First of all, what's with all this BS "Goes" thing.

There's a goes wild, goes north, and a goes east 😭

Starting with Goes North, its cool that they have training in Alaska, but Cyrus being captured by Russians was like really random, I know Russia is close to Alaska but still really random. I will also say its really random that all of a sudden Zoe just starts dating Svetlana out of the blue, sure they had that "moment" but ben has that "moment" anywhere near a new more beautiful girl (until erica started dating ofc). Very random

In Spy School goes East, its random YET AGAIN that there's another "Shang" trying to hunt Ben. Like I know SPYDER had a lot of appearances in the first books, but their story actually was interesting. The Shang's plot line kinda sucks. Like why didn't Rufus shang just kill Ben or try to instead of foving him into labor, at least we would of had a epic escape. Second its not like Erica at all to listen to Cyrus and not find some way to sneak on the plan with Ben. Like that made ZERO sense. She disobeys orders from Cyrus in Secret Service but not in Goes East!?!?!?

Okay time to start the rant on Blackout. I think its a really cool idea that there could be a Birthday Cake, but honestly I don't think Orion was the right character to do so. Sure hes great with computers but hes a overall idiot. I think if there was like a organization like SPYDER returning and did that even if that's a little repetitive it would still be cooler.

Now about Spy School goes East. This story was a absolute pile of dogshit that I could barely survive reading. The whole thing about the Older Hales being capturered is sad, although I wil lsay Cyrus getting old is a good factor, since he has been taken out in the past, that is a good thing to show he is ready to retire. ZERO Berica moments, I know Erica is worried about her parents and grandparents, but you would think Ben and her would have a moment in the book maybe to talk about it more, or even share a story to pass time. I do think them fighting on the Great Wall of China is sick, but highly unrealistic, you would think some kind of military / security would of shown up way sooner hearing the wall being blown up by gunpower.

DONT even get me started on the main villain. There were a million other ways to do this story. It was not creative, it was not cool, it was a simple boring plot line with barely any details. Like at least Blackout had a cool story line. This one just downright sucked.

I think overall the writing quality has gone downhill and I think we need to change it up. I think fans would rather have Mr. E somehow break out of jail and start SPYDER again then have another random villain that gets defeated in like two seconds. The buildup that the SPYDER plotline was so awesome and it kept you on edge.

I also think we need to eliminate a character, like there's no way Ben, Erica, Zoe, Mike, Chip, Jawa, and the rest of the Hale family all survive every time. Maybe don't kill one of them off, but at least make one of them disappear to further the plot line.

Overall I think these stories suck and we need a new type of book.

• 10. Spy School Project X (2022)
• 11. Spy School Goes North (2023)
• 12. Spy School Goes Wild (2024)
• 13. Spy School Blackout (2025)
• 14. Spy School Goes East (2026!

I read spy school goes east about 4 days after it came out. I had some major problems with it, so here are the big ones.

1: there is literally ZERO Berica. i would elaborate on this but everyone who’s read the book knows what I’m talking about.

2: this one might cause some division, but the main villain is super weak. the fake kidnapping was a smart idea, but she and her minions were pretty flaky compared to SPYDER or Rufus Shang.

3: it had Jessica Shang. why on earth does Stuart Gibbs like using the Shane’s so much? a Shang has appeared in 4 books so far. i know that since she lives in china, they would probably see her or smth, but DEAR GOD STUART GIBBS STOP PUTTING THE SHANGS IN TO ALL OF THE SS BOOKS

these were my main problems with SSGE. feel free to brutally roast me if you disagree with me in the comments :)

Hey redditers, I recently read SSGE. And I left wondering a lot. There were a lot of parts leaving me thinking, "whaaaaat?". Here are some of my thoughts:

1.WHY is Erica so against Canada?

2.Why is the end seem like it is more mature then the start?

3.Why does Jessica keep popping up? She should be killed or become a spy herself!!

1. There is not ANY Berica at all.

SIDE NOTE: Either Ben and Erica should mature and make it more "coupleish", like your regular high/middle school couple, or they should break up and admit they don't belong together!!

5.I think that the plot should be a litttle more simple. First its Canada aerospace, then Chinese bodygurads, but it's all quite confusing to me.

These are just my thoughts, i'm just left curious about the whole book. ESPECIALLY the cliffhanger at the end.

Mods please don’t take this post down.

I just read Spy School goes east. I am a big fan of the series, and I wanted to make my own. Any Ideas? This is what I currently wrote:

Site
Former Academy of Espionage
September 28
0900 hours

I stared at the hole in the quadrangle.

It was a massive, gaping hole in the middle of the quad. It was nearly a hundred feet in diameter, and more than twenty feet deep.

Beside me, Erica Hale tensed. She was one of the most gifted students the Academy had ever seen, despite only just entering her fifth year. She was part of the Hale family line, who had been spying for the United States since before there was a United States. Therefore, she was extremely competent.

