OMG THE HORK-BAJIR CHRONICLES. Only the best book EVER. I remember the day I read it - May 10, 2001. I remember the exact bench I sat on at the library while I read it before we went home and I finished the book in my room. I even remember that I had a sinus infection!
This is the book that started my obsession with Visser Three as a character. I was already trying NOT to like him, since I very often ended up liking the bad guys in stories and I didn't want to do it again, but then I read THIS book and it was all over.
This is also the book that made me start to appreciate Hork-Bajir as a species. Before, I was all like Andalites are awesome and Hork-Bajir are just the bladey bad guys and not very interesting. But once I read this book, I started liking Hork-Bajir just about as much as Andalites. Yay Horkies! ^__^
1. General thoughts on the major characters and events profiled in this story?I think that what makes this book so awesome is its vivid depictions of the characters and the setting. As RYTX pointed out, the plot structure and overall themes are repeated throughout the overall Animorphs series. But the reason I loved this book is the Hork-Bajir world
I loved that this story featured a female Andalite, and a pretty badass one at that.
I liked the whole idea of the Hork-Bajir seers and felt I could relate to Dak, since I often felt weird and different for being much more intelligent than most other humans. What can I say, it's true.
And OMG ESPLIN. I do not have words for how I felt reading his chapters for the first time. I read this book before I read any of the Aftran books, so this was my first time seeing a Yeerk portrayed in a sympathetic light.
2. What do you think about the rise of the Yeerks? In just a few years they went from inhabiting pools to taking over multiple species. How much of their success is due to their own skills, and how much depended on taking advantage of the technologies and abilities of other species?
I think a lot of it is that they didn't have much else to do before Seerow came. They are pretty much brains without bodies, and their Gedd hosts obviously didn't enable them to do too much tool-making. So when Seerow showed them all this new technology, it's not like they were busy with technology with their own. They were highly intelligent without much of an outlet for it (I have a theory that a lot of their intelligence went into elaborate traditions and mythology pre-Seerow). Seerow gave them that outlet and they went CRAZY. They were like OMG look at all this stuff we can do now!!!!! They were hungry for knowledge and for technological capacity, and Seerow et al. weren't giving it to them fast enough, the Yeerks wanted everything the Andalites had RIGHT NOW and I think THAT is why they rebelled. Plus, Seerow's underlings obviously had no respect for the Yeerks. That didn't help things.
So yeah - they were hungry and motivated. The skills they brought to the table was sheer intellectual curiosity and determination. The technological expertise itself they gleaned from other species.
3. Dak feels that fight against Yeerks will destroy the Hork-Bajir win or lose. Would the Hork-Bajir be fundamentally different had they won the fight? What do you think will become of them if they should take back their world after the events on Earth?
I think that Dak was right. Experiencing violence changes a person, so it would make sense that it would change the people as a whole. I don't think they would suddenly become bloodthirsty killers or anything, but they would be more cautious, more fearful, more jaded. I think that's what is happening to the Hork-Bajir on Earth. If they take back their planet, it will take them many generations to gain back their earlier innocence, and even then, the experience of the war with the Yeerks will have permanently shaped their culture and traditions. They will tell stories about it throughout the generations.
If the Hork-Bajir had won the battle for their world in the first place ... I think the major difference are that they wouldn't have experienced nearly
as much violence, or
as much enslavement by the Yeerks, so they would be relatively less jaded. Plus they wouldn't have experienced space travel and going to different planets like Earth. Their culture would not have changed as much.
4. Esplin 9466 feels very strongly about a particular advantage of a host: the ability to see. What do you think of the value of sight by Esplin and others throughout the series? Is it an overrated sense compared to others, or under appreciated by those naturally endowed with it? What value do you assign to sight, or other senses, in your own life?
I agree with Esplin. Sight is awesome. I'm nearsighted and can't see detail without the help of powerful lenses, so I HUGELY appreciate being able to do so. I'm also a highly visual person in general. I can relate to when Cassie morphed a Yeerk in #29 and kept on marveling at the sight of things like checkered tablecloths - I WOULD TOTALLY DO THAT. Esplin's reaction to gaining the sense of sight is actually one of the first things that helped me relate to him.
And the day after I read this book for the first time, I went to school and I was like OMG! COLORS! THINGS! The world was suddenly so much more vibrantly alive than usual! Because I was looking at everything as if I were a Yeerk seeing it for the first time, and it was INTENSE. It was probably my happiest day at school that year, since that was sixth grade and it was mostly miserable for me.
5. Alloran's plan to use a Quantum Virus may have exterminated the whole of the Hork-Bajir race. Would this have been an acceptable price to pay to protect the rest of the galaxy? Why or why not? Would you be willing to implement such a method, or allow another to use it? If not, what would you risk to stop it?
I say no. You can't be sure if it would really have that much of an effect - what if the Yeerks just went and found a different race to use for shock troops? So I see no reason to commit genocide. Obviously the Q-virus didn't stop the Yeerk Empire from expanding further.
6. We see more than once in the series the development of love across species and planetary lines. Do you think this is believable? Acceptable? How important is the morphing technology to these relationships?
Yes, it's believable. Love at its core is simply caring about another person. That can happen between anyone.
I notice that it is often the people who feel like outcasts from their own species (Dak because of his seerishness, Aldrea because she'd lost her family and her own people didn't respect her, Elfangor because he'd enabled Visser Three to become an Andalite-Controller, and Loren because she rejected by the cheerleading squad and her dad had PTSD from Vietnam, and look how crazy her sister turned out, she probably had family issues) who end up in interspecies relationships. Rachel and Tobias might fall into this category, only with them it was backwards - they started out as the same species and ended up as different ones. But they too are outcasts-ish - Tobias for obvious reasons, and Rachel because she was more violent and aggressive than is socially acceptable for human females. (Sort of like Aldrea with the Andalites.)
The morphing technology simply enables those love relationships to have a sexual dimension without it bordering on bestiality. Which is convenient since these are supposed to be kids' books.
7. This book is presented as a story, told by Jara Hamee to Tobias. What do you think of this relatively simple people being able to portray so powerfully the darkest hours of their race?
I think Jara and those who passed the story down to him must have been able to convey the
feelings of the story more than anything else, and that is what Tobias picked up on. I can see that happening.
8. Approximately when is the last time you read this book? What changes do you expect or would like to see in a re-release?
I've read it so many times. I'm going through it right now to get material for my fanfic. And no changes - it's perfect the way it is. Don't go messing around with my beloved HBC!
9. Anything else?
One more thing I love about this book is it introduced Toby Hamee, another of my favorite characters, and I love how she ended the book on a happy note.
Also, Tobias was an idiot during this book. Couldn't remember that female Horks have two horns and males have three? Couldn't remember that Dak was Jara's grandfather after Jara all but said so at the beginning of the story? Couldn't tell that Esplin was Visser Three?
(In his defense, I myself was not entirely sure that Esplin was Visser Three until Jara confirmed it, but that's because I thought my own brain was looking for similarities between them on purpose and exaggerating them. Because I started wondering if this Yeerk was Visser Three before he said anything about wanting to become an Andalite-Controller.)