1) The premise of this book is that a free Hork-Bajir is caught by the Yeerks and takes a small army to invade the valley. We all know that the free HB have been conducting raids and whatnot for some time now. Is it reasonable to assume that it took this long for one to be captured and reinfested?When would it have been long enough?! It's hard to say.
2) On a similar note, don't all/most of the Hork-Bajir know the Animorphs secret? Shouldn't this have blown their cover?VERY GOOOD POINT! I actually hadn't thought of that when I first read it.
3) Half of this book was not told from Jake's point-of-view, but from the POV of his distant relative, Civil War hero Fitzhenry. What did you think about this section of the book and the parallels it draws between the present Yeerk war and the Civil War?I thought it made interesting comparisons, but it didn't exactly hint us readers to anything, really. I just think at the end there could have been something suggestive that if the two stories are happen similarly, than Jake's story could well end like Fitzhenry's. But, the ghostwriter didn't really play with that, me thinks.
4) What do you think about the interactions between Jake and Ax, expecially in light of his oh-so-recent betrayal?I don't actually recall anything worth noting on the subject in this story. I recall Ax perfoming well and Jake may have made references to the previous story, but the two didn't act abnormal, from my memory.
5) This is the first time that other free humans are directly involved in the fight, and the result is two kids lose their dad. Jake makes the decision to come out and tell humans what is going on. Was this stupid? Their only option?
6) This is really the first time it has been an entire Yeerk army versus an entire free army going head to head. How do you think it went?I didn't think the Yeerks would have been able to find it, even inspite the captured Hork-Bajir. Wasn't the whole valley done with a quality to slip bypassers' eyes. That moment where the enemy is arriving, and they were about to walk away, but heard some Hork-Bajir make a sound, was nicely done. I recall being like 'Ohhh nooooooooooooooo!'.
7) Anything else?This is also the book where Jake hints towards the Anis having learnt to morph decent clothing, if my memory serves. So, from skin-tight up, what do you think that means?
1) The premise of this book is that a free Hork-Bajir is caught by the Yeerks and takes a small army to invade the valley. We all know that the free HB have been conducting raids and whatnot for some time now. Is it reasonable to assume that it took this long for one to be captured and reinfested?I think it's reasonable. Except for the Blue Bands, there's nothing about Hork-Bajir Controllers that would distinguish them from the free Hork-Bajir, so I imagine the raiders could easily slip by unnoticed, even in a battle, granted it was large enough.
2) On a similar note, don't all/most of the Hork-Bajir know the Animorphs secret? Shouldn't this have blown their cover?I think you've found a KASU. I mean, maybe this Hork-Bajir was like the anti-Toby: just really dumb.
3) Half of this book was not told from Jake's point-of-view, but from the POV of his distant relative, Civil War hero Fitzhenry. What did you think about this section of the book and the parallels it draws between the present Yeerk war and the Civil War?I really like the comparison, but then again I'm a 19th Century Americanist when it comes to literature. One of the remarkable things about the Civil War is the sympathy and affinity that often existed between the two sides; not a few of the opposing soldiers were, after all, literally brothers. The Civil War is a war of ambiguity and confused loyalties, and I really can't think of a better comparison for Animorphs. The guilt-tinged tension is certainly a present force in both wars.
4) What do you think about the interactions between Jake and Ax, expecially in light of his oh-so-recent betrayal?They were very businesslike, which seemed understandable to me. Also, they kind of cleared things up at the end of the previous book; things were tense, but Jake understood the reasons behind Ax's actions.
5) This is the first time that other free humans are directly involved in the fight, and the result is two kids lose their dad. Jake makes the decision to come out and tell humans what is going on. Was this stupid? Their only option?I really don't think this was their only option. Honestly, they could have morphed some kind of giant scary animals and forced them to someplace where they would have been tied up and kept out of trouble until the battle was over. Why did nothing else ever come of these folks? Where were they in the rest of the series?
6) This is really the first time it has been an entire Yeerk army versus an entire free army going head to head. How do you think it went?I like how everything was going believably badly for the Animorphs until the secret water weapon. Was anyone else reminded of the Ents' march on Saruman?
I like how everything was going believably badly for the Animorphs until the secret water weapon. Was anyone else reminded of the Ents' march on Saruman?Ha! no, but I like it.
Don't campers usually bring guns and pepper spray for wild animal attack?Not always. When I was a Scout we went on a trip through Yosemite, and most of the time we were "bear adjacent" so to speak. And really, none of the people we encountered, nor us (be prepared my foot) really were preped should a bear by pass sniffing equipment stored across camp. I doubt trekkies on holiday would be ready
This is also the book where Jake hints towards the Anis having learnt to morph decent clothing, if my memory serves. So, from skin-tight up, what do you think that means?they could have done this twenty books ago with seriously hurting any plots. ridiculous.