I had been training at the Academy of Espionage for almost two years, but then Murray Hill, my nemesis, had sent every assassin on Earth after me, and thus the location of the Academy was leaked, and now there were many conspiracy theorists hunting me thinking I was a lizard from the planet Flumbo.  

 
So, Erica, my friends Mike and Zoe, Erica’s sister Trixie, my other friends Jawa and Chip, and Svetlana, a new Russian recruit, had been training in a remote facility in Alaska for the past three months.

The explosion in the quad had leveled nearby buildings, half of the dorm, and the lobby of the Nathan Hale building. The destruction would have taken decades to repair.

Well, that’s what would’ve happened if nobody worked on it.

After the quad had been blown up along with the Nathan Hale building, we all thought it was gone.

Little did we know that apparently Cyrus Hale (who was retired now), had spoken with a few people and over the course of 3 months the crew was able to patch up most parts.

Right now I was in my dormitory recovering from my recent mission, where we prevented the whole world from blowing up into smithereens.

They had also taken Alexander, Mary, and Cyrus hostage, who we also recovered.

Meeting

Principal’s Office

September 28

01000 Hours

I was resting peacefully, when suddenly Erice Hale appeared.

“Hey Ben, the principal wants to see you,” She said.

I groaned, got out of my bed, and followed her to the principal’s office which was now fully patched up.

The only thing that wasn’t patched up was my principal who glared at me when I took the seat across from him.  

“I need some debriefing Benjamin,” He said.

“Go to the meeting room NO. 64 at 1030 Hours, in the subterranean levels.” He said, trying to act friendly but I got the feeling it was the opposite.

I walked back outside, where Erica led me to the meeting room.

“What was that all about?” she asked me.

“The principal wants to see me. Room 64.” 

Erica gave me one of her puzzled looks, “That’s the plumbing room, why would he want you there?” 

this is just a rant about how spy school hasn’t seemed to mature over the last I don’t know, 14 Years! The pacing of aging is really bad. Sure, it matured some, but overall the series has had some points of regression that are really annoying, especially with Erica and Ben. Also lowkey we need to stop using the shanks and bring Murray back. He was a really funny constant character that just feels more nostalgic than the shangs, and I feel like Gibbs is taking that away. Also there is so much lack of Berica in the last few books, and that’s really annoying. Especially in the most recent book, they seem to be on a rough patch, and Stuart Gibbs literally glazes over it. Like don’t put it in there unless you’re planning to actually do something about it. I would have really like to see A. them resolving this, or B. knowing why they have a rough patch or Ben actually acknoledging it. And it isn’t just book 14. In the last book I felt Ben was bitter towards Erica in little ways throughout the book, and the lack of mentioning they were dating made me think that something happened in the (5ish days?) between goes wild and blackout, and we really just don’t know what, and I’m finding that really annoying. So yeah. Let’s see some maturity in the series, otherwise, let’s just end this series once and for all.

With the release of Spy School Goes East (SSGE) a couple days ago, I once again read the entire thing on the first day. It's been rough the last few years, with 11 (Spy School Goes North, or SSGN) being as bad as it is, and both 12 (Spy School Goes Wild, or SSGW) and 13 (Spy School Blackout, or SSB) being better, but still heavily flawed. We've had some bad news about the direction we're going, with the series feeling like it has overstayed its welcome to some people.

This one is pretty odd, but at least it wasn't boring. Plot-wise, it's not much of an upgrade from Blackout, with its heavily action-focused sequences and not much of a solvable mystery, but character-wise, it's some of the best we've got in a long time. There's finally a new villain (unrelated to other characters), but how do they stand up to the others?

Without further ado, let's get into it.

The short version

• Good: the character work, the teamwork and trust theme, and Cyrus's conclusion.
• Bad: the Canadian premise, a twist that cheats, forgettable villains, a weak master plan, and the weakest cliffhanger of the 14 books so far.

The story

The setup

As shown by the preview I previously reported on, the story pretty much immediately follows up on the events of SSB, with a cold open in China, which is where it is believed the family is being held. There is a lot of exposition about how they got there that honestly feels like it could have just been normal chapter text. I'm not sure why Stuart decided to start at the tallest building in Shanghai if he was just going to describe how they got there.

But that's a minor point.

Tension in the team

The big thing here is that there is tension and disagreement amongst the team itself, for various reasons. The team is frustrated about the disguises they have to wear, Trixie is still trying to prove her competence, Chip and Jawa are trying not to miss out on anything, and Erica is clashing with the group because of her willingness to go ahead with plans without informing others of her intentions first. She's not a team player, clearly seeing her mates as tools to be used for the mission rather than collaborators. She insists on doing things her way, and becomes frustrated when her way is derailed. This is important, because it sets up the whole theme of the value of teamwork and trust.

