Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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«‹›236 »

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

~~He could grip it by the husk...~~

# ? Oct 14, 2020 03:02

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 20:44

Synesthesian Fetish: Apr 29, 2008; Ya know, I useta be President... I'll let you kids punch me anywhere but the face for a dollar.

This book is really pushing the z-space concept hard. A certain storyline must be coming up soon

# ? Oct 14, 2020 03:38

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Chekhov's Z-space mass

# ? Oct 14, 2020 03:49

Homora Gaykemi: Apr 30, 2020; by Fluffdaddy

quote:

WHAP! WHAP!

I said, certified freak
Seven days a week
Web-having Animorphs
Falling from a peak, woo

# ? Oct 14, 2020 04:49

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Haha I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought that

# ? Oct 14, 2020 06:50

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

I just realized this is the heist episode.

Visser Three walks in at the same time all of a sudden, going, <hah! you really fell for it, Andalite bandits> and only then does he realize these are the wrong bats! the crystal isn't even there! the animorphs did the heist yesterday!!

# ? Oct 14, 2020 08:11

Kazzah: Jul 15, 2011; Formerly known as
Krazyface; Hair Elf

The elite hork-bajir guard he sent in were actually the Animorphs in morph! Actually that one would fit in with their MO.

# ? Oct 14, 2020 08:16

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

Krazyface posted:

The elite hork-bajir guard he sent in were actually the Animorphs in morph! Actually that one would fit in with their MO.

That would actually be a really good twist and I'm sad that I don't think it does ever happen!

# ? Oct 14, 2020 08:43

Rochallor: Apr 23, 2010; ふっっっっっっっっっっっっｃｋ

The Yeerks should really start proofing their buildings against intrusions by small animals and the like. Multiple Animoprhs have already been discovered morphing small animals. They did a decent job in this one, but really, no security on the vents or anything?

# ? Oct 14, 2020 09:19

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Synesthesian Fetish posted:

This book is really pushing the z-space concept hard. A certain storyline must be coming up soon

Huh. Yeah, if it's the one involving time travel, that's actually the next book. I thought it was a later Jake book, but nope!

FlocksOfMice posted:

I just realized this is the heist episode.

Visser Three walks in at the same time all of a sudden, going, <hah! you really fell for it, Andalite bandits> and only then does he realize these are the wrong bats! the crystal isn't even there! the animorphs did the heist yesterday!!

Yeah, I was thinking this is basically the famous scene from Mission Impossible. And that movie did come out a year before this book.

# ? Oct 14, 2020 09:29

Erwin the German: May 30, 2011; :3

Epicurius posted:

Regarding family relationships, here's Jake, Tom, and their dad:

On the subject of Tom...

This is perhaps my favorite panel in the graphic novel. Perfectly captures the following:

quote:

At that moment, something weird happened. I was looking at Tom, and he was smiling at me.

But then his face kind of twitched. His head started to pull to one side, like he was trying to shake his head only he couldn't quite do it. For just a split second there was a look in his eyes � scared or . . . or something. He was looking right at me, and it was like some different person, some scared person, was looking out of those same eyes.

Then he was back to normal. Or what looked like normal.

in a single panel.

The whole thing is a straightforward adaptation, but I feel like the series was always begging for that evocative visual element, and the TV show never came even remotely close to delivering that. Despite the colorful and almost childlike style, it's so good at conveying the horror and existential dread every single character has to endure.

# ? Oct 14, 2020 12:15

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

I will say it's a very good graphic novel. And, while I don't know if they're planning on doing all of them, there's at least one more planned.

Now, without further ado:

Book 10: The Android-Chapter 23

quote:

<See? We should never get cocky,> Cassie said. <It�s tempting the irony gods.>

<Irony gods?> Ax asked.

<Yeah,> Cassie said. <The bitter spirits who wait around till you get cocky, then hammer you.>

<These are real?>

<No, of course not,> Cassie said impatiently. <How do we get out of here with that crystal?>

Sure, Cassie, be impatient with the alien who's never studied human religion because he doesn't get your sarcasm.

quote:

<We power our way out,> Rachel said.

Ax said, <Erek�s opinion was that there were many guards here in this building.>

<We didn�t see any on our way through the shafts,> Jake remarked. <But Erek�s been pretty accurate so far. I have a feeling if he says there are guards here, there are guards here.>

<No choice,> Rachel said. <We morph whatever we have that�s big, mean, and nasty, then slam our way out of this place.>

<Speaking of irony gods,> I muttered.

<What do you mean?> Rachel asked.

<I mean, we came here to get this Pemalite crystal so the Chee could be free to be violent. And now, despite all our clever planning, all our sneakiness and subtlety, we�re stuck in the end going for total Schwarzenegger.>

<Rachel�s right,> Jake said. He sighed. <We�re looking at a fighting retreat.>

Cassie said, 

<Yep,> Jake agreed. <Morph out, keep that direction in mind. Remorph, and be ready to haul butt for that door. Head for any way out of this building. Don�t stand and fight, just try to force your way past anyone who comes after us.>

It was times like this I was glad Jake was our so-called leader. We all knew what we had to do, but someone had to actually say it. And boy, was I glad it wasn�t me.

 I muttered.

Have you ever watched those old war movies where the Americans would be heading for some enemy beach? You know, they�d be in a little boat, riding through the surf, getting ready to jump out on a beach that was going to be chewed up by machine-gun bullets and mortars?

That�s what this felt like. Like we were pretty calm now, but in a few seconds it was going to be life and death. Things would happen very fast. And none of it was going to be good.

I morphed back to human. Then I focused my mind on the morph I liked for fighting.

It was still absolutely dark, so I didn�t see my body grow big and hairy. But I could feel my shoulders bulk up beyond anything any bodybuilder ever even dreamed of. I could feel the strength.

Strength like no human could ever possess. It was comforting to think that I was stronger than three, four, maybe five strong men. But not even the gorilla is invincible.

<Everyone ready?> Jake asked.

There in the darkness, near enough to touch, but invisible, was enough power to shred a small army. Jake was in his tiger morph. Cassie had gone wolf. Rachel was one of the few animals mightier than my gorilla: She was a full-grown, massively powerful grizzly bear. And Ax � well, Ax was Ax.

And trust me, when you�ve seen an Andalite in battle, you know that tail is all he needs.

<Ready? Why, I�m looking forward to it,> I said, trying to sound like I wasn�t scared silly.

<I�ll go first,> Rachel said. And before anyone had time to object � HHHRRRRRAAAAWWWWRRR!

Rachel barreled past me, hitting me and practically spinning me around like a top.

A microsecond later�

ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET!

The alarm was deafening.

The others barreled after her. I hesitated for just a moment while I felt in the dark for the Pemalite crystal. Aside from Ax, I was the only one with hands.

Then I went after them. I plunged wildly into total darkness with a tiny crystal in my massive fist.

Rachel tore a path through the alarm wires, and I could feel where she had gone. I slammed into Ax, then bounced into Jake, then suddenly - WHAM! - hit the wall.

ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEET! ScreeEEEET!

Ka-Rrrrunch! A loud, screeching, tearing noise.

Sudden light! I could see.

Man, it was a relief to be able to see something at least.

Dim light came through the door. Or what was left of the door, after Rachel had given the door a thousand pounds or so of mad, ready-to-fight grizzly. The door was splinters. It was steel, and it was still splinters.

I saw a flash of orange and black, moving fast but almost delicately - Jake, in tiger morph. Cassie the wolf followed him. Right behind her was the one animal that wasn�t from anywhere on Earth. There was a hallway outside. Jake said <Left!> and we went left.

Past doorways, past offices, past normal things like copiers and computers and fax machines and desks and cubicles, we ran. Rachel was in the lead, a huge, lumbering truck on four legs. Her roars mixed with the endless scream of the alarms.

ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET!

In some ways, honestly, after they get out of the room, they might be better going fly/cockroach/spider and trying to get back up the vents, Yes, they've set off the alarms, but they're not particularly subtle right now, and little animals are going to be better at getting around Yeerk patrols than big ones.

quote:

Suddenly, another door, a dead end. Rachel hit it with her shoulder, and the door was gone.

