There were some things I liked and that I didn't like about the ending.
-As sad as it is, especially since she was my third favorite character, I liked how Rachel went out. I like books that leave me heartbroken an leave me feeling for the characters, I think invoking an emotional response takes so much more skill than just giving a happy ending.
-I also liked the portrayal of Jake at the end. It was realistic, I got the feeling that they were REAL people when I was reading. If KAA wrote "And then Jake went on to live a life full of sunshine and flowers after GIVING THE ORDER TO KILL HIS COUSIN" I probably would have burned the book. (lol) He's going to be messed up, real messed up, and she touched on that. I think this book alone made Jake my second favorite character. I used to be sad that Jake and Cassie didn't get together, but in the end I'm kind of glad they broke up because he really deserves better.
-Now, I'm sure everyone one knows but now, I don't really like Cassie's character. The way she ended up with someone else really just sealed the deal for the entire series and kind of confirmed the character for me. (Now, this is my opinion) she didn't have what it took to sacrifice anything for anyone but herself and her morals. She didn't care about anything but her own morals. She just was not mentally capable of breaking outside of her own little box and seeing the world for what it was, or in the end helping her friends deal with the terrible reality that they protected her from. When her friends were falling apart around her, she ran off and married someone that wasn't damaged by the war. Basically it was my "AHA I KNEW you were slime" moment. It made me feel really bad for Jake, he sacrificed basically his entire life and soul to save earth and all Cassie was worried about was making it out squeaky clean and with an intact conscience.
/end rant
-I guess summed up, up until the very end, it felt REAL. No punches held, no fluffy good feelings, it was just realistic, and I think it did the series such a good service to do that. It would have been a real cop-out to write a series that really explored the deep, dark corners of war and then had an ending where everything was glitter and happy. I think its really especially important in these days, when there are people who are coming home from war damaged and hurt.
Now, for the things I HATED.
-To sum it up, the ending with Ax alone almost made me burn the book. I'll admit Ax was my favorite character, but this was a total cop-out. I'm cool with sad endings (see above) but there was NO closure for this. He didn't get a heroic ending, he didn't even get an ending at all, he got a "omgwtfhappenedtoAX?" Did they save him? Did they not? Did they live? Did they get assimilated? How the hell do you make a treaty without seeing the treaty writers? All of the realism I got from reading about the humans just went out the window. Oh, and btw, WHAT HAPPENED TO AX? He deserved such a better ending. Hell, I would have rather seen him die when he blew up the Yeerk pool in "The Sacrifice." At least then he would have had a heroic ending. I mean, in the end the brother of Elfangor, who spent three years of his life on earth alone and sacrificed so much to help save it, got a two second quip about his getting a creepy smile and talking like a creep?
-The ending just ruined the closure for me. At first I was ok with it, because I held out hope for a sequel and I was excited for it. But a sequel never came. It's like KAA took her kids, that everyone learned to love and grew up on, threw them out in the snow naked and went "SEE YA!" It was the most disappointing ending I have ever read in a piece of literature. This is just my opinion, but to have an ending like that, and have no intention of following up on it, was a huge slap in the face to her fans. If she was going to do a sequel, it would have been the best ending ever, but she didn't, just left her fans out in the cold.
-Visser Three not dying was another huge deal breaker for me. This dude ATE Ax's brother. And Ax just sits there, holds him, and hands him over for a pansy war trial? Dude...talk about cutting off a boy's tail, Elfangor deserved his revenge, and Ax deserved to not have to go home without avenging his brother. And I didn't feel the whole "fate worse than death" thing. It had no satisfaction factor for me.
-Oh, btw...a war crimes trial? For aliens? That tried to enslave us parasitically? And the rest of the universe? Mmmmhmm. Yep. Sure. I'm pretty sure the cacophony of simultaneous, sudden Andalite thought-speak laughter would have exploded all the brains of all the humans in the world three times over when Cassie tried to pitch that one to them. And we would have deserved it.
-As for the fanfic thing...I don't really buy it. I will admit, the ending has spawned a billion and a half plot bunnies of my own, but not everybody writes fanfic. And not everyone values fanfic as a genuine art. (Not saying I don't, I do.) And even if you are a fanfic fan, all the fanfic fountain is going to do is give a billion possibilities, not offer closure to the fans. At the end of the day, if you are a GOOD fanfic writer, Cannon is the bible, and in the end the bible said "HAHA SCREW YOU!"
So, overall, the beginning of the book was excellent, but the ending of the book was a deal breaker. The book really was the ultimate disappointment to me, which is really huge considering how big of a fan I was. Her fanbase deserved better. Honestly, when I read the other books, I just pretend in my head that book never happened. It's stored in the "DNE" imagination section of my brain. (does not exist)
(Obviously, just my opinion.)
