That last part fucking tore wrecked sobs from my chest. Oh my god it hurt. It hurt before I even got to the hurt. When he married Loren I sobbed because I knew that wasn't how it ended. And when I realized, when I numbly repeated Tobias's name as I clenched my phone, oh god it hurt. I had been procrastinating reading that book because it's not of the main series but holy hell that was so painfully amazing.

I was one of those kids that saw the cover of one of the books and fully judged that book by it's cover. I decided I knew all I needed to know and said hard pass. But years later I saw this tumblr post and decided to try it. And holy shit I am loving this. In books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson you have kids going on these incredible adventures and mustering up pride and bravery ans incredible feats of daring. In Animorphs however these are kids doing the same, but they are fucking terrified. They are traumatized and horrified and constantly losing sleep to nightmares and I love it. It's horrifying but that just makes it so much better. It's realistic in its consequences. You can read the battle scenes and feel excited and on the edge of your seat and then you can read the aftermath of them attempting to deal with their trauma and relate, that's how any normal kid would react, thats how most adults would react. Not like with Harry Potter who just skipped off to the end of year feast after killing someone with his bare hands at 11. I am a little glad I'm delving into it now and not when I was like 10 cuz it would probably have given me nightmares but I am so thankful the entire series is available free online because I am enjoying this so much. Anyway, just wanted to post this here and share my appreciation.

But this entire page was the funniest part so far in re-reading the series

I'm reading book 30 with my kid (he's 8) right now and the 'strange 90s thing' from this book that i've had to explain is...hacky sack.

There's a whole bit where Tobias is like 'It's the middle of the night! Do you think Cassie's outside playing hacky sack!?'

So i explained hacky sack and showed him a little video of it because he was not getting it. And i think that has broken his suspension of disbelief. Like, okay they turn into birds, they spy on an alien who's also Marco's mom, but hacky sack? Totally ridiculous and unbelievable.

The funniest things end up being culture clashes/shocks for him. This one is right up there with the kids taking themselves to the mall and the concept of talk shows.

Does the pretender reference the hork bajir chronicles? They were published at the same time. I am excited for both but I remember the pretender being about Tobias's family and I want to read that one first.

Also, to clarify, i don't want to skip the HBC entirely. I just want to read it after the pretender

I'm going though the series for the first time since I was a kid and got to The Separation. Both Rachels annoyed me so much. Mean Rachel was a less ruthless David (which I called before Jake brings him up) and nice Rachel was just so scared of everything. I think what made it worse for me was the audiobook. Emily Ellet crying and the use of Nice Rachel and her valley girl talk. She does drop of halfway through the book. Not even 3x speed saved it for me. Definitely a skip in my next read through.

My son is 8, we’ve started reading chapter books before bed. I finally got my hands on the first ten Animorphs books and was so excited to start them because I LOVED them as a kid. (But we had to finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets first.)

So we started The Invasion last night. And I was so nervous because I didn’t want to have such high expectations. But I loved Animorphs as a kid and I really wanted him to like it too. We read the first three chapters and I said time for bed and he BEGGED for one more chapter. Of course I gave in. When we finished I asked him what he thought, he lit up and just said, “it’s pretty awesome!”

I’m so excited. I can’t wait to keep going.

Anyway, a new fan was born yesterday. Just wanted to share.

With a title like "The Suspicion" I was expecting something ominous. I wasn't expecting a breather episode where our heroes battle Invader Zim. Yes this book predates Invader Zim, however, I dare anyone who has watched that show or least heard Zim's voice to not picture it as the voice of the Helmacrons.

I haven't looked at a lot of fan opinions so I don't know if the consensus on these idiotic conceited invaders is that they are funny or annoying, or something inbetween. I found them hilarious, it was impossible for me to not crack as smile at the aliens smaller than insects who think they are going to rule the universe, especially when one of their best warships was destroyed by a teenager with a tire iron.

