Group Re-Read: #51 The Absolute

[Terenia]

Summary
The Yeerks have taken over units of the National Guard with plans to infest all of its officers and soldiers. The plan seems to be to step things up—use the Guard to prepare for an all-out war on Earth. The Animorphs couldn't be less prepared. They're living with the free Hork-Bajir colony, Jake is depressed, and worst of all, the morphing cube is in the hands of the enemy. Marco and the others know they need to take serious action to stop the Yeerk infiltration of the Guard. They decide to approach the governor—but they don't know if she's a controller or not. If she is, they're walking right into enemy hands. If she's not, the Animorphs are finally going public with their secret. And no one knows which situation is worse...

Questions
1. In this book we see the Animorphs attempt to publicize the Yeerk threat. What do you think about the timing of this? Should something like this been done a long time ago, or does it not matter? Who believes in that sort of stuff anyway, right?

2. This book largely consisted of Marco/Tobias/Ax interactions. In fact we see next to nothing involving Jake and the girls. What do you think is going on between the three unseen characters who undeniably are in the midst of much more personal tension?

3. This is our first book seeing Yeerks who can morph. What kind of an impact does this moment have on the series? What about on you as a reader?

4. This is our final Marco narrated book before the end. How has his character evolved and changed since the beginning of the series? Do you think that he has benefitted from the war?

5. The governor in this book is a fictitious female governor who certainly never existed in California in the late 1990's. Just for fun, how do you think the end of the series would have been different if the Animorphs had to contend with their current governor, Schwarzenegger in this book?

6. Anything else?


Next time: #52 The Sacrifice

[KitsuneMarie]

1. In this book we see the Animorphs attempt to publicize the Yeerk threat. What do you think about the timing of this? Should something like this been done a long time ago, or does it not matter? Who believes in that sort of stuff anyway, right?

This wasn't the first time the Animorphs went public with a certain group. They had been contemplating something like this for a while; the first I remember is in #11 when they want to land a Bug fighter on the White House lawn. But there may even be an earlier instance. I think it would've been nice for the public to get hints a bit at a time; eventually, it would be hard for folks to ignore, and they would either believe it's true or some kind of wide-spread media conspiracy.

2. This book largely consisted of Marco/Tobias/Ax interactions. In fact we see next to nothing involving Jake and the girls. What do you think is going on between the three unseen characters who undeniably are in the midst of much more personal tension?

Awk. ward. Rachel has long since devolved into an almost unrecognizable version of herself. Jake is understandably gloomy since his parents were infested. And tensions between Cassie and Jake could not be higher after she let Tom get away with the Escafil Device. I'd like to think that Jake split them up as commanders of mini-divisions of Toby and James's people, but it's highly possible they snipped and argued the whole time, too. Not good for morale.

3. This is our first book seeing Yeerks who can morph. What kind of an impact does this moment have on the series? What about on you as a reader?

I think what Marco says about this is interesting: he sympathizes with Visser One and the edginess he must have felt around animals. My initial reaction was not particularly Yeerk-sympathetic; I was a bit more worried for the Animorphs. It was unsettling to read about morph-capable Controllers, especially the one that thought-screams <NOOOO!> I wonder what happened to the hosts after the war ended....

4. This is our final Marco narrated book before the end. How has his character evolved and changed since the beginning of the series? Do you think that he has benefitted from the war?

Yes. This kid is totally sane and relatively unshaken. He is good at this stuff, and his ability to calmly adapt to any problem is incredible -- and believable.

5. The governor in this book is a fictitious female governor who certainly never existed in California in the late 1990's. Just for fun, how do you think the end of the series would have been different if the Animorphs had to contend with their current governor, Schwarzenegger in this book?

I wonder if Big Jim would have had so much ease in hauling Ah-nold around! To answer your question, one way it would've been different is that KAA's subtle prod for Americans to pay more attention to politics and who is in office would have been lost.

[Gafrash]

1. In this book we see the Animorphs attempt to publicize the Yeerk threat. What do you think about the timing of this? Should something like this been done a long time ago, or does it not matter? Who believes in that sort of stuff anyway, right?

The Anis have had this strategy in mind earlier in the series, but, I, too, think it would have been more realistic if had happened a group of humans had put two and two together, will all the facts being too many to ignore as the series went along. The Governor would just have made it official.
Organizations like the CIA and FBI, probably had a Yeerk slipped into their heads for any agent coming across this type of info, but some geekie web surfer or ardent newsreader grandpa would have been fine.

