills to become part of a group called the Sea Cadets, he finds himself in a situation that takes him way beyond a simple training exercise.

Fledgling is the first book in the Jason Steed series. Although the story is exciting and filled with adventure, the book is quite problematic. Much of the dialogue is stilted and sounds unrealistic. The pacing of the story is way off as much of the meat of the plot happens toward the end of the book. In addition many of the situations in the story seem much too far-fetched to be believable. However, even with all of these issues, Fledgling manages to be an exciting read and an intriguing beginning to the Jason Steed series. ( )

Jason Steed is the son of an officer in the Royal Navy, who he seldom sees and he is raised in Hong Kong by a nanny. On a trip to England when he is five, Jason goes to a ceremony at Buckingham Palace and saves Princess Catherine when she falls in a koi pond. After his return to Hong Kong, he becomes interested in martial arts and becomes adept in many forms. At age 10, he is sent to a prestigious boarding school in England, saves a boy from being bullied by beating them up, and becomes best friends with Scott. He also reconnects with Princess Catherine who attends a sister school. Jason joins the Sea Cadets and goes away to summer training camp. When a nearby mission by Royal Marines goes wrong, many Sea Cadets are killed, leaving Jason to save the day, utilizing his ability to speak Chinese, his experience in flight simulators, and his martial arts prowess, managing to rescue the captured marines and recover a cassette to avert war. Fun, but not as good as the Alex Rider books. ( )

It seems like years ago when I read Fledgling. It was the first real book I ever read, before this I only read comics and graphic novels.
Fledgling Jason Steed is the first book of the series, the series now has 4 books and I like them all. It is a bit like Alex Rider and a bit like Karate Kid but Jason Steed is more like real, like real life.

Book 1 Fledgling Jason is born and his mom dies giving birth, his dad is very upset and when Jason is 5 he over hears hid dad say, "I wish they saved her rather than trying to save the baby"
Jason is brought up by different nannies. He finds something that he likes, Martial Arts and becomes obsessed with it, learning as much as he can. Because of his small size and age he has to train with older bigger boys, later in life this helps him to take on adults.

At age 11 he and his father move to London, were he makes friends with Scott Turner a very very funny character LOL. One night his father gets mugged and Jason runs to his rescue, it is the first time his father has ever seen Jason in action. Jason takes on both muggers and seriously hurts them. The next day Jason is sat up in bed and examining his cut knuckles his dad brings him a cup of tea and thanks jason. Then his dad kissed Jason's head and says something Jason has never heard from anyone ever before he simply says. "I love you" Jason says "Really?" at this point I had to get the kleenex :)

Jason joins the Sea cadets at 11 and while on summer camp a nearby Marine mission goes wrong and some of the Cadets get caught up in it.
Up to now the books while just ok, now it goes into over drive and this is why it is such a great series. I won;t spoil it, but Jason really kicks ass. ( )

Fledgling Jason Steed is the best book I have read, it was almost life like. I do like Alex Rider books as well, but Jason Steed seemed more life-like. The emotion between Jason and his dad made me almost cry.
The story is fast, exciting and made me want to read the rest of the series and more spy books. ( )

The writing in this book was kind of atrocious, the plot was incredibly unbelievable, and it was completely corny and cheesy. However, middle school students seem to love it, and I even found a few parts mildly enjoyable. There is quite a bit of set-up to this book, so I'm assuming that the next books will all start out with a bigger bang. There is PLENTY of action at the end of this book. Ridiculous, implausible, violent action, but action nonetheless. Once again - right up a middle grade boy's alley. (I read somewhere that this was Prince William's favorite book. Really?)

Is it worth listing all the things that irritated me about this book?

*A ten year old boy dancing with a girl, kissing a girl and wanting to be with her all the time? Has the author ever met any 10 year old boys?
*The Queen of England began a sentence with, "You have showed great bravery..." Is that a British vs. American thing? Because that is not proper grammar where I come from, and you would think the Queen could manage to speak The Queen's English.
*The 10 and 11 year old kids were speaking like 70 year olds.
*I couldn't stand Jason's father. I kept thinking he would redeem himself, but not so much. Even at the end, when his little boy is having nightmares because of the horrible things he has experienced, he just tells him that those memories will fade as he replaces them with better ones. Wow, very healthy. And I'm sure PTSD patients everywhere appreciate knowing that as well. Once again, is this a cultural thing? All of the British "stiff upper lip" business? I wouldn't have believed it was possible for a book to be too British for me, but this one might be.

I could go on and on, but it doesn't really matter what I think, it is a middle school student's fantasy. An 11 year old takes on scary enemies with his superhero-like abilities and saves the adults who couldn't save themselves.

Areas of concern:
*There are a few instances of profanity along with cussing. (The *d* word and *h* word for the Yanks out there, coupled with 2 words that are much more offensive for Brits than for Yanks.)
*I was very concerned about the sexualizing of 10 and 11 year olds. Kissing on the lips, along with mention of a form-fitting dress and parents being upset because they slept in the same room one night.
*The main character is put in tremendously stressful and dangerous conditions and experiences killing, being shot and the death of friends.

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