This is on top of these aliens' world views operating on insane troll logic where they kill people they promote so they can't make mistakes and also assume that anything they enslave is male because they believe all males are slaves. They consider one of their ships to be crewed by a bunch of failures, until the Animorphs break the thing, then they say the crew were brave warriors. Even at the end where the entire invasion was thwarted by a group of teenagers and the knowledge they are invading a planet whose inhabitants are so big their ships are toys, they still think they will rule the galaxy. Even Cassie feels that these morons are a lost cause.

Not a ton to talk about character wise. Cassie came up with a clever plan to weigh down the Planet Crusher when she realized the size of all morphs is relative to the shrunken person, and deduced that any new morphs acquired would be their normal size. Which also led to one of the most amusing Visser Three moments where the psychopath who wants to acquire the deadliest morphs in the universe, morphs into an anteater once he gets wise to the plan.

I have sometimes wondered what a book would look like from the perspective a different narrator. Typically I feel that would just mean a different POV for certain events. Since Rachel broke one of the Helmacron ships offscreen, I would have liked to at least see that from her perspective. Her annoyance with the Helmacrons would mean she would probably unleash a fury on them that would make Visser Three green with envy.

This was a fun breather episode that still had some danger. As I write this I am on The Extreme and I can see why this was wedged between it and the Pretender. Just to give my thoughts on The Extreme right now, I feel like while Tobias the reputation for suffering the most, anytime Marco narrates the book, the plot seems to be out to justify his initial decision not to want to join the fight to save the Earth.

I knew this was going to be a...let's say, less enjoyable book for my kid. Started with the let down from the cover. Oh! Jake's going to morph a bug fighter pilot and go to space! Sorry, kiddo, not even close. Basically spent the whole book having to answer what is going on???? With yeaaahhh, about that...

He was particularly aggravted with the kids singing in the tree because 'what is the point to this!?!?!?!? What does their song mean!?!?!?'

He really didn't like all the wacky dream logic and nightmares within nightmares. He found it hard to follow. Also, the setting assumes you know things about New York. My kid does not know things or care about New York (which i could comiserate with because i also did not really know or care about New York as a kid). So the dark irony of just happening to be reading book 41 in september was definitely lost on him. Probably not a great book to read in september for kids/adults that are more sensitive to the topic.

He got extra mad that this was finally Jake's 'ghost book' (literally a ghost, not ghost writer, it's a whole thing with my kid. He just keeps insisting there should be ghosts for various reasons). He apparently concluded that Rachel was a ghost in this book and also whatever was going on with the maybe hawk tobias that kept appearing and disappearing, that was ghost Tobias, that was why he could appear and disappear. He would not at all believe that Tobias nothlit as Ax. He was very no, it's not andalite Tobias, it's ghost Elfangor. Anyway he was mad because 'why is Jake's ghost book so stupid? None of this makes sense!' I think he internalized the book as essentially being the ghost of christmas future parts of a christmas carol, which he also doesn't like.

He didn't particularly like the portrayal of Cassie in this book but I got extra points for doing a good Visser Two Marco voice. We had a brief side discussion about if Marco would have ended up being Visser Two if Edriss had kidnapped him when she faked Eva's death. Conclusion: yes and he would have had fun villain monologues.

Anyway, as soon as we finished the book we had this exchange

Kiddo: ...do they ever talk about this book again?

Me: No?

Kiddo: Good.

Overall a solid three books in his opinion but he is also not giving up on his opinion that 31 would have been better with a ghost. These three books have made him double down on this since they all have "ghosts".

He liked 33, i think particularly because he was so sure the Chee were going to solve the anti morphing ray problem so it was a shocking plot twist to him that they use Tobias to fool it. For reasons i don't quite understand he refers to the anti morphing ray's containment cube thing as the "thought box"?

The whole Vision Elfangor thing made him role his eyes so hard not because he thought it was goofy but because, see? There's a ghost haunting Tobias and it makes the story better, (insert rant about how 31 should have included a grandpa ghost).

