The one with Marco’s backstory.

Two years ago his mother died/disappeared at sea. In that time, his father has not really taken that well, leading to a somewhat rough home life.

Meanwhile, Ax tries to call home. This also goes poorly, although probably not how you’d expect.

Capture! A trip to SPACE! Power struggles among the Yeerks! And… a surprise visit from Visser One.

An interesting twist that. Doesn’t make any more sense than a random Assistant Principal being a high placed local Controller, but it works for the book.

Slightly weaker than The Encounter and The Message, but there’s potential for some interesting stories in the future.

Random thoughts

(minor spoilers)

We hoped there were no bird-watchers down in the woods. We made a very unlikely flock - a red-tailed hawk, a falcon, a harrier, a bald eagle, and two ospreys.

See! One eagle/two ospreys. A (very minor) mistake in The Encounter.

<More Hork-Bajir back here! And some of those other ones. The little wrinkled ones!> Cassie yelled. <They’re coming fast!>

And… we still have only hints of these ‘other’ species. It’s common enough worldbuilding (hint at more depth) but it feels sloppy to me.

Dated References

The mall was a zoo. Wall-to-wall people. Old people moving real slow. Married people with squalling babies in big huge strollers. High school kids trying to look cool. Mall police trying to look tough. Good-looking girls carrying bags from The Limited.

Malls again. But also The Limited. You know, I actually thought this was a made up brand for the book (which I suppose given the next examples doesn’t make that much sense). It just isn’t the sort of store I have any interest in for some reason 😄.

In any case, they shut down most of their stores through the 2010s, with the last closing in 2017.

“Okay, where is Radio Shack?“Jake wondered.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Is it up on the second level? You know, down by Sears?”

“Is that it? Or is that Circuit City?”

Basically gone as of 2015. Has apparently gone through bankruptcy a number of times with different owners since.

And Circuit City is more dated at this point (2009), although it lasted online until ~2012.