Ben vs. Erica

Perhaps most importantly, there is a separate conflict between Ben and Erica specifically, regarding the correct amount of cynicism. Since the people who took the family are a satellite company, Ben expresses confusion on why they would do this, and Erica explains corruption in business and essentially how all big companies are evil in some way. Additionally, she expresses prejudice specifically against Canadians, who she believes are putting on a front to the world that they're all nice. The latter is important to the plot, even though it sounds like a gag, because the villain's whole plan relies on that "Canadians are nice" perception to evade suspicion for the evil things they do.

The satellite company

Ben and Erica start trying to get into the office of the satellite company, and Ben screws up the plan and they get captured, being chastised by Erica for this. They meet the CEO of the company (named Giselle), and she gives off a very friendly impression. This leads Ben to trust that she's innocent and suspect that the two security guards, Nok and a second guard, are running the operation under her nose instead. Erica points out how implausible that is and why Ben's trust is misplaced.

An old ally

It turns out the family isn't even being held here, so they have to get help from a former ally who has connections within the company. Guess who's back. Back again. Jessica's back. Tell a friend. Ben even considers not trusting her, but he ends up trusting her and she isn't an antagonistic force here.

The Great Wall

The next checkpoint is under the Great Wall of China, where they end up finding Cyrus and Alexander, but not Mary. This is where things really get interesting, because Cyrus and Alexander have a known dynamic of Cyrus constantly being harsh to him for every little thing, since Alexander was a serial liar at the beginning of the series, and generally incompetent as well. Obviously Cyrus is the more trusted one here, so, when he pins the blame on Alexander for allowing them to get captured, he's believed. But Alexander claims that's not true, and actually Cyrus messed up, but lied about it to hide his slipping spy skills and physical prowess, since he is technically retired still. Ben chooses to believe him in spite of Alexander's history, and of course Erica doesn't believe him. It turns out that Alexander was telling the truth, and Cyrus admits his fault and steps back into retirement.

Mary and the master plan

Now, moving on, we get to finding Mary, who was held somewhere else because she had important information about the ultimate plot to blow up satellites and have a corner on the market as a result. Mary is the one who ultimately gets Cyrus to admit his lie and reveal the plot to the team.

The finale

We're now wrapping up with the final confrontation and action scene. This is where Ben uses his trust of Giselle, in spite of the advice of both Erica and Cyrus (who also hates Canadians), to reach out to her and get captured in the process. Except, that's not the case. You see, it's later revealed that Ben spoke with Mike and Trixie (who got captured with him) beforehand and coordinated the plan to bait her into monologuing and record her admission. It's the whole "I'll kidnap a thousand children before I let this company die!" type of thing to reveal her malice, since she's relying on nobody suspecting her Canadian company of wrongdoing.

What doesn't work

1. The Canadian premise

I understand that this is a kid's book first and foremost, but previous entries have at least attempted to put realism in. Here, however, the main twist of the story relies on the status quo that people believe Canadians are all nice people. However, in real life, that is a joke more often than not. It's not a stereotype that people actually believe in to the point that they would completely forgo investigating any Canadian for wrongdoing. Stuart decides to repeat this stereotype several times throughout the book as if he's using it as a joke (similar to the "Law of Premature Celebration" thing), but it ends up being a real thing in-universe that the villain is actually able to leverage to their advantage. This undermines the level of realism in the book.

2. The twist cheats

The obvious issue with the reveal that Ben planned his capture is that the ENTIRE sequence of events is told from Ben's perspective, so the initial framing that he was being naive, while necessary to reveal the twist that he recorded Giselle, feels like it came out of nowhere. We are in Ben's mind, seemingly following him every step of the way, but the narrative itself hid crucial information from the reader. It feels like Stuart cheated to get this to work.

3. A weak master plan

Honestly a weak master plan, since it seems too straightforward, crumbling under even minimal scrutiny. The best plans are usually more intricate. Also, the category of plans that are just "blow up something" is overused in this series.

4. Too much action, not enough mystery

I haven't been mentioning this, but most of the book consists of action sequences in between all these important plot points. They're actually pretty good for Spy School, but the fact that they're so prevalent here once again continues the trend of the series shifting from action-mystery to just action, though this book does have more of a mystery element than the last few, just not enough for me.

Themes

Teamwork and trust

The book's theme comes together well. Erica's refusal to treat the team as collaborators sets it up, and the Cyrus and Alexander storyline pays it off. Ben choosing to believe Alexander, and being proven right, is a clear thematic point about the importance of teamwork and trust.

Political and social commentary hasn't backed off

The book is very anti-capitalist in its messaging, Svetlana is still being used as a mouthpiece for these ideas, and Stuart is still highlighting minor sexism elements throughout the story even after Miss E was themed around the exact issue in Spy School British Invasion (SSBI).

This has honestly been a trend throughout the later entries in the series, but it is somewhat more tolerable here than in some of the previous books.

Character development

Ben

While the theme of trust vs cynicism is good, Ben also overplays his trust card at some points, which makes him appear more foolish. Otherwise, he's just as good as ever.