There was a big room beyond. High ceilings, open space, a lobby sort of room. Windows! I could see faint stars through the tinted glass.

Escape was just a hundred feet away.

Freedom! Life!

And all that stood in our way was twenty men: human-Controllers, armed with automatic rifles.

And behind them, two dozen or more Hork-Bajir warriors.

Rachel�s bear had very poor vision, especially in this dim light.

<Hork-Bajir?> she asked.

<Yep,> I said.

<How many?>

<Too many. Way too many.>

Welp, they're dead.

Chapter 24

quote:

ScreeEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEET!

The alarm was howling. And then, a far worse sound: Cha-KLICK!

The human-Controllers had cocked their rifles, chambering a round. If they fired, we�d be blown apart before we could twitch.

A human-Controller stepped out in front. She was a nice-looking, middle-aged woman wearing normal street clothes. She had bleached blond hair. She could have been someone�s grandmother.

�So. The Andalite bandits,� she said. Her face was twitching with tension, but she tried to sound calm. �You�ve done me a big favor. When I turn you over to Visser Three he�ll promote me two grades. Maybe three!�

<Or he may decide to destroy you for letting us get this far,> Ax said coolly.

�Surrender. You can�t escape,� the woman snapped. �I�d rather take you alive, but the Visser would still be happy to have your corpses.�

We stared at her. And we stared at the muzzles of the twenty automatic rifles that were leveled at us.

I held up my hand. Between my thick, brute fingers I held the Pemalite crystal.

The woman turned as pale as her hair. �Give me that.�

I shook my big gorilla head.

�Lower those guns,� the woman snapped.

�What?� some guy behind her yelled. �We have them! We have them cold!�

The woman�s jaw twitched again, but she stayed in control. �What do you think a bullet would do to that crystal?�

�But the odds that a bullet would hit the crystal � It�s not going to happen.�

The woman smiled grimly. �That crystal is worth more than the mother ship and everything in it,� she said. Then she started yelling. �You want to shoot? Go ahead, fool! If you hit the crystal, you can explain it to Visser Three.�

She got a grip on herself while the guy who had spoken out decided he was not interested in explaining anything to Visser Three.

�All human-Controllers, back. Weapons on safety,� the woman snapped.

The rifles faltered, then lowered toward the ground.

But I knew better than to breathe a sigh of relief. See, I knew what was coming next.

The woman looked right at me and smiled. �Hork-Bajir, forward.�

The Andalite who�d given us our powers had told us that the Hork-Bajir had once been a gentle, decent race before they were all enslaved by the Yeerks. All Hork-Bajir were Controllers now.

But it was hard to believe the Hork-Bajir had ever been the sweethearts of the galaxy. They were death on two legs: seven feet tall, eight, if you counted the forward-raked blades that protruded from the top of their snake-heads. They had blades at their elbows, blades at their wrists, blades at
their knees. They had huge claw-feet like tyrannosaurs, and a short, thick tail that ended in cruel looking spikes.

They were walking razor blades. All sharp edges and lightning speed.

I don't know that it entirely captures the threat, but it is pretty spiky.

quote:

I�ve fought Hork-Bajir before. And I can count. Two dozen Hork-Bajir was at least a dozen more than we had any hope of defeating.

Then, behind the Hork-Bajir, beyond the retreating human-Controllers, outside the building, staring horror-stricken through the glass, I saw Erek.

Erek, who could do nothing at all to help us. Who was helpless to do anything but witness our slaughter. I felt like throwing up. The fear was all over me. The fear was surging through me, washing over me, drowning me from inside and out.

We were going to lose.

We were going to die.

And life, any kind of life almost, is so much better than being dead.

�Attack,� the woman said. Her voice was nearly a whisper.

The Hork-Bajir leaped forward, a wall of slashing, whirling blades.

Right in front of me!

SEEEEWWW!

A huge Hork-Bajir slashed and a bright red line cut across my black leather chest!

I swung my fist and hit the Hork-Bajir hard enough to fold him in two. But another leaped over him and came at me. I blocked his arm, but he kicked at me with his clawed foot.

I fell back. I looked down and saw a hole in my stomach.

A hole! I could see the gorilla�s insides!

My insides. My insides!

<Ahhhhh!> I screamed in thought-speak, as the gorilla bellowed in agony.

The Hork-Bajir leaped on top of me. I swung again and knocked his legs out from under him. He toppled down, but landed beside me. My left hand went to his throat and I squeezed. I squeezed with all the strength I had. The Hork-Bajir slashed at me again and opened a gash in my hairy arm. But I
kept my grip tight.

I screamed as the Hork-Bajir twitched and scrabbled wildly and began to jerk uncontrollably.

The battle raged all around me.

Screams. Cries. Bellows of animal rage. The garbled roars of the Hork-Bajir. Even the guttural roar of the human-Controllers, who watched and cheered the Hork-Bajir on.

I saw Jake leap through the air and close his jaws around a Hork-Bajir�s face.

I saw Rachel swing her paw and open up a Hork-Bajir like someone cleaning a fish.

I saw Cassie dodging swiftly, biting, backing away, lunging to bite again, red foam flying from her muzzle.

And Ax, striking again � again � again with the deadly speed and perfect accuracy of his Andalite tail.

But we were losing. It would be over in a few seconds. We were losing.

<Oh, God!> someone screamed. Maybe it was me, I don�t know.

<Help! Help! Get him off me!>

<Look out!>

<No! Nooooo!>

It was all one combined thought-speech scream.

And still the alarm howled its screeEEEEET!

I felt my grip weaken on the throat of the Hork-Bajir. But it didn�t matter anymore. It was safe to let him go.

My vision was red. Red and fading.

I felt a sharp stab as another Hork-Bajir sunk a blade into my gorilla heart.

None of it mattered, though. It was all coming to an end � all coming to an end� .

Through a red mist I saw a face on the other side of the glass. Erek. Somehow, in the battle, I had ended up not far from the wall of windows.
Erek was just a few feet away. Just on the other side of the glass.

I felt something hard in my palm. The crystal.

I crawled. A vicious Hork-Bajir kick, and I went sprawling right against the glass.

<Oh � no,> I said.

I could see the damage the kick had done. I was dead. I could feel my brain shutting down. Human-Controllers were closing in around me, hammering me with the butts of their rifles.

With my last ounce of strength, I rammed my fist through the glass.

I felt strong fingers pry open my hand. I felt the fingers lift out the crystal.

And then � later, much later, someone slapped my face.

�Morph back, Marco. Morph back! Do it!�

I honestly think that fight is the most brutal depicted in the books so far, including the one where Marco gets bisected by a shark.

# ? Oct 15, 2020 01:27

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

This book always felt like a dark mirror of Rachel's second, to me.

# ? Oct 15, 2020 01:45

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

Hahaha yeahhhh this is a scene that's never left my memory since I first read it.

It's not a lot of children's literature that will give you a detailed description of what it feels like to be dying in combat like this. Especially from the point of view of a child.

# ? Oct 15, 2020 02:33

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

disaster pastor posted:

Fun facts like how long a gorilla can remain conscious after getting disemboweled and stabbed in the heart!

This is no longer a spoiler.

# ? Oct 15, 2020 02:57

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 10: The Android- Chapter 25

quote:

I woke up on the ground. Not a floor, the ground. Dirt and leaves.

I sat up very fast. I looked at my body.

�Human!� I said. I wanted to cry from the sheer relief of being myself again. Myself and alive.

I looked around. Jake. Cassie. Rachel. Ax. All there! All human! Except for Ax, of course.

Tobias was perched in the tree above us.

Someone else was there, too. I heard a voice sobbing.

�You okay, Marco?� Jake asked.

�Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Man, I was so close to being dead!�

�You were,� Jake said solemnly. �He gave you an electric shock to start your heart again.�

�Who did?�

Jake jerked his head toward the source of the crying. It was Erek, sitting in the dirt with his head down.