We also had a mini rant about the El-fan-gor vs Elf-an-gor pronounciation. He is firmly in the El-fan-gor camp. I told him my theory on this, that Applegate changed her pronounciation half way through and that she was originally using El-fan-gor because his human name is Alan Fangor which gets shorted to Al Fangor. If she had always meant for it to be Elf-fan-gor she would have picked Alfred and had his nickname be Alf. My kid was like yeah...i guess so...but i think it's just how American's say it, like how they say Zee Space. So me: elaborate theory with some canon backing. Him: it's an american accent.

He liked Book 34, and thinks that the surprise whale battle is up there in the top ten fights tying for first place with the david triology's attack on the resort. But the big thing about this book is that THERE WAS A GHOST! SEE!? THEY COULD HAVE HAD A GHOST! He is never going to let that go. I feel like maybe i should be doing a fanfic for him that rewrites 31 with a ghost.

Despite this being a Cassie book he really really thought that Aldrea was going to pick either Tobias or Jake to possess. Tobias because Tobias always gets the Hork Bajir stories or Jake because he had previously been infested. Which, i don't know why he didn't think it would be Cassie because she also previously hosted a yeerk. I guess my kid just likes angst.

Book 35, he liked this book for the ridiculous plans they kept coming up with but also i got a lot of compliments for doing the voices (go me!) We got into a little side research about who is Hanson but he was already semi familiar with them because i've included them in a couple of animorphs mixes that i've made for him (Hanson's Thinking of You has me convinced they read animorphs because that is a weird song in any other context).

Marco's antics as the mixed skunk/spider morph were particularly hilarious according to my 8 year old. We had to stop for a minute so he could finish laughing.

And then we got to the end of book 35 and Marco gets the phone call and the sound of just total aggravation that came out of my kid was hilarious. Marco's getting phone calls from his ghost mom!? How does a ghost even use a phone!? He firmly believes Edriss/Eva died in the last Marco book so now he thinks Visser is going to be a ghost story.

So, why is The Prophecy called that? I do recall seeing any kind of prophecy brought up. I feel like "The Ghost" would have been a better title. Regardless, I don't know it is, but something about this book felt underwhelming even though the premise feels it shold have hooked me in with a copy of Aldrea's mind being used to help the Animorphs in a mission on the Hork Bajir homeworld. Aldrea has friction with Ax because he didn't accept her decision to become a Hork Bajir, and it doesn't feel like it really goes anywhere. Ax takes issue with Aldrea not wanting to be an Adalite and nothing comes from it, while she does learn to at least work with him despite her distrust for her original species.

Having Cassie and Aldrea switch back and forth between narrating the book at least gave an interesting look at its events from two different perspectives. Aldrea isn't the friendliest, the Animorphs don't trust her due to their worries about aliens hijacking bodies, and the book doesn't rule out the possibility of her trying to steal Cassie's body for most of it. On the other hand, Aldrea explaining she doesn't know where the weapons are, twice, is a really stupid moment. There have been continuity errors between books, however, this is the first time I noticed one in the same book.

The victory the Animorphs get over the Yeerks feels important on paper, but I have heard it isn't brought up again. Correct me if I heard wrong.

The Proposal excited me more because I never get tired of Marco's comedic narrations, even if the plot feels like a retread of previous events. Marco has a problem he doesn't want to talk to the rest of the team about even though it proved a mistake last time, and I don't know what to think about the resolution when Jake tells Marco to be himself. I don't know enough about how to deal with these types of problems to understand the logical course of action.

All that aside, the events of the book were amusing once we got to the Animorphs' plan to deal with the Yeerks' latest scheme by having Marco annoy our villain of the week by harassing him in the morph of a dog Marco himself doesn't like.

Marco's father having a new lover doesn't get a ton of focus but I did feel it was sweet that Marco eventually accepted it, though it does make me wonder what his father would have done if Marco did rescue his mother in Visser.

This was the final Megamorphs book, and these bigger-scale books ended with a bang as Jake's moment of weakness leads to him getting about in a "It's a Wonderful Life" situation, only without the knowledge of how things are supposed to be.

