Like The Deadliest Game, The Ultimate Escape begins with misdirection; Julio appears to be the main character, only to be replaced by Matt and the other members of the Net Force Explorers who try to help him. Julio's opening portion of the novel serves to introduce the situation that will be the focus of events. The focus on Julio is not the only bit of misdirection in the opening; the relationship between Mateo Cortez and Manuel Arias is muddied, awaiting clarification much later in the novel. In addition to this, the opening introduces the mystery of Mateo's betrayal of his brother and the menace that betrayal implies, thus creating elements of suspense that may be developed through the rest of the narrative.

The Ultimate Escape echoes One Is the Loneliest Number's Aristotelian view of the independence of the mind. In One Is the Loneliest Number, characters...