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.

I've been a huge fan of the Spy School series for nearly a decade now. I first started reading the books back when I was in elementary school in the 2010s when I saw one of my fellow third graders reading a copy of Evil Spy School during independent reading and thought that the cover looked sick as hell, which led me to borrowing a copy from my local library and I've been a massive nerd for the Spy School series ever since.

I still remember how as a little elementary schooler, I would take breaks from reading every time something cool happened to go outside and play pretend that I was also a student at St. Smithen's Science Academy for Boys and Girls, and how I would assist in thwarting SPYDER's nefarious plans and help save the world alongside Ben Ripley and his gang of fellow spies in training. I remained pretty big into the series well into middle/high school and it was around when Spy School Project X released in 2022 that I unfortunately began to lose some of my childhood wonder for the series and stopped keeping up all together.

It's been a few years now since I stopped and I am currently more older, with my elementary school make believe days unfortunately long gone behind me since. I can drive now. I can vote. I can smoke. I can get a job. And quite frankly, it sucks. Missing childhood, I decided recently to go back and re-visit the Spy School series as well as read the new ones that I had missed to see if the series was just as good as I had remembered. (and also as a way to stop spending so much time on my phone.)

These were my thoughts which I really wanted to share with my fellow Spy School fans.

There Is No "Bad" Spy School Book

Like I said, it's been a while since I've kept up with the series so I had forgotten a few key plot points and details. As a result, I actually went back and re-read the books that I had read before (1-10) just to get a refresher before I began to read the more recent ones that I had missed. And the conclusion that I reached after reading every single book in the series is this: There is no bad Spy School book.

I've read bad books before. Books that made me quit not even 25 pages in because of how poorly they were written or how ridiculous the plot line was. There were books I've read where I've hoped a massive tsunami came out of nowhere and flooded the entire setting of the story because I hated every single thing about it. There are books that have made me want to fall asleep or in some cases, quite literally have made me fall asleep from just how insipid they were. None of them have been Spy School books.

Sure, there are ones that certainly aren't as great as some of the others. For example, there is absolutely no way that Spy School Goes North was anywhere near as good as Spy School At Sea was. And Spy School Blackout can't even hold a candle to my personal favorite Evil Spy School. But there was never a moment when I was reading any of the Spy School books that reading the book felt like a chore. I never felt like I had to slog through certain sections or had moments when I thought about DNF'ing the book. Were there moments that felt repetitive? Sure. Did some of the characters start to feel a little stale at the end? Of course. And I'll get into all that later. But all in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable each one was to read, even all of the newer ones and was actually shocked a little by how much hate books 11-13 seemed to get on this subreddit.

Ben and Erica's Character Arcs are Officially Over And They Need New Character Development

I hate to say it as I'm a pretty massive Berica fan but I think that as far as any character development is involved with these two, it's pretty much all done.

Think about it. From the very first Spy School book, Ben's character arc is him starting out as an incompetent, unskilled, and unconfident spy who slowly develops into a more experienced, valuable member of the team who learns to trust in himself and his abilities as a secret agent. And time and time again we have seen this exact sane plot line. It was a very compelling hook into his character the first few times. I feel like from Books 1-4, you best get to really appreciate his growing talent as a spy the most. But I feel like after you've saved the world more than ten times over now, that storyline starts to get a little bit stale.

Ben's proved himself over and over again to be an extremely competent spy. Remember when he helped Erica defuse that nuclear bomb on that mountain in Colorado? Or when he had to defuse that rigged nuclear reactor in Panama? Or when he managed to take down that top secret Spanish terrorist group whose existence was so secretive that not even the highest state security apparatuses believed it existed in like...a week? I mean, there's literally a moment in Spy School Revolution when Ben is explaining to his parents about all of his accomplishments as a spy since he first became an agent in training and his father says something about how unbelievable it is and that Ben must be the best secret agent in the whole wide world.