�Where are we?� I asked.

�Little bunch of trees, just down from Matcom. Or what�s left of Matcom.�

�How did we get here? How did we get out of that place? We were toast!�

Cassie came over and sat beside me. �You saved us by getting the crystal to Erek. He used it. He rewrote his programming. He�s the one who �� She looked away. �He ��

�He took care of the Hork-Bajir,� Rachel said. �I saw some of it. I was still conscious.�

I was confused. �How did Erek take care of the Hork-Bajir?�

<He destroyed them all,> Ax said.

I almost laughed. �Erek took out two dozen Hork-Bajir?�

No one laughed with me. Erek had stopped sobbing. I thought, Why would a robot cry?

<All the Hork-Bajir,> Ax said. <All the human-Controllers. All of them.>

I stood up. I could see the Matcom building. It was only a few hundred yards away. There was a big hole in the front glass. I had a very bad feeling about what was on the other side of that glass.

All I could think of to say was, �All of them?�

�It lasted about ten seconds,� Rachel said.

She closed her eyes, trying not to remember what she had seen. But I guess the images weren�t easily shut out. She opened her eyes again, and to my utter amazement, I saw tears.

That�s what brought the horror home to me - Rachel�s tears.

<It was extremely brutal,> Ax said. <Very brutal, and very swift. He carried us here. He revived you. He even reattached my arm.>

I saw a scar on Ax�s left arm.

�He hasn�t said anything since then,� Cassie said sadly. �He won�t talk to any of us.�

�He saved us, though, right?� I said.

�Yeah,� Cassie agreed, smiling a deeply sad smile. �He saved our lives. And lost his own soul.�

I went to Erek. I wanted to thank him. I wanted to tell him he�d done what was right. He�d beaten the bad guys. Saved the good guys.

He stood up as I came over. �You okay, man?� I asked him.

He looked at me with holographic human eyes. Maybe he had to choose to make them cry.

Maybe he had to choose to give them that empty, hollow look. I don�t know what the connection is between the android Chee and his projected human body. But his expression answered my question.

No. Erek was not okay.

�You saved our lives, Erek,� I said.

�How do you � how do you live with the memory?� he asked me.

I knew what he meant. See, win or lose, right or wrong, the memory of violence sits inside your head. It sits there, like some lump you can�t quite swallow. It sits there, a black hole that darkens hope, and eats away at everyday happiness like a cancer. It�s the shadow you take into your own heart and try to live with.

I shrugged. �I guess I try not to think about it. I try and forget. And after a while, the nightmares don�t happen as much.�

Erek put a finger to his head. �Android,� he said. He made a bitter, ruined smile. �I can�t forget. See? I can never forget � anything.�

Ouch. Man, this whole thing is tough.

quote:

I looked at him. Already in my own human mind, the memories of that night�s horror were fading. The flash of blades and the pain and the sickening feeling of my fist closing around the Hork-Bajir�s throat � they were being covered over by scar tissue. What if I could never forget? What if all those memories were fresh forever?

I realized then why the Pemalites had forbidden their creatures to kill. The Chee lived forever.

Forever was a long time to remember what Erek had done.

�I�m sorry,� I said.

Erek nodded. �Yes.� He held out his clenched fist, palm down. I knew what he was doing. I didn�t want it. But I held out my own hand, and took the Pemalite crystal from him.

�I�ve changed my programming back,� Erek said. �We � I � maybe at times I can tell you things. Information. But I�ll never fight again. I can�t join this war, my friend.�

He walked away. We went to our homes and crawled into beds our parents never knew we�d left.

I was beyond exhausted. But I couldn�t sleep. Too many images. Too many memories. And I was afraid of the nightmares.

There are evil things in life, and I guess there are times when a human being has to fight those evils.

I closed my eyes and wandered lost and afraid through my nightmares.

And already, my mind was forgetting.

This is honestly just a brutal chapter, I don't even know what to say here. Like, I don't know what you can say, except, pre-teens read this.

Chapter 26

quote:

�Yeah! Yeah! Go boy!�

Homer ran flat out, kicking up divots of sand as the Frisbee soared over his head. With a burst of speed, Homer got out in front of the Frisbee, jumped, pivoted in midair, and snatched the disc out of the air. His jump carried him to the water�s edge and he landed in the surf.

�Yeah! Good boy!� Jake said.

�Not bad,� I said. �He�s not quite that Frisbee dog we saw on TV, but he�s not bad.�

�Hey, that was a professional Frisbee dog. Homer�s just in it for the sport. Homer doesn�t even have any endorsements.�

Homer came trotting back across the sand with the Frisbee in his mouth.

It was a week after our battle for the Pemalite crystal. Jake and I were at the beach. Tobias was high overhead, riding the thermals. I didn�t know where the others were.

And my hair had finally grown out a little. But I�d gotten used to having it shorter. I decided to keep it that way, just to spite everyone.

Final hair reference.

quote:

There weren�t that many people on the beach because it was a little too chilly for lying out. Instead, people came down and flew kites, or walked along, looking for sand dollars and shells. And they played with their dogs.

Jake knelt down and tried to take the Frisbee from Homer. But Homer, like just about every dog in all of history, refused to give it up.

�They just don�t get the point of this whole game,� I said. �You throw, they catch, they bring it back for you to throw again. Why is that so hard to figure out?�

Jake scratched right behind Homer�s ear, and Homer dropped the Frisbee. �Oh, they know how to play the game, all right,� Jake said with a laugh. �For them, the game is �I throw, they catch, they bring it back, they get a good head scratch, then they give up the Frisbee.'"

Spoken as someone who's owned a dog, I can vouch for that.

quote:

But just then, Homer lost all interest in the Frisbee. Two dogs were trotting by, tails in the air.

Homer jogged over to greet them. They sniffed each other by way of introduction, then took off, running like the giddy, happy, always-excited, dog goofs they were.

It made me smile to watch them.

�It must have been a nice place,� I said.

Jake knew exactly what I was talking about. �Yeah. A planet where the people were as sweet and decent as dogs. Yeah, that would have been okay.�

�I ran into Erek at the 7-Eleven yesterday,� I said. �I think he was looking for a place to �accidentally� run into me. Anyway, he gave me a phone number. He says it�s an absolutely safe phone. He says the Yeerks couldn�t tap it or trace it if they tried.�

�Yeah? So?� Jake asked.

I shrugged. �So, he says if we ever need him we could leave a message at that number. And if he has something to tell us, he�ll record a message for us.�

�Huh,� Jake grunted. �Think anything will ever come of it?�

�I don�t know,� I said honestly. �But I think the Chee are going to go on fighting the Yeerks. They�ll just be doing it in their own way.�

I reached into my pocket and drew out the small, diamondlike crystal. �I still have this, by the way. I don�t know what to do about it. Erek didn�t even want to talk about it. But this is the most powerful computer ever created. It could rewrite the Chees� programming. It could take over every
computer on Earth. The Pemalite crystal. We almost died getting it. What am I supposed to do with it?�

Jake and I stood there, looking down at more power than any human had ever held in his hand.

Suddenly, I realized we weren�t alone.

Homer and the other two dogs were standing right in front of us, watching us. I know this sounds crazy, but I swear some flicker of intelligence appeared in those laughing dog eyes.

The three of them looked at us, and we looked back.

I held out my hand, palm up, to show the dogs the crystal. Homer scarfed the crystal out of my hand as if it were a dog biscuit. But he didn�t swallow it, just held it in his teeth, where it glittered like a diamond.

The three dogs turned and ran down the beach.

They ran into the surf and splashed out into the water, paddling for a dozen feet or so.

Then they came back to shore, and had a glorious time shaking themselves violently and spraying water all over two old ladies who were hunting shells.

Maybe someday the Pemalite crystal will wash back up on some beach somewhere. Maybe by the time it does, we�ll be as wise as the race that created it.

�Homer!� Jake yelled. He threw the Frisbee.

And all three of the dogs, happy, silly, loving fools that they were, went racing after it.

That's a sweet ending. Doesn't make up for the horror tht is last chapter, but.

