Group Re-Read: Week 8, MegaMorphs #1: The Andalites Gift

[Terenia]

Megamorphs #1: The Andalites Gift

Summary
We never should have done it. But we needed a break. You know, some time off from the superhero stuff. A chance to act like normal kids. Well - as normal as four kids who can morph, a hawk, and an alien can be. Everything should have been cool.

Now Rachel is missing. And there's this...this thing that's after us. But it's not up to me to tell the whole story. Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Ax were there, too. Even Rachel has some info to add. So go ahead and check this out. And remember not to tell anyone what we're about to tell you. It could mean the difference between life and death...

*anyone else find the back covers of the books incredibly hokey? hehe

Questions
As always feel free to add to the list.

1) Do you think the whole Rachel gets amnesia thing was necessary to the story, or an overused plot line that has been beaten to death by countless previous authors? Why?

2) What do you think about Visser Three's decision to use the Veleek?

3) Cassie wrestles with the idea of her being a coward. Do you think she is? Do you think that she was justified in letting the Veleek take Marco?

4) This is the first narration we've seen of Ax. What do you think?

MY COMMENTS

*I think that Cassie's dream where she has to choose may be a sign of her anomolyism (is that a word?).

*How the HECK have the Ani's not been caught yet? I mean, there's a giant elephant lying on its side in the road, being filmed by two Bug Fighters in a HOUSING DEVELOPMENT with people watching and cops coming and Rachel and Cassie demorph. Don't you think that someone would notice? Someone? Come on.

*Going off the previous comment, I don't think K.A. has a lot of faith in humanity. I mean, unleashing a demon from Saturn on a neighborhood to saw up houses and trees and destroy everything in its path with what is obviously NOT a natural phenomenon, and the Controllers try to write it off as a freak tornado? Or you know, TEN freak tornadoes?

*Visser Three's idea of a covert operation make me laugh. See above.

*You would think that by this time, after many occasions where wild animals found only in the zoo were seen running around public places The Gardens would get shut down. Or you know, something would happen.

*Not to get ahead of the read-through here, but the next book is fully narrated by Ax and he sounds rather alien in that book (if I remember correctly). I was a bit disappointed at times by his narration here. He sounded almost too human, not stiff enough or something.




Also, this is the book when we get the famed line:
"DO YOU HATE TRASH CANS!? IS THAT IT? DO YOU JUST HATE TRASH CANS!?"


Next week we will be reading #8: The Alien

Now......DISCUSS!!!!

[Cloak]

I probably shouldn't be responding, as I'm not too good at these things, but I give it a try.

3)  I understand what Cassie is going through (I had a similar event happen to me -- before anyone asks, no, I wasn't going to morph to a squirrel to lure a demonic creature from Saturn from a friend.)  My point is, I felt like a coward in that moment about five years ago, though my mom and maternal aunt repetively disputed this, I still felt cowardly.  So, I understand what's going on through Cassie's mind.

Also, this is the book when we get the famed line:
"DO YOU HATE TRASH CANS!? IS THAT IT? DO YOU JUST HATE TRASH CANS!?"

Love it.  Marco drives like my dad!  And I think that's saying something.

[Chad32]

I think that girl who didn't invite Marco to the party deserved being chased by a mouse all over the place! Though, not having her house torn apart. Not inviting someone to a party for a harmless prank he pulled three years ago is not right.

Cassie is probably the least brave of all the Animorphs, but I wouldn't call her a coward. I'd call her Human.

I don't mind Rachel getting amnesia, or how the Ax narration went. I like the Veleek.

There are many instances where their identities should have been blown. It's very strange.

[Cloak]

There are many instances where their identities should have been blown. It's very strange.

Perhaps the Ellimist had a hand in that?

I think that girl who didn't invite Marco to the party deserved being chased by a mouse all over the place!

I never understood musophobia. . . . In fact, sometimes when the cat gets too lazy, I have to get the mouse out of the house. . . . I'm also the get-rid-of-spiders-and-other-assorted-bugs guy.

Can't say I've ever been in Marco's place -- usually I ignore party invitations.  I'm not a very party guy.

I like the Veleek.

I though it was a very good creature too . . . and I'm glad that it doesn't really exist!  *has a Spider Sense-type feeling, and looks over his shoulder . . .*

[Terenia]

I've heard people say that this book reads like a comic book. I think that's pretty true, to a degree. Out of all of the books, I can kind of see a comic-book/graphic novel version of this one the best. There's a lot of dramatic scenes and interesting subplots for each character.

[Cloak]

I really wouldn't mind seeing that, Terenia.  I have never heard people say that, but it seems like that I am pretty much the only Ani fan in my area.  So . . .

But I agree.  Then again, I'm all for audiobooks, graphic novels, etc, of all the books. . . .

[morfowt]

1) Do you think the whole Rachel gets amnesia thing was necessary to the story, or an overused plot line that has been beaten to death by countless previous authors? Why?

I've actually never heard of it used in a book before, so the plot was new to me. Neccesary, I wouldn't say that, but interesting, yes.

2) What do you think about Visser Three's decision to use the Veleek?

it was a very smart move (I would've probably done the same in his place)...which is saying something considering visser three.

3) Cassie wrestles with the idea of her being a coward. Do you think she is? Do you think that she was justified in letting the Veleek take Marco?

Coward? no, not unless I'm a coward too. And from my point of view, wanting to live is very justified.

4) This is the first narration we've seen of Ax. What do you think?

I didn't read this book until after a couple of ax books, so it never really occured to me that it was the first book he narrated in. As a result, no comment.

"DO YOU HATE TRASH CANS!? IS THAT IT? DO YOU JUST HATE TRASH CANS!?"