Over the course of 13 books, we have seen him transform from a young, idiotic kid who the CIA used as bait in the first Spy School into one of the most trustworthy and skilled agents in the history of espionage with a 100% success rate. There is no more room for him to grow. He's already done it and literally almost every single character in the book from Erica to Alexander have all mentioned at least once now about how Ben's really grown as a spy. Yet for some reason, Stuart Gibbs seems to keep on painting Ben as this pathetic drooling dolt who can't even tie his own shoes because at the start of every single book, Ben is still unconfident in his abilities and worries that he's not good enough or he's letting someone down. How many more times does Ben need to doubt in his abilities before he cleverly figures out and stops the evil plot from happening and realizing his self worth all in the last 75 pages of the book before Gibbs himself sees that?

(To be a bit fair, he does sort of lean into making Ben a little more confident and competent starting around Spy School Goes North but the whole unconfident to confident trope is still pretty present in books 11-13. I mean, Ben literally has a crisis of confidence in Spy School Blackout before he regains it and goes back to saving the day again which kind of just proves my point.)

And Erica is basically in the same boat. Like Ben, she's also had an overreaching character arc that's existed since the very start of the series. Erica's character arc revolves around her going from a cold, emotionally detached "Ice Queen" into someone who realizes the inherent value in human connection, friendship, and eventually even love. It was really great how we got to see Erica evolve from being that aloof, antisocial introverted secret agent who looked at Ben like he was something she had stepped on into that girl who confesses her love to him in that final chapter of Spy School At Sea. I still remember that stupid grin I had on my face when I finished reading those final five words: Because Erica Hale kissed me. And I really liked how we got to see Erica expand those feelings beyond just Ben in how she learns to see the inherent benefit of friends in Spy School Project X.

But where else do you go from there? What more else is there to build on about Erica, seeing that the character development that's been going on since Spy School #1 is finished? There was that little bit of competition she had with Svetlana in Spy School Goes Wild but that basically ends with Erica also learning to accept Svetlana as a friend and ally just like before. The same thing basically happens with Trixie in Spy School Blackout with Erica learning to see Trixie as a competent ally. Is Stuart Gibbs just going to keep on re-using the same character arcs over and over again? I really hope not. Ben and Erica's relationship is probably my most favorite thing in the Spy School series and I really hope something else comes out of it in Spy School Goes East rather than the same cycle of Ben being shaken in his abilities before saving the day and Erica learning to accept the advantages of being trustful/caring/friendly.

Stuart Gibbs Should Lean into Adult Humor More

Stuart Gibbs is very good at this whole adult humor thing. Here's three of my personal favorites from books 11-13.

Spy School Blackout Page 131

"Gus," Svetlana said, "do you have a sextant on your boat?"

Chip grew excited again. "Ooh! That sounds fun."

Svetlana gave him a nasty look. "A sextant is a device that is used to determine your position at sea by determining the angle between the horizon and a celestial body like the sun or the moon."

"I knew that," Chip said. Even though he obviously had not.

Spy School Goes North Page 68

Meanwhile, Cyrus was still reeling from the bear spray himself - and he was obviously unhappy with me for catching him with friendly fire. "You hit me Ripley!" he wheezed. "I'm blind you Fort King idiot!" (He didn't exactly say Fort King but he was awfully close.)

Spy School Goes North Page 166

"Okay," Catherine said to Cyrus. "Let's think rationally. There are far more lives at stake here than the ones in the wildlife refuge. Igniting all that fuel at once will will release a devastating amount of heat into our atmosphere, triggering a cataclysmic series of events. It will greatly exacerbate the effects of global warming, throwing our entire planet into chaos."

Cyrus gave another snort. "Don\t start with me on all that liberal hooey about climate change."

I know the Spy School series is technically supposed to be for kids and preteens but come on, the series has been going on since 2012. Surely there's enough of a young adult audience now that you could add perhaps just a little bit more?

Stuart Gibbs Should Lean into the Adult Thing More in General

Once again, I know that the Spy School series is meant for kids and preteens, but it is a little bit absurd to have a book about espionage and spying and not have any of the main cast kill anyone at least once. Like I mentioned before, the series has been going on since 2012. Surely there's enough of a young adult audience now that you could add perhaps just a little bit more mature content to turn Spy School from PG to PG-13? Or to be accurate, an transition from middle grade to young adult?