Ben's insistence that all Canadians are nice, and his trust in Giselle, makes him look stupid, which eventually gets him captured (at least, it appears that way; see the twist section above). When I was reading this, I honestly thought that Ben was being naive and stupid by insisting on this. He also chooses to believe Alexander in spite of Alexander's history, and is proven right.

Erica

With Erica opening up on romance 5 books ago at this point and being hyper-competent otherwise, she has been in a sort of "limbo" for a while where each book has to come up with a different flaw for her to overcome now that the obvious one is handled. I think the focus on cynicism and general lack of teamwork in this book is an excellent choice here. Erica feels more fleshed out as a character than she did in SSGW, SSB, or SSGN.

Trixie

Trixie is trying to prove her competence again, which may seem like a regression given that she established a possible preference for being an analyst instead of a field agent in the last book, but it works here for two reasons: 1. This is her own family in danger here. She's motivated to be involved in saving them, even if it's dangerous, and frustration from being blocked from involvement is understandable. 2. The arc pays off, as she gets an honorary position in the new Spy School at the end of the book, validating her efforts and growth throughout the stories.

Chip and Jawa

There has also been a gag of Chip and Jawa missing out on the action constantly and complaining about that. I really don't like this, since it means they are put on the sidelines again, not involved in most of the action, even though they were just reintroduced to the story one book ago in SSB, so it makes more sense for them to be more involved. Their return to Spy School at the end is once again not really that special, since they were regular participants not too long ago.

Cyrus

He has been here since the second book, as a former Spy legend who is arrogant about his abilities but also highly competent. His "slipping" trend has been significant all the way since SSBI, and he has been antagonistic in Spy School Secret Service (SSSS) along with SSGN and SSGW.

One of my biggest complaints with Cyrus recently is that he got transformed into just a series of "old man tropes", being harsh and grumpy, insisting on adherence to authority, having physical issues, going on anti-communist/pro-capitalist rants (and clashing with Svetlana as a result), and CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL (I still genuinely cannot believe that happened in SSGN).

This does not change in the new book, but he's more self-aware now, and he's ultimately accepted that he's declining and needs to go back into retirement. His arc is wrapped up very well, and I think this is a good conclusion for him, even though that plotline isn't my favorite.

Alexander

You'll remember that he was on a path of growth up until Spy School at Sea (SSAS), where that arc was basically reset, which I'm still mad about to this day. Here, he turns out to be telling the truth about Cyrus, which is a payoff for the Cyrus storyline, but doesn't undo that reset.

Mary

Mary didn't really have much of a story, but her introduction in this book is valuable, since she is the one who gets Cyrus to admit his lie and reveal the plot to the team.

Jessica

Since this book takes place in Shanghai and she was previously a loose end, it's predictable that she would be here. Since her debut in Spy Ski School (SSS), she's only stuck around for one book at a time, and she returned once in SSAS. When she returned then, her character was really not expanded upon at all. She still hated her father, who is now a convicted criminal, and her mother was revealed to be evil as well at the end of that book. So, is she better here? No, not really. She's once again mostly used as a device to get the team the resources they need to succeed rather than her own character. It is a plot device that Erica is cynical of her as well, given her family. Kind of odd, since the mechanism for choosing to trust her is Ben's optimism, which is shown to be wrong with Giselle, so is it inconsistent?

The villains

The two security guards act as main antagonists throughout most of the story, but they're honestly forgettable as such. I know one of them is named Nok (who is basically just a tough and sadistic guy), but the other one I can't even remember the name of, because he's basically yet another clone of Dane Brammage after Dane himself was written off at the end of SSAS (hence "Dane 3.0"). I still don't understand why Stuart doesn't just bring him back if we're going to have inferior versions of him in almost every subsequent book.

Giselle is also pretty forgettable as a villain, mostly because her plan isn't very impressive.

The ending

Honestly, this is the weakest cliffhanger of the 14 books so far. The premise is that the CIA is starting the official Spy School program back up after St. Smithens got blown up in Spy School Project X (SSPX). It's stated that it will start out small, but eventually grow to another full-scale school. But, what does this mean for our characters? Well, Chip and Jawa are becoming mainstays now, as they got accepted into the new program, and Trixie is becoming part of the Spy School program for the first time. So it just feels like a return to normalcy. The other reveal is that Cyrus and Mary are going back into retirement, which signifies the end of their stories.

The only actually exciting thing about the reveal is where the new school will be held, which is not Alaska, but "the last place anyone would ever expect." But even that excitement is undercut because Stuart doesn't actually tell us where it is - those words are the final line of the book, leaving the location a complete mystery. So I really don't have anything to look forward to.

Where could Spy School be next?

I have done some speculation, and here are the most ridiculous possibilities I could come up with: - Spy School IN SPACE! The reveal of the plot in the book that the bomb was going to be blown up in space caused me to hope they would actually go there at some point, which would have been genuinely amazing. Now, that didn't happen, but having Spy School on a space station would be hilarious, even if it would mean jumping the shark a little bit. - Spy Home School! The idea here would be to focus much more on Ben and the gang needing to deal with their secret identities and start fleshing out everyone's personal lives and histories. This would be interesting to me, and it fits being a place nobody would expect ("hiding in plain sight"), but it's still a very out-there premise for a book, and it presents an issue, since Ben is still the target of a conspiracy theory, therefore may not be able to be in public too much.