Ok, so that's the book. Before we end it, since we had talked about the Animorphs TV show, Erek the Chee does show up in two episodes, played by Dov Tiefenbach. Tiefenbach was in a bunch of movies, most notably Tommy Boy and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, was in a bunch of TV shows, including Law and Order, SVU, and is currently in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.

Here's what he looked like, then and now:

So tomorrow, we start a new book, "The Forgotten". It's a Jake book, and it's....interesting.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 01:56

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Classic book, great ending.

Also, lol, "Marco, you saved us by getting the crystal to Erek" is on the level of "Ralph had the idea to ask Lisa"

# ? Oct 16, 2020 02:35

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

So where 7 had it end on a relative up note - they won a big victory and things looked somewhat hopeful - this book just kicks them in the guts while they're gorilla-crawling.
Did they win? No.
Did they survive? Only just barely, and not due to themselves.
Did they find a new ally? Not really.

This book seems intent on driving home the message that there is nothing at all glorious about war. You fight and you die. Or you fight and you live, but you're never the same again.

Thats what i meant about this book being a dark mirror of 7.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 02:58

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

This part of it sticks out SO much to me though. Of all the animorphs it's the part that I remembered the most vividly?

I don't feel like it's a cop-out, and it's so close to being one it's like, a very great examination of the concept of "we're super powerful but we don't fight because pacifist!"

And it's a really good play with the idea of immortality that you don't see done this way specifically very much? That in being immortal, and being anything but living a carefree life, you'll accrue baggage. And with a mortal life there's a knowledge that it'll be over in one way or another, but as an immortal, all the bad things you've done and have had happened to you, just keep accruing, more and more and more over time.

I'm honestly not entirely convinced the human mind really ever gets over the bad things it experiences itself, and mortality in that regard is probably a good safety mechanism for it. I mean, even in this, Marco says the human mind just sort of forgets about it and the nightmares stop being as often--but like how the characters at the end of the series aren't all dealing with their experiences well either, you don't really just... get over it. Bad stuff plus time doesn't mean you stop feeling it, you just feel it, hopefully, less often. Like a die where rolling a 1 is a bad memory resurfacing--as you get older and further away from the traumatic stuff, you get more numbers on your die, but it can still roll that 1. Too many bad things and it starts taking over the 2 as well.

Being immortal, even if you're rolling a die with a thousand numbers on it, if the first few hundred get taken up by bad numbers, well!

It's a really good use of the "We're powerful enough to end this war ourselves, but won't because we're pacifists!" and I honestly can't think of another time it's been used in a way that was satisfying like that.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 03:40

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Did they find a new ally? Not really.

Mild spoilers:

They do end up being super useful though, in that Applegate can now send the heroes on missions of days or weeks away from their town, with the Chee standing in for them back home. IIRC she ends up whipping that out a lot.

Very end of series spoilers:

I think as a kid it bugged me that we never find out what happens to the Chee long term; Marco or Cassie or someone says goodbye to Erek on the Pool Ship and then they're just not mentioned again. But that makes more sense to me now, because I think it implies that they let them be and never told the rest of the world their secret.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 04:31

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER; Ultra Carp

Erwin the German posted:

The whole thing is a straightforward adaptation, but I feel like the series was always begging for that evocative visual element, and the TV show never came even remotely close to delivering that. Despite the colorful and almost childlike style, it's so good at conveying the horror and existential dread every single character has to endure.

My copy came in today, and after reading through it I completely agree. In particular, the closing pages of Jake talking to the (now-trapped) Tobias really nailed the disconnect between "voice of a teenage dork" and "stoic face of a predatory bird" that came up frequently in the books, and made me reckon with it in a way I never had just reading them. A very solid adaptation through and through, and well-worth checking out.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 05:02

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER; Ultra Carp

Also, excited for the next book! Though I'm pretty sure I read through all the books via the library at one point or another, I only ever owned a handful, and this was one of them. So naturally, I read through this one often enough that a good portion of it remains embedded in my brain to this day, and I'm excited to see how well this one in particular holds up.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 05:06

GodFish: Oct 10, 2012; We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.

There's only so many times you can say "this book got surprisingly dark" but jesus christ did this book get surprisingly dark.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 07:37

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

did this get linked?

https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/02-09-2018/i-read-all-54-animorphs-books-in-five-days-and-it-almost-killed-me/

# ? Oct 16, 2020 08:02

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

GodFish posted:

There's only so many times you can say "this book got surprisingly dark" but jesus christ did this book get surprisingly dark.

If we could get a bot that just posts this every few days, I think the thread would be better for it. Hell, name him Erek King.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 08:18

Homora Gaykemi: Apr 30, 2020; by Fluffdaddy

�This Book Got Surprisingly Dark,� Says Increasingly Nervous Reader For Seventh Time This Book

# ? Oct 16, 2020 08:23

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

did this get linked?

https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/02-09-2018/i-read-all-54-animorphs-books-in-five-days-and-it-almost-killed-me/

I need to know what the word "animorphs" sounds like with a New Zealand accent

# ? Oct 16, 2020 08:34

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Tree Bucket posted:

I need to know what the word "animorphs" sounds like with a New Zealand accent

a-nuh-MORFS

# ? Oct 16, 2020 09:02

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

FlocksOfMice posted:

This part of it sticks out SO much to me though. Of all the animorphs it's the part that I remembered the most vividly?

I don't feel like it's a cop-out, and it's so close to being one it's like, a very great examination of the concept of "we're super powerful but we don't fight because pacifist!"

And it's a really good play with the idea of immortality that you don't see done this way specifically very much? That in being immortal, and being anything but living a carefree life, you'll accrue baggage. And with a mortal life there's a knowledge that it'll be over in one way or another, but as an immortal, all the bad things you've done and have had happened to you, just keep accruing, more and more and more over time.

I'm honestly not entirely convinced the human mind really ever gets over the bad things it experiences itself, and mortality in that regard is probably a good safety mechanism for it. I mean, even in this, Marco says the human mind just sort of forgets about it and the nightmares stop being as often--but like how the characters at the end of the series aren't all dealing with their experiences well either, you don't really just... get over it. Bad stuff plus time doesn't mean you stop feeling it, you just feel it, hopefully, less often. Like a die where rolling a 1 is a bad memory resurfacing--as you get older and further away from the traumatic stuff, you get more numbers on your die, but it can still roll that 1. Too many bad things and it starts taking over the 2 as well.

Being immortal, even if you're rolling a die with a thousand numbers on it, if the first few hundred get taken up by bad numbers, well!

It's a really good use of the "We're powerful enough to end this war ourselves, but won't because we're pacifists!" and I honestly can't think of another time it's been used in a way that was satisfying like that.

Yeah, I think back then I felt like this was more of a cop-out than it actually was, maybe because I was jaded about the typical TV series seeing the entire situation reverted back to the way things were initially by the end of each episode, regardless of what happened. And it was before long-form TV with continuity really took off over the next decade.

What you describe about immortality is, like, half the story of Planescape: Torment. Which is interesting, because otherwise there's almost no similarities at all between it and Animorphs.

disaster pastor posted:

This is no longer a spoiler.

I appreciate updates like this, by the way. I read maybe halfway through this series, but I'm not quite sure where I stopped, so it's good to know when spoiler points have been passed.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 11:35

Silver2195: Apr 4, 2012

Rochallor posted:

The Yeerks should really start proofing their buildings against intrusions by small animals and the like. Multiple Animoprhs have already been discovered morphing small animals. They did a decent job in this one, but really, no security on the vents or anything?

Yeerks are kind of bad at security in general. They never seem to use security cameras, for instance. I guess the lack of security cameras in the Yeerk Pool could be due to worries about footage leaking and completely blowing the Yeerks' cover, but it's interesting that there seemed to be no security cameras monitoring the prison cells on the Blade Ship in "The Capture."