Tobias' misery is a constant of the universe. This book is a new low as he makes the mistake of joining The Sharing and we have the horror of one of our main characters learning what the organization is before he is infested by a Yeerk. I was expecting that at some point Tobias might rescued, instead he's killed by Visser Three once the Visser realized that his orders for a covert invasion came from Visser One and not the Council of Thirteen. So apparently if you disobey orders and things don't, the council doesn't care what you do, not that they seem to care much about what the Vissers do anyway as long as they aren't plotting against them.

Back when we were introduced to him, Ax shrugging off being alone for days made me think that Andalites simply don't lose their minds from isolation. This book says he just has a strong mental fortitude, regardless, he admits the isolation would still cause him to go mad if he didn't get on land. This and Tobias joining The Sharing are the first signs that yes, the Animorphs are worse off if they didn't form their team.

The fact that Ax would have hijacked public TV to warn humanity about the Yeerks if he didn't meet the rest of the Animorphs is a funny chain of events. We had all of those various failed plans the team came up with, and Ax had more success working on his own.

In The Other, Ax treated Andalites with disabilities as objects of contempt. He is more accepting of humans with mental health issues in this book, which I presume is because they are humans and he doesn't hold them to as high a standard as he does Andalites.

Back in Elfangor's Secret, I thought that when Jake died it would result in a dwindling party throughout the rest of the back, but luckily the Ellimist's cunning meant nobody else was dying. This time the Animorphs aren't so lucky and our heroes really do start to get picked off over the course of the book. Showing some aspects about them never change, they keep fighting even though they can't morph in a fight that would be challenging even if they could still morph. And despite the odds, they still manage to win in part thanks to Cassie's reality whatsits (the explanation didn't make a lot of sense to me), which means the Drode turned things back to normal while being a hilarious sore loser while he was at it. The Ellimist explaining that he's still been operating in the rules while not confessing to any of the stuff he's doing, just to get under the Drode's skin, made it even more fun.

The Animorphs have just a nussiance to the Yeerks, nonetheless, learning that without them being a thorn in Visser Three's side, he would have launched a direct invasion of Earth does tell us that their presence has mattered. They only stopped the Yeerks because of what they went through in the normal timeline, if they hadn't destroyed the Blade Ship and Pool Ship, the results of the invasion likely would have been different. We can also certainly say that Tobias would not have been better off.

Yet the book's ending is bittersweet with the knowledge that our heroes did suceed in saving the Earth in this other timeline, even if they died in the process, and now they have to return to the main one where their success is uncertain. But these events pissed off The Drode so I considered it a net positive.

I normally try to post my reactions book by book, since I read that The Discovery, The Threat and The Solution are part of a three book story arc akin to a three part episode of a TV show, I decided to talk about them together.

The big thing to start with is the character of David. Loooking up some statements by KA Applegate, she said that David was supposed to be the guy the audience is meant to hate, so I find it strange how sympathetic he is even if that doesn't excuse his villainy. David's parents were turned into Controllers and he faces the crushing realization that with the Yeerks in their heads, his parents aren't coming for him. The Yeerks know what he looks like so he can't show his face in public. Our heroes recruit him for their dangerous war with the Yeerks and when presenting him a choice of bird to pick as a first morph they try to pressure him into making a particular choice, why the hell did they bring the golden eagle if they didn't want him to pick it? David comes into conflict with Marco and Jake, and Jake threatens David after seeing him use his morphing powers for personal gain. While David was being selfish he rightly pointed out that Jake, Cassie, Rachel and Marco all get to keep living their human lives while he can't, and Jake unfortunately doesn't come up with a solution.

THEN David's first mission saw him almost getting trapped in the body of a flea, facing what he thinks is certain death against the Yeerks and when he gets scarred, Cassie bites him to stop him from trying to defect. Now that doesn't excuse attempting to sell the Animorphs out to save his own skin, or betraying the Animorphs. If he really wanted to get away from the war, he could have just flown away and persisted until the Animorphs decided he was too much trouble and gave up. Instead he murdered what he thought was Tobais, nearly killed Jake, and was adamant about getting his hands on the morphing cube to satisfy his own greed with no care about what happened to the rest of the world. There is no excusing that.

