Group Re-Read: Week 10, #9, The Secret

[Terenia]

I'm not going to lie, this is not my favorite book. As such I didn't put too much effort into creating questions. So please feel free to discuss anything about this book that you found interesting.

Summary
There's something pretty weird going on in the woods behind Cassie's house. The place where Ax and Tobias call home. It seems the Yeerks have figured out one very important thing: Andalites cannot survive without a feeding ground. Visser Three knows the Andalite bandits" don't feed where he does, so there can only be one other place.
Now Cassie, Marco, Jake, Rachel, Tobias, and Ax have to figure out a way to stop a bogus logging camp. Because if Visser Three finds Ax in the woods, nothing will stop him from finding the Animorphs...

Questions
1) Especially given the fact that we're talking about a national forest, what do you think about the whole logging camp pretense?

2) Why do you think the Yeerks were waiting until Farrand was at the logging camp to infest him? Wouldn't it have been easier to just do it in the car or something?

3) In this book Cassie becomes almost obsessive over having to kill the termite queen. She brings up her current moral dilemma: where do humans stand in the scheme of things, and is the Yeerk invasion just part of natural selection. What do you think?

4) What did you think of Cassie's narration in this book?

5) Favorite parts? Least favorite parts? Why?

Next Week we will be reading #10, The Android.

[morfowt]

3) In this book Cassie becomes almost obsessive over having to kill the termite queen. She brings up her current moral dilemma: where do humans stand in the scheme of things, and is the Yeerk invasion just part of natural selection. What do you think?

No, cuz they're sentient species. If a sentient species goes on living with just the necessities, they're still part of it. Once they get like technology, they're no longer part of natural selection. well there's my view of things.

5) Favorite parts? Least favorite parts? Why?

Favorite parts: Rescuing the baby skunks, and the ending. the former, cuz it was cute. the latter, cuz it was funny.

Least fav parts: when they were in termite morph. kinda creepy and scary.

[Cloak]

I am personally with Cassie on this one.  I don't like logging -- but then again, I was brought up in a heavily forested area.

2) Why do you think the Yeerks were waiting until Farrand was at the logging camp to infest him? Wouldn't it have been easier to just do it in the car or something?

It does seem odd, doesn't it?  But then again, perhaps it didn't occur to Vissy Three.  He never seems to do much thorough thinking at this early part of the series, does he?

No, cuz they're sentient species. If a sentient species goes on living with just the necessities, they're still part of it. Once they get like technology, they're no longer part of natural selection. well there's my view of things.

Have to agree with you on this one, morfowt.  Dead-on.  Of course, that also applies to humans. . . . (On a side note though, I don't think humans are the only sentient species on earth, but that's the Cassie in me.  And it's off-topic, sorry.)

[Gafrash]

I think this book was a strong read on Cassie, once again. I think it's an important read for Cassie's fans, b/c her commitment to the animals is more strongly highlighted. Think of 'her trauma of having to kill the termite queen' as a manifestation of her conflictions of being lead deeper into this contradicting lifestyle she's been emersed in. This incident is important b/c down the road it's mentioned in #19 and so on. To me, this dilema is what shapes her character well.
Would each of us feel the same emotions over killing an insect? Well, I would certainly not compare it to the Yeerks enslaving us humans, it being our turn on the scheme of things. Cassie lets her moral choices get the best out of her sometimes and it's definitely shown here.

I liked the idea of K.A. using a skunk, this small animal, and amplifying its 'smelly' charateristic to a turn it into A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH kind of thing!!! Any smart human knows not to mess with a skunk!!!
I recall the Visser getting sprayed and the Animorphs double-crossing the 'deal' to 'clean him up'. GOLD MOMENT HERE!!! Hehehehe!

I like the part where the Animorphs first try to infiltrate the compound as wolves with Ax. They almost get caught on this net.

The whole logging camp pretense would have been a Visser Three idea, as far as he was concerned, chopping down the whole woods would eventually expose an 'Andalite Bandit'. BUT some human-Controller advisor in the Empire would have told him it would attract too much attention, thus the Dapsen ordeal.
I thought it was quite sneaky and smart of the Yeerks to be honest. A lot better than the 'eliminate human will' experiments, seriously.