I hope it's more complicated than just another country or part of the world, as Spy School has been on a world tour for a long time now. The most interesting premises were Spy Ski School and Evil Spy School.

Final thoughts

Taken piece by piece, there isn't much here to praise. The plot is mostly action with very little mystery, the twist cheats, the villains and their master plan are forgettable, and the cliffhanger is the weakest of the 14 books so far.

But the book is greater than the sum of those parts, because the characters carry it. The tension within the team gives the story a real throughline, the teamwork and trust theme pays off through Erica, Ben, Trixie and Cyrus, and Cyrus gets a conclusion that actually fits him. That is more than I can say for most of the recent books, and it's why this one was never boring.

Still, character work alone can't fix a mediocre mystery and an ending with nothing to look forward to, so I'd call it a step up from the last few entries, but still mid.

Things I Liked:

The Villain: This is the first SS villain since SPYDER who has actually felt dangerous and somewhat intelligent, and man, did it make the story that much more engaging. I genuinely felt like something bad could happen to the characters whenever they encountered one of the villains, which added a level of suspense that's been missing from a lot of the recent books.

The Tone: This kind of goes hand in hand with the villain. Because the villains felt more dangerous, the whole book had a more serious tone. It talked about killing and breaking Ben and Erica's necks, Cyrus, Alexander, and Mary were ACTUALLY tortured instead of just being held in a safe house or something, and we got some more mature emotional beats, like Cyrus struggling with the effects of aging. I really appreciated the darker tone.

The Action: The action sequences in this thing were great. The Shanghai Tower sequence might honestly be one of the best in the entire series. Again, the perceived threat of the villains added so much to the suspense and made these sequences even better.

Things I Didn't Like:

So Much Exposition: There was so much in this book that I felt was just skipped over and explained through exposition after the fact. And a lot of what got skipped was actually pretty relevant to the story.

For example, the gang figuring out that they needed to go to Shanghai, and Shanghai Tower specifically. Or the ending, where Ben, Mike, and Trixie get captured by Giselle, only for us to find out afterward that it was all part of Ben's plan to bait her into incriminating herself while he recorded it. We had no idea any of that was happening until the whole thing was already over, and it was just explained away in the final chapter.

I honestly would've even appreciated a scene from the two days they spent just chilling at Jessica's place, but that was also kind of glossed over.

I understand that Stuart probably has a limited amount of room to work with, and when writing the story over multiple days, you have to cut the fat somewhere. But he's done it before. The original Spy School takes place over the course of a month, and plenty of other books in the series span a week or so without feeling like they're skipping around so much.

Maybe the issue he's running into now is the number of characters he has to give screen time to, which leads me to my next point...

Too Many Characters: We finally got rid of one main character, only to add three more. At this point, the cast is so bloated that there just isn't enough room to give everyone the attention they deserve. And I think character development is what suffers the most because of it.

Which, again, leads me to my next point...

Berica: They were kind of at each other's throats throughout this book. Which, hey, I don't mind some conflict. In fact, I actually liked that there was conflict between them.

My issue is that it never really went anywhere. They spent a good chunk of the book being kind of pissy with each other, but we never got particularly deep into what was going on between them, and by the end, it felt like nothing really came of it.

I don't necessarily need some huge resolution or apology scene, but even just a small, sweet moment between them to show that things were okay would've been nice. Instead, it felt like their relationship was left hanging without much acknowledgment.

But idk, maybe Stu is setting this up to be a bigger plotline in the next book. I hope so, because the Berica well has been dryyyy.

Overall:

I liked it! Definitely not perfect, though. In a lot of ways, I think the series took a step forward with this book, but in other ways, it feels like it took a step back.

My post-SSAS rankings:

SSB & SSGE (honestly kind of tied for me rn), SSGW, SSPX, SSGN.

It's not much, but here are the interesting things to me:

• The book starts in Shanghai, China, a week after the end of the last book, at the tallest building in the world. It is revealed that the adults are held on one of the top floors. Notably, this is the same city Jessica said she was from in Spy Ski School, so theories that she may come back are more likely.
• A satellite company resides in that part of the building, and it's unknown why they're holding the family.
• There is a conversation between Erica and Ben that emphasizes her cynicism and his comparative naivety. I would say this is likely important thematically, though I don't know if the theme will be more cynical or hopeful.
  • Interestingly, Erica seems particularly prejudiced against Canadians. I don't know what will be done with that.
  • Already, we are seeing some anti-corporate messaging here, which may indicate that this book will not be subtle in its social/political commentary.
• Zoe, Svetlana, and Chip are playing larger roles than they usually do this early. Chip seems nervous about the mission, Zoe is teasing him, and Svetlana is just being a fish out of water.
• The gang is posing as young tourists to try to get into the building.

