Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Slushie Man on July 19, 2008, 08:38:05 PM
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So I never did read all the series when I was younger. I stopped around Book 28 or so, so I've started r-reading the series now, about 10 years later, in chronological order. This thread will be where I post my thoughts on each book as I read them. Since I've already finished all the Chronicles books, I'll just copy my reviews from Facebook, over to here for them and then continue on from there when I read each book:
The Ellimist Chronicles
I'm amazed at how good this book turned out to be. It's one of the many books I never got around to reading before I quit 10 years ago, so it was nice to have that element of surprise while reading it. It follows the all-powerful God-like Ellimist, from before that point in his life when he was just a teenage high-tech gamer for an advanced alien species. Some members of this species decided to broadcast game footage out into space and another alien race misinterprets that as actual footage and comes to wipe out this species for being so 'dangerous'. A handful survive though, including the Ellimist and they blast out into space Battlestar Galactica-style, to search for a new home. Along the way, the Ellmist character gets promoted through the ranks of his people and they come across many hardships and problems, and eventually extinction, which leads Ellimist into the first step of the rest of his life as an All-powerful being.
It was interesting to see the transition of the Ellimist character from a lowly gamer nobody to leader of his entire race, to the all-powerful Father Version 2.0 (A very old, very large, very very creepy character in the book) pretty much, to an even more powerful inter-dimensionable being. I also liked the confrontations between him and Crayek, who is pretty much the Evil version of Ellimist. I actually forgot I was reading an Animorphs book for a bit because it's SO different in tone and style from everything else in the series, but in a good and refreshing way. This is also a book that is good for people to pick up and read that aren't familiar with the series as a whole, because you need absolutely no knowledge of the series to enjoy it. Apart from a cameo of the Andalites far in their past, this doesn't have any connection to the Animorphs overall plot at all, so it can be equally enjoyed by all.
It feels so good to be back in this universe again after so long away. I'd even go out on a limb here and say that Animorphs was probably my favorite sci-fi related thing back in the day. Forget Star Trek, forget Star Wars, give me my Animorphs.
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
This entry was really interesting to read because while The Ellimist Chronicles was about that one character and didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the Animorphs history or story, this book marks the start of the backstory on the history of the entire War that is the grounds for the entire Animorphs series. Reading these Chronicles books, is like the equivalent of the Star Wars prequels. Starting off before the Yeerks even started their Universe-wide invasion, we find out about how that happens, why the Andalites blame themselves for it, and the first entire species to fall under their control and the battles the Andalites fought to save them.
I think I still liked the Ellimist Chronicles a tiny bit better, just because it stood better as a stand-alone general sci-fi book that anyone at all could pick up and read and not be confused, while this one is the start of the history of the rest of the series, and beginners may not want to pick it up as it assumes that you've read the Animorphs series and thus doesn't take the time to explain some info that a beginner to the series may be confused over. However, for fans of the series, this one is pretty good and one of my favorites.
I'm not so fond of the constant POV-changing though. I think I much prefer the Andalite's POV to the others, but Visser 3's rising through the ranks was interesting as well, just not as fun to read about. I also was surprised with how much of a downer the ending was; the Andalites loose the battle on the Hork-Bajir homeworld and the few that survive retreat, the one Andalite Princess main character gets trapped in a Hork-Bajir body for the rest of her life due to staying in Morph for too long, most of the Hork-Bajir get enslved by the Yeerks and those that don't get wiped out by a bio-engineered virus that was made by the Andalites themselves and released on the Hork-Bajir homeworld to wipe out all Hork-Bajir in order to hurt the Yeerks.
All in all, a pretty depressing end. I knew it would be somewhat, as it's common knowledge in the series that the Hork-Bajir were all enslaved, but I was thinking there would be somewhat of a happy ending in all of that. But for some reason, I love depressing endings like that, because it leaves you with a sense of dread and doom, only in the end to have the good guys' victory be oh so much sweeter.
Visser
Perhaps reading this book when I did, in terms of chronology, was a bad idea, as only half of it takes place in the past, while the other half takes place during the later books in the series, but oh well. What's done is done. In my opinion, this is the weakest book in the Chronicles prequel series, but before I get into all the negative things, I'd like to start on a positive note about the things I did enjoy.
The scenes of Visser One on trial in present-day were damn interesting and by far the best scenes in the book, and I loved how Visser Three kept trying to trick her into admitting failure and admitting all her secrets yet she kept turning the tables around on him, and it was a great format for the flashbacks to the past that take up the other half of the book, and while not much that happens in the past is nearly as interesting as the present-day trail stuff, there is some good things in there. When she first arrives on Earth, she arrives in the middle of one of the Gulf Wars in the Middle East, and I'm surprised with how much gruesome details the author put in it, for a kid's book, such as her very vivid descriptions of dead human bodies after a battle in the desert. And after Visser One gets to Hollywood and infects the mind of an actress, devolops a drug addiction to coke, which I also was very surprised was in a kid's book.
And all that was good, for a time. Overall, the half of the book that was in the past, after the first few chapters, was just boring as nothing really happens in it. Visser One finds Earth and infiltrates it by hopping from host to host, and all of her struggles are simply with the host's mind she's trying to take over. You can only read about someone talking to themselves and struggling with themselves for so long before it gets old. I also wasn't so fond of her 'falling in love' with her Yeerk buddy. It doesn't really fit who we come to know Visser One as later in the series. And while I liked the Trail stuff better, it wasn't perfect. I thought the book would have been far stronger if they didn't have the Animorphs crash the trial. I understand why the author had it happen, but that ends up making this almost feel like an Animorphs book and not one of the Chronicles books.