# ? Oct 16, 2020 23:03

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

Silver2195 posted:

Yeerks are kind of bad at security in general. They never seem to use security cameras, for instance. I guess the lack of security cameras in the Yeerk Pool could be due to worries about footage leaking and completely blowing the Yeerks' cover, but it's interesting that there seemed to be no security cameras monitoring the prison cells on the Blade Ship in "The Capture."

Yeah, even though none of their host species until humans would likely have need for such technology, the relative ubiquity of them in 90's California makes their absence kind of glaring. You'd think a high ranking controller would at least suggest it since they're dealing with a guerilla team and need to know how they keep getting in/out.

The footage leaking is a good explanation that I hadn't thought of, but still it seems like a glaring omission. Although again they're not great at security, they start to get a bit better in the upcoming books (late teens perhaps?) With the gleet bio filters or whatever they are. I think I remember those coming in around book 17 or so. Still kind of reeling from the finale of the Pemalite crystal story, what a brutal ending.

# ? Oct 16, 2020 23:48

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

There's definitely a tension in these books between the need to have a happy kid ending and the desire to tell a serious story about the cost of war. We've seen books careen from exploring the body horror of being trapped as a slave of a collective mind to jokes about the giving the villain the wrong cure for his skunk odor, to now a climactic chapter about the misery of violence and the cost it inflicts on even justified users of such followed by an epilogue tossing a powerful tool into the sea in a pique of whimsy about the simple joy of dogs. Seems incongruent.

Additionally I'm pretty sure the next book is the first I suggested my friend skip on her read if she did not have time, while interesting if I recall correctly it ends up being irrelevant to the larger plot due to time shenanigans. The only lasting value is introducing the idea of the Sario Rip.

# ? Oct 17, 2020 00:26

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 11: The Forgotten-Chapter 1

quote:

Chapter 1
1:22 P.M.

My name is Jake.

I can�t tell you my last name, or where I�m from. That would just help the Yeerks. They�d love to find me and my friends. They�d love to know who we are, even what we are.

Knowing my last name isn�t important for you. What you need to know is that everything I�ll tell you here is true. It�s real. It�s actually happening. Right now.

The Yeerks are among us.

The Yeerks are us.

They�re a parasitic species. They live inside the bodies of other beings. They take over your mind and body.

Controllers. That�s what you call a creature that is ruled by a Yeerk. A Controller. Something that looks human, acts human, sounds human, but whose mind is Yeerk.

They are everywhere. They can be anyone. Think of the one person in the whole world that you trust the most. Think of that one special person. And now realize, believe, accept the fact that they might not be the person you think they are. Deal with the reality that behind those friendly, loving eyes lives a gray slug.

That�s what a Yeerk looks like in its natural state. Just a gray slug. They enter your head, squeezing through the ear canal, and flatten themselves out to envelop your brain.

You know all those nooks and crannies in brains? You�ve probably seen pictures in school.

Well, the Yeerk forms itself into those nooks and crannies and it ties into your mind.

You wake up and you want to scream, but you can�t. You can�t scream. You can�t move your eyes or raise your finger or make yourself walk. The Yeerk controls you.

You�re still alive. You can still see what�s happening. Your eyes move and focus, but you�re not moving them. You can still hear your own mouth speaking and using your voice. You can feel it when the Yeerk opens up your memories and looks through them. You can hear the Yeerk laughing at you as
it pries into your every secret.

I know. Been there. For a few days, I was a Controller.

The Yeerks are here, all right. Their mother ship is parked in high orbit right now. It�s hidden from human radar, but it�s there.

And the Yeerk super-evil leader, Visser Three, is there, too.

We are being invaded. We are being enslaved. We are losing our own planet. And we don�t even know it.

My friends and I fight the Yeerks. But we�re just five kids. Well, five kids and one Andalite. Yes, we have some amazing powers, but we�re still desperately weak and outnumbered compared to the force of the Yeerk invasion.

We are the only humans resisting the Yeerks.

We may be the only hope that Earth has.

We have a lot on our shoulders.

The standard opening here.

quote:

Which is why I really, really, really did not see why I had to have more suffering piled on.

Wasn�t I under enough stress? Life wasn�t bad enough? We had to have � square dancing?

Square dancing! The horror!

The CD player was blasting out screaming-cat fiddle music. Which, in my opinion, is possibly the worst music ever created.

The lights in the classroom seemed blazingly bright compared to the dark gray clouds outside.

The teacher was standing off to the side. She was wearing that smug, satisfied look teachers sometimes get when they know they are grinding the students� last nerves.

�Now promenade left! Bow to your partner, do-si-do!� the stereo drill-instructor yelled.

I promenaded, which consists of walking like a BIG HONKING GOOBER around in a circle.

And then I bowed. A strange, jerky sort of movement.

And finally, my least favorite thing: I did a do-si-do. Or as the shrieking, yammering voice on the CD said, do-si-DOOOO!

�You call that do-si-do?� Rachel sneered as I high-stepped backward around her.

�Don�t mess with me, Rachel,� I warned.

�Smile, Jake. Big smile!� Rachel said. �We are happy while dancing. Happy!� She was so totally enjoying torturing me.

Rachel is my cousin. She�s an Animorph, too.

�Now swing your partner back to the left and promenade!�

�Promenade this,� I muttered darkly.

I grabbed Rachel to swing her. I was considering swinging her into the nearest wall. But although Rachel may look like some dippy Clueless type, she�s a lot closer to being Xena: Warrior Princess.

In other words, I�m just a little scared of Rachel. I�ve seen her in lots of battles. You just really don�t want to make her too mad. You really, really don�t.

�Excellent swing,� Rachel mocked me. �Now you�re getting into it. I can just picture you in a string tie, cowboy boots, maybe a bright red-checked western shirt -�

�Don�t push it, Rachel,� I warned again.

Then the worst possible thing happened. As I was �promenading� yet again, I heard Rachel yell. �Hey, Cassie! Come by to watch?!�

My heart sank. Cassie is another member of our team. She�s also someone I really kind of like. If you know what I mean. And I really didn�t want her watching me as I stomped clumsily around the circle. The sight of me, big old Jake, galumphing around in time to fiddle music was guaranteed to destroy any affection Cassie had for me. I mean, I was making myself sick. I could just imagine how I looked to Cassie.
I met Cassie�s gaze. She was standing in the doorway of the classroom. And she was laughing.

She was laughing with her entire body. She was in convulsions.

I was so relieved. See, I was afraid I�d get a pity look.

Instead, she was cracking up. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as I �do-si-doed� right in front of her.

�You find this funny? Me, trying to dance?�

Cassie couldn�t talk. She was laughing too hard. She just nodded.

What could I do? I started laughing, too. There wasn�t anything else to do.

Oh, maybe one other thing. I grabbed Cassie�s hands and pulled her into the circle. Rachel backed away, letting Cassie take her place in the pattern.

Cassie stopped laughing.

�No way!� she said, alarmed.

�Let�s see you do-si-do,� I said.

You all have to square dance in school? They made us do it, and this is giving me terrible flashbacks.

quote:

I grabbed her and swung her, and in a breathless voice she whispered, �I just came by to tell you something. Tobias wants us. Right after school lets out. It�s something big.�

I took a deep breath. Suddenly, I wasn�t in the mood to laugh anymore. Tobias wouldn�t say �something big� unless it was something big.

And �something big� meant something bad these days.

Cassie and I had to obey the music and separate then, but a few seconds later, we rejoined in the pattern, bowing to each other.

�I guess square dancing doesn�t seem so bad now, huh?� Cassie asked me.

�Yeah, right. It would take more than the danger of sudden death to make square dancing okay,� I said. �A lot more.�

I did some more promenading. I did some more bowing. I did some more do-si-doing.

But my thoughts were already running ahead, wondering what Tobias had seen. And just how much of a mess it would end up being.

Then �

FLASH!

I fell!

I fell down and down through the green, green trees!

A branch. I snatched at it with my hand and swung and released, then flew through the air and caught another branch. I wrapped my tail around the branch and turned to look back. Monkeys were swinging toward me through the high treetops of the jungle.

I was giddy.

It was a rush!

It was �

FLASH!