1) The premise of this book is that a free Hork-Bajir is caught by the Yeerks and takes a small army to invade the valley. We all know that the free HB have been conducting raids and whatnot for some time now. Is it reasonable to assume that it took this long for one to be captured and reinfested?Honestly, no. It's kind of plot-forced idiocy. Don't get me wrong, I love the whole free Hork-Bajir plot, but I hate that it was never represented with the level of implicit peril that it should have been. idk, I feel like as the series went on, more and more people knew about the Animorphs and none of them were Yeerks. Unless they were Yeerks that were allies, IDK IDK.
2) On a similar note, don't all/most of the Hork-Bajir know the Animorphs secret? Shouldn't this have blown their cover?ugh, RIGHT? Good point, I honestly didn't think about that until you mentioned it. Kind of along the same lines as like, "why did the Yeerks give up looking for Ax after #9?" There never seemed to be an active, running mission to weed out the Andalite bandits, it was always like "we have this awesome plan full of ridiculousess and it's going to be awesome and--OH MAN THE ANDALITE BANDITS RUINED IT AGAIN? HOW UNEXPECTED!"
3) Half of this book was not told from Jake's point-of-view, but from the POV of his distant relative, Civil War hero Fitzhenry. What did you think about this section of the book and the parallels it draws between the present Yeerk war and the Civil War?I feel like I say this a lot, but this, hands down, nullifying any claim I've made before, is the most egregious filler in the series. Which is weird, because this is one of the most epic battle scenes in the series--but maybe that's just it. The entire story is really just one big battle scene. There's not really a plot. And even the most epic of battle scenes isn't going to last more than 50 pages. Even Tolkien couldn't stretch those out (actually now that I think about it, weren't most of his battles just referred to him hindsight? What a c*cktease.)
4) What do you think about the interactions between Jake and Ax, expecially in light of his oh-so-recent betrayal?That was actually one detail I liked, that Ax was too ashamed to look Jake in the eye and Jake was both proud of and pissed at Ax. I wish that had come out a little more in their interaction, and wouldn't have been immediately and invisibly resolved after this book. But that's how I feel about most things in this series.
5) This is the first time that other free humans are directly involved in the fight, and the result is two kids lose their dad. Jake makes the decision to come out and tell humans what is going on. Was this stupid? Their only option?See, this is the kind of ****...a bunch of free Hork-Bajir are always wandering around, going on raids, with the potential to get caught and give up their secret...the Chee, at any instant, can get found out, Aftran might have second thoughts and turn back to the Yeerks, the Animorphs themselves are liable to crack at any moment, and YOU HAVE TO INTRODUCE US TO A BUNCH OF ONE-OFF TREKKIES TO ADD TENSION TO YOUR PLOT? What the hell man?
6) This is really the first time it has been an entire Yeerk army versus an entire free army going head to head. How do you think it went?Honestly, it was kind of a let-down. idk, there weren't a lot of...twists...or unexpected turns or anything, everything kind of went according to plan, which was just sort of boring. EAGLES DIDN'T FLY OUT OF NO WHERE AND SAVE THE DAY, which idk maybe it's more mature storytelling but the eagles at least made it exciting.
7) Anything else?There's this page in this book, and as soon as I get home I will photograph it and post it here, that is one of the most...terrible, unedited messes in the entire series. Switching back between like, thought-speech and normal quotes, it was literally impossible to tell who was in morph and who wasn't. omg it was just atrocious.
Next time: The Ellimist Chronicles
One more thing about this book: I have to wonder how much time passed b/w this and Marco's supposed death. Really, this is that last time you see Jake at home, and his family seems as "normal" to him as ever, but idk, it seems like again, there should have been some sort of tie into "Hey son, you okay, what with your life long best friend only being dead for a month?"
I just don't think that should be back to normal so quickly :-\
1) The premise of this book is that a free Hork-Bajir is caught by the Yeerks and takes a small army to invade the valley. We all know that the free HB have been conducting raids and whatnot for some time now. Is it reasonable to assume that it took this long for one to be captured and reinfested?I dunno... are the Yeerks always as unprepared as they seem to be when the Animorphs show up? How willing are the Hork-Bajir to kill one of their own/commit hara-kiri if one of them is captured? With Toby in charge, I think it's definitely plausible, but probably not likely.
