Questions1) In this book the Yeerks finally decide to start looking into the rumor that started way back in #4; that the Animorphs may be human after all. They do this through collecting blood left behind at battles and finding traces of human blood and comparing it to other samples throughout the city. Does this seem like a plausable plan? Clearly it works in the context of the novel, but should it have worked? Does the science there make sense? Is it the Yeerks best bet of finding the Animorphs?Being as there were some Yeerks who suspected that the 'Andalite bandits' were in fact human, I think the blood study project should have happened a long time ago realistically. Also, the break-in at The Gardens was another example of an illogical plot hole on KA's part (like it has been mentioned, people tend to bash the ghostwriters, but the general plot is often fairly KA's responsiblity, it is only the details of the execution that can fairly be blamed on KA; even then I would like to think that in editing/reviewing the work submitted by the ghostwriters that KA would have rejected anything she though wasn't within her standards, so I think it is just as fair to judge the weaknesses as well as the praise as a result of KA's work). Back to what I was saying, before I so rudely interrupted myself with a parenthetical insert, The Gardens break-in was silly, if the Yeerks were collecting animal blood samples and finding traces of human DNA there would be no cause for them to break-in and steal the original animal samples for comparison, they could care less about the original animal samples when it came to matching up the human DNA, this was just a plot device to allow the Anis to discover that the Yeerks were onto them, and this could have been done another way (i.e. Chee network) and still lead to them finding and going to the blood bank database in the same manner.
Anyways, though I think this plot happening so late in the game and the discovery of it was poorly done, I think the statements about the science 'not making sense' isn't very strongly founded. There simply were not enough details behind
how the morphing technology works initially, but merely having DNA samples floating around in their natural bodies wouldn't make sense, the immune system would work out these over time; later Ax established that the axquired DNA samples were stored in molecular spheres that are supercooled to sub-zero temperatures are are undetectable to the immune system (Although the rare allergy to the morphing technology, as seen in Mertil, would suggest a rare autoimmune disorder where a particularly powerful immune system is capable of detecting the molecular spheres). Presumably, like other Andalite computing technology that was capable of responding to though-speech, the Escafil device implanted some form of nanites that were responsive to the mind's image and thoughts and activated the stored DNA to, through some process create the animal body from the sample while pushing the 'original' body into Z-space and establishing a connection. Though it is never addressed, one could presume that all the samples are pushed into Z-space within the original body, which is why you cannot go directly from one morph to another, but one could also assume that a sample of the 'original' body's DNA is stored in the 'morphed' body so that the technology is capable of drawing back/reconstructing the original body upon demorphing. Therefore, even though it is not established until this book, it makes sense that DNA samples of the humans be present in the animal bodies, given the general science that makes up this sci-fi technology.
And yes, like I said, the Yeerks should have at least gone so far as to firmly establish that the Anis were in fact human through this method much earlier on with only a little amount of investigation of the suspicion, then quickly moved onto the DNA database project much sooner when they realized they were dealing with humans.
2) Clearly the focus of this book is Loren's reintroduction. What do you think about adult-Loren, given what we know about her from TAC?At this point, she is a fully adult character in a children/young adult book, and is now a minor character rather than a central character, so there really isn't much too her after this book. Too me... well I'll finish my thought after the next question...
3) On a similar vein, what do you think about Loren's amnesia? It seems kind of...coincidental.. .that the human who had to have her memory modified by the Ellimist ends up completely losing her memory altogether only a few years later.I think that saying that she had her 'memory modified by the Ellimist' is quite misleading or is a bit of a misunderstanding, as well as some of these other thoughts:
I thought it was really unrealistic that someone would get amnesia just to have a tragic accident later
I always saw the amnesia and accident thing as part of The Ellimist's plan. Like yeah, my reasoning is a little off since she was pregnant when The Ellimist changed Elfangor's timeline but she had her accident after Tobias had been born, but still.
Of course the Ellimist gave her amnesia, but she was able to SOMEWHAT remember a little, piece by piece. But yeah, Ellimist did all that.
Yeah it seems like KA gave Loren an amnesia overload. First she doesn't remember her husband and then she doesn't remember her son...
