Month: July 2018

This one wasn’t as strong as the last. Cassie struggles to catch up on homework, and morphs a rat to figure out why her rat in a science project won’t solve a maze. Then she and Rachel as rats scare some boys who come to torment them. Not long after the Animorphs discover that their enemies are attempting to log the entire forest behind her family’s farm, in order to expose them (they know the Andalites must live away from human habitation). So they plan to sneak in and sabotage the logging operation, by morphing into termites. Even though they’re terrified of being social insects, from their prior experience as ants. This doesn’t go any better. The description of how submerged their sense of self becomes, and how horrifying that is, more vividly written this time. Meanwhile, Cassie fixates on a different goal: to save a litter of baby skunks- their mother is being treated at the wildlife center- and Tobias as a hawk already ate one of them. But then, he’s willing to help save them after Cassie makes a point how important it is to her. In fact she gets all the Animorphs involved, which sidetracks them from more important stuff. While I liked hearing Cassie’s viewpoint- she’s very passionate about protecting wildlife and natural environments, and her growing doubts about their arbitrary desires to save the human race above all raised some good questions- the ending of this book wrapped up way too easily. Their battle with the aliens in the final chapters was actually rather silly. I expected a bit more conflict. Plus, I’m not sure why Cassie is shown morphing into a wolf on the cover when she was far more often in a skunk body. On a more serious note, it’s becoming evident that the kids are starting to feel some real strain and trauma from constantly fighting a war it seems they are hopeless to win. Cassie, in particular, is getting very tired of lying to her parents. They are all struggling very much to keep it together…

Previous book in the series. Next book.

It’s vacation time. Rachel is supposed to go to gymnastics camp, but she decides to skip it without telling her family, so no one knows where she is. Flying as an eagle, she gets mobbed by smaller birds, crashes into a tree and suffers amnesia for much of the story. Having lost her memory causes a lot of fear and confusion discovering she could be part bird, and later being shocked into turning into a grizzly bear. She stumbles across a shack in the woods where a crazy lady lives, who from her raving and strange reactions to things, appears to have once hosted a Yeerk herself.

Meanwhile, Marco and Ax crash a pool party- chasing the girls as mice. They attract the attention of a new threat- a dangerous swarm of tiny sentient alien creatures that can shred anything in its path (this reminded me once again of a L’Engle character- Proginoskes from A Wind in the Door). They figure out how to decoy it using their morphing ability- tiger, gorilla and wolf alternately run through the forest- and end up in a hilarious car chase (with lots of side damage). Rachel in her elephant morph, crashes and recovers from her amnesia with the second knock on the head (a bit too conveniently, hm). The alien swarm (bystanders assume it’s a tornado) proves it can capture them- Ax and Marco get taken to the enemy ship. Here I was confounded at the actions of Visser Three. Terribly ruthless, yes. But not so smart. I don’t know why he would explain things so readily to Ax and Marco- except to relish in his superiority, and of course it helps the story along. Anyhow, they quickly come up with a clever escape move, and together with the Animorphs back on the ground, find a way to defeat the swarm creature. With the help of a new morph- Cassie turns into a whale.

Interestingly, in this book quite a few times the kids get stuck mid-morph, while they are a strange and awkward combination of human and animal form. They keep remarking how horrible it is, but find a way to deliberately remain in this in-between state when it is advantageous. Compared to prior reads, this book was stuffed with action, had enough new ideas to keep me alert, and peppered with humor. A bit much of the ridiculous alien fights, but considering the premise it’s to be expected. I rolled my eyes a few times (some of the writing felt juvenile again, and hello a wolf’s hock is not a knee turned backwards! that little detail makes me grimace every time). Side note: while the kids find turning into small insects like ants, roaches or fleas disorientating and frightening, they happen to enjoy being a housefly, because of the speed and dexterity in flight. Which comes in very handy in this story, too.