2. This book largely consisted of Marco/Tobias/Ax interactions. In fact we see next to nothing involving Jake and the girls. What do you think is going on between the three unseen characters who undeniably are in the midst of much more personal tension?

You know, I never thought about what was going on with the others back in Ground Zero during this. It's not the first time that the Anis get divided for strategic reasons. I am not sure if Rachel and the others would have caught on, but Jake and Cassie would have made things a little tense for the others back there. Supposedly they had their missions to divert Yeerk attention away from Marco's group.
And I think some auxiliaries and Hork-bajirs get K.I.A, don't they?!

3. This is our first book seeing Yeerks who can morph. What kind of an impact does this moment have on the series? What about on you as a reader?

With the Anis no longer being the only ones who can morph, it got a little messy, from my stand point. I have to say, my initial reaction was 'Oh man, now it's crap, the Controllers can morph too.' As an impact on the series itself, it felt that, with the 'morphing' advantage gone, it turned into a 'gimmick', as it was blown by Cassie's stunt.
As a fan, I too, felt for the Anis. Things were escalating from bad to worst fast because of this. In that first scene where they are trying to acquire the ducks at The Gardens, i remember really hating Cassie for what she'd done when I first read it. All three of them could have died because of the morph-capable enemy, and they wouldn't even have KNOWN the real reason how the Yeerks got the morphing power.

4. This is our final Marco narrated book before the end. How has his character evolved and changed since the beginning of the series? Do you think that he has benefitted from the war?

I need to go back and properly re-read this book, just to see from a last character narration P.O.V. Marco didn't strike me as any different than his last few books here. He still came off as strategic, skillful and humurours. And fulfilled Jake's 'finesse' mission requirements.

5. The governor in this book is a fictitious female governor who certainly never existed in California in the late 1990's. Just for fun, how do you think the end of the series would have been different if the Animorphs had to contend with their current governor, Schwarzenegger in this book?

The thing with the Governor, as a character, is precisely the fact that we all thought it would have been some man in a suit. Instead we got an innate adventurous self-accomplished woman. It was great! It's appropriate with San Francisco. In my mind I was picturing someone like Dianne Feinstein jumping a bridge onto a yatch (mind boggling, but totally plausible in the Aniverse).
I don't think it would have been as impactful to have Arnie... Though KA could have pulled off inserting some of his classic cheesy quotes in a Marco book. Would have been hilarious!

6. Anything else?

Me thinks I should re-read this book.

I re-call the ghostwriter not giving us much on Marco morphing a female, which is a missed opportunity, in my view. It would have been interesting to get insights of morphing someone of the opposite sex of the same species. Think of how many issues that would have bordered.

And Visser One doesn't do any decent morphs from this point on. Not really. He barely gets 2 cents worth during #The Sacrifice and doesn't morph PERIOD in the final major arc. It's such things I can't help noticing. The series just loses its touch after Cassie hands the friggin Cube...

[Terenia]

Honestly, I have to say that as a whole this book was really underwhelming. Especially when you take into consideration where in the storyline it is placed. I feel like it was poorly executed and really just an excuse for lots of action-packed scenes that made little sense. I think the point was to emphasize how much it sucks now that Controllers can morph, but it all fell a little flat.

Here's my personal summary of the book:

OMGZ MARCO STEALS A TANK! YEEE-HAH!

Awkward group meeting. Let's tell the governor!

Ducks! At last! Wait, oh no, almost foiled by evil morphing Controllers......wh o apparently don't care about morphing in front of uninfested people despite the fact that it is not yet an open war! So much for subtlety!

Governor twist! It is Rachel, only grown up and fat!

BATTLE AT THE BALL!
BATTLE ON THE BRIDGE!
BATTLE ON THE BOAT!

Animorphs win, yayzorz. Governor Rachel tells the world all, because they're really gonna believe her.

/fin

[KitsuneMarie]

Ok, now that I've recovered from my gigglesnort fest, +1.

[LisaCharly]

Have to agree that this book is underwhelming. I would have been totally, totally fine with this book if it had been switched with #45 (and if #45 was a bit better). It's a solid, fun, humorous action filler book in the middle of the final story arc, when there was pretty much no room left for filler books. Not to mention that we get no insight into Marco, whose character development has been at a standstill since #35 despite his having big events happen to him. We get, what, one line about how he's so happy he could sing showtunes? Great. Pretty much no interaction with his parents or Jake, or even Rachel, who often bring out the complexities of Marco's personality. Nope, instead we do yet ANOTHER Marco driving gag and

That said, it's a book focusing on the Power Trio (ATM? Terrific Trinity? Snark Squad? Axis of Awesome?). So it's pretty much guaranteed laughs. I enjoy Ax being a snot about them not knowing the governor, and the fight scenes are solid enough. Given that this is a Marco-narrated book that has nothing to do with Visser One, it's lighthearted enough and doesn't really dwell on the moral implications of any of this. As per usual, the biggest cues Marco gives to his emotions and morals are physical, rather than introspective - when they intentionally take their first human life, he "hurls the Dracon beam into the water" immediately afterwards before going off to find the governor.

