Story Line: 9
Puzzles: 3
Pictures: 6
Endings: 4
Writing Style: 4
Story Line:This one is really neat. A rebel Spy, Valeeta, who looks like some sort of upright bug, is causing trouble on a planet called Delbor. You and Callisto together try to find a way to stop Valeeta; there are two clues as to where she is, and you each go to a separate city. It turns out that the two cities(of the Choons and Ro-Zins) have not been on speaking terms and until they are reunited they cannot access some secrets left behind by another galactic race.
Puzzles:Overall they are almost shamefully easy, and you get too many re-trials. None are very memorable, either.
Pictures:Callisto isn't quite as cool(too muscular here. He's better FAT) as in the Star Crystal but there's a cool one where he swings on a vine(although there's one where he looks like he's wearing lipstick--noot cool!) Although he yells and grins a lot, he's lost some squarish shape and he's not the cool semi-ugly dude he was. But other than that the pictures are cool. Choons, Ro-zins, and Glorids all look cool, along with some troglodytes called Poddians, as do Valeeta and her pet ogar. There's also this spiky-headed(NOT haired) guy called Qubex with some long arms who sprays Choon and Ro-Zin disguises on you and Callisto respectively. Your ship is the coolest in the series--glass spheres linked together with metal tubes. However, there are some pictures that take up the whole page when they don't need to. And there is one where your head seems unintentionally out of place.
Endings:You find your doom in many ways, so the pictures are cool, but there are too many snappy one-liners. Although they are vaguely amusing(you get bored and turn into a pile of bones in one ending) they're overall not great quality. In addition the two endings from multiple puzzles are over-general and don't quite fit the story.
Writing Style:Not badly done, but Neufeld's writing is a bit irritating. "Too bad, Spy!" or "Good work, spy!" are too common. More description would be nice. And there is a fault with Qubex being a reprogrammable android. That would make him a bad contact for Interplanetary Spies on Delbor--although perhaps Valeeta's knowledge of Glorid science might enable her to "hack" him, it's never mentioned, so I don't quite buy it. Also there is a fault when the Poddians claim they will die if they leave the light of their caves--then you see them fleeing into a tunnel after burning Valeeta's spaceship, which is above-ground by a forest. But there is a lot of action to make the book exciting, and it's the only one where you really work with another spy on stopping Valeeta, even if you never hear how Callisto got the key(he seems to have taken it by force or guile, unlike you!) Fan fiction time?
| Pages | Side choices | Puzzle | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2-3 | 18-39 | # of sides of polygon: 1,2,4,? | 1 |
| 39 | 30 | Line goes through which square on grid? | 1 |
| 41-42-43 | 5 | # of lines in LCD display(!) | 1 |
| 20-21 | 17 | ID a piece of map, zoomed in. | 2 |
| 25-26 | 56 | Which bar in the illusion is longer? | 2 |
| 31-32-33-34-59-60 | 8 | Black/white inverse of a shape? | 1 |
| 50-27-28-48 | 9, 14 | Maze. | 1 |
| 71-62-63 | 12 | Which buttons form a symbol? | 2 |
| 57 | 72-57 | How many right angles in non-convex polygon? | 2 |
| 10-13-15-6 | 36 | How many topographical lines? | 2 |
| 69-70-11 | 4 | Remember the map and which direction to go. | 1 |
| 35-80-81-82-73 | 29 | Put twigs on rocks to cross a river. | 2 |
| 84-75-76-77-16 | 37 | One shape does not fit. | 2 |
| 7-19 | 38 | Which keys cover the dots in a diagram? | 1 |
| 92-22-23-24 | 40 | Look for Glorid building | 0 |
| 61 | 119-93 | Maze to Joujan | 1 |
| 100-93-108 | 46 | Two vines to jump on building. Which is right length? | 1 |
| 74-49-85-86-44-45-52-64 | 103-64 | Which shape completes the repeating pattern? | 1 |
| 58-65 | 40 | Which way through the city? (What does end of skimcraft look like?) | 2 |
| 97 | 114 | 4 squares make a body when put together. | 1 |
| 68 | 53 | Straight line is broken. Find its continuation. | 1 |
| 109 | 55-102 | 2 arrows move like a clock--find the pattern! | 1 |
| 101-102-54-115 | 104-78 | Which plant has all even numbered leaves? | 1 |
| 66-67-78-94-116 | 56 | Combine three line drawings. What is the result? | 2 |
| 83-79-117-105-118-112 | 111 | Shapes are put in/removed. Find missing entry in pattern. | 3 |
| 89-90-91-107-95-96 | 106-99 | Illusion. 3 hexagons have same number of lines through them. | 2 |
| 99-113-110-98-51 | 87 | Key combination(which in which lock?) and rotation(which way?) | 2 |
| 47-88-120 | The end! |