So yes, there is some good stuff in here, but not enough for me to ever read it again. Maybe it was the false advertising of the cover, or maybe it was just that overall I found the book very boring, I don't know, but once was enough, and even then, it took multiple tries to finally get through it all.
The Andalite Chronicles
So this is the one book in the 'Chronicles' prequel series that I did read when I was younger. While it's really good, it's not as good as I remember. I remember back in the day, it being my favorite Animorphs book, ever. Now, while I've really enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did with the Ellimist and Hork-Bajir Chronicles. Elfangor seems to just be a male carbon-copy of Andria from the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. It feels I just finished reading all about this character, as a female, in another book.
However, it's still a very well-written and a very engaging sci-fi story that is sure to not disappoint. It was also really nice to see a return of Alloran, the War-Prince from The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and good to see he hasn't changed any of his sleazy insane ways. It was also cool to have the whole Taxxon uprising in there, as that was really fun to read about. And even though this was written BEFORE the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, it's easy to see she had all the history and backstory planned out beforehand, as it directly references events that happen in that book, despite the book being written over a year AFTER this one was. Nice to know she wasn't just making everything up as she went along but actually had it all planned out from the beginning.
I also really loved the ending and how it led into the beginning of the first Animorphs book perfectly. Although I think a bit too much time was spent in the alternate screwed-up world created by the Time Matrix. They could have shaved 15-20 pages out of that and tightened up those chapters and I think it would have been better. Make it 4 chapters there instead of the 8 or 9 it was.
Also, I don't like all the coincidences in the series. Marco just so happens to be the son of the Visser 1 host body, Tobias just so happens to be the son of Elfangor, ect. And as much as I love The Ellimist, I did not like his appearance in this book at all. It makes for some continuity errors later in the series.
Other then those things though, this was a pretty good read. As I said, not my favorite but far from being the worst and it was still really engaging, just a bit too long for the material, IMO.
Animorphs: Book 1: The Invasion
: Now that I've got all the prequel Chronicles novels out of the way, I finally got to start the actual episodic book series. My first impression was that its very noticeable that this book was written before the Chronicles books. The writing style is much more amateurish, and there are some aspects that are mentioned that are contradicted in the later novels. One example of that is that in this book it's stated that the characters can thought-speak to each other, even while not an animal morph, while in the very next book and for the rest of the series, its stated that they can thought-speak only while in morph. Also, there were some situations that didn't really seem all that realistic and made very little sense (I.E. the Cop-controller randomly showing up at Cassie's farm to ask questions without actually suspecting them as having been the people at the Construction site).
The storyline itself was pretty good though, detailing how the characters get their powers and their first main battle against the alien species known as the Yeerks. It was nice to see the return of Elfangor from The Andalite Chronicles, although it was just a glorified cameo pretty much, but if it wasn't for him, the teens would have never gotten the power to Morph and the series wouldn't be what it is. There is also a nice introduction to each character, and I was actually surprised Tobias got stuck in his Hawk morph so early. You see, they can only remain in a Morph for two hours or they get stuck in that body for the rest of their life (Like what happened with Andria in The Hork-Bajir Chronicles). I knew Tobias got stuck as a hawk, but I thought it wasn't until book 3 or 4 that he got stuck, not right away, so I was almost as shocked when it happened as I had been when I first read the series 10 years ago. That's what I like about reading this series again now all these years later - I remember almost nothing, so its like reading it for the first time again.
It was also great to see right off the bat that even though this is a kid's series, it's not 'kidified'. By that I mean that this is about their first main battle, and in the end, they loose that battle. Normally in an introductory book to a series like this one, the main characters win their first battle at the end of the book and celebrate during the final chapter. Not this one. Their first battle was a failure that bit them on the ass and cost them a lot (I.E. Tobias stuck in hawk form, Jake loosing his brother to the Yeerks, some humans they tried to rescue got killed, ect) What damage did they do to the Yeerks? Killed a couple Hork-Bajir and Taxxon Controllers. That's about it. And I loved that. It was unexpected and actually made the battle very suspenseful and had you invested in it. They let you know right off the bat that in this series, anything goes and nobody is truly safe.
Overall, a really good start to the series, although not without some faults.
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The coincidences, like Marco's mother being Visser One's host and Elfangor being Tobias' father, aren't really coincidences. The Ellemist made sure those two were members of the resistance group, as well as Cassie and Ax.
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Ahh, ok. That makes a bit more sense then.
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well no, drode accused that the ellimist did, but the ellimist neither confirmed nor denied.
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Well at least K.A. Applegate addressed it somewhat, instead of just leaving it like that.
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If they were selected or not... no one really is 101% sure. We can guess, we can speculate, but isn't it against the rules to select those 6?
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If they were selected or not... no one really is 101% sure. We can guess, we can speculate, but isn't it against the rules to select those 6?
I think there are times when one of them wants to interfere more than they're supposed to, so they let the other bend the rules a little at another time. Like when the Drode is allowed to tempt Jake.
The rules are likely very complicated, and there is evidence of rule bending in the series.
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Animorphs: Book 2: The Visitor:
The Visitor is one of the many 'Filler' books in the series where nothing that happens in it has any real bearing on anything else in the series. Normally filler-related stuff (More-so TV episodes then anything) are obviously filler and not very interesting, but I'm happy to say that's not entirely the case with this book.