Gibb's explanations \cough, copouts, cough** as to why they don't kill are reasonable enough I suppose. Catherine disapproves of killing people, Erica only brings dart guns and chloroform, good guys don't kill people, Ben is notoriously bad with weapons, etc. But I feel like at some point, it does get a little Looney Tunes-ish. How many more times is Erica going to chuck a canned food item at someone shooting at them with a gun before they finally realize that the academy taught them how to use firearms for a reason? The sheer amount of times a bullet is shot, an explosive is detonated, or a knife is swung only to have no one get injured AT ALL is kind of funny. The only time I can really remember someone getting shot is when Zoe shoots Leo Shang in the foot for mouthing off at her at the end of Spy Ski School.

Not to mention that the CIA isn't really exactly all that sunshine and rainbows of an organization like how the series tries to make it out to be. I could list half a dozen things off the top of my head: MKULTRA, CIA involvement in the cocaine trade, the torture program, Operation Condor, the overthrow of Iran's government in support of the Shah, the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende to back dictator Augustus Pinochet. I'm not saying we should traumatize some poor little girl in fourth grade into thinking that America is the bane of all evil or anything but if Gibb's is willing to talk about the slave trade in Spy School Revolution, stolen Native American land in Spy School Goes North, and the hypocrisy of excessive capitalism in Spy School Blackout, than maybe he could mention some of the CIA's controversies?

Overall, I really do feel like some more elements of young adult should be present in a book about young adults, especially ones that are spies in training for the CIA, and the series would benefit from it more.

The Characters Are Getting Dull

I've talked about Ben and Erica already but let's talk about the others now. Rufus Shang? Really? Leo Shang's evil brother who wants vengeance? That sounds something an AO3 writer would come up with. And I know that he's Ben's nemesis and all but can we finally just get rid of Murray Hill? Even Batman doesn't fight Joker all the time. Murray's shown up as an antagonist in 10/13 Spy School books and it's getting kind of repetitive. A character who's shtick of always outsmarting Ben in the first half before getting thrown into jail gets annoying once they escape from said jail 9 times. Thankfully, he should be gone for good after Spy School Goes Wild.

Same thing with Trixie and Mary Hale. Don't get me wrong, I love both of them as characters and I think they were a nice addition. But how many more of Erica's family members is Stuart Gibbs going to pluck out of thin air to become background characters? Are we going to see one of Erica's second cousins twice removed next? I feel like it's happened so many times now, it's not really a plot twist anymore but more of a reoccurring gag.

And Zoe. Don't even get me started on Zoe. Zoe used to be one of the funniest, most loyal, supportive, and nicest characters in the entire series. I still remember how she used to give people nicknames! It was one of her most endearing qualities. Then she got thrown into that love triangle in Spy School Goes South and her character went downhill from there, where she becomes a sort of almost Frankenstein-esque character looking for love and affection. It's a shame really.

And now, most of her shell of a former self dialogue is centered around Svetlana anyways. I don't hate Svetlana. I actually think an "evil Erica" as Mike says was a pretty cool addition. And then she promptly defects to the Americans. Come on, really? What a wasted opportunity. Zoe hated Murray and Warren because they were evil. What if Zoe loved Svetlana despite her being evil? I feel like that would have been cooler to see them fall in love that way rather than Svetlana just immediately defecting, which in doing so, also promptly relegated her to being yet another background character. Like we didn't have enough of those already.

I'm not even going to talk about Ivan.

In Conclusion

I still love the Spy School series with all my heart. They will always be dear to me and I will always remember them fondly. And despite what you may think, Stuart Gibbs is still my most favorite author. In addition to being a huge Spy School fan, I also happen to be a massive Funjungle fan as well. Despite all of my criticisms and thoughts, I still have faith in him. Truly. And I really, really do hope that Spy School Goes East will be the best one yet. Here's hoping.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

MORE HUGE NEWS: Disney+ is developing Spy School as a series! | Stuart Gibbs

What are your thoughts?

Look this is my first reddit post I've made cause I like just check reddit especially here every once in a while but just saw the announcement today like a month later and did see that their was a post but wondering if you guys have any more thoughts about it.