Now, I imagine Farrand had to become one of theirs at the logging company for it to work. I don't see any other reason for them not taking him in his home or on his car... Or why they hadn't made the commitee party that had said 'yes' one of them too.

PS: The cover is one of my favorites. Really well done.

[Terenia]

I do love the cover of this book. Wolves were always my favorite animal, so I was really excited when this book came out.

I will agree that the idea of tearing down a national forest to find six 'bandits' is very classic Visser Three. And one of his better ideas, considering what we're forced to deal with in the future. I'm pretty sure Visser Three needs to retake Effective Hostile Take-Overs 101.

[morfowt]

I find it hard to believe he took Effective Hostile Take-overs 101 in the first place.

[Terenia]

I find it hard to believe he took Effective Hostile Take-overs 101 in the first place.

That's a good point. I think he must have mistakenly taken Causing Empires to Crumble 101.

[Chad32]

What he did was get lucky. That's all. That's the only reason he's as high ranking as he is. It could also be because the Council is wacked. Elevating him to Visser One when he should have been demoted.

[wolfev]

Cassie can be a very weird character. I like her and find her annoying.
Oh and hey, check out my project, http://warriors-radiodrama.cjb.net
Its a radio drama based on Erin Hunter's Warriors

[OrcaMorph]

What he did was get lucky. That's all. That's the only reason he's as high ranking as he is. It could also be because the Council is wacked. Elevating him to Visser One when he should have been demoted.

I don't think he was JUST lucky.  In the beginning he was dedicated and clever; the only one willing to really learn about the enemy.  I think he just lost his sanity as he accrued more power until he was an ineffectual psychopath.

[Terenia]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I guess that applies to the pursuit of absolute power as well.

[Cloak]

Not only that, Teach, but if you are constantly searching and pursuing absolute power, you're going end up killed or in a rather humiliating position.  I think Visser Three is proof of this.

Rachel, in the book where she becomes Super-Rachel, was right.  Power is a drug.

[V2113]

I don't know how to answer some of these questions but...

We don't know if there aren't other cities in the unexplored parts of the world. There could be Dogotopia in the Amazon, we don't know!

Favorite Parts: "Why are we saving skunks?" Marco. "They're cute." Rachel.

Least Favorite: The termite thing. When Cassie gets mad at Tobias for having lunch.

[Slushie Man]

Especially given the fact that we're talking about a national forest, what do you think about the whole logging camp pretense?

I didn't mind it for the most part, but I hated how K.A. shoved the whole environmental message down our throats.

Why do you think the Yeerks were waiting until Farrand was at the logging camp to infest him? Wouldn't it have been easier to just do it in the car or something?

Safer this way. Outside of the compound, there are outside factors they wouldn't be able to control and anything could happen. They didn't want to take even the smallest chance, as the situation was too important to them.

In this book Cassie becomes almost obsessive over having to kill the termite queen. She brings up her current moral dilemma: where do humans stand in the scheme of things, and is the Yeerk invasion just part of natural selection. What do you think?

Yeerk invasion is not natural selection. As Morfowt said, they're a sentient species with technology. It's not natural selection but out and out invasion. Plus if a species has to travel to our planet in spaceships, there's nothing 'natural' about it.

What did you think of Cassie's narration in this book?

Not nearly as good as in Book 4, and actually kind of annoying at times.

Favorite parts? Least favorite parts? Why?

Any part with the wolves were good, and I loved seeing more of Cassie's parents this time around, and the scene near the beginning where they were almost caught was really fun to read.

Least favorite parts would have to be Cassie going ape**** after the termite morph, as it really wasn't described as being all that bad, yet the way she acted, it seemed like it was the worst morph they've ever done.

[Chad32]

Maybe it was having to force her body to kill the queen and turn the colony to chaos that did it. I never really understood what was so traumatic about it. I think it was just her, though.