The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp

Alfred is a 15 year old who is average in everything except size is orphaned after his mother died from cancer. He never knew his father and ends up living with his uncle, who is a security guard at a large office building. They become involved in a scheme to claim the legendary sword Excalibur. In the process, he sees his uncle murdered by a guy keen on destroying the world and ends up in a foster home. He later travels with one of the last decedents of the knights of the round table, and discovers that his father was the rich owner of the building where his uncle had worked and that he is the last heir to Lancelot. He eventually dies, but lives again, saves the world, and rescues the girl.

The story seems to be something made for a summer popcorn movie. They always end up driving fancy cars, and people (other than the hero) are getting killed all around. There are daring getaways in airplanes and helicopters, fight scenes at historical location and plenty of attempts to pull at emotional strings.

It also suffers from the faults of the popcorn flicks - the characters are shallow, some plot twists move too fast to really make sense, and it seems to get preachy without really having anything to say. Alfred seems to make every wrong decision, until the plot requires him to make a right decision. He somehow seems to be loaded with money, despite being a fifteen year old orphan dragged across the world without a procession. Believability is not a strong point here. If some of the complexity were trimmed it could be a good "brain-dead" novel. Unfortunately, it tries too hard, and doesn't do very well at what it tries.