Cassie was smiling, and looking a little strangely at me. The music was done. The class was breaking up.

�Are you okay?� Cassie asked me.

�Yeah. Yeah,� I said, shaking off the weird vision.

�Daydreaming?� Cassie asked me.

�I guess so,� I said.

�I wonder what Tobias wants. Do you have any idea?�

I was too weirded out to really respond. One second I�d been square dancing. The next second I�d been swinging through the trees.

And both moments had been real.

Precognition?

Chapter 2

quote:

3:08 P.M.

�What do you think?� Marco asked me.

�Personally, I figure Tobias found some really good roadkill, and he wants us to share.�

�Yeah, that�s probably it,� I said tolerantly. Marco�s approach to everything is to joke about it. Especially when he�s worried.

After school we all went our separate ways. Cassie to her home, Rachel to hers. We all knew Tobias had some serious reason to talk to us. We were all afraid it was trouble of some kind.

But I had something extra to worry about. The hallucination, or vision, or whatever it was I�d had was too real to just forget. Everyone daydreams. This was no daydream. I was in the jungle. Period. It was for just a few seconds, but it was definitely real.

But like I said, priority number one was figuring out what was bugging Tobias. So Marco and I walked home together because that�s what we usually did. And it is very important for us to act normal. We don�t want to draw attention. So we try and be like we always were. Like we were before the night that changed our lives forever.

We�d been walking home from the mall at night. We took a shortcut through an abandoned construction site. A really stupid, irresponsible thing to do. But it turned out it wasn�t ax murderers or kidnappers we had to worry about.

Before that night we�d all known each other, but we weren�t a group. We had just happened to hook up at the mall. It was an accident or fate or something. Take your pick.

Anyway, the five of us ended up walking together as we were leaving the mall. And in a dark, spooky construction site, with empty, half-finished buildings all around us, we saw the spaceship land.

It was an Andalite fighter. It was badly damaged. Up in orbit, the Andalites had come out on the wrong end of a fight with the Yeerks.

The Andalite pilot of the fighter was named Elfangor. Prince Elfangor. He was dying. He was the one who told us about the Yeerks.

Life changed that night. Life went from being just the daily stuff any normal kid has to deal with, to knowing a secret that made you want to sit down and cry.

It was Prince Elfangor who gave us the power to morph. It was all he could do to help us. It was the only weapon he could give us.

The power to morph. To become any animal we could touch and �acquire.�

A great and awful power. A power that has given me some serious nightmares.

I�ve seen things since that night at the construction site. Things I wish I�d never seen. And I�ve done things I wish I couldn�t remember.

�Hey,� Marco said, interrupting my thoughts. �Speaking of Bird-boy. Up there. Is that anyone we know?�

I followed the direction he was looking. It was a dark afternoon and the sky just kept getting darker. It was filling up with rain clouds the color of steel wool. And there, silhouetted against the clouds, was a large bird.

Even from a distance you could tell it was a bird of prey.

�Could be. I can�t tell,� I said. �If it�s Tobias he�ll spot us.�

Tobias is in hawk morph. Permanently. See, there�s a nasty little hook buried inside the morphing power: Stay in morph for more than two hours, and you stay in morph forever.

Tobias has the soul and mind of a human. But his body is the body of a red-tailed hawk.

More origin story stuff

quote:

�He�s coming closer,� Marco said.

�Yeah.� I had mixed feelings. Tobias is one of us. A friend. More than a friend. He�s risked his life for me many times. But I sensed he was bringing bad news. And I really didn�t want to hear bad news.I heard his thought-speak voice in my head. <Jake. Marco.>

�See? Figured it was him,� Marco said.

We couldn�t answer Tobias. He was still too high up to hear us speak, even with his excellent hawk hearing. And you can only make thought-speak when you�re in morph. Or if you happen to be an Andalite.

<You guys need to haul it a little faster,> Tobias said. He sounded tense, impatient, excited. Not that he really �sounded� at all. But his thought-speak in my head carried tension. <Morph as soon as you get a chance, okay?>

I looked at Marco. He sighed.

�My dad should still be at work. We can use my house,� he said. �We�re almost there.�

We headed straight for Marco�s house. We live in the same subdivision, just a couple of blocks away from each other. Most of the kids in our school live there, including Rachel. Cassie lives out on her farm a little ways down the road.

<I�ll round up the others,> Tobias said. <We�ll meet up with Ax later. I�ll catch up with you once you get airborne.>

�This has �big trouble� written all over it,� I muttered.

�In huge red neon letters,� Marco agreed.

We reached Marco�s house and went in. Marco checked to make sure we were alone. �Dad! Dad, you home? Anyone home? Hey, Dad, I�m going to change all the settings on your stereo!� Marco winked at me. �If he�s home, that�ll make him come running.�

There was no reply. Just a quiet house.

We ran up the carpeted stairs to Marco�s room. We ran past framed pictures of Marco and his dad and his mother, who everyone thought as dead.

Marco opened his bedroom window as wide as it would go. The breeze was cool and damp. It as going to rain. And I hate rain.

�Let�s get this over with,� I said. I kicked off my shoes and removed everything but my morphing suit. Marco did the same.

I focused my mind on a bird. It was a peregrine falcon. The DNA of that falcon was part of me. And, thanks to the Andalite morphing technology, I could trade that DNA for my own.

I focused my mind and the change began.

Feather patterns appeared on my skin as if some invisible person had drawn them there.

The not-terribly-clean floor of Marco�s room came rushing up at me as I shrank, dwindling down like a fast-burning candle. It was like falling and falling without ever quite hitting the ground.

Or in this case, hitting a dirty white sock.

�Oh, man,� I said. �Marco, you could at least not leave dirty gym socks around.�

�Hey, I�ve seen your room,� Marco said. �You still have some of your old baby diapers lying around.�

He started to say more, but that�s when his human tongue shriveled down to become a tiny bird tongue. So all he said was �Craww hee hrrar.� Whatever that meant.

The dirty gym sock went from being the size of a sock to being the size of a blanket. The only good thing was that falcons don�t have much of a sense of smell. I was grateful for that.

My lips became hard as fingernails and began to press outward, forming a sharp, down-curved beak. It was weird and disturbing because I could actually see the beak grow, like some humongous nose.

My feet were gone, replaced by talons that could open up a prey animal like a can opener on a can of cat food.

My bones made grinding, squishy noises as my skull shrank. My arm bones became hollow and other bones disappeared altogether.

Then the patterns of feathers on my skin grew three-dimensional. It was eerie to watch - like my skin was chapping really badly. Like skin was peeling up at an incredible rate, and each peel of skin formed a feather.

Gray feathers, mostly.

I glared at Marco with my incredible Force-10 falcon vision.

He glared back with the eyes of an osprey.

<Let�s catch some air,> I said.

I flapped my wings twice and hopped up to the windowsill.

<Last time I was in osprey morph some peregrine took a shot at me,> Marco said. He sounded a little resentful. Like it was my fault. He hopped up to the sill beside me.

<Don�t worry, Marco. I�ll protect you,> I said it knowing it would make him mad.

<Protect me? Right. Come on, big guy, let�s fly. See if you can keep up with me first. Then see if you can �protect� me. Hah!>

I opened my wings wide, kicked off from the windowsill, and dropped straight for the grass in Marco�s backyard.

This is always terrifying. See, you know you�re a bird and all, but in your mind you�re still a human. And jumping out of windows scares humans. I was ten, twelve feet off the ground, with nothing but lawn to catch me if for some reason my wings didn�t work.

But then my wings caught the air. I felt the pressure of the air pushing up beneath me. I flapped hard, one, two, three, four, and shot forward. Forward and upward.

Fun fact....Peregrine falcons are the fastest flying birds in the world. They've reached airspeeds diving of 200 miles an hour.

quote:

I flapped and flapped, working hard to get altitude in the cool air. Flapping is hard. Just because you�re a bird doesn�t mean flapping is easy.

Marco and I had just managed to climb maybe fifty feet when Tobias came zooming up alongside us, zipping around like he�d been born a bird.

<Follow me,> he said.