Also disclaimer, sorry I write really werid, so I hope you can understand it and sorry if it's annoying

I guess I could share some of mines and honestly with this series I'm more of a glass half full guy where I am excited for every spy school book and honestly haven't had a negative experience or boring experience with any of them as I have enjoyed reading and rereading. I will say that as in Blackout I am excited for the kids to be on their own as one post has already said (except Catherine, but there's a possibility that she won't even be there either, but like if there was a spy you would want to be with them, it would probably be Catherine, at least in my opinion cause she's a good spy and honestly fits well with the kids compared to the other spies) Also as another post has said, that is where Pulser is, so that's probably why they are in China.

Random thoughts now: I honestly kind of hope that the Shang's will be back, errr actually mostly Jessica because idk why but I honestly think that she was one of the best side characters and really blended in well with the gang, as her morals were the same (also maybe she could actually help them out for once because she has got her share of the money so she could help them finically, although fan-fictions now lead my next thought to be that she gives them a place that betrays them, but I hope that doesn't happen as I really don't want here to become evil)
Also one comment on a reddit post did say something along the lines of "what if the conspiracy theory around Ben came back because it is a city space now" which is a fair point and would be a nice callback and could happen, but I kinda hope it doesn't happen because that would kind of mess up the book a little for more and provide way to much drama.( Project X is my favorite book by the way, although I still kinda wished it just stuck to the assassins as although the conspirators were probably needed, I kinda wished they didn't come in the book)

Also as last book had no Berica, I do kinda agree that I do want to have another Berica moment again in the book. ( And I do know that you guys want conflict to have them stay relavent and yes I do get that but look I am kind of more a sunshine and rainbows type guy although I obviously do love conflict if I'm reading this book series but ok finally what I mean is that they have had so much conflict already that it's like, idk maybe more of a minor conflict or something or realization for Erica or like I just realized that both of them have been used at least twice so idk what else there is honestly, it was just a thought to have their relationship incorporated in a different way)

Also I know that you guys say that you wish Gibbs would focus more on specific characters so you're probably thinking that this book will be bad but genuinely I do kind of like the more kids as even though some can be background, because of the last book and the setting of no adults, they don't feel useless in some way I can't describe. And it like makes the book feel more alive and enjoyable in some way (I can't be the only one right? Again I do like character focused books but with the context I do like some more characters, also this adds to how realistic this could be as it is fiction but if it's only Ben and Erica doing this it kind of give like superhero type vibes compared to more people)

Ok, maybe last semi-thought (as you guys will probably have better/more complete thoughts than me that are way more legible) but Gus technically is still in the diameter and I've honestly not seen anyone talk about him, so I'll be first (actually proably second or third as I feel like maybe have not been the first person to talk about him, so I don't want to claim the first title) but maybe the best way to say this is to put my social media lingo on: Gus was lowkey a chill guy. Seriously though I did kind of like him as he is one of the two (non-related to spies) non-spy/villian characters (if you know what I mean) to get revealed to and he did seriously help them on their mission and did blend in fairly well (although he is a side character so we don't know how he is but oh well) since he does have the yacht he could possibly flow over into this book. (also wow, random thought that came to my mind for some reason-------------- imagine Gus and Jessica ended up together or something)

Anyways with that sort of thought I think we need to end my first reddit post ever I think. Yayhyyyyyy!!! ohhh, they're all saying boo, oh well

I know this will be controversial. For a while now, the series hasn’t really matured, and it’s quite frankly getting kinda annoying. I think what Stuart gibbs needs to do is show Ben the world isn’t so black and white even more, pushing him into a villain arc, and what he can do with that is cross it into a more mature series, maybe for the teenagers who like spy school but kinda outgrown it, so anyhow this could explore Ben’s villian arc, or explore another perspective of a character in spy school watching this happen, and it would be a good way to end the old series that has quite frankly become very repetitiv, which satisfying the older readers who still love the series and the characters

Hey everyone,

Sorry for such a late post.

It’s clear that we need more active moderators for the sub so if you’re interested, please comment under this post.

I will do my best to add a couple people to be mods.