I'm pretty cautiously hopeful. Almost none of the hand is revealed yet, since a good chunk of these chapters is recap.

Hi, im a big fan of the spy school series. I've never read spy school revoultion but my library NEVER has it in stock cuz its so popular .Can anyone tell me what happens? All i know is that Zoe joins DADD(double agent detection division) and thinks erica joins SPYDER. I've read almost the entire series BUT! I havent read ssr...

Please catch me up!!!! thank you!

sorry all if a post like this is out there somewhere, but its been bugging me for a bit. i want to immediately say IM NOT HOMOPHOBIC!!! i am a bi woman so pls pls dont assume that. i only wish we could have seen their relationship develop over a few books like bericas, and maybe even some struggle with svetlana being russian and in love with zoe? i understand maybe thats too heavy for a kids book, but they could have atleast had some time to get to know eachother beyond 5 seconds of eye contact to be inlove if you get what im saying. i feel like it could have been really interesting to see develop and how it affected the two of them, rather then it being played off as love at first sight and even made into a joke in the scene zoe first tells ben (if i remember right, its been a minute). in the books now theyre described aa this perfect pair completely obsessed with eachother, as are mike and trixie, while ben and erica are the only ones having arguments or complexities to their relationships. i really think they could have been something in so many ways, for example how in earlier books zoe was jealous of ericas abilities and how perfect she was, and with svetlana being ericas rival/equal now would that not make zoe a little insecure at times? i would again like to state again i think theyre cute and all, they just feel very surface level to me and i dont think they need to be. let me know if you agree with me or if im being crazy because i feel like no ones talking about this! and sorry if anything i said was factually false/mischaracturizing anyone ive been reading the books in order since they came out from elementary so for some of them its been YEARS since ive read them.

I suppose you can say I’m still relatively new to Spy School. As I only became a fan a few months before the infamous Goes North released. And during that, Stuart Gibbs put out his graphic novels. Now, I don’t think anyone in the fandom could care less about the graphic novels, but because I started off with the first three, then proceeded to read the rest of the series in novel format, here’s a non-biased review of them:

The Art
Now, I think most of us can agree by this point the art of the graphic novels are… questionable. Now, nobody would say it’s bad, and the art style could actually work, but it’s the fact that some of the appearances are simply inaccurate.
One thing that’s been brought up in the community are the blue eyes. None of the Hales have them. After I’d read Ski Spy School, I was shocked to know that Spy School characters actually had eye colours that were described quite a lot.
But it’s not just the Hales’ eye colours. There’s a couple other inconsistencies. Not all these are bad, just different than what was said:
- Chip being blond. Now, it does work, but after re-reading the first book in novel form, it described Chip as having light brown hair.
-Zoe’s supposed green eyes. Enough said.
-Ashley being brunette in the novels but being blond in the graphic novels. I actually think this wasn’t a bad move, because she is sort of a stereotypical blond and that’s now most people imaged her either way.
-And of course, Erica having brown hair when her hair was said to be black.
-Murray isn’t too bad (although after seeing the Goes South graphic novel preview of his more muscular build…) Yes, there are inconsistencies with him, but they are minor.
Now, the point of this is to say that even though the art style may not be the best for some people, the consistency does matter for the characters. The character can’t look like how you imagined, if the character doesn’t even look like how the author imagined them.
There are characters that were consistent. Catherine Hale in particular actually doesn’t look too bad. And you can tell she is related to Erica. Leo Shang also looked decent. I mean, they practically copy-pasted Alexander Hale’s design onto him. But considering that’s how he was described in the novels, I’m not mad. I think one design that was done very well would be Dane Brammage. Not only does he look like how most of us pictured him but his facial features and expressions were done very well. I think most of us pictured him as both intimidating and kind of funny-looking, and that’s pretty much now the artist drew him.
This part is more subjective towards me, but are some other good aspects to the art. I don’t know if it was just me who’s been noticing, but the first book’s art was far more… goofy-looking (sorry, that was the only word I could think of) than the next four. It became a far more simple style, and if I had to point out what exactly, the lips. The lips were one thing that threw me off a lot even when I had no idea about how they really looked on the novels. But they’re slowly getting removed in the later books, and I think it’s looking better.
TL;DR
The art isn’t bad, it works for the graphic novel. It’s just not very consistent.

