Hi everyone –
I have been deluged with questions since Spy School Revolution came out, and while I have been doing my best to answer them, I have noticed that there are categories of questions that come up again and again. So rather than answering them repeatedly, I figured I’d try to address them in a blog post.
Category One: Questions about what is going to happen in future books
This is the type of question I get asked the most and there’s a simple reason why I feel it would be better not to answer them: Because it will ruin future surprises in the books for you — and this ruin some of the fun of reading those books.
You hate spoilers, right? Well, asking me to tell you who Ben Ripley will end up with — or whether or not a character you like is going to reappear in a future book — or really anything about the future of any series — is asking me to spoil something for you. I know you want to find out what’s in store, but I promise you, the less you know about what’s coming, the more fun the read will be.
Category Two: Questions about things that didn’t get answered in the books
If I didn’t share a piece of information with you in the book, that wasn’t an oversight. It’s because I didn’t want to share that piece of information. Often, this is because I’m saving it to reveal in another book.
For example, I know there are some questions left at the end of SSR. But if I had wanted to answer those questions, I would have. I promise, they will eventually be answered — although I think most of you could probably make very educated guesses about what happened.
Category Three: Questions about obscure things
An author can’t possibly tell you every single thing that happened to every single character over the course of their lives. Honestly, we can’t possibly even imagine all those things. We have to leave many things out of the story. So if you’re writing to ask what happened to a character after the Moon Base Alpha series ended — or what a character likes for breakfast — or when a character’s birthday is — or whether someone likes cats or dogs better — the answer is honestly: I don’t know. Whatever you imagine the answer to be is good enough for me.
Category Four: Questions about what my characters look like
I get a lot of requests to specifically describe characters which is because I didn’t specifically describe many of them in my books. That’s because, frankly, I don’t think extremely specific character descriptions are very helpful. My own experience is that, no matter how specifically a character is described, I probably imagine them the way I want to anyhow. So I’m pretty sure that you do the same. Therefore, whatever you imagine a character to look like is what they look like.
Now, this doesn’t really work for graphic novels or movies. You will very obviously see the characters in the graphic novels, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that is the only way they can look. It’s just one version. The chances are very slim that any character will look exactly as you imagined them in the graphic novel — or the movie. There is nothing i or anyone else can do about this. That’s just the way things are. Try not to be disappointed.
And finally, this is probably the question I get asked more than any other, even though it is answered elsewhere on this site:
Category Five: Questions about how many books will be in each series
I can’t answer a question I don’t know the answer to. And right now, I do not know how long each series will go. Sorry.
Hi Mr. Gibbs! I’m a huge fan of your books, especially spy school. I think my favorite Spy School Revolution. I was about as stunned to learn that Erica has a sister as I was to learn that Rey from Star Wars(Equally as cool as Erica.) was a Palpitine. I hope that Trixie gets to be a great spy one day just like her sister. Who knows, maybe they’ll be a dynamic duo, and Ben can’t decide which one is better. Maybe, Ben and Trixie will end up together! I can’t WAIT to see what happens in the next book! If I don’t figure out what happens next I will EXPLODE.
I literally am soo exited about the next book Mr. Gibbs i cant wait and i dont think you should ever stop writing spy school books cuse their soo good as u can probably guess by my grammer im only like 11 years old but i mean i cant wait tilll the nexy BOOK!!!!!
Also Mr Gibbs im literlly going crazty on locdown and i need aanother SS book 2 reed or ill probably go mad!!
“Next”
I NEED ANNOTHER SS BOOK OR I’LL GO CRAZY ON LOCKDOWN
a mysterious fan –
Thank you, I agree that the Rick Riordan series is good.
Hi Mr. Gibbs,
Is Zan Perfonic comfortable with any other languages and communicated with other species? I’ve noticed that in most of the Spy School books you have noted a specific topic about climate change, will any book extensively cover that topic like when SPYDER’s mission in ?
Thank you!
–Anonymous
Anonymous –
Who (or what) Zan has been in contact with is a Question I Can’t Answer. (See my post about those.)
By my count, climate change has only been mentioned in one SS book. I have to admit, I am a little bit confused by your question. Could you be more specific about what you are asking?
Mr Gibbs,
You said you can’t answer the question about Zan in the comment above, but isn’t the series over, so why keep things classified?
Dhruv –
Please read this post. Not every question is unanswerable because it’s classified.
will Zoe be Ben’s girlfriend
Zoe –
As this very post says, there are many questions I can’t answer. Please read this post again.
I was considering if you would incorporate a story of Alexander Hale’s early life as a spy into the spy school series? Perhaps a plot regarding Alexander’s participation in intelligence gathering during 1991 gulf war in Iraq or intelligence missions during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999?
Fallujah –
If I were to do something about Alexander’s early life, I would not base it on. anything that really happened in the world.
in spy school goes south why did alexander have like a dramatic act out of the revoulutionary war? he didnt live in it so it doesnt make sense to me me.
Just Curious –
If you haven’t noticed, the Copy School books are not to be taken seriously. There are plenty of things that defy far more logic in the series that what you’ve pointed out.
spy school books are the best period.
Hello Mr. Gibbs! You probably aren’t going to read this because you have better things to do than reading your website’s comments, but like many others, I’m a huge fan. I’ve been reading your books since 2019, which doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but I was born in 2011. One question I have though is that Teddy and his parents moved to Texas because of a war in the Congo, and of course Teddy grew up there, but he’s named after a president of the Usa, which makes me wonder, are his parents from Congo or the usa, since they named their child after a person in the states instead of maybe a famous person the first one. Just a passing thought
Achinthya Karanji –
I did read your comment — just as i read all reader comments on this site.
Teddy’s parents are not originally from the Congo. They just worked there.
However, I have met many people in Africa who were named after US presidents.
Dear Mr.Gibbs
can you please just reply to this comment I’m a big fan.
Catherine is cool –
Thanks for being a fan.