H.I.V.E. (aka. Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a series of novels by Mark Walden centred on a top-secret school where the students learn the skills they will need to become the criminal masterminds of the future. Only children with a truly prodigious talent for wrongdoing are accepted to this school where they will learn the secrets of transglobal supervillainy and Otto Malpense is one such student. A thirteen-year-old criminal genius, he has been handpicked along with a group of some of the smartest and most dangerous kids in the world to become a part of H.I.V.E.
Upon arriving at H.I.V.E Otto quickly discovers that all is not quite as it seems and he sets out to unfold the many mysteries behind the school and its organization, while trying to do what no one has ever done before and escape from H.I.V.E!
H.I.V.E. (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a top-secret school of applied villainy where children with a precocious gift for wrongdoing are sent to develop their talents into criminal mastermind.
After all, ‘villains have the best lines and wear the best costumes’. One small catch is that the children cannot leave until training is complete, six years later.
With villainy comes a certain freedom of thought, and every year one student in particular will show exceptional talent – after all, it takes the best to produce the worst.
This year there are two students: Otto Malpense and his new friend Wing Fanchu are both exceptionally bad, and they are definitely not keen on being held against their will for six long years . . .
Otto and Wing have special permission to leave H.I.V.E.’s secret island location to attend a funeral (all too common in their line of business). But before they reach their destination they are ambushed.
Who would risk assassinating Otto Malpense, star pupil of the Higher Institute of Villainous Education and favourite of Number One, the most powerful villain alive?
A new power is rising to challenge Number One’s authority, and they need H.I.V.E. and its powerful computer to do so. Otto thought the only thing he wanted was to escape from H.I.V.E., but now he’s desperately trying to save it, and himself.
Pupils and staff at HIVE are horrified to discover that Dr Nero has been captured by the forces of HOPE, the Hostile Operative Prosecution Executive, the world’s newest and most ruthlessly efficient security force.
Three months pass without any news of his fate, and Number One has decided to appoint a sinister new headmistress for the school, somebody that the pupils and staff had thought that they’d seen the last of.
Meanwhile Otto is also struggling to cope with new abilities that are starting to manifest themselves; can he really be unconsciously interfacing with computers without physical contact? And if he is, what exactly do these new powers really mean? The only way to find Nero and the truth behind the lies is to escape H.I.V.E.. Otto must get out, and take the risks which come with being a rogue agent. Then he just has to break into MI6.
A renegade faction of the world’s most powerful villains is intent on destroying G.L.O.V.E. (Global League Of Villainous Enterprises) and showing the world the true face of evil. The Disciples begin by hijacking Diabolus Darkdoom’s Airborne command post, then they kidnap his son and his son’s best friend. Unfortunately for them, Nigel Darkdoom (and Franz) also happen to be Otto’s friends.
Heading out to America, Otto, Wing et al embark on a perilous and highly unauthorised rescue operation. Cut off from the support of H.I.V.E. and on the run from American security forces the hunt for their friends leads to one of the US military’s most secret facilities. It becomes clear that the Disciples are not all they appear and in a desperate race against time Otto must work out who his real friends are to prevent the Disciples from completing their true objective. Only Otto can save the world from domination by a sinister new world order but it might be that the price he has to pay is just too high. When it comes to the crunch will he be prepared to sacrifice himself?
The leaders of the world’s villainous forces are being picked off one by one in a series of mysterious attacks and Dr Nero is forced to take temporary control of G.L.O.V.E. when Diabolus Darkdoom is seriously injured. He then discovers that Otto, who has now been missing for several months since Dreadnought, is leading the attacks.
The leaders of the world’s villainous forces are being picked off one by one in a series of mysterious attacks and Dr Nero is forced to take temporary control of G.L.O.V.E. when Diabolus Darkdoom is seriously injured. He then discovers that Otto, who has now been missing for several months since Dreadnought, is leading the attacks. Under pressure from the remaining members of the ruling council, Nero is left with no choice but to issue a capture or kill order for Otto.
Wing learns of the order and persuades Raven to allow him to join her on her mission to retrieve Otto. Other members of the ruling council, suspicious of Nero’s relationship with the boy, have initiated their own missions to eliminate Otto. Wing and Raven find themselves in a deadly race against time to track Otto down before the other G.L.O.V.E. assassins get to him. Their pursuit takes them to a secret facility hidden deep within the Amazon rainforest, where they face a mysterious operative even deadlier than Raven.
Meanwhile back at H.I.V.E., the school’s own automated defence systems turn against the pupils and staff. And there is no one there to stop it.
Overlord is reborn, and has developed the chilling ability to move from body to body, erasing the host’s personality and ultimately killing them, forcing him to hop from victim to victim. He must find Otto, the only host designed to contain him, and for that he needs the location of H.I.V.E. He also plans to take control of a secret US Army facility that is home to the Autonomous Weapon Programme, a computer-controlled system uniquely vulnerable to his control.
Nero is forced to activate Zero Hour, a plan designed to deal with any member of G.L.O.V.E. on the brink of true global domination. Nero also knows that Otto must not be allowed to fall into Overlord’s hands, and a desperate race across the globe begins. The stage is set for a final battle with Overlord. Little do they know that he has a final weapon in his arsenal, on a scale unlike anything they have ever seen before.
Scheming, extorting, menacing and general evilness are nothing new in the world of villainy – indeed it’s expected. But there are codes of conduct. Until now. In an attempt to purge the Global League of Villainous Enterprises of its more destructive elements, Dr Nero has underestimated the cunning and resources of those who oppose him.
Meanwhile, Otto and the rest of the Alpha stream have been sent to begin their most feared exercise: The Hunt, in the icy wastes of Siberia. But there is a traitor in their midst. The first strike against Nero will be a strike against the Alpha stream.
Villain-kind is on the brink of CIVIL WAR.
Otto and Raven are desperate to rescue their friends from the clutches of Anastasia Furan, head of the evil Disciples organisation. First they must track down the location of the Glasshouse, the prison where Furan trains children to become ruthless assassins. But Otto is also being hunted.
Otto and Raven are desperate to rescue their friends from the clutches of Anastasia Furan, head of the evil Disciples organisation. First they must track down the location of the Glasshouse, the prison where Furan trains children to become ruthless assassins. But Otto is also being hunted. The three months that Otto has spent following his ‘expulsion’ from H.I.V.E. have given the Artemis Section – an elite division of the American intelligence services that specialises in capturing the toughest targets and reports only to the President – an opportunity to locate him.
Deadlock – the eighth book in the breathtaking H.I.V.E. series – continues the high-octane adventures of the supremely talented criminal team, with central characters forced to question everything that Nero has taught them and to confront the consequences of life as a villain, set against the backdrop of a daring high-tech prison break where nothing is quite as it seems.
COMING SOON!
Really soon…
In summer 2021… H.I.V.E 9
Reviews for H.I.V.E
A comedy thriller, full of baddies, action and lashings of humour
Sunday Express
An exuberant Dahl-esque escapade
Financial Times
Exciting, clever and all in all brilliant
Sunday Telegraph