This book mostly bothers me because Marco did a lot of changing up until #35, and then the last three of his books played him pretty strictly as the team comedian. #45 could have gone deeper, but didn't - instead we got autopilot and driving gags filler. #40 had him acting pretty wildly out of character in a filler story. And this, too, is a story that could be narrated by anyone, and could have been narrated by Marco at pretty much any point in the series. I mean, Marco's reached his goals - he has his family back. Surely that should at least give him a reason to reassess why he's fighting? How about how his relationship with Jake has changed? How does he feel about being the one who blew their cover in #45, after being the paranoid one for so many years? Given that he was so (bizarrely) passionate about disability in #40, and that he was the first person to get involved with and distrust David, does he have any thoughts on the Auxs? How about a HEY MOM I HAVEN'T REALLY HAD A CHANCE TO TALK WITH YOU FOR FIVE YEARS moment? Furthermore, we're just supposed to buy that Eva and Peter get back together seamlessly? They've been living entirely different lives for years. And does Marco have any regrets about Nora, and if not, wouldn't that be cool to actually examine? How is his dynamic with Tobias and Ax different now that he's been living with them longer than the other Anis?

This book explores none of that. I mean seriously. Gah. So many missed opportunities for character development.

[SuperBlue]

Yeah, now that you mention it...is this the VERY first Marco book to have nothing to do with Visser One!?

[Chad32]

Now that you mention it, there is a lot that should have happened that didn't. As the last Marco book, we get no closure on Marco's family. No talk with mom, or wondering if he truly met his goals and maybe should go back to not wanting to be in the war. I mean he was going to quit the battles if he hadn't seen his mother in book 5.

Was it really a filler book? I admit to not rereading this one because I'm lazy.

Since it is the last Marco book, it's a bit disappointing that it didn't delve into Marco's character one last time.

[LisaCharly]

Personally, I think it's filler because even though telling the world escalated the stakes, it was something that could have been done in twenty pages and was stretched into a whole book. The tank scene, the ballroom scene, the yacht scene - all fun, but ultimately completely unnecessary.

Yeah, now that you mention it...is this the VERY first Marco book to have nothing to do with Visser One!?

10, 20, 25, 35 and 40 didn't have her, really. 35 kind of addressed the fallout from their last encounter with her, though. In 20 Eva doesn't even get mentioned until halfway through the book, and even then Visser One doesn't.

[Gafrash]

...This book mostly bothers me because Marco did a lot of changing up until #35, and then the last three of his books played him pretty strictly as the team comedian. #45 could have gone deeper, but didn't - instead we got autopilot and driving gags filler. #40 had him acting pretty wildly out of character in a filler story. And this, too, is a story that could be narrated by anyone, and could have been narrated by Marco at pretty much any point in the series. I mean, Marco's reached his goals - he has his family back. Surely that should at least give him a reason to reassess why he's fighting? How about how his relationship with Jake has changed? How does he feel about being the one who blew their cover in #45, after being the paranoid one for so many years? Given that he was so (bizarrely) passionate about disability in #40, and that he was the first person to get involved with and distrust David, does he have any thoughts on the Auxs? How about a HEY MOM I HAVEN'T REALLY HAD A CHANCE TO TALK WITH YOU FOR FIVE YEARS moment? Furthermore, we're just supposed to buy that Eva and Peter get back together seamlessly? They've been living entirely different lives for years. And does Marco have any regrets about Nora, and if not, wouldn't that be cool to actually examine? How is his dynamic with Tobias and Ax different now that he's been living with them longer than the other Anis?

This book explores none of that. I mean seriously. Gah. So many missed opportunities for character development.

...The tank scene, the ballroom scene, the yacht scene - all fun, but ultimately completely unnecessary.