<Follow you where?> I asked, maybe a little too grouchily.

Tobias laughed. <We�re going to the grocery store,> he said. <We�re going to the Safeway.>

<Tobias, are you nuts?> Marco demanded. <The grocery store? What, is there a sale on gourmet birdseed?>

<Funny, Marco,> Tobias said. <But it�s not about birdseed. This grocery store seems to be having a sale on high-ranking Controllers.>

So there we go. Why are the Controllers hanging out at the Safeway? Shopping for a Visser 3 ordered cookoff? Maybe (probably not).

# ? Oct 17, 2020 01:20

chitoryu12: Apr 24, 2014

BIG HONKING GOOBER

# ? Oct 17, 2020 02:24

Shwoo: Jul 21, 2011

chitoryu12 posted:

BIG HONKING GOOBER

I was nine or ten when I first read this book and that line made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe. Jake "BIG HONKING GOOBER" Icanttellyoumylastnameorwhereimfrom.

The way he transitions from the unimaginable horror of fighting the secret alien invasion to the unimaginable horror of having to old-timey dance in front of his peers is great. He's so annoyed.

# ? Oct 17, 2020 07:41

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

Additionally I'm pretty sure the next book is the first I suggested my friend skip on her read if she did not have time, while interesting if I recall correctly it ends up being irrelevant to the larger plot due to time shenanigans. The only lasting value is introducing the idea of the Sario Rip.

Yup. This one also annoyed me, because its entire plot is completely negated by the end. Jake's the only one who even has any memory of it IIRC.

# ? Oct 17, 2020 09:24

GodFish: Oct 10, 2012; We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.

I was quite surprised to learn that Safeway is a regional chain, which helps locate the animorphs on the west coast.

# ? Oct 17, 2020 19:25

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 11: The Forgotten-Chapter 3

quote:

3:51 P.M.

It�s hard to be worried when you�re flying.

You feel so powerful, floating high above the heads of all the little people below you. People are so slow. They walk in little lines along side walks, always stuck moving in two dimensions: left-right, forward-back.

A bird moves in three dimensions and has a lot more going on when he�s flying. There�s the air temperature, the speed of wind gusts, the steadiness of the breeze crosswinds and thermals and humidity.

Your wings and tail are constantly adjusting - extending your wingtips, spreading or narrowing your tail, altering the angle of attack.

Fortunately, the falcon�s brain handles all of that. Because let�s face it, as a human, I know basically nothing about flying.

All I know is it�s the coolest thing in the entire world.

Marco and I flew along with Tobias till we spotted two other big birds of prey rising up toward us: Rachel and Cassie.

<Break it up all,> Tobias advised. <We�re going to draw every birdwatcher within a hundred miles. Spread out. Stop thinking like humans - we don�t have to be bunched together to see the same things.>

He was right. Falcons, hawks, and eagles don�t exactly fly in flocks together. And with the intense vision of our bird morphs, we could see whatever we were supposed to see from a quarter of a mile away.

I wanted to get altitude because I was struggling with the dead air around me. I had the narrowest wings of the group. I was brutally fast in a killing dive, much faster than the others. But at the business of endlessly riding wisps of breeze I was weak.

I split off from Marco, circled to the right, and kept my laser-focus eyes on Tobias, careful to stay within thought-speak range.

<Okay, this is it,> Tobias said. <See the big car lot down there? Track left a block.>

I was catching my first decent breeze, so I soared upward as I searched the ground below. Then I saw it.

<Left of the car lot � that�s a grocery store, right?> I asked. I was puzzled. From the air, almost every building just looks like a big rectangle. <It looks like they had some kind of fire.>

<Yep. Now, look closer,> Tobias advised. <See the plastic sheet across the left side of the store? Look how the breeze blows it in. See?>

<It looks like the entire left wall was knocked in or something,> Rachel said. She was a bald eagle, riding high above me and further west.

<Exactly,> Tobias said. <Now, see the parking lot on that side? See the marks?>

I did. There were several long gouges torn in the blacktop. Long, straight gouges, in perfect alignment, pointing right toward the busted wall of the grocery store. A couple dozen workmen seemed to be on the ground, rushing around to erect a plywood wall to conceal the hole.

Suddenly, I realized. I guess Marco did, too.

<Oh, man,> Marco said. <Oh, man.>

<You�d never notice it from ground level,> Tobias said smugly. <But from the bird�s-eye view, it�s pretty obvious.>

<Something hit the ground. It was moving fast. It skidded across the grocery store parking lot, hit the wall, plowed inside, and started a fire,> I said.

<Exactamundo,> Tobias said.

<It must have happened late at night,> Cassie pointed out. <Otherwise there would have been cars in the parking lot.>

<You still haven�t seen the best thing yet,> Tobias said. <Take a run, one at a time, over the site. Check out who�s in charge of the cleanup crew.>

I flapped hard, turned, flapped harder, and shot over the smoke-scarred grocery store. I only caught a glimpse of the man who was directing the work crew. I couldn�t quite believe what I saw.

<Chapman?> I asked.

<Chapman,> Tobias confirmed. <He�s been here all day.>

Chapman is the assistant principal at our school. He�s also a high-ranking Controller - a very important part of the Yeerk invasion.

<Why is the assistant principal from our school suddenly working construction?> Cassie asked, adding, <As if I couldn�t guess.>

Ok, I second Cassie's rhetorical question here. Why IS the assistant principal of the middle school working construction? Do you all remember the second book? The Yeerks want to make Melissa Chapman a Controller, and the actual human Chapman, eager to protect his daughter, rebels. So the Yeerk inside him warns Visser 3, "Look, I'm kind of in the public eye and in front of people all the time. If the Human rebels and I start acting unusually, people are going to ask questions, and that could be bad, both for me and for the entire project. So now, Visser 3 is saying, "Iniss 226, I want you to be the foreman of a construction team." What's next? "Iniss 226, we need to smuggle Coors beer. Become a longhaul trucker and go to Denver!", "Iniss 226, we need to prove the physical superiority of the Yeerks. Go to Augusta National and win the Masters!", "Iniss 226, we need to buy a replacement Blade Ship. We need you to host a charity telethon."

quote:

<Whatever this is, it must be important,> Rachel said. <They�re working fast. And look! That guy there with the long coat? Up on the roof? I just caught a flash of a machine gun under his coat.>

There were six or seven men and women on the roof of the store. They were looking around with the kind of steely, paranoid gaze you see on the faces of the President�s Secret Service guys.

<They�re nervous,> Cassie agreed. <Scared, even. You can see from the way they move. The way they act. Someone screwed something up big time, and everyone down there is very afraid.>

<So? What do we do, oh fearless leader?> Marco asked.

He was asking me. The others like to act as if I�m in charge. I don�t think of myself that way, not really. But you know, whatever. If it makes them feel better to think I�m the leader, fine.

It�s just that when people treat you like a leader, you start acting like a leader. And like I said, that means making decisions. Even when you�re just guessing.

<Yeah, what�s the plan?> Rachel asked.

FLASH!

Right in my face!

Big, glittering eyes, the only things shining in the darkness.

A muzzle open just enough to show long, curved fangs.

The face of an extremely big cat. Mountain lion? Leopard?

In a second it would lunge, open its jaws wide and -

FLASH!

<Whoa!> I yelled.

<What�s the matter? Do you see something?> Tobias asked.

<Jake? I asked you, what�s the plan?> Rachel said, sounding annoyed.

I was back in the air. I was flying. I was in falcon morph.

Below me I saw the grocery store.

But I was totally confused. My mind wouldn�t focus on reality. It was still in some jungle I�d never seen, staring into the eyes of a beautiful, deadly predator. What was happening to me? Was I going crazy?

<Um � um, I � I guess we better take a closer look, huh?> I managed to say.

<Definitely. Let�s work up a plan. Let�s do it,> Rachel said with her usual enthusiasm.

<Rachel, why is it whenever I hear you say �let�s do it� my blood runs cold?> Marco asked.

<Let�s see. Because you�re a weenie?> Rachel speculated.