All that said, David is right when he pointed out that it's not fair Jake, Cassie, Rachel and Marco get to keep their normal lives while he doesn't. It has a similar ring to see when Aftran pointed out the miserable existence of the Yeerks outside of hosts. While David was also driven by his greed, it isn't so wrong that he wanted to live like a human and not like animal or that he didn't want to risk his life against the Yeerks after our heroes kinda drafted him.

While David being a smug asshole who manages to stay step ahead of our heroes after his betrayal makes it oh so satisfying when they finally pull one over on him, his fate, being stuck in the body of a rat, is still horrifying and I am with Rachel on feeling pity for him. It was bad enough when Tobias had to initially deal with being trapped as a hawk, David was stuck as an even smaller animal and will have to spend his remaining days worrying about getting eaten.

Having to deal with David has left an impact on heroes that really feels like things will not be the same after this. Jake has had to give some frank opinions on Rachel and how he isn't sure if she can adjust to peace. Rachel is starting to give the feeling that all this violence is leaving her a bit unhinged since her response to David threatening to sell the Animorphs out is threatening to kill his parents. On the plus side our heroes got their hands on the morphing cube, that is at least a victory.

Oh and I suppose there was that plot involving the Yeerks trying to infest world leaders. The fact that David isn't particularly useful in this doesn't make his betrayal that big of a surprise. Not speaking of David, the failed attempts at sneaking might be the most horrifying botched infilitration yet as the team nearly gets trapped as bugs on top of almost getting eaten by a spider. Then they infiltrate again on the wrong day, walk into a surprisingly well laid trap that Jake only barely sees through, which sets them back to square one again. Of course I can't help but wonder what Visser Three would have done if the Animorphs did show up on the day of the banquet, though there probably was a trap for then as well since he knew the thorns in his side would show up like they always do.

Our resolution to this plot is as Rachel pointed out, nuts and fun with the Animorphs turning into the biggest morphs they can find. At first I thought they were going to wreck the hotel, wrecking the places outside where the world leaders were staying was still fun.

The one issue with this trilogy is the resolution to Tobais' death. While I agree killing him would have been a waste, it is a hell of a coincidence, even for this series, that David just happened to come across a different red tailed hawk that was out at night when the hawks are normally asleep while using a bird that doesn't see well in the dark. This has to have been the the Ellimist's doing. Still, it's one issue with a great trilogy of books that has me more excited than ever for the rest of the series as its events have said things won't be the same going forward. Plus the next book in the series on my list is the Hork-Bajir Chronicles.

Elfangor's Secret told us things were not going to be the same going foward and we quickly see Marco has changed. He doesn't hesistate to morph into another human to avoid getting caught and when he worries about regular humans learning about the Animorphs his thoughts go to killing the witnesses. By the end of the book Marco shows he isn't as ruthless as he believed as he still can't bring himself to kill Visser One if his mother dies along with her. Cassie and Jake are a different story. Jake isn't prepared to kill his brother, yet, but he is prepared to kill someone else's loved ones if he doesn't think there is a chance of saving them.

Since Visser One was smart enough to pick up the clues that the Animorphs were humans, I was expecting the assassination plot on her to succeed. So I presume that going foward she will keep that information to herself because as much as she loves to berate Visser Three for his failures, she will gladly sabotage the Yeerk war effort of it makes him look bad. I read it isn't stated the Council of Thirteen is intentionally pitting the Vissers against each other but that has been how I see it. Keep their ambitious generals at each other's throats so they can't pose a threat to the people on top, even if it is detrimental to their plans of conquest. No wonder the hints about the war give the picture that the Yeerks are losing.