You pretty much summed up the whole thing I feel about these books that were ghostwritten, LisaCharly. I mean, sure, KA lines up the plots and general scenes, but it is the ghostwriters who flesh it out. So it's hard to know which one to attribute this 'slackness' to, but the fact is that after a certain point, the narrations weren't that detailed or delved any deeper into the characters. As you say we get material that feels like it's on autopilot, (though I don't quite know what you mean by 'driving gags'). Complete contrastes to the material found in, say, #5:The Predator.
Having said that, I think, none of this is more obvious than in #48:The Return.

Can't blame Chad28. I have to admit that I too feel a little slack about re-reading this book.

It's important for the sole fact that the Anis get the Governor, as an authorative figure, to expose the Yeerks to the American public (eventually the whole world). Anything else (ref. to the enemy morph-capable, Marco's interelations, Marco morphing a female, Marco's parents, etc...) could have been explored but were left out for whatever reason.
A similar thing happens in the next book.

[LisaCharly]

By 'driving gags', I meant the joke that Marco can't drive (tanks, trucks, cars, whatever). That horse done been beat to death.

[Kotetsu1442]

Questions
1. In this book we see the Animorphs attempt to publicize the Yeerk threat. What do you think about the timing of this? Should something like this been done a long time ago, or does it not matter? Who believes in that sort of stuff anyway, right?
I would say that while I can see from a storyteller's perspective why it took this long, I think that from the Anis' perspective they should have done it much earlier what with how early they suggested it; they noted from #1 that they believed the reason the Yeerks aren't bringing on all-out war is because they don't have enough forces on earth to win. They always said "We can't take that risk with just us; if we revealed our morphing ability publicly we could be killed and people would think we were freaks, but be convinced that no aliens were involved" (before the David situation went sour they noted that the cube could solve that problem); but I always thought that catching known Human Controllers and even Hork-Bajir/Taxxons and presenting their evidence carefully was always a possibility (A possibility that was ignored of necessity to maintain the premise, which I'll buy).



3. This is our first book seeing Yeerks who can morph. What kind of an impact does this moment have on the series? What about on you as a reader?

I did think one good thing about loosing the cube was that we didn't get it treated as if the ability to morph is an ultimate trump card in war and that the Anis having it and the Yeerks not was the only thing going for them; they were in a more desperate situation but their fight remained the same.



5. The governor in this book is a fictitious female governor who certainly never existed in California in the late 1990's. Just for fun, how do you think the end of the series would have been different if the Animorphs had to contend with their current governor, Schwarzenegger in this book?

Oh, well obviously the Governator would get out his bazooka and blow the enemies to smithereens.



6. Anything else?

Not much, other than that I felt like it was pretty underwhelming too, especially given how big as the "revealing it to the government and going into all-out war" should have been; which is why I didn't have much to say to the questions. There were more than a couple of times in the series where the 'escape while being pursued and having to fight their way out' scene mostly felt like it was there to fill the space a bit more to bring it 'up to length' and this was one case where I thought it was worst when there was a lot of potential, as others have mentioned, for more meaningful development and reassessment among characters as things have changed a lot in the final arc.

[Gafrash]

Felt a randomly compelled to comment on this book.

2. This book largely consisted of Marco/Tobias/Ax interactions. In fact we see next to nothing involving Jake and the girls. What do you think is going on between the three unseen characters who undeniably are in the midst of much more personal tension?

...regarding this question also, I thought it was cool to have sub-plot developments in some of the pages. Jake snapping at Cassie, in front of everyone, during that meeting was a pretty cool plot device, to remind fans that this was still a big deal, and to get new readers wondering what the heck was that all about.
I think it's the first of this sub-plot device kinds we see in the series. Wherein it helps to make the book feel as if it's a part of a major arc. Exclude the David Trilogy, where it was OBVIOUS it was a proper arc.

...Here's my personal summary of the book:

OMGZ MARCO STEALS A TANK! YEEE-HAH!

Awkward group meeting. Let's tell the governor!

Ducks! At last! Wait, oh no, almost foiled by evil morphing Controllers......wh o apparently don't care about morphing in front of uninfested people despite the fact that it is not yet an open war! So much for subtlety!

Governor twist! It is Rachel, only grown up and fat!

BATTLE AT THE BALL!
BATTLE ON THE BRIDGE!
BATTLE ON THE BOAT!

Animorphs win, yayzorz. Governor Rachel tells the world all, because they're really gonna believe her.

/fin

[SkyMorpher]

I often wondered about the Arnold thing too. Parts of it would have been fun. But the surprise of the woman governor wasn't bad either. Also agree that they passed up a good chance with the cross gender morph, although they sorta missed that one in The Test, too. (Tobias->Taylor)