I just love that scene, and other driving scenes.

I think that girl who didn't invite Marco to the party deserved being chased by a mouse all over the place! Though, not having her house torn apart. Not inviting someone to a party for a harmless prank he pulled three years ago is not right.

I sort of agree. although my thoughts on this are a bit weird. if she said she didn't invite marco just because she didn't want to, I'd have nothing against that. She not inviting him because of some prank...that girl needs a sense of humor. Now saying Marco's not funny. She definetly deserved being chased by a mouse.

[Slushie Man]

1) Do you think the whole Rachel gets amnesia thing was necessary to the story, or an overused plot line that has been beaten to death by countless previous authors? Why?

It was the one thing of the novel that I hated. It felt very Kim Bauer-ish. She even comes across a crazy person in the woods! All it needed was to have her get stalked by a cougar, and I would be calling her Kim Bauer from here on out.

2) What do you think about Visser Three's decision to use the Veleek?

It was a good idea, and would have worked exactly as planned, had Marco not heard him on the Blade Ship about the water.

3) Cassie wrestles with the idea of her being a coward. Do you think she is? Do you think that she was justified in letting the Veleek take Marco?

Totally. Marco's in a better position to survive in such a scenario, then Cassie was, IMO. Also, we'd all like to think we'd be brave in a life-or-death situation like that, but quite realistically, if it were to actually happen, I guarantee you, that about 95% of us would chicken out, just like her.

4) This is the first narration we've seen of Ax. What do you think?

He diffinitly acted way too human in it.

How the HECK have the Ani's not been caught yet? I mean, there's a giant elephant lying on its side in the road, being filmed by two Bug Fighters in a HOUSING DEVELOPMENT with people watching and cops coming and Rachel and Cassie demorph. Don't you think that someone would notice? Someone? Come on.

Humans are idiots and will believe whatever they're told to believe. Happens all the time in the real world.

"You would think that by this time, after many occasions where wild animals found only in the zoo were seen running around public places The Gardens would get shut down. Or you know, something would happen."

Maybe they have in Off-Screen world. Maybe during the time between some of the books, they got shut down, investigated, proven that nothing has escaped and the animals must be coming from somewhere else (Maybe an illegal private zoo like in the Carnosaur novel), so the Gardens re-opened.

[Phoenix004]

I don't think K.A. has a lot of faith in humanity. I mean, unleashing a demon from Saturn on a neighborhood to saw up houses and trees and destroy everything in its path with what is obviously NOT a natural phenomenon, and the Controllers try to write it off as a freak tornado? Or you know, TEN freak tornadoes?

I agree, although "freak tornado" sounds a bit more realistic than "alien tornado monster from Saturn."

[Slushie Man]

People have this ability to disbelieve any explanation that doesn't sound like a reasonable one. Don't get me started on a debate about HAARP and the people out there that are still not willing to believe, despite all the proof there is (Including people who have actually worked on building the machine, with credentials that match, that say it is indeed real).

But yeah, I could be here for at least a year, talking about THAT topic.

[Gafrash]

I HAVE GOT TO RE-READ THIS BOOK. Just reading your highlights brought back how much fun I had reading this book.
It was the first taste I had of seeing a 'mission' off different perspectives of the characters. Though, in particular with the elephant, squirrel, gorilla scene I recall a bit of repetitiveness. I, too, remember thinking HOW THEY DIDN'T GET SEEN in this scene. What, with infrared or night-vision monitors in the bug-fighter.


PS: That crazy old lady creeped me the far out!!!



Interesting how this IS the first narration we see of Ax, Terenia. He DOESN'T give off that alien spock thing here. I don't know why I never came to think of this narration as his first...

Concerning Yeerk-activity in The Gardens, I thought how they would have increased the Yeerk-presence in the place. But since they were merely assuming the 'Andalite Bandits' were acquiring the morphs from there, they couldn't risk attracting attention by shutting the attraction down. How were they going to explain having to shut down the fun park neighbouring it also??!! Plus, they knew the 'Andalites' would merely find a different source for their acquiring subjects.

I think this was definitely another early hint of Cassie's 'intuitive senses' at work here. And also in a way, Rachel's attraction to recklessly getting herself in deep. How did she lose memory again? She fell from the sky demorphing, right?!?!?

The Veleek was Visser Three's toy idea of having a crack at capturing the bandits without dirtying his hands. Thank God he was unable to acquire this beast!! Can you guys imagine???
He was imagining it to go and tear apart some place near some meadow in the forest, not a quiet subdivision with some high-schoolies by a pool party. The 'freak-tornado' idea is as bad as the 'fireworks in the sky' when Visser Three hunted Elfangor down.

Though one of my favorite scenes IS Marco's trash can bumper driving, I also remember dreaming about how sensational Cassie's whale morph stunt was. K.A. really knew how to play with my imagination. I was literally cheering for these kids when they finally defeated Visser's Three pet!!!

[Phoenix004]

For some reason I thought that Megamorphs #1 happened just after book 8 so I thought that book 8 was his first narration (which seemed to make more sense to me).

[Chad32]

Rachel wasn't demorphing in the air. She was being mobbed by Jays or something, and crashed into a tree. Instinctively, she began demorphing before she lost consciousness.

If Visser Three was able to acquire the Veleek, it would make almost every other land/air going morph obsolete.

[Phoenix004]

As the Veleek is said to be made up of thousands of tiny creatures, then Visser Three would be stupid to acquire the Veleek as he would just end up as one of those tiny creatures, which would be useless.

[morfowt]

Not to mention, the veleek had to be sort of modified or something to track morphing energy. If visser three accquired it, he'd just be a normal veleek that fed on life-energy. He could kill the animorphs, but not detect them.