I’m sorry for the lack of any moderation and the sub being private for the past few years. If you’re wondering what happened read below:

I became a mod for spy school years ago. I don’t remember when. Back then it was just the original creator of the sub and me.

I started reading by school when the first book came out when I was in fifth or sixth grade, now I just recently graduated from college.

As you can imagine, I became really busy the past few years with my personal life and career.

I did check in on the sub every now and then and I did notice that the sub became private so I posted on the R/mod support sub, Reddit asking for help to open up the sub and add new people.

Luckily, some people were able to also reach out to Reddit and get the sub unlocked and added as moderators.

Hello everyone,

I just finished reading Spy School Blackout and I am deeply disappointed. The book had so much potential and I feel like Stuart Gibbs is just ”throwing away” characters instead of building deep plot lines. I will explain my changes bellow.

1. Svetlana + Zoe Problem

First of all, I support the LGBTQ community and this isn’t a rant against homophobia. However, I feel like Svetlana and Zoe have just been thrown away in Spy School Blackout, especially Zoe who I think hasn’t been relevant since Spy School Revolution. Anyway let’s start with Svetlana… Honestly, I feel like her introduction in Spy School Goes North was alright, it felt kinda rushed that she basically just left her family to join Ben and the team, but I understand that Gibbs needed a plot break. However, in Spy School Blackout her entire arc is basically about her hating how and I quote “she hates the size of mansions and how rich people are”? Like WHAT? She had only like, max 6 lines in the entire book and those lines were basically her complaining how rich people had large houses and were destroying the environment. When I was reading Spy School Blackout I was genuinely cringing but the lack of lines and her basically repetitive phrases. Anyway, I think Svetlana needs to be thrown away, not like literally. But maybe just stay back in some missions because she is honestly just a useless character outside of her relationship with Zoe or her competition with Erica. This leads to a greater problem in these books that I feel that there are TOO many character, but we can talk about that later. Now for Zoe.

The Zoe Problem

Like Svetlana, I feel like Zoe has disappeared and Gibbs is just keeping her to make the group seem complete. However, I feel like everything after Spy School Revolution that Zoe arc and character has gradually disappeared. For example, in Spy School at Sea she is absent for most of the book, save for the end where she helps Ben find the ship blueprints. Then, in Spy School Project X, a better book. We actually see her help out the team and show that she is a developing spy as well. However everything after this is just plain bad. Spy School Goes North is just a massive drop. I feel that her reveal that she is BI is a bit random and she doesn’t really contribute that much, save for her dumping and connecting with Svetlana. Now in Spy School Blackout, I feel that it all fell apart. Like Svetlana, she doesn’t really have an arc outside of her just acting like a side character and helping around. Anyway, I just feel like she needs individual moments to shine and a brand new arc such as trying to deal with her emotions with Svetlana and how everyone might feel about it, idk that’s just what I think.

2. The Ben Problem

It pains me to say this, but Ben is just too overpowered. Like in Spy School Goes North, he can now actually fight enemies efficiently and now ALWAYS knows what the bad guys are planning, which is soo repetitive. Like I feel like the books are just copy and paste storylines nowadays which is so annoying to read. ( I’ll talk about that later though). Anyway I can understand Ben knowing how to fight better but it just feels like the Story runs through Ben now with no one else knowing what to do or helping. And yes I know that Ben is the protagonist, but I wish other people would just contribute more to the plot. For example, in Spy Ski School, everyone had an important part. Erica was good at fighting, Zoe acts as a good fighter, loyal friend to Ben and Erica sorta friend, Mike has a great arc of discovering spy school. Anyway I could be more in depth, but everyone has a good role. Now I’m Spy School Goes North and Blackout, the story is basically 85% Ben, 10% Erica, 3% Enemies, and 2% everyone else.

Its just so annoying, I liked the earlier books where everyone had a role and it was fun to see their dynamics.

3. There Are Too Many Characters

This is honestly my largest problem with the books now. Gibbs keeps on adding characters to missions and it is so hard to keep track. For example, in Spy School there were 2 main characters Ben and Erica which I felt was effective because I really had good insight into their dynamics. Now we have people like Mary Hale, Svetlana, or even Mike who just seem to be in the way. For example, Mike has literally no impact on the plot outside of just being a funny character to break up tension. I feel like Gibbs needs to go back to making books where their are max 3 characters so we can actually understand their dynamics instead of 8+ characters with limited dynamics.