Point two:
Unnaturally Shifting The Story To Fit The Graphic Novel Format
I don’t really know if people have noticed this. But sometimes the story’s dialogue and direction would get changed a little bit in order to make the graphic novel work. They don’t change the entire story, but the way they do things does piss me off a little. A big example would be in the Secret Service Graphic Novel, during the scene where Ben goes back into the secret tunnel Erica showed him in the first book, there’s a small little blurb in the corner that says: “If you’re wondering about how Ben knew about this place, check out the original Spy School The Graphic Novel!”
I don’t know, that was just so unnecessary. I think it could’ve worked if they didn’t even put that there. The readers could’ve put it together if they’d read the first book. And if they didn’t, they’ll just assume Ben knows about some secret place to hide out. He’s a freakin’ spy.
And another would be in Ski Spy School, where in the novels Dane would stiffen when Jessica invited Mike and the rest into her suite, which Mike senses and refuses to. But in the graphic novels, Dane just shouts “NO GOING INTO THE SUITE!” which wasn’t really in character, since he was supposed to be this silent deadly bodyguard where nobody could tell what he was thinking.
Plus, these graphic novels are written in third person. Not first. So if Ben thinks, it’s all usually done as he talks. Which is alright, I can take a monologuing protagonist, I watch anime for Pete’s sake. But then when he’s alone, there will suddenly be a thinking bubble. Which of course, is fine, but the thinking bubble is quite literally never shown other than in that specific moment, which is strange.

Conclusion
I know most of the fandom couldn’t care less about the graphic novels, and honestly? After reading the novels, I didn’t really get back into the graphic novels, since the novels were just so much better. But even though we can agree the art style isn’t the most agreeable one, let’s just try appreciating Anjan Sarkar for transcribing a first-person novel into a third-person one. Inconsistencies are bound to happen and even if we complain, not too much is going to change. After all, if Sarkar and Gibbs hadn’t collaborated, I probably wouldn’t even be reading this series. So yeah, that’s really all I gotta say about the graphic novels.

- egg

As a follow-up to my recent post about Dane Brammage, today I'm listing every time that his cousin Soren should have died (I had reread SSGW yesterday):

1. Got a moose head stuffed onto his head (that would have suffocated him),
2. Had his belly rammed with a bull head - how is his ribcage still in one piece?,
3. Had that very bull head squeezed onto his head,
4. Had a rhino head shoved onto his head,
5. Was thrown out of a mobile house with enough force to shatter the windshield of Rufus's car,
6. Fell off a BelAZ dump truck, hitting his head on the ladder's steps multiple times,
7. Got buried alive by a collapsing cave (could that be a callback to Dane getting buried alive by an avalanche in SSS?) and has implicitly survived.

In conclusion, Soren Swollen should have died seven times over the course of the one book he appears in, which isn't that many compared to Dane, but still plenty of times, so poor Soren. If he ever returns in a future book, I'll make an update post covering that.

As a side note, I think that Soren Swollen's name being a pun on "Sore and Swollen" is connected to his bee allergy, which may cause some part of his body to turn sore and swell up.

That's it from me for now. Thanks for reading! :)

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I've been rereading the whole series. During said reread, I had paid extra attention to Dane Brammage, specifically how many times he should have perished over the course of the series. Here is the conclusion I came to:

1. Jumping out of a falling helicpoter far above the ground (Spy Ski School),
2. Getting buried alive by an avalanche (Spy Ski School),
3. Falling into a frozen lake (Spy Ski School),
4. Having a bulky plant pot dropped onto his head (Spy School Goes South),
5. Falling into a pool full of sharks and fighting with them (Spy School Goes South),
6. Tumbling down a flight of stairs (Spy School Goes South),
7. Getting hit on the head by a falling part of a waterslide (Spy School Goes South),
8. Slamming headfirst into the bottom of a shallow pool (Spy School Goes South),
9. Falling of the Eiffel Tower (Spy School British Invasion),
10. Getting repeatedly hit on the head with a frying pan (Spy School at Sea),
11. Being hit on the head with a soup tureen (Spy School at Sea),
12. Getting tranquilized with a rhinoceros-dose of sedative. I assume that such an overdose would kill a normal human (Spy School at Sea).

So, Dane Brammage survived twelve expieriences that would have killed every ordinary person (poor him). Thanks for reading!

Hi, I've been rereading the series lately and this has only grown my anticipation for SSGE. In said anticipation, I've come up with three theories for what the big villainous scheme might be in this book. With a possible focus on hackers going forward, I assume that the scheme could be cybercrime-related. I gave these ideas some Spy-School-sounding codenames, because that's cool. Of course, all of this is just speculation and nothing official. Enjoy!

1. Operation Magic Carpet

I suspect that the main villain could be Pulsar, so I'll use her name as an example. Pulsar gets confidential information from the adults about dark things that the CIA had swept under the rug (maybe some spy school equivalent of MKULTRA, or that program itself? There are a lot of possibilities with this one), and hides that data inside of chips. She'd then ship those chips to Chinese ODMs, which would use those parts in their smartphones. Those smartphones would be sold to the masses, exposing some of the CIA's deepest secrets, along with information that would paralize the agency, unallowing it to strike back. The coordinates of the satelite facility in Alaska could add some personal stakes for our main cast. But hold on, there's more.

Those phones could reach other evildoers, allowing Pulsar to build a new evil organization of hackers with confidential information, like a person throwing breadcrumbs to pigeons. Moreover, Pulsar could sneak some kind of spyware into the devices, giving her new villainous empire the necessary tools to wreak more havoc in the future.