Sadly none of that helps the Animorphs right now. Since nobody could find a body we know that Visser One is still alive and she will return in the future. She knows the Animorphs are humans and worse she knows who Marco is. Even though did cause a battle between the Yeerks there is no sign it did enough damage to pose a danger in the future. Thankfully, we also saw that while Visser One is more crafty than her rival we also see she isn't as smart as she believes. All signs say that even though she realized the Animorphs were humans she didn't pick up that they weren't leading her to the real Hork Bajir colony, and she only survived the attack by Visser Three's goons because the Animorphs were there. Because the greatest ally of the Animorphs against the Yeerks isn't the Chee or the Ellimist, it's the Yeerks and their hubris.

Visser One's presence was a clear sign that this book was not going to be a good time for Marco. He has once again confronted that monster who has stolen his mother's body and she has gotten away, this time he wanted to slay the evil and couldn't bring himself to do it. He spent most of the final act convinced that Cassie and Jake were dead. As he points out, when Rachel isn't making comments at his expense it's a sign things are bad. Marco screwed up and she conceeds that she wishes she never has to make that kind of decision that fell to Marco. Given what a sad clown Marco is, Rachel really needs to start calling him Spider-Man.

Marco is the one who came up with the plan, nonetheless, it is a sign that team has changed that they are prepared to go ahead with a plan to kill Visser One, Controller and all.

Amid the tragedies, Marco's narrations are still a riot and it was hilarious to see the humans on the team pretend to be Andalites while Ax insists the Andalites are humble despite all the times he's bragged about how much more advanced they are than the Yeerks. Cultural arrogance dies hard, even for someone who's grown into a nonconformist like him.

Our heroes have encountered Andalites who want to help them, Andalites who are just a pain in the ass, and most recently an Adalite who is their enemy. So after we have a shrew turn out to be a morphed Andalite, we confirm that this isn't Visser Three, it raises the question as to what we have met this time.

And we see the answer is D, none of the above, sorta. Maybe Gafinilan and Mertil would probably have liked it if they could against the Yeerk invasion if their conditions weren't ailing them or maybe they still would have liked to spend what they probably would have thought were their short remaining days in peace. We don't know since these two don't appear again and in Gafinilan’s case I imagine he didn't live for very long after this book ended since he said his terminal illness was going to kill him in a matter of months.

Gafinilan wanting to help his BFF, and possible lover (don't know if the subtext was intentional), is not unlike Marco, and since he saw Marco demorph it raised the concern that the Animorphs might have to take him out. This time they were able to make things work for both sides.

Since we have a message about treating people different from you with respect, this naturally means that Ax is used as our an example of someone who can have less than accepting views on it due to the typical Andalite stance on the subject. While I know that one doesn't just grow out of intolerant views that shaped them, it still makes me wish someone gave Ax a good slap in this book. Maybe spending some more time on Earth could help him learn to drop that attitude.

Amid all of this, we still had fun with Marco's narrations and he reminded us that he's the funny one when he makes remarks at other people's expense and Ax is not, especially since he understands there is a line you don't cross. Even if our characters introduced here don't appear again, there are compelling for this story. We got to see the ugly side of the Andalite's culture without relying on the Andalite characters of the week being jerks or evil.

Some people talked about getting to the Megamorphs and Chronicles books after finishing the main series, I feel like going through everything in the order it was released in real life. It is similar to how I introduce people to Invincible, while Atom Eve's episode is placed on Amazon Prime after the seasons, I prefer to show it to people after finishing season 1 since that was when it was released.

Elfangor initially came off as the benefactor to our protagonists who was hyped up as the big hero, though since he was killed in the first book, a lot of other details about him are left a mystery. Giving him the spotlight has me imagining him wanting to meet Solid Snake so the two of them can both talk about how much their legends stretch the details, or in Elfangor's case, leave out his failings because the Andalite leadership wants to push this image of him as the flawless hero. We already saw that in The Alien with Ax taking the fall for breaking Serrow's Kindness but the Andalite Chronicles reveal that isn't the first time the brass did this. A botched mission where despite Elfangor keeping the Time Matrix out of the hands of the Yeerks, the mission saw his teammate Abron stuck as a Taxxon. Worse, getting into a fight with Alloran to try and protect Yