I love the Ellimist Chronicles.

Was it clear that their internet covered the whole planet? By which I mean, is there a way I can even semi-plausibly pretend that other Ketrans got away in some other spaceship, and Our Hero didn't hear about it because the news didn't trickle over to the media he had access to?

It didn't actually. Ket had really high levels of background radiation, and they were only just working out wireless communication between crystals at the start of the book. At that point, each crystal had its own internet.

Anyway, here we have Book 48: The Return: [1]

David's back! And...and stuff happens.

Man, this was a weird book.

I remember the primary plot points from this book in such a fashion that I must have read it, but I have purged the secondary, tertiary and quaternary details from my mind, it turns out. Interesting concept in theory, in execution mind-expunging, I guess.

I only remembered that it involved David having an army of rats, and that it turned out to be dream.

The Rachel-as-Deathstryke cover is hilarious, though.

Am I the only one who liked this book? Weird...

You know what I remember most about this book? The fact that I read it before the David trilogy and before any book that explains what Crayak is. It's nice to know I didn't remember it because it was just incomprehensible in general rather than because I didn't know who anyone was.

I remember seeing the cover of the book in the bookstore and somehow getting the idea that in later books the Animorphs figure out how to morph custom-designed bodies.

David as a supervillain was one of the most hilariously absurd things in this series.

I remember seeing the cover of the book in the bookstore and somehow getting the idea that in later books the Animorphs figure out how to morph custom-designed bodies.

To be fair, that does sort of happen in this book.

Anyway, sorry about the late post, but here is Book 49: The Diversion: [1] Loren's back! Yay!

I can handle a lot of implausible things in Animorphs. But if this was true then my suspension of disbelief would be completely broken.

I always got the impression that whatever area they lived in was on the border between middle class bourgeois neighbourhoods (Jake's and Rachel's parents are doctors and lawyers) and the run down lower class areas (guess who?) Marco's parents are educated and in middle to upper middle class seeming careers but obviously slid a bit when mom decided she wanted to run around in spaceships. Maybe put them in the street that divides the two parts of town. I'd be interested to see the public school taxes, and how many kids get sent to private schools, and what proportion of those private schools are parochial.

edited 1st Oct '12 3:30:39 PM by Hatshepsut

Cool! I'm wishing I'd read this book (I never read any of the ones past the Yeerks figuring out the Animorphs were human). You say in the review that you can't figure out what specific event led to the Yeerks being suspicious the "bandits" weren't Andalites, but given the chronology it seems likely to me that the rescue of Marco's parents was what tipped it off. Maybe combined with the successful takeover of a human ship in Book 46 (which would require a fair level of familiarity with humans, and which a group of Andalites would have serious trouble pulling off assuming they all respond to human-morph like Ax does) and the discovery of the Hork Bajir valley in Book 47 (previous Chronicles books, in addition to the main serious, suggests the Andalites don't place that high a priority on the lives of non-Andalites). There's a fair amount of pivotal stuff that's happened recently in book-time that could have tipped the Yeerks off.

I like the idea that the whole Crayak thing last book was Crayak deliberately telling Esplin the Animorphs were human in the same way the Ellimist/Kandrona/human zoo thing worked ages ago.

Wow, I never thought of that, but it does make sense.

It took literal divine intervention to finally make Esplin realize that the Animorphs are human.

edited 3rd Oct '12 9:54:46 AM by storyyeller

I suddenly want to write an Animorphs fanfiction set in Down Under :3

You say in the review that you can't figure out what specific event led to the Yeerks being suspicious the "bandits" weren't Andalites,

Not the Yeerks in general. Many of them have already long suspected this. I mean Esplin specifically.

Review time. This week is Book 50: The Ultimate: [1] Today we get the introduction of the Auxiliary Animorphs, and the events that basically set the tone for the final remainder of the series.

Weren't Cassie's actions eventually justified? The whole Taxxon thing, and the Yeerk peace movement got a lot of new members who saw an actual solution.

Yeah, but unless she was psychic, she couldn't have foreseen any of that with reasonable certainty, and the risks of giving Yeerks morphing technology were pretty high.

Ironically enough, giving Yeerks morphing technology in a more organized manner as an actual peace offering (Making sure to inform many unranked Yeerk civilians of the sensory benefits of morphing) would be a great idea, although it would require some serious disarmament on their part.

I do have to agree with some commentors that the "Rachel is only mean when poorly-written or ghost-written" excuse feels weak, much like the justifications of Cassie's loose morality feel weak. You get the character flaws with the strengths, take it or leave it.

edited 6th Oct '12 9:51:59 PM by Scardoll

The way I remember it, had Tom not escaped with the morphing cube, the Animorphs would have lost.

Well, the endgame would have spun off in a radically different direction if she hadn't. It is difficult to tell.

Here's Book 51: The Absolute, where we start to find out some of the aftermath in her actions, and Marco decides to get involved in politics. [1]

And now here is Book 52: The Sacrifice, which features lots of explosions and bickering. [1]

I are dissapoint in you guys.

THIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4h7NGMz2RI

Should have been included in the review during the train exploding!

Sorry, I've read the comic, but never seen the movie.

Anyway!

So close to the finish line! Here's Book 53: The Answer: [1]. Only one more and we are done!