2) On a similar note, don't all/most of the Hork-Bajir know the Animorphs secret? Shouldn't this have blown their cover?Y'know, I actually thought about this as I read the book, but then shrugged it off. Again, I guess it's plausible that this particular Hork-Bajir had no idea of the Animorphs' true identities, if unlikely. Toby must have known that he didn't know the Animorphs were human, or she'd be freaking out about it. And the Animorphs must have avoided asking about it because they trust Toby absolutely and completely, and know she could never be infested and leading them into a trap, because, come on, she's freakin' Toby ::)
3) Half of this book was not told from Jake's point-of-view, but from the POV of his distant relative, Civil War hero Fitzhenry. What did you think about this section of the book and the parallels it draws between the present Yeerk war and the Civil War?I actually enjoyed this. I mean, I would have preferred more Animorphs, but as long as they were going to add this, I liked how it was done. Not sure there's anything I can add that hasn't already been said... like Marie was saying, though, the Civil War makes a good parallel to the Yeerk War for the ambiguity and blurred lines between the sides.
4) What do you think about the interactions between Jake and Ax, expecially in light of his oh-so-recent betrayal?I don't remember much in the way of their interaction, so the book must not have delved too deeply into it. Jake and Ax had a bit of a "businesslike" relationship, but then, Ax really seems to have given up on being close "friends" with any of the Animorphs at this point in the series anyway, so it didn't seem at all unusual to me. Besides, don't the plots for like all of Ax's books involve his betrayal/near betrayal? He's basically the "Data" of Animorphs in that regard. Jake might just be used to it at this point :P
5) This is the first time that other free humans are directly involved in the fight, and the result is two kids lose their dad. Jake makes the decision to come out and tell humans what is going on. Was this stupid? Their only option?It was an okay move, but I think Jake caved way too quickly. There definitely would have been better ways to get them out of there. Marco: "A tiger escaped from a private zoo in the area, and we're asking that everyone vacate until we can locate it" ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR! "Oh crap! Run!"
6) This is really the first time it has been an entire Yeerk army versus an entire free army going head to head. How do you think it went?I actually liked the way this went down. Careful planning pays off, and they kick Yeerk butt. I don't really understand Toby's insistence on fighting, though. All they did was lose some free Hork-Bajir, and signal to the Yeerks the strength of the resistance. They still had to flee the valley after the battle, so my thinking is, why couldn't they have just run beforehand and saved themselves a lot of time and pain and death?
7) Anything else?
7) They start talking about moving the Horks, and Cassie asks if sending them off to "some distant planet" is the only option. Personally, I thought that was the preffered option. Many of us agree that Earth is getting quite crowded, and when the Yeerks take a planet they only get rid of what they feel is unneseccary. Meaning the Hork's home planet, the one they are literally designed to live on, is still habitable. I guess this is the book that indicates the Horks are planning to stay on Earth, contradictory to what we saw in an earlier book where they start a resistance force over there. I don't see why that wouldn't be the most preferred way to go. They get their own planet where they don't have to live as guests of someone else's planet.That's a good point, actually. It's kind of sad how many plot threads were forgotten or left dangling towards the end of the series. I agree that it seems like a better solution to let the aliens live on their own planet than to try to fit them in on Earth.
I don't think I mentioned the part where jake says he doesn't have a brother anymore. I would think marco saving his mom two books ago would boost Jake's hopes of saving Tom, but I guess it didn't. Anyone have any ideas why?*shrug* like everyone's saying, Jake's had to distance himself from his brother for a long time. Eva being freed may have given him some hope, but not enough to offset several years' worth of disconnect.
Rob, I wonder if that is an instance of ghostwriters not really reading the previous books? You're right, this is something that isn't dealt with at all. Really, we get so little information about Jake's parents and their reaction to their sons' involvement in the war, both before and after they knew the full extent--way less information than we get about any of the other Animorphs' parents (except Ax's, understandably).It well could be. From Kat and Mike's comments, and the procession of ghostwriters (the final arc alternates between two GW's for like six books, starting right after this one), I kind of get the impression that there were two books in writing at any given time, if not more, and I don't get the impression the ghostwriters communicated with each other extensively. One of the questions Katherine and Michael answered suggested that the ghostwriters were given more and more control over plot details as time went on, so it's not surprising to me that there seems to be a fair amount of disconnect, and a fair amount left out, as the series progressed.
Definitely. It's a shame they missed this opportunity.One more thing about this book: I have to wonder how much time passed b/w this and Marco's supposed death. Really, this is that last time you see Jake at home, and his family seems as "normal" to him as ever, but idk, it seems like again, there should have been some sort of tie into "Hey son, you okay, what with your life long best friend only being dead for a month?"
I just don't think that should be back to normal so quickly :-\
Agreed! It's not even touched upon! I mean, I doubt my parents would make me clean the basement if my best friend had died recently, especially so suddenly and mysteriously. I would have loved to see Jake need to pretend to grieve and wonder about what happened and etc.
Hehehe... I second this ;DNext time: The Ellimist Chronicles
I CAN'T WAIT.