Part One
Good catch with the pic of someone signing a will and testament beginning with the letters "E" and "L". And double points for the Occupy Wallstreet reference. Personally I wish several birds of prey would take care of the ones in Boston.
Another interesting point came to mind when you mentioned the slip up of "Cassie in Harrier morph". I don't remember if you mentioned this in your Encounter review, the first Tobias book, but there's another slip up as they are falling out of the truck ship. Marco morphs and eagle instead of an osprey.
The sad thing is that was back when Applegate was the sole writer.
One thought occurs to me at the end of part one and it never occurred to me when I read this book. There's a tourist trap with a Hork-Bajir toddler near the airport. Granted the area around most US airports tend to be pretty sparse, but I have to wonder at the density of the human race in general if not one newspaper got ahold of that story.
[spoiler]Even Visser Three couldn't have controlled the circumstances that well.[/spoiler]
Part Two
Love the cameo bit. It reminds me of one of Spoony's more recent reviews with Film Brain's cameos.
One thing about Visser Three is that he has the biggest case of tunnel vision of any Yeerk in the Empire. So it's not a stretch to me that he saw Ket Halpak and didn't remember leaving her to die in The Change. When you figure that between then and the Pretender he had to deal with yet another encounter from Visser One, on top of what we'll later learn was his bid to manipulate the Council of Thirteen into executing her.
Now if Elfangor was seen at the site, it might make him think twice. But I could see him overlooking details like which Hork-Bajir died when. Heck, it's entirely possible he can't remember one Hork-Bajir from another that isn't one of his personal elite.
Speaking of Elfangor, this is an interesting point to make about why Visser Three set up such an elaborate ruse to capture Tobias. Think about it. Visser Three killed Elfangor. He promised to hunt down and infest Visser Three's family. What greater honor and glory for a Yeerk hellbent on pissing on his enemy's grave than to either infest or devour Elfangor's only living son.
Or better yet, to capture Tobias and use him to route and infest Elfangor's remaining family which would include Ax of course. Alas, Visser Three's tunnel vision kicks in yet again.
Elfangor and Tobias Analysis
2018 is a realstic deadline I think. God won't strike you down until you've finished reviewing all of the books, so it helps to have a goal. Oh and wash your own socks.
Small mistake: Tobias is Ax's nephew not his uncle. (I played it back twice to make sure I heard it right before making the point)
I remember reading each book after this and hoping someone would make more than a passing mention of it. I mean, Elfangor was a pretty central focus point in the first ten books and then you find out that the kid you saved from the toilet was the son of the guy that gave you the ability to morph to a tiger? Not a thought? Really.
The other bare mention besides the Illusion was Ax after meeting Lauren. He mentioned she was a strong woman and that he understood why Elfangor loved her. But it's not like he makes any effort to be near the wife of his brother or anything.
You mention how in Megamorphs 3 no one ages when they get near the Time Matrix. Now, I'm not defending Megamorphs 3 or trying to influence how you write the review in anyway. But I would like to offer up this speculation based on the events of The Andalite Chronicles.
In The Andalite Chronicles, the Time Matrix was acting up after Visser Three, Elfangor and Lauren each had a hand in creating that mosaic world. And we all ready saw that the hybrid of three different planets was all ready screwed up because of three different (possibly four if Alloran was also struggling with Visser Three at the time) people trying to operate it. In Megamorphs 3 only Visser Four was using it. Then only Cassie. So it's possible what happened in The Andalite Chronicles with Lauren aging was a result of the Time Matrix having a Windows Vista moment.
That's the only thing I wanted to add to that.