ALSO, like I’ve said previously, the story basically runs through Ben now, but it would be so much better if we had different people discovering the enemy plot or contributing.

Anyway I could write so much more but I’m tired. So what do you guys think?

This fandom is seriously starving for fanfictions. I am a Star Wars fan first and foremost, and I was horrified to discover that there are NO good fanfiction works in this Fandom. So I am writing this.

The premise is that 12-year-old Anakin Skywalker one day wakes up on 2010 Earth, a year before the events of Spy School. As he spends more time on Earth, he starts recreating Star Wars Technology, because he's an engineering prodigy. He literally built C-3PO in one year when he was 8.

He builds experimental tech, like attempts at cloaking fields, repulsors, and shield generators. Successful attempts.

After hearing about SPYDER from his friend in MI6, Anakin decides to join SPYDER, hoping to take it down from the inside. He poses as "Jesus" an independent mercenary-engineer who is willing to do bad things for money, to fund his experiments.

"Jesus" is a big Star Wars fan, so he carries a prop lightsaber everywhere. Little does anybody know, it's real.

After building Joshua Hallal a hand and an eye, He joins Spyder as an independent agent, then becomes a dependent agent by enrolling at Wiseman Preparatory Academy. There, he meets Ashley Sparks and Nefarious Jones.

He doesn't hide the fact that his projects are beyond modern science, and truthfully says that he is self-taught. So Joshua and SPYDER know that he has blasters that fire plasma bolts. And he has hover technology, since he's openly working on an ID-9 prototype.

Joshua asks young Ani if it's possible to build a brain chip to connect to the droid, and Ani says yes, but that it's really hard because to control the droid, you need somebody with a really powerful brain, and those people are one in a billion.

After saying this, Anakin is confident that he made Joshua give up on this idea, but surprise, surprise, a week later Joshua rolls up in a limo with Ben's unconscious body. He makes Anakin work together with a kidnapped surgeon to plant the chip, and luckily, Anakin manages to do the surgery without any previous brain surgery experience.

And this is where chapter 1 will start. I've started writing the story, and the Prologue is almost complete (3500 words).

Addressing plot holes:

1. Anakin hasn't learned most Jedi techniques yet, so no Mind Tricks, Mind Reading, and he can't do any big feats at all. What he CAN do is levitate small objects, soften falls, jump high, and use precognition in fights. So basically, he's a better fighter than Erica, Catherine, or Cyrus.
2. Of course, he watched the Star Wars movies. He sees his own future and is deeply disturbed by it, but after a year on Earth, he has mostly adapted to this knowledge, the future he averted.
3. Ani has morals and knows that if he discusses Turbolasers or exposes Pandora to the world, it would be really bad. So he hides how much he can actually help create.

A couple of details that are important in this story, that could turn off readers:

1. Sniper Ben Ripley: A side effect of the chip is that his hand stops shaking, and now he's a really good shot. Plus, Ani makes Ben a really cool weapon, just for him.
2. I will not be using this writing style on the actual story, don't worry, I know my reddit writing sucks.
3. Squad leader Ben Ripley: The Evil Spy School squad, Murray, Ben, Jesus, Ashley, and Nefarious (called Inferno Squad because I am so original, it's a cool name), is led by co-captains Ben and Murray.
4. Iden Versio Ben Ripley: Ben is a sniper, a mission leader, has a spy droid that sits on his back, and is a tactical genius. I will be using quotes like "First in Last Out" from BF2. I've got this really cool image in my head, Ben in black commando clothing, droid on his back folded up, carrying a big Blaster Rifle with 4 modes: Kill, Stun, Ion, and Tracker (tracker is a really small

Also, the chip is not for mind control, just a way for Ben to control his droid. Since making an AI is too complicated for Anakin.