We start getting a better fix on the characters in this one. For instance, while we knew Marco was a joker in the first one due to Jake always saying it, we actually very rarely saw it as Marco was actually the most serious member of the team for most of that book. In this one, we finally get to see his joking sarcastic self that sticks with him for the rest of the series. On that same point, we also start seeing the beginnings of Jake and Cassie's 'relationship' in this one, as well as Rachel and Tobias' little messed up thing that some could call a relationship down the road. The first book was about introducing the characters, this one is about fleshing them out a bit more.
It was also really good to see the Animorphs using their powers for something other then just fighting Yeerks. They used them to stop some poachers from poaching endangered birds, as well as Rachel morphing to take on a potential-rapist, which makes perfect sense to me. I mean, these kids are given this great power, wouldn't make much sense to save the world from alien invaders and then just ignore all the other problems that they're also capable of fixing. It was nice to see that. Makes them almost seem a bit more like superheroes.
Another thing this book did that I really enjoyed, was it showed what kind of effect the morphing is having on these kids, psychologically, in the long-run. Constant nightmares and mental scars and all that. It was great to be shown some psychological repercussions to what they're doing – something that most kids series' would never even touch on.
However, I do have a lot of problems with this book as well. It was predictable as all Hell, which is actually a huge-step down as I found everything in the series I've read up till now, really unpredictable for a kid's series and that's why I enjoyed them so much. Also, when morphing into an animal we've already seen them morph in a previous book, there's no reason to continue going into vivid multiple paragraph-long explanations as to how the morph looks. We've already read it, several times in some cases. It just gets old and takes up space when we have to read about it over and over and over. When it's a new animal, ok sure, or even in the later books one they haven't morphed in awhile. But one we've already seen them morph recently and multiple times already, there's just no need to continue describing it over and over and over and over.
And the biggest complaint I have about this book - when all was said and done...not a whole lot really happened. It was shorter then the first book and the space it did have, seemed to be used more for over-explaining and over-describing things, so chapters were longer then they needed to be, and situations took more pages and more time then they needed.
So to finish off this review with a brief summery, this is a step down from the first book story-wise, but a step up characterization-wise, however it can easily be skipped and you won't miss a single thing.
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Animorphs: Book 3: The Encounter:
In this book, the Animorphs, still searching for the new entrance into the Yeerk Pool, discover a Yeerk ship not in space, but in the sky above their city, cloaked in invisibility. Not only that, but it seems to be the ship that is a supply ship, bringing water and breathable air up to the mother ship in space. So they launch an attack to knock out its invisibility while it's over a city, thus revealing the invasion to the world on a scale so large, not even the Yeerks can quiet it.
Is it just me, or does each book seem to be getting shorter and shorter? Anyway, this book was very interesting and unique, as it's told from the perspective of Tobias, who is permanently stuck in hawk form, so right from the bat, you know this book will be very different then anything in the series so far, so at the very least, you know it'll be interesting if nothing else.
Now, one thing that I don't understand is all the talk of Tobias being emo. I don't see it. Just because someone's depressed, doesn't automatically make them emo. Tobias has every reason in the world to be depressed. Personally, I find Marco much more annoying with his constant non-stop ****ing and moaning about everything.
So, with that out of the way, I'll start with my complaints. In Book 2, the Animorphs saved a bunch of birds from poachers. In this book, they save yet more birds. A bit redundant. I know Tobias is a bird and all, but they can still save other animals from time to time too. But whatever, this is only a very very small complaint. Although, while we're talking about redundant, I'm getting REALLY sick of hearing the EXACT same morphs' morphing processes get described in every book over and over and over. It was a complaint I had with the last book, and it's a complaint that's even more on my nerves in this book. I don't mind describing new morphs, but for god's sake, this is the third and forth times about hearing these exact same morphs morphing.
On the good side of things though, we get even more characterization as Tobias and Rachel's little unspoken relationship steps up a major notch from the last couple books. The other characters get a bit more characterization as well as they finally start coming into their own personalities and settling down with them. THESE are the characters I remember. And as I said above, it's really interesting to have a book from the POV of someone permanently stuck in a morph. It's different then the other two were and more interesting. Plus, what happens with the female hawk that kept popping into the story was heartbreaking.
Also, we finally get to see the wolf morphs. Wolves are my favorite animal, after dinosaurs, lol, and I remembered there were wolf morphs but I couldn't remember what book they first came about in, so that provided some very fun reading for me.
This entry also seemed the most exciting to me. It had some great scenes, not just of action, but also of suspense as well, and the scene where they were morphing back to human, right on the 2-hour mark, would look pretty disturbing in a film.
All in all, I have to say, this is my favorite in the series so far (Not counting the Chronicles series there), despite it's short page count and the problems I listed above.
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Animorphs: Book 4: The The Message:
It was nice to finally have a book from Cassie's P.O.V., as she seems to be the least-developed character in the series so far. She hardly has any lines in any of the previous books, and she's talked about the least by those characters. But now it's her time to shine and we finally get a really good look into just who Cassie is and what her beliefs are and what her home life is like and all that stuff.
We're also introduced to a new character in this book, an Andalite cadet named Aximili–Esgarrouth–Isthill, or Ax for short. I didn't think Ax came in this early. I could have sworn he didn't come in until book 7 or 8 or somewhere up around that area, so this entire book was a surprise for me, cause I also had forgotten over the previous 10 years, what exactly was calling out to them down from down in the ocean, and with me thinking Ax didn't come in until much later, it was like reading it for the first time all over again.