The misunderstanding here is that The Ellimist didn't modify her memory/give her amnesia. He (it?) allowed the original time-line to progress normally: Elfangor, with the time-matrix, had the ability to decide to either A) return to his people and continue to fight, while the Andalites would remove Loren's memory of her space adventure and place her back on Earth OR B) flee to Earth, live as a human away from the war, marry Loren, impregnate her and so on. Presumably, at this point in the Ellimist/Crayak game, the Ellimist was allowed to ensure that option A was chosen at this point in time (we can call this point in time 'x') in exchange for allowing Crayak some other action elsewhere in the galaxy. However, in his 'not-interfering directly' way, he instead allowed the timeline to continue along Elfangor's choice of option B for several years until Loren was pregnant,
then he moved the impregnation sideways to a parallel time-line (time-line A) while simultaneously moving Elfangor sideways and backwards to the same parallel time-line but back at time 'x'. The result from Elfangor's perspective is that he is placed in the situation he would have reached had he chosen option A, but with the additional memories of several years from the now non-existent time-line B; but from Loren's perspective she went through her space adventure then had her memories of it removed by the Andalites (not Ellimist) and was returned to Earth, but never with Elfangor, she never married him and instead married another man but was several years later impregnated by the child from the parallel time-line (B) rather than her actual husband in this time-line that was ultimately established. Allowing it to progress like this allowed the Ellimist to bring over some effects of timeline B (like Tobias's birth) rather than simply forcing Elfangor into time-line A in the first place.
It sounds complicated in this way, but you just have to visualize the 6-dimensional actions preformed on a 4-dimensional time-line as is described in TAC (and elaborated indirectly upon in other novels); so yes, Loren did experience her space adventure after being abducted, and then had her memory of it removed; but no, in the established time-line she did not return to Earth with Elfangor and have a child, she was returned to Earth alone and without the memory and established an went about her normal life and married in a normal fashion (though impregnated with a fetus from another time-line, unbeknownst to her), had the husband run out on her in a sadly normal Earth way, then had a 'normal' accident and a normal amnesia. Her recovery of flash images of the alien adventure along with flash images of her normal life (like her baby) is an interesting side effect of the accident and her recovery.
Anyways, as far as what I think about Loren's character in this book as opposed to TAC and the coincidence of the accident... it really seems like yes, it is a strangely fantastic coincidence that becomes all too present in the Animorphs books, especially toward the end, which forces a stronger suspension of disbelief than should be the case. I think it was done because the author needed to resolve the positive, strong character established in TAC with the 'present day' parent who abandoned her child; but I see it as a shame that KA was unwilling to let a positive young Loren become an irresponsible and negative character and leave her out of the present day animorphs books, as if we don't want to accept that someone we like could become such an irresponsible mother after her husband walked out on her; while on the other hand the books explored Chapman, a dislikable, unloyal, opportunist of a youth to become entirely self-sacrificing (of his freewill and entire life) to save his daughter. I really liked the theme in this book... well wait until the next question...
4) This book marks a clear turning point in the series. The Animorphs finally decide to tell their parents about the invasion and evacuate them to safety. Do you think that these scenes were well-done, or did they leave you wanting more? What did you think about the parent's reactions?I did think it was pretty well done. Like I was saying, I liked the theme in this books of how, facing unknown and great dangers parents will, without stopping to think or hesitate about it, place themselves in danger to save their children. However, as I was saying about Loren, I don't think it was necessary to make her turn out to not be the irresponsible, possibly druggy person we had reason to believe through the whole series and to instead be a saintly handi-capped person who does nothing but live on low means and volunteer for her church and make comments about how sweet little flies, who only abandoned her child not because she was irresponsible but because she lost her memory and was incapable of raising her child and didn't want him to go through life with an infirm mom when she believed he may be well taken care of by other relatives. It would have been much more powerful to have Loren be the reminder that, though many parents would gladly and unhesitatingly give everything to protect their children, some people who become parents simply are not good, responsible, loving parents regardless of how nice of people they may be.
5) When they go to save Jake's family Jake is too late. His parents have both been made Controllers and Jake takes the risky move of morphing in front of them as a sort of 'in your face' moment. This scene is a turning point for Jake, because his purpose in the war (to save Tom) has been ripped from him. Do you think that Jake's reaction was appropriate? Do you think that this scene would have played out better if it were under Jake's narration?I don't have a lot to say here, other than along the same lines as others, I thought it was a cool, powerful scene; well played as it was and I appreciated it plenty from Tobias' perspective and with his own insights.
6) Anything else?Not a lot else to say, other than that I agree Terenia: I ultimately acknowledge that canon is canon and it is unfair to presume the right to tell an author what he/she can and cannot establish within their creation, but yes I think that #48 could have been completely different and much less silly/damaging to David's return/conclusion. Though again, I see nothing implausible about how the blood bank database story worked out (except possibly that it would have happened much earlier on) in this book.
And Blue M&M, I respect your right to interpret the unknown in whatever way you wish, but I disagree with and tend to avoid your assumption in this last case, because I think the final couple of chapters of #48 was some of the most powerful material in the series (the big redeemer for that book) and that assuming Rachel either did or did not kill him removes the ambiguity that is so much of a powerful tool for KA and is really the whole point in that conclusion; without the ambiguity there is no point to that conclusion and the entire duality that is Rachel's character.
