1. Augusta teases Erik for being too neat, too cautious, too precise in his speech, and too obedient to all the rules and procedures in the Trust Control Manual—in short, for being too good. Are her taunts at all justified?

What does Erik learn from her? Could the opposite criticism be made about Augusta? What does she learn from Erik? Do these same issues arise —although in somewhat different forms— in our everyday lives? How should we resolve these questions?

2. Does the Trust Control exert too much authority over the lives of individual citizens? What kind of government exists on the planet Azure? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this government?

3. Erik repeatedly thinks his father would have handled a situation more skillfully. Do we have any evidence that Erik's father was more or less competent than Erik? What do...