Reviews of the books

[goom]

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.

[Slushie Man]

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.

[Slushie Man]

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.

[Slushie Man]

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.

[Slushie Man]

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.

[Slushie Man]

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.

[ThinkAgain]

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]

[Chad32]

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.