What I liked the most was that most of the redundancy of re-describing previous morphs, multiple times, is gone in this book! Finally. Although they use their morphs to save birds. Once again, for the third time in a row. But whatever, that's only very minor, seeing as how my other long-running complaints have finally been fixed, and they do finally save other animals (like a whale) this time around too, which leads into another thing I loved about the book. In every previous book we've had mostly all the same setting - on land. But this time around the majority of the book is under water and it was refreshing to get that change in scenery and an intrduction to an entire new world so to speak, of animals.
Also, the writing is already improving in each book, so that's also good. You can tell that Applegate is starting to feel more familiar with the characters and the world they exist in. Oh, and there was a slight nod to the TV show Friends, by naming all the dolphins after the characters from that show, which I loved as that was one of my favorite shows back when it was on, although it does make the series a bit dated.
Any complaints? Not really, apart from there being a few times that Cassie didn't seem like the Cassie that's been described to us in the previous books, but instead felt more like Rachel or Jake, as if Applegate forgot which character she was writing for at times. That's about it though, so nothing major.
So even though Cassie is my least favorite character, her book is so far my favorite.
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Anyway, a pretty good start to the series, with my only real problem being with the style of writing, which I know improves over time.
Actually, I like the writing style in #1. It reminds me of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, how she wrote Ponyboy's voice. It sounds very real and like the actual way Jake would talk or write.
Also agree about the redundancy of describing morphs, but even more than that, what bothered me was the introduction at the beginning of every book about the Yeerks, how the Animorphs got their powers, and so on. I know it was necessary, as not everyone starts reading from #1, but it was a bit tedious. :|
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I find it useless. in my opinion, animorphs would be too confusing unless you start from #1 so I find that introduction pointless.
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Yes, now, but back in the day, the only way to get them was to order them through Schoolastic, or find them in a bookstore. Schoolastic, unless there's a boxset in their monthly catalog, only ever had whichever one was new for that month, and bookstores very rarely carry every single volume of a long-running series like this, so sometimes it was hard to find the first few books, so newcomers very often, back in the day, pretty much had to start in the middle if they were late at getting into the series. I started on book 3 or 4 I think, cause I couldn't find the first bunch anywhere, until much later.
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What's all this about saving birds three times in a row? I remember them saving a red tailed hawk, elephants from being prodded with a cattle prod, and the whale. What other birds were saved?
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Saved some birds from being poached in Book 2, saved a hawk from captivity in Book 3, and saved some injured birds on Cassie's farm from a fox in Book 4.
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Saved some birds from being poached in Book 2, saved a hawk from captivity in Book 3, and saved some injured birds on Cassie's farm from a fox in Book 4.
The birds being shot at in book two were them. They were being shot at, so they took that one guy's gun. In book four, Cassie is doing her job. She's just using morphing power to help her do it.
I wouldn't count those two instances against them.
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There were other birds in the sky with them that were also being targeted. And my point is, it doesn't matter what the circumstances were, in every single book so far, they morph to save birds. It's redundant as hell. I'm sorry if you have a problem with that, but that's my opinion. It may not bother you, and that's fine and dandy, but since this thread is for my thoughts on each book after I read them, I'm posting just my opinion and feelings on those books, and they're not going to change. I'm just saying it'd be nice to see them try and save other animals once in awhile, other then just birds.
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Animorphs: Book 5: The Predator:
So in Book 5, which is from Marco's POV, they all agree to steal a Yeerk Bug Fighter so Ax can get back to his home planet. Also, this will be Marco's last mission before he steps out of the group, that is, until he finds out that his supposedly dead mother is actually Visser 1, the Yeerk in charge of the Earth invasion.
With all the other Animorphs out of the way, its finally time to get a book from the POV of the group's token comedic member, Marco. Which makes it all the more surprising that this is actually one of the more serious books in the series so far as it gives one of the teens a very personal stake in the entire thing, that's actually been haunting him since before he got involved in the War. And if that wasn't enough to make this the most serious book yet, it also has a very deadly serious morph that will haunt the teens, and us as a reader, for a long time to come. It's also the most interesting morph yet - I was surprised, but the ant morph ended up being my favorite so fart. It was just so much more different and thus interesting, compared to anything else they've morphed thus far, and the ant mind and the dangers they come across while in ant morphs (Such as an enemy ant faction) made it extremely intense. With everything they went through as ants (Getting their limbs ripped off by enemy ants among that), I have a feeling this is the last time we'll be seeing the ant morph in action, but I hope I'm wrong. The psychological scars they get from that will make it very interesting if they ever have to return to that morph in the future.
I found it interesting that when faced with seeing a man get robbed by a mugger, Marco make the EXACT same decision he gave Rachel so much hell for back in book 2 when she morphed into an animal to scare off a potential rapist. This go around, Marco did the exact same thing to scare off a mugger. Good to know he's really not that different, despite his whining and moaning and lecturing. And speaking of that, now that he's emotionally invested in the war with the Yeerks due to finding out about his mom, maybe he won't be doing as much whining and moaning from now on when it comes to them having to fight and go on missions to cripple the Yeerks, cause I have to say, its getting very annoying very fast.
One last scene I feel I have to mention because you can't talk about this book without talking about this scene - Ax in the mall, both in his human morph tryign to blend in and then also in his regular Andalite form after he morphs back in public, and the hilarious hijinxs that followed. Good stuff there. He's diffinitly a great and unique addition to the series and I hope to see more of that in the future.
