It is a fun, simple story. There is a little danger, a little mystery, aliens, decoder rings and hero worship that may just turn out to be misplaced. It isn’t that nothing is going on but the story is not what you would call deep. There is no convoluted plot, no angst ridden teens, no heart rending turmoil or heart stopping terror. And you sort of meander through the plot. None of those things are bad however. It isn’t slow, just laid back. You get to follow Watson as he tries to save the world and finds out that his father might not be as crazy as he always thought. It is filled with quirky characters that sometimes go a little over the top but that just gives the book a fun comic booky feel. It is simply fun to read. It is, of course, silly, the phrase ‘something that is almost exactly like something that is not quite the same as cold cherry Jell-O' gets repeated over and over, furnaces are run by chocolate cereal, there are gopher armies and secret messages in mail order catalogues. But it all just adds to the campy, Saturday afternoon fun of the story. It is very light reading that is good for kids but I think anyone who enjoys the old serials or old TV superheroes will like it. ( )