<Whatever this is, they�re trying to clean it up fast. We have no time,> I said. <Better do this tonight.>

<Oh,> Rachel said. <Tonight? As in � tonight?> She didn�t sound so enthusiastic anymore.

<Oh, good,> Marco said sarcastically. <Another rushed, unplanned, last-minute mission. Those always turn out so well.>

Marco, I thought, you don�t know the half of it. Because in addition to all the other ways this could go bad, your �fearless leader� is losing his mind.

Of course, I didn�t say that. See, when you�re the leader, you�re not allowed to be crazy.

So, on top of the fact that this is totally unplanned, Jake is still having his visions. Any thoughts on Jake's opinions about the nature of leadership?

Chapter 4

quote:

4:40 P.M.

 Marco said. 

We had landed in the woods. Landing, by the way, is the hardest part of flying. Taking off is scary, but landing is terrifying. See, the difference between landing and crashing is about two inches and two miles per hour.

We landed more or less gracefully on the pine needle floor of the forest. Tobias flew off to look for Ax. The rest of us demorphed.

 Cassie said. <On the other hand, we did survive.>

�Barely,� Marco said, as he made the transition from mostly osprey to mostly human.

�It�s just a grocery store,� Rachel said with a shrug of shoulders that were just emerging. �Come on, how hard can it be?�

�How should we go in?� Marco wondered, looking at me.

I looked at Cassie. �Any suggestions?�

�We have a couple of morphs available for this job,� she said. �Like Rachel said, it�s a grocery store. A burned-out grocery store, but a grocery store just the same. You�d expect there to be cockroaches, rats, flies ��

Suddenly, there came a rush of pounding hooves and a crash of underbrush. Ax raced up to us, graceful and bizarre all at once.

He plowed straight toward us, moving as fast as a panicked horse. Just when I was sure he�d run us down, he kicked his hind legs and sailed easily over our heads.

He landed almost daintily, and turned back to face us.

the difference between landing and crashing is about two inches and two miles per hour.

quote:

Ax is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. He�s the younger brother of Prince Elfangor. As far as we know, Ax is the only Andalite to survive the destruction of their Dome ship.

Andalites have certain things in common with Earth animals. But you�d know right off that he�s from a long, long way away.

His body is like a sort of strong pale-blue-and-tan deer. But where the deer would have a neck, Ax has a somewhat human upper body. It looks like the chest and shoulders of a boy. He has two weak-looking arms and a few too many fingers.

His head is where you�d expect to find it, but it is missing one very major ingredient: a mouth. Andalites eat by absorbing plants through their hollow hooves. And they communicate through thought-speak.

Ax has three small slits for a nose and two big, almond-shaped eyes. He also has two other eyes.

These are mounted on top of his head on short stalks. These two eyes can move separately in any direction. It�s distracting till you get used to it. Ax may look at you with his two main eyes, or he may look at you with both stalk eyes, or one stalk eye, or a combination of his two main eyes and one stalk
eye.

To summarize: It�s very strange making eye contact with an Andalite.

And last, but definitely not least, there�s the tail. It�s like a scorpion�s tail, cocked up so that the deadly sharp blade on the end sort of hovers above Ax�s shoulder.

The tail is fast. Very fast. As in, you�re bleeding and wondering why you can only count to four on your fingers, before you even see it move. Fast, accurate, and very good to have on your side of a fight.

<Hello, everyone,> Ax said. <Tobias told me to hurry.>

Just then, Tobias swooped low overhead and landed with utter confidence on a branch. He dug his talons into the bark and began to calmly preen his wing feathers.

�Hi, Ax,� I said. �What has Tobias told you?�

<Everything. I guess we are going in to take a closer look?>

�You guess right, Ax-man,� Marco said. �You have a preference for fly or cockroach morph?�



�Ax, don�t call me Prince Jake,� I said automatically for about the thousandth time.

<Yes, Prince Jake,> he said.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe Ax has a sense of humor. We�d never noticed one, but who knows?

�We have to get inside that Safeway,� I said. �The closest place to morph is a long way away. Clear across the street, behind that boarded-up motel. No one will see us there, but then we have to get to the store. Across four lanes of traffic.�

�Ouch,� Marco said. �I hadn�t really thought about that. Is it too late for me to change my vote?�

�We didn�t vote,� Rachel said. �But if we had, you�d have voted yes.�

�How do you know how I�d have voted?� Marco demanded.

Rachel smiled. �Because I�d have voted yes. And you�d never let yourself look like a total wuss in front of girls.�

�You think you know me,� Marco said. �Unfortunately, you�re right.�

�Neither the roach nor the fly has very good vision,� Rachel pointed out. �I mean, we want to be able to see whatever is in that store, right?�

�Yeah, but we also have to get across four lanes of traffic. I don�t know about you, but I�d rather fly over the cars than try to walk in front of them,� Cassie said.

�Can flies even find their way that far?� I wondered out loud.

�Remember when we used to have normal, sane conversations?� Marco said. �You know, we�d talk about baseball or who had a crush on who?�

Cassie gave him a wink. Then, she was back to business. �That grocery store must still be full of food, right? Rotting food, since I doubt the freezers are working in there. What�s better at finding rotting food than a fly?�

 Tobias said.

�You don�t see that much better than humans do in the dark,� I pointed out. �It�ll be dark by the time we get in position.�

<Car lights � streetlights � I�m just saying maybe I can help a little, all right?>

Tobias sometimes becomes frustrated because he can�t go on all the missions. I understand. I feel sorry for him. But that�s the way it is. I was about to tell him that when Cassie jumped in.

�Tobias, the only reason we even know about this is you,� Cassie pointed out. �You discovered it. You showed it to us. The least we can do is take the next step.�

Cassie is so good at fixing hurt feelings. Better than me, that�s for sure. But Tobias was still grumpy. <I�m still going along,> he said.

Right. "You're the only one who could have discovered this. Now let us finish it." goes down easier than "You don't understand. We feel sorry for you and that's why we don't want you to come."

quote:

�Okay,� I said, clapping my hands together and trying to sound cheerful and optimistic. �Flies it is. Everyone go home. We meet behind the motel in �� I checked my watch, �in approximately three hours. Around seven forty-five or so. We do a quick morph, we�re in and out of that Safeway in ten
minutes and back home again.�

�Oh, man,� Marco groaned. �I hate it when you try to sound peppy, Jake. It always means you�re worried. Next you�ll flash that big �no-sweat� grin. I know you.�

�Three hours to fly time,� I said, forcing up a big, confident grin.

�We�re dead meat,� Marco said.

You know this is going to go well.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 01:06

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

GodFish posted:

I was quite surprised to learn that Safeway is a regional chain, which helps locate the animorphs on the west coast.

Also just to add, it's not entirely, or at least isn't anymore. I lived in Northern Virginia about ten years ago, and did a lot of my shopping at Safeway.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 01:07

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 20:44

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

Epicurius posted:

Sometimes I wonder if maybe Ax has a sense of humor. We’d never noticed one, but who knows?

Thanks a lot Jake. Just because you've never noticed it doesn't mean Ax isn't the funniest Animorph.

Epicurius posted:

Any thoughts on Jake's opinions about the nature of leadership?

I actually have a lot of thoughts on Jake's leadership, and thank God I'm not an Animorph because I'd probably die on my own on a mission if I had someone like Jake giving me orders (because I'm stupid and also make bad decisions). To me Tobias is the real leader. He is constantly doing recon and finding new things, while Jake is ummm, hiding his dissociative episodes, or whatever these jungle flashes are. Remember in book 6 when he kept having the tiger dream and it led... Nowhere... I hope this book doesn't go down the same way even though I know that it does.

It's crazy that Cassie MENTIONS rats and yet they don't all have just a rat morph. You'd think the first thing they'd do is each acquire a bunch of common animals. Six separate stray dogs and six stray cats, six of the same rat (who would notice), seagull, pigeon, duck/ goose, deer, raccoon, bat, frog. There is only need for insect morphs when you must be almost completely invisible.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 07:13

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