Overall, this was another really damn good entry that I don't really have any complaints about whatsoever.
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just wait, the ant morph will be used and mentioned a few more times in the series.
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Sweet 8)
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Animorphs: Book 6: The Capture
Book 6 starts off with the Animorphs finding out about a new Yeerk plan to use a hospital to infest 200 people a month, one of which would the state Governor, who will soon be running for president. They launch an attack to put an end to the hospital plan, but something goes wrong, as it always does, and Jake falls in the mini-Yeerk Pool, and gets a Yeerk in his head and becomes a Controller. And he doesn't get just any Yeerk in his head – he gets his brother's Yeerk in his head.
What I liked most about this book, is that it was so different then any of the ones before it. It broke what became a very predictable formula for the books and gave us something new to read about, which kept the book interesting and never had a dull moment, plus they really raised the stakes with the whole Governor aspect. Add to that, some interesting new morphs, comedy from Ax, Tobias saving the day in a way only Tobias can, and we have a very good time reading. Also, now after the events of the previous book, Marco is no longer whinny and ****ing about everything. He's just as headstrong and ready to rush into danger as Rachel is.
Something I do find funny though, is Jake killed hundreds of defenseless Yeerks in their natural state – while Elfangor almost fought Alloran to the death, to try and STOP him from doing the exact same thing in the Andalite Chronicles. Would Elfangor be upset with Jake if he were still alive? That's just some food for thought. It was also interesting to see that once Jake was down and out, Rachel took immediate charge as the group leader, and these scenes got me to thinking that maybe Rachel would be better suited to be the full-time leader with Jake as her second. We also start to see the very beginnings of Rachel's future cold-hearted self.
Anyway, the Message, book 4, is still my favorite so far, but this one is a very close second at the moment, both for its uniqueness and for the fact that I have absolutely no complaints about anything in this book.
Edit: I forgot to mention this above, but I also really liked the Crayak reference at the very end.
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Animorphs: Book 7: The Stranger:
So in this book, the Animorphs finally find a new entrance into the Yeerk Pool after the original entrance was shut at the end of the very first book. During their assault, things go wrong, but right before they get eaten by a Taxxon, everything freezes and they get introduced to...The Ellimist! Making his first appearance in the actual series, and his third appearance overall. He gives them a choice, stay and fight a war they WILL loose, or get whisked away to a safe zone planet with their friends and family.
Much like the previous book, this book introduces tons of stuff that hasn't been in the previous books, and a different format then normal. This book is also filled to the brim with all kinds of struggles, both internal and external. Apart from the obvious physical battles with the Yeerks, we have Rachel's dad offering her to move away with him, so Rachel has to struggle with if she wants to do that or not, if she wants to vote for moving her family to another planet and running from the fight, plus she has a huge blow-up on Marco, and Jake has a huge blow-up, for the first time, on her.
And best of all, the Animorphs are brought to the future that Earth faces, which is a very dark and disturbing future, which hits home hard with them. Luckily they find out that it's not THE future, but just one of many possible futures.
Rachel also gets her bear morph in this one, which is put to very good use, Tobias, my favorite character, is featured a bit more in this one then he was in the last couple, plus has a short return to his human body, and Marco's change in attitude from a couple books back, is noted by the other characters in this one, which is nice.
Also, Rachel uses her morphing to save some Elephants from a trainer that loves using a cattle prod on them. Nice to see that they do use their powers to save animals other then birds, lol. Oh, and in the Future scenes, when the Future Rachel and Visser Three state that time has been changed slightly – I wonder if that's from when the Ellimist changed history by making Elfangor not stay on Earth in the Andalite Chronicles. Something to think about.
Anything negative? It seems Applegate is back to being a tad bit redundant with the over-explaining of things that has been explained in almost every single book, and it seemed like this time, she took longer to re-explain some of those then she did in the last couple books. Also, despite my joy at finally having the Ellimist introduced in the series, some of the Ellimist stuff kind of contradicts what we know about him from The Ellimist Chronicles, although don't get me wrong, his scenes were nothing short of fantastic.
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Oh, and in the Future scenes, when the Future Rachel and Visser Three state that time has been changed slightly – I wonder if that's from when the Ellimist changed history by making Elfangor not stay on Earth in the Andalite Chronicles. Something to think about.
interesting...yeah, didn't the ellimist say in the andalite chronicles that if elfangor stayed on earth, his brother wouldn't have been born? that would explain why ax didn't exist...but then that also means they wouldn't have gotten the power to morph, so there would've been no bandits...
Also, despite my joy at finally having the Ellimist introduced in the series, some of the Ellimist stuff kind of contradicts what we know about him from The Ellimist Chronicles
wouldn't be surprised. KA might not have completely figure out everything about the ellimist yet. She might've knew she wanted an almost all-powerful being of some sort, but not much other than that.
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but then that also means they wouldn't have gotten the power to morph, so there would've been no bandits...
They could have gotten it another way. maybe a different Andalite gives it to them, but there are some minor differences, like the location the Andalite crashes or something, that can drastically change the outcome.
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um...could you use quotes next time please...for quotes use [*quote][/quote] (minus the *), or you could just press the quote button at the top right corner of the post.
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Why does it matter? That's how I reply and I don't plan on changing, and honestly, I really don't see why the heck it matters. I think the whole Quoting thing looks really ugly, and that looks so much better and more in-flow with the rest of the post.
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cuz it can be hard to tell what's a quote and what's a reply.
