1) 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?
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?
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.
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?
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?
6) Anything else?
And is it just me or does the older of Rachel’s little sisters seem a little too old or mature to believe Ax is a pokemon? Wasn’t it stated that her and Rachel weren’t that far apart? so rather than thinking she could stuff him in a pokeball, wouldn’t she do what’s expected of somebody older and run away screaming? Don’t get me wrong I thought that part was hilarious but it didn’t seem very realistic(or as realistic as a story of teens becoming animals to fight aliens could be)
I'd like to believe that some of the worst ghostwritten books were not written by the same people that did the best ones.Yeah wouldn't we all, but according to Wikipedia, which I trust with everything short of my life, this book was brought to us by Lisa Harkrader,
Quote1) 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?
That's what they did!? I thought they got their blood while morphed and somehow the morphed blood showed traces of their human blood! What you just said made a lot more sense but when did they ever bleed while in Human morph? The only time they were human in one of their daily epic Yeerk battles was when they needed to heal and then about 2 minutes later they're back in their Animal forms
QuoteI'd like to believe that some of the worst ghostwritten books were not written by the same people that did the best ones.Yeah wouldn't we all, but according to Wikipedia, which I trust with everything short of my life, this book was brought to us by Lisa Harkrader,
who is also credited with book 44
Obviously not the case then
p.s. yes! when did this get a sub board, I was gonna recommend just that once this was over, you know, for when we do it next time ;), but nows cool too
Quote1) 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?
That's what they did!? I thought they got their blood while morphed and somehow the morphed blood showed traces of their human blood! What you just said made a lot more sense but when did they ever bleed while in Human morph? The only time they were human in one of their daily epic Yeerk battles was when they needed to heal and then about 2 minutes later they're back in their Animal forms
I'm pretty sure that they got the blood from their animal morphs, which is why I'm not entirely sure that the science works. How much human DNA of Jake would be floating around in the blood of a Siberian Tiger that he's morphed? idk....seems like a stretch.
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...
1) 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?It was a nice plotting device, the 'blood-bank' idea intrinsicly fits into the context, yes, but I couldn't help seeing the KASU when I first read it either. The blood is technically a morphing product also, so it should be a 100% fully duplicate of the original animal. Unless, what the Yeerks were examining from the samples was filed under the 'encapsulated' thing Ax had previously attempted to explain about morphing.
...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...Exactly. And I liked your explanation for the 'trace of human blood' in the morphed blood samples, Kotetsu1442-dude, but I still it's somewhat contradictory in this fictional tec to have an 'exact' duplicate that is not 'exact', know what I mean?! But you are right, the morphing tech wasn't fully elaborated.
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?I think it was realistic to have the character have a distinctively different persona than the TAC one.
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 am still a little confused on the details to Loren's amnesia versus her blindness. I had thought she lost both in one accident!?!?
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, too, recall the scenes being short, yes, but entertaining nevertheless. It was good to have Tobias pick the things that he would invevitable compare to his mother at the end of the story (ref. to the unconditional love and put themselves in danger to save their child).
...I just didn't see him making a mistake like that in the series and it struck me as a plot facilitator, you know, to make sure he couldn't save Tom and his parents...And, like you said, I think the idea works for the final arc overall and the character development also, but I just don't think the execution was properly thought out.
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?
...And this. It was done well in the total opposite way. At book one, everyone was fighting for a cause, but Jake was the only one who was and always has been fighting for a person, and that now he loses literally everything he had. And I love the morph: the message to his parents, the treat to his enemies-perfect reaction, perfect control, and I'm glad it was not in his point of view: I don't think he could give words that would give this moment more meaning, just knowing that this is what happens after all he's been through, it's a picture that needs no more than the description given.I remember this WAS a memmorable moment. And possibly the most powerful moment in the book.
6) Anything else?
...I want to point out that it was ghost written. Most of us, self included, have taken shots at ghost writers, giving a lot of blame out for some lesser quality stories in the series, and by no means do I seek to absolve anyone for that, I want to give credit where credit is due. This book has a lot of meaning to me and is one of the best books I know, in and out of the series , and whether or not is was handled by the credited author, and I'm glad for it...You know what?!, I, too, feel like all I've been doing for the past few books is bagging them ghostwriters, so I am going to agree with RYTX and say this was the better ghostwritten one of the lot. I enjoyed it because it is flat out important book in the series overall. It managed to inject that feel of urgency and upping the stakes of this war. This was crucial at this stage of the series. So, I overlook the 'iffy' moments, and give it :thumbsup:!
I agree here, that yes I can see that Jake's parents and Tom being in captivity works for the final arc, but the way it was the situation was executed to set that up in this book just wasn't plausibly done. It worked out the way it did only because it was necessary for the final story arc that it did, otherwise Jake as a character wouldn't have made the decisions as poorly as he did....I just didn't see him making a mistake like that in the series and it struck me as a plot facilitator, you know, to make sure he couldn't save Tom and his parents...And, like you said, I think the idea works for the final arc overall and the character development also, but I just don't think the execution was properly thought out.