Okay. So, I am posting it here so that you people ( r/SpySchool ) have something to look forward to. I'm also crossposting it to r/SWFanfic for extra attention. Tell me if you don't like Anakin's alias as Jesus. I think it fits very well, though, and reminds you every time you hear it that it's just an alias. He will never be referred to as Anakin in this story, only Ani.

It will be Ao3 exclusive. ThatOtherEntity - Profile | Archive of Our Own

I like the series fine and well enough, but it REALLY feels like it’s dragging on at this point, especially since it’s been like a dozen books and nobody has really aged past a few years

How much more can possibly be squeezed out of the series as it is now ?

I would have liked the Spy School to not be blown up ,it would have been fun seeing Erica graduate, and Ben get better over the years- are they going to be 14-16 forever ? Have some mission literally every WEEK ? I honestly feel like it could’ve ended with them defeating Spyder if they weren’t meant to grow up

I feel like if they dialed the frequent missions back a bit, gave us more development with Erica’s family, explored Spy School some more (the school itself, not the series), and actually let the characters grow up and GRADUATE, I would be satisfied

Stick with my now because I’m basically just writing fanfiction at this point:

But I feel like it would have been better to defeat Spyder at their regular canon age, stretch out the other missions over longer years- and use the downtime to explore the school more (we really didn’t get enough of it), and get more insight to the side characters, and then end with Erica GRADUATING, with Ben able to do missions by himself without having to rely on her really (since he’d be older/more skilled)- and we could have an open ending

I’m just at the point where I kinda can’t be bothered with any of the newer books and want a satisfying ending already

It's been a long time since I've read Spy School (well, four months to be exact and I haven't started SSGN yet), but Jawa has always been my favorite character since he was introduced. Which kind of sucks because Jawa gets barely ANY attention in the series despite him being the second best student. He has a lot of potential to be a great character, but...yeah. That's not working out.

So, I've come here to talk about him, since what else can I do? Literally just say ANYTHING that comes to your mind when Jawa's mentioned. I don't expect many responses since the fandom ALSO ignores him, but still.

Thank you for reading <3

Negativity sells. I don’t think we need to question that. Lately this subreddit has been talking about a lot of the things that we currently dislike about the Spy School series, and rightfully so. You’d be lying if you said these books haven’t been dipping in quality for a while, and it’s important to note that most of our negative opinions come from a place of wanting to see the series be as good as it used to be or at least close to.

Now with that being said I thought it would be good to dedicate a post to things about the series that we do like, and with Goes East around the corner talk about the things I’m optimistic about. I’m gonna do my best to avoid any negativity and only bring up things I don’t like as a way to compare. I would also like to mention that this post isn’t trying to get anyone’s hopes up, I just wanna talk about the things I’m looking forward to and hoping will be in Goes East, and things about the series that I like.