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If you don't know it's something you said yourself, then maybe you shouldn't be replying in the first place.
I'll tell you this right now, and I thought it was pretty obvious, but I guess not; the only things I bold, are titles, and things other people have said. That's it.
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it doesn't necessarily be something I said. you could've been quoting someone else.
and no it wasn't that obivous to me.
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Megamorphs: Book 1: The Andalite's Gift
This is the first Megamorphs book, and the only one I read when I was younger. Does it still stand up to the test of my time as my current favorite Animorphs-related thing? That is a definite yes!
I keep saying, if the book series of Animorphs was a TV series itself, then the Megamorphs books would be the theatrical movies. It seems the adventures are bigger and more grander, the books themselves are far thicker, and each chapter is told from the POV of a different character, instead of the full book, and so because of that, we get to read about the same event a couple times over, but through the eyes of separate characters, which is pretty neat and not nearly as redundant as you'd think.
In this, after Rachel looses her memory due to being attacked by some birds while in Eagle-morph, a strange alien creature made out of dust particles and gnashing teeth keeps attacking the Animorphs and going on wild destructive rampages whenever they morph, which causes some really nice 'theatrical-quality' action scenes, such as the highway attack, and it also means the Animorphs are unable to morph without attracting it.
Part way through, Rachel, after having lost her memory, comes across a crazy lady in the forest that knows of the Yeerks. I wonder if this is the same person that they got out of the Yeerk Pool, way back in Animorphs Book 1? They never did say what happened to her, but it would make sense. And while we're on the topic of Rachel, I'm not exactly fond of her loosing her memory and coming across a crazy person in the woods that tries to lock her away. Seems way too much of a Kim Bauer-kind of side-plot. Those that watch 24, more-so Season 2 of 24, will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
Marco and Ax (This being the first book where Ax actually gets something from his POV, as his POV book isn't until after this) both have their humor levels raised even higher in this one then normal, bringing in a much-needed counter-balance of comedy to the otherwise all-serious and sort of dark entry in the series. It was also awesome seeing the return of the Wolf morph, as that is my favorite one.
Even though the book is longer then the average Animorphs book, it really doesn't read longer, because most of it is non-stop action, and there are quite a lot of really nice action scenes, both on Earth and off of it (On the Blade ship).
I do have one minor complaint though, and that is with Ax's narration. He comes across way too 'human' in this book. he thinks like a human, talks like a human, and acts like a human, which is really out of character for Ax. But as I said, that is only a minor nagative thing in a book full of nothing else but positives.
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i agree with the ax part.
k.a. wasn't quite fluent with andalite speaking until a bit later.
musicman actually did a better job with ax than k.a. in his fan fic. :P
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Animorphs: Book 8: The Alien
This is the first actual full book narrated by Ax, and IMO, its much better-done then his chapters in Megamorphs, as in that book he seemed a bit too human but in this one, he actually seems like the alien he is.
In this book, the Animorphs start seeing the repercussions of the events in Book 7 when they destroyed the Earth-based Kandrona, and the Yeerks start dying – sometimes while still controlling a body, and thus causing very eye-turning scenes in public. But then much to the horror of the Animorphs, they discover that the Yeerks are also killing the human hosts as well. While that is going on, Ax accidentally gives the human race something that could potentially launch them ahead in technology by hundreds of years, and due to Andalite laws, he must destroy it, but not before he uses it to secretly contact his race. Along the way however, he uncovers for the first time that some Yeerks can actually feel the emotion of Love and are not as cold and heartless as most of their race is. Also, Ax goes off to fight Visser 3 alone to finally avenge his brother's death from back in Book 1.
The main thing I loved about this book that set it above all the others before it, IMO, apart from being the first one in the actual series (Non of the spin-off or prequel books) told from an alien's POV, is that we get a really awesome flashback scene in it, to before Ax arrived on Earth that takes place during a couple chapters in The Andalite Chronicles, but from Ax's POV of that specific event, and for the first time since Visser, we get to see some pretty good Yeerk sympathy and are shown that they're not all bad. I also really liked seeing more Ax-in-public hijinks again, which I loved back in Book 5 and I love again here. Another thing that made this a pleasure to read, is some of the nods and chat of things that have happened in previous books (Jake having been infested in Book 6, Seerow's Kindness from the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, ect). I know a lot of series (TV and books) that don't really reference the small details that came before, but this does. The small things are what can make something so much fun to read/watch.
On the topic of Seerow's Kindness, what made this book so interested to read, other then being from Ax's POV, is that we realize for the first time that he actually has kept a lot of secrets from the others for his own various reasons, and we realize for the first time that despite being part of the group and being friends with the others, he really is quite alone and has to keep those secrets to himself, with no other Andalite to share them with. On top of that, we also get a good look at various Andalite customs and culture, which was neat. Another thing that was constantly talked about in the previous books but never really hit home until now, is that they are indeed in a War. We see just how used to this war Ax is compared to the humans and we get our real first bit of true understanding of what has to be done in wars sometimes.
All of those things, plus the addition of Ax's journal entries at the beginning of every chapter, make this my new favorite of the actual series so far, due to its uniqueness not found in the other books before it.
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Animorphs: Book 9: The Secret
In this book, the Yeerks have discovered that there is only one forest in the area where the 'Andalite Bandits' could be hiding and start a logging operation to cut the trees down, in order to look for them and remove their food source. It's up to the Animorphs to stop them and save Ax, as well as the woodland creatures, but that's harder said then done as the Yeerks are expecting them to show up and have made plans to counter that.