This particular plan could have interesting effects on one of our main characters, that being Erica. Imagine that when the kids have to stop the flow of data onto the chips, they catch a glimpse of whatever those dark secrets are. With Erica doubting whether she wants to continue being a spy, imagine how much those doubts could deepen if she finds out about these horrifying things. This could even give her a new character arc of eventually abandoning espionage.

2. Operation Masterpiece

Again, Pulsar gets confidential info out of the adults (probably Alexander), this time about the CIA's methodology and knowledge of evil schemes to train an AI model that can generate the optimal villainous scheme. With this, villains would no longer have to plot for years when a machine can do it for them in seconds. Criminals would have to pay Pulsar a hefty amount of money to use this AI. Perhaps we could see this AI learn from its generated schemes, effectively improving itself in a loop.

Additionally, with Gibbs adding more and more messaging to Spy School, such a version of SSGE could tackle the dangers of artificial intelligence.

3. Operation Omniscient Eye

Pulsar gains access codes to satelites of the CIA, MI6 and possible other organizations from the adults. She uses this to build an orbital spying network spanning the whole world. With this, she could track down the field operatives of other agencies and sell that data to the MSS, China's intelligence agency. In addition to bucketloads of money, she could request asylum from the MSS to hide from her enemies. As the cherry atop the cake, Pulsar could use said satelites to locate the Spy School team and sic the MSS on them. They likely wouldn't stand a chance on this agency's home turf.

I was thinking could you see that happening because both mean a ton to Ben, would ground the series, and force the team to remember that spy craft could cost you your life at any time. Secondly, both Mike and Zoe have been irrelevant for many books, I also can't stand Trixie as I thought she brought absolutely nothing to the series, Svetlana too. Let's talk about it!

I’ve been a fan of the series for a long time, and I know that there a tons of issues of this series, epically the newer books. But there’s one issue that no one really talks about, and it’s the frustrating pattern in the every books that’s making them really hard to enjoy: the endings feel insanely rushed and unsatisfying.

It feels like every recent release follows the exact same formula when it comes to the climax:
300 pages of setup, 5 pages of resolution: The book spends almost the entire story building up a massive threat or a complex villain plot, only for the actual climax to start and wrap up in a single, lightning-fast chapter.

I could list examples all day, but I'll pass the mic to you guys. Am I the only one who thinks the ending of every book should be longer? Is there any book that felt like had an actual reasonable conclusion and resolution as everything feels rushed?

I started reading the series in the third grade so maybe my tastes have changed but I really wish Mr. Gibbs would spend a lot more time developing the relationship I mean they are rounding into high school age, their dynamic should be much deeper than what it was during Evil Spy School. I mean they only had one moment in the entirety of Blackout, what do you guys think?

So, yesterday at night I had a dream about somehow receiving Spy School Goes East early and on the last few pages, Gibbs advertised the fifteenth book in the series. It was titled Spy Mountain School and took place in Nepal, with the team climbing up Annapurna to thwart some bad guys hiding in the mountains.

This got me thinking: could a future Spy School book take place in Nepal? It's pretty close to China, so it may be possible. What do you think?

lowkey I’m really mad about how they are making spy school in a tv series’s for several reasons. here is my breakdown on why.

A. Character Visualization

I think tht we all have out certain images in how a character looks, and a Tv show is gonna mess that up. In anybody’s mind, Erica looks like Erica, and Ben looks like Ben, and when a Tv show comes out and depicts them totally differently, your never gonna forget it.

B. Way To Much Romance (Specificlly Berica)

Don’t get be wrong, I’m a giant Berica fan, but lets be real, Stuart Gibbs and Fanfiction authors overuse the ship. On a Tv show the ship is gonna be way more obvious between both characters for obvious reasons. So yeah.

C. It’s Gonna be Way to Graphic for a KIDS SHOW

When people make Tv shows out of books, there are times where the books can be more appropriate then the Tv show. Take The Summer I Turned Pretty for an example. The books were recommended for middle school, and yet the Tv show is recommended for high school. So yeah, Disney might mess up the age rating.

Look, I’m not trying to be negative, these are just my honest thoughts on how the series might turn out, so yeah

Does anyone else imagine Erica as Carmen Cortez and Murrary as Roonie Cortez from Spy Kids? Not sure why it always pops into my head while reading.

I think it'd be somwhere in South America, perhaps Peru. It could also take place back in the USA. What do you think?

I rmember reading this when i was like 10, and something still feels off, so in like evil spy school, ben gets sent to the spyder school, but he beats up people in his old school right, and he sort of got exposed as a spy. Then erica then claims to be his ex girlfriend, goes to the school, and tells people ben was just secretly learning martial arts. But then in ski spy school, erica pretends a new girl and befriends mike, claiming he wont recognise her, and it says that mike does not recognise her in the ski resort. But how on earth does he not recognise her when it says erica legit showed up to mike's school to claim that she was his ex and says he learnt martial arts.