This book was published much later, but I’m reading them in the sequential order the author intended. The Megamorphs books are different in that they alternate POV every chapter. It gives you different insights into what is going on- and especially more information about Ax- and how he ended up under the ocean in a broken piece of spacecraft to begin with. But it makes the flow uneven- I prefer to be in one person’s head per book is all. Delightfully, I discovered that when Scholastic declined to reprint these books (nearly a decade ago), the author made them all available as digital files. So I’ve downloaded all the ones I don’t yet own in paperback onto my e-reader. Prepare for a good month or so of Animorphs! (with some intermittent reading of other types, I might need a break now and then).

Previous book in the series. Next book.

Animorphs #6
by K.A. Applegate

It’s going to start getting difficult to write about these without revealing major plot arcs. But since this is noted on the back of the book, I’ll go ahead. The start of this book is fairly slow, then it picked up speed and intensity and suddenly I couldn’t put it down. The Animorphs morph into cockroaches to spy on their enemies, and nearly get smashed. Having learned that the enemies are in control of a nearby hospital, they sneak in as flies and discover a small Yeerk pool (where the parasitic aliens rejuvenate their strength every three days). Jake makes a sudden, ruthless move to kill upwards of a hundred Yeerks at once, while they are helpless in the pool, by boiling them alive. They are discovered, and in the ensuing scuffle (when his friends morph into wolves and elephants to fight off Controllers), Jake falls into the pool. One of the Yeerks infests his brain. The rest of the book is quite compelling, as Jake struggles to regain control of his own mind and body, having some gripping and angsty inner dialogs with his parasitic Controller. At first the Yeerk is good at facade- but when his friends suspect something is wrong and guess the truth, for once they come up with a good plan to save Jake. The wide diversity and specialized strengths of Earth’s animals are highlighted as the Animorphs use their abilities to outwit their enemy. They’re starting to get smart about how they use their powers, but still far from winning the battle against the Yeerks. Especially since now the enemy has realized that they are just four human beings…

Borrowed from the public library. Previous book in the series. Next book.

Rating: 3/5          153  pages, 1997

more opinions:

Animorphs #5
by K.A. Applegate

The newest member of the Animorphs- the alien Ax- just wants to go back to his home world. So without much forethought (no surprise) they decide to lure an enemy ship onto Earth, kick its crew off, and send Ax home in it. Most of the book is them just trying to put the first part of this plan into action. The first few chapters have some awkward moments when Ax goes with the boys to the mall- in human form- but he acts strangely and attracts the wrong kind of attention. I don’t know how this didn’t have any repercussions for the team. They ran out of there chased by police while Ax was morphing back into alien form, and tons of people saw it. They hide by morphing into lobsters, but almost get boiled alive. Again, a woman who’d bought them for dinner sees them morphing back into kids, but they convince her either she’s crazy, or it’s a dream. Later, they all morph into ants to sneak into Chapman’s house again, to steal something. That was really interesting, the ant part. And terrifying. As ants, they momentarily loose their sense of self, feel controlled by the need of the colony, and nearly get torn apart – literally- by rival ants. It causes nightmares. They’re all really unnerved by the experience, Marco (the narrator this time) so much that he wants to back out entirely- no more morphing, no more fighting alien enemies. Just to be a normal kid again. To be there for his father, who is still struggling with depression and grief (his mother had died two years ago). But when they finally get the enemy ship- plan goes wrong and they’re all taken captive- Marco suddenly finds a very compelling reason to stay in the fight. And at the very last moment, when all seems lost, a faction between two enemy Vissers gives them a way out.

This one was better told than the last, for sure. And the gorilla? That was a brief scene in the beginning, when Marco morphed into a gorilla to fight off some thugs who were going to mug an old man in an alley. He got no thanks for his effort. I didn’t really like Marco’s character in the first four books, but reading this one from his perspective changed that somewhat. And the Andalite Ax continues to be intriguing, especially how he plays with words and finds so many human accoutrements puzzling. In spite of his formal-sounding speech and superior knowledge (because his race is older than humans), he is still a child and acts like one sometimes. I’ve seen mention that one or more of the books further on in the series are from Ax’s point of view- that should be interesting.

Previous book in the series. Next book.

Rating: 3/5            152 pages, 1996