I make it no secret that Cassie is my least-favorite character, and despite her first book being one of my favorites, I still feel weary about reading any of her POV stories. Even though this is nothing more then an average filler book, it was at least more interesting then Book 2, IMO, which was another filler book, and there was a lot here to like.
First being the wolf morphs again. The wolf morphs are my favorite, as wolves are my favorite animal, so any of the books that have them is automatically on my 'Like' list, lol. The new termite morph was actually good as well, with an interesting twist involved. Another thing this book does so well, quite possibly better then any of the books before it, is the clashing opinions and personalities of all the Animorphs, which is prevalent mostly in the Save-The-Environment kind of discussions. It was also nice having Cassie's parents have a bit more characterization then before and seeing Cassie and them doing their 'Save-an-Animal' thing when an almost-dead skunk was spotted and they were called in to collect it and save it.
On the other hand, there were a few things I didn't like. Main one having to do with Cassie and how she acted like the termite morph was the most horrible, traumatizing situation she had ever been in, yet it really wasn't descried that badly. While she was freaking out about it, I kept asking myself 'Geez, what's her problem? It wasn't nearly as bad as she's acting like it was'. Also, the Save the Environment theme was pushed HEAVILY on us. I don't mind that being the plot, but there was no need for forcing it on us like the author did. And lastly, this is a filler book and while not as dull and boring as Book 2 was, it's also not nearly as good as the third filler book so far, Book 3.
While I'm not sorry I had to read this book, its also one I could have done without as well and not feel like I'm missing anything. The plot wasn't very interesting, nor engaging, and I felt like I was just reading this book as quickly as I could, not because it was so good but because I was just wanting to hurry up and get onto the next book. But as I said earlier, at least there was enough stuff in this that I liked, to keep me from getting bored and wanting to stop reading.
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Animorphs: Book 10: The Android
This book has Marco and Jake coming across an old school friend, Erek, who he and the other Animorphs start spying on after they find out Erek's been going to meetings of The Sharing, the Yeerk's little boyscout-like group used to infest people. However something becomes very clear – Erek is definitely not a Yeerk, but he's also definitely not human either. However, in the end they must team up with him to launch an attack on the Yeerks before they launch a computer virus that will give them unrestricted control of every computer in the entire world that is connected to the Internet with the help of an alien crystal.
This book continues a trend I'm starting to find annoying – all the coincidences (Tobias being Elfangor's son, Marco's mom being Visser 1, Jake's brother being a controller, and now an old friend just so happens is someone else that has been involved in this War due to other circumstances). This series is filled with more wild coincidences then Spider-Man 3! I think it would have been better had Erek been a new kid at school then someone they've known. Also, the title completely ruins most of the mystery this book would have otherwise had, as to what just exactly Erek is, which is actually not finally revealed until about the half-way mark. Or at least it wouldn't have been, had it not been for the title ruining it.
However, with that out of the way, I loved everything else. The hilarious banter between Marco and Rachel toward the beginning had me actually laughing out loud a couple times, the scene where they were all trying to come up with these elaborate ways to track Erek down and then Cassie just suggests the phone book was just as funny, if not funnier, then the Marco/Rachel stuff, and of course, the funny Marco/Jake banter between which of their morphs are better. On the more serious side, we get our first mention of what happens to all that extra mass the Animorphs loose when they morph smaller animals, and the Yeerks start gunning to take control of Marco's father, which makes things even more personal for Marco then they already are, as that would make his entire family Controllers. Oh, and we get our first introduction to a new hopefully-recurring 'race', and we get some info on them as well as two other races, once of which created them. This book alone is a huge step forward in the overall Animorphs plot progression. Although the history of the Pemalites is almost identical to the history of the Ellimist's species as told in The Ellimist Chronicles.
By the way, the scene where Erek reveals to Marco that he knows about him and the other Animorphs is easily one of my favorite scenes in the series so far, closely followed by the scene where Erek explains his history to all the Animorphs. And speaking of Erek, he reminded me a lot of the Smallville version of the superhero named Cyborg mixed with the Egyptian God Anubis, lol. He's also now my new favorite character after Tobias, and I hope we see more of him in the future at some point and he doesn't just get shoved out of the way like other side characters such as Melissa.
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Animorphs: Book 11: The Forgotten
In book 11, the Animorphs steal a crashed prototype of a new kind of Bug Fighter to fly to Washington and land on the lawn of the White House to show the world about the Yeerk invasion, however along the way they get into a fight with Visser Three's Blade Ship and an accident causes both ships to spiral out of control and to travel back in time by about 24 hours, and then crash into the middle of the Amazon.
At first I really loved this book, as it was doing something fresh and new, and I liked how it was doing it. I also love how the grocery store that the Bug Fighter crashed into, and thus destroyed, was Safeway – you see, when I worked at Sobeys, Safeway was our main competition. Nice to see one of their stores finally blown up, lol. It was neat as well to have Jack have 'the flashes'. It added an air of mystery o the first half of the book as to just what the heck is happening, and it is explained perfectly later on. It was also nice to see more playful Rachel and Marco scenes as I love those, although lately it seems Rachel and Marco have more chemistry together then Rachel and Tobias.
Anyway, I also really found myself enjoying the jungle morphs and most scenes that took place in the Amazon, mainly because I love jungle animals and jungle locations the most, and it was really kick ass to see the Animorphs in another location besides their own town, but also because it was great to see them come across all the dangerous aspects of the jungle that I thought the book would either leave out or just skim over like it was nothing, but luckily they came across one major jungle danger after another, painting a pretty realistic picture of how jungles actually are. It was also cool seeing Jake mess up time after time, showing he's not the invincible know-it-all leader that he's been portrayed as in other books. He's only human, and he's only a kid, and bound to make mistakes. And one last thing, I also liked reading about the countless animals that the Yeerks were killing in the jungle, scared that they may be the Animorphs, and the Animorphs not being able to do anything to save the animals without getting themselves killed. It showed a darker side of the series not often seen yet, and I appreciated that.
But then the last quarter of the book comes, which completely makes almost all the good things I thought about this book moot, as the end makes it so NOTHING in this book actually happened; none of the events from stealing the bug fighter onwards and none of the morphs they obtained in the jungle actually happened come the end, as Jake managed to get his other-self to not go through with any of it, so it undid everything. And on top of that, because none of it actually happened afterward, none of them have memory of the event, which makes this book 100% pointless. Let's recap: Events never actually happened, and no memory of said events = pointless and a waste of an otherwise damn good premise.
I also found it incredibly unrealistic and out of character for them to try and fight the Blade Ship near the beginning, KNOWING it would result in their deaths, as opposed to trying to outrun it back to Earth in which case, they at least had a chance – a very very small chance, but a chance none the less. I mean, not even Marco had any objections – which would be a first time pretty much. And while on the topic of out of characterness, shouldn't it have been Rachel that was so concerned for Tobias during all this? Yet it was Cassie that was constantly voicing her concern for him in the various situations. Even Visser Three was majorly out of character when he scolded his minions for their jungle destruction. Why the heck would he care? Hell, he's gotten mad at his minions in the past for NOT killing every animal in sight in the happenstance that one or more is an Animorph.
And just what the heck was up with the Natives being able to understand English perfectly fine?
What started off as a great book, and had a great idea, actually turned out to be one of the books I liked the least and the book I had the most problems with so far. In the end, it had just felt like glorified fanfiction more then an actual entry of the series.
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Animorphs: Book 12: The Reaction
Book 12 has Rachel having an allergic reaction to a new morph, which causes her to start morphing uncontrollably and at random, which as you can imagine can, and does, cause quite a few very big problems for both her and the others. At the same time, the Yeerks got their sights set on a famous teen heartthrob to infest and have publicly indorse the Sharing.
So I ended up really liking this book, despite being just a generic filler book. Right from the get-go we get an explanation from Rachel, explaining her so-called fearlessness that the others see in her, and it was a really believable explanation, but despite her saying she only acts that way cause its what's expected of her, when the going got tuff, she had no problem ordering the others to leave her for dead so that they could get away. Also in that same scene, I couldn't help but laugh out loud when Visser 3 totally messed up the whole 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe' saying.
Also, I really liked them going back to the Gardens. We haven't heard mention of that place in a long time (Book 4 I think was the last time), so it was nice to see it again. It was also really kick ass seeing Rachel in superhero-mode again when she leaped over the railing into the crocodile pit to save the kid that fell down there, which BTW, was probably one of the most suspenseful scenes in the entire series so far and it's an OPENING chapter! Most truly suspenseful parts don't come until toward the end.
And one more thing I loved with this book was the suspense. With Rachel in danger of morphing at any time, no matter where she is or who she's with, or what people are around, it caused for some very suspenseful edge-of-your-seat scenes. Quite possibly the best example of suspense seen in the series up to this point. This book also touches on some very dark themes for a kid series, such as suicide, which surprised me as well, and on the topic of more mature themes, I found it hilarious that when Rachel morphed the Elephant by accident, it was pretty much because she was horny.
Any negatives? Nothing too major. I just found it a huge coincidence that what was happening to Rachel with the allergic reaction, was solvable pretty much just by waiting, and I'm not sure I like the whole explanation of creating a new being and getting rid of the DNA that way. I also hated how Jake lectured Rachel on screwing up one of the missions the way she did, mainly cause Jake himself has had his fair share of moments where he's majorly screwed up, so I don't really think he had much room to talk there. Of course Rachel doesn't have the opportunity to travel back in time and undo all her mistakes like Jake did in the previous book. And one last thing, as much as I enjoyed them morphing one of their own (I.E. Morphing Rachel), it confused me that Cassie was so against morphing dolphins without their permission, yet she practically jumped at the opportunity to morph Rachel without even asking her first. It was very out of character for Cassie.
However very few of these books are 100% perfect, and for a filler book to have nothing too major to count against it is a pretty good feat, IMO.
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Also, I don't like all the coincidences in the series. Marco just so happens to be the son of the Visser 1 host body, Tobias just so happens to be the son of Elfangor, ect.
I agreed with this too, but...
[spoiler]
...later in Megaomorphs #4, it was revealed this was all Ellimist's intervention.
"Oh I see it now, I see it now," the Drode said, ignoring Marco, ignoring all of us. "Subtle as always, Ellimist. Your meddling came before, didn't it? How could we have not have seen it? Elfangor's brother? His time shifted son? This anomalous girl here? And the son of Visser One's host body? A group of six supposedly random humans that contains those four! You stacked the deck!"
"Did I?" The Ellimist laughed. "That would have been very clever of me."
[/spoiler]
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Book 11 was indeed a cool book for the most part, except for some out of character stuff, and the part where it wound up never happening.
lol at horny Rachel in book 12. Probably the closest implication of something sexual in the series.