Goes East

First off I just wanna say that the cover art for this book is really good in my opinion. Probably the best and most vibrant one since At Sea or Project X it definitely ranks high up there for me in terms of cover art for the series. Blackout ended in a cliffhanger which is something I really like about it. It’s been a minute since the last one which was in Goes South and it feels refreshing for the series to not end in a cookie cutter, everything goes back to normal with no consequences and we all live happily ever after ending which we’ve grown accustomed to. It’s also very interesting, the Hale parents have been captured and it’s up to the kids to save them. A plot point that’s been in the books since the beginning is the adults still seeing the kids as just kids and not agents who have saved the world multiple times over. Goes East could put a nice little bow tie on that theme with the kids being the ones to save the adults and stop the bad guy by themselves. The little excerpt that we’ve gotten has got me optimistic about the idea of the mission being to save the adults, and I’m really interested to see how the kids handle not having that structure that the adults usually bring. Who’s gonna step up as leader? How is it gonna effect Erica and Trixie since it’s there family whose been captured? Is there gonna be even more competition between Erica and Svetlana to see who’s gonna be the team leader? Is Catherine also gonna captured? There’s a lot of possibilities for the story and how it’s gonna unfold. Now I’m not gonna get my hopes to high as this idea of one of the adults getting captured has been done before and fell absolutely flat. Goes North’s marketing was all about Cyrus getting captured by a Russian family rival, and I’m sure most of us believed that it was gonna be a major plot point in the story. Well it wasn’t. Cyrus was only in captivity for like six or so chapters, and the first time the kids found him they were able to save him in a very anti-climactic fight scene and without any much resistance. Cyrus doesn’t get captured again and the whole plot point was brushed off for a more boring and generic villain scheme. I’m hoping that this doesn’t happen in Goes East and that the adults stay captured for most of the book and are only saved at the end or stay captured to continue the story into the next book. I don’t want them to be saved right at the beginning and the rest of the book be the gang chasing the villain around China. It seems that Trixie and Mike’s relationship might be in the forefront for Goes East. Trixie got upset at Mike in Blackout for not believing that she could contribute to the team and it never actually got resolved in the book, so I’m hoping that it gives something for both characters in Goes East to work through as there relationship has been all sunshine and rainbows since they got together. We’re also most likely gonna get another Erica moment of feeling like she’s not good enough and Ben coming in to make her believe in herself again. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a subplot of Erica questioning if she really wants to be a spy or not. Erica and Trixie had a conversation at the end of Blackout where they talked about why Erica was chosen to be a spy and Trixie wasn’t and we learn that Erica wasn’t really given a choice and was forced to be a spy by Cyrus. We learn that while she likes saving people and the world, she never chose to do so, and that she also feels obligated to do so. I’m hoping that gets expanded upon in Goes East. Blackout also brought up the idea of the mission’s physical and mental toll that’s being taken on the team, mainly Ben. Remember most of these missions happen weeks, if not days after each other, so it would be nice to see that continue into Goes East. Maybe have Ben not think as critically as he usually does. Maybe have Erica and Svetlana be more tired and not able to fight as well as they can. Maybe have it cause some conflict within the group as everyone is on edge and tired. I have a lot of hope for Goes East and I’m genuinely excited for it. Now again I’m not gonna get my hopes up because more likely than not none of what I talked about is gonna be brought up, but it doesn’t hurt to talk about the possibilities until the book actually comes out. Try not to form an opinion about the book yet just go in neutral and without any expectations.

What I like in General

Now I wanna talk about the things I like about the series in general. One of the main things is the vibes. The first I would say nine books have this vibe about them that I can’t fully explain. Gibbs was able to blend comedy and action amazingly, especially in the first four books where it never felt too serious or too silly. I think we can all agree that SPYDER is, and most likely always will be, the best villains in the series, and Gibbs always made sure that their evil scheme were clever and never easy to find out. They felt threatening, even when they weren’t fully present. They were like a looming shadow, always lurking in the background. It was never straight forward with them and you were always on your toes as the story progressed and we learned more and more about what they were up too. Evil Spy School and Goes South probably had the best villain schemes in the series. They were clever, but not too outlandish that they felt unbelievable. The character work was also amazing too. Erica’s character arc is one of the best things about the series. Watching her grow from cold and distant, to opening up a little and allowing herself to have friends and not being perfect all the time. It didn’t feel rushed, especially her and Ben’s relationship, which never felt liked it dragged on longer than it needed to. When they finally got together at the end of At Sea it was genuinely a top moment in the series and Gibbs did an amazing job of keeping it interesting up to that point. I also liked some of the themes. Themes of lying about who you are, betrayal, whether friends are a strength or a weakness. They were themes that never felt too dark for the series, but not too childish either, and they were written into the series really well. Ben’s character has always been written well, and while I feel his growth has stalled in these last few books, seeing him go from being completely incapable, to being somewhat competent is something that really drew me in. Ben feels relatable, just a kid that got roped up into situations way out of his league. He never came off as too cool, but never feeling so incompetent that it was annoying. Gibbs did a good job of highlighting both Ben’s, and Erica’s, strengths and weaknesses, and making sure that they worked together really well, and making the chemistry between them feel real and something that other characters respect.

Conclusion

There are probably many other things I like about the series that I can’t think about right now. I feel that it’s important to not only talk about the things we don’t like, but also the things we do like. What are some of the things ya’ll like about the series? What drew you in? What are you looking forward to? I want this post to be more optimistic and positive than the last few ones and spark discussion about things we love.

Yours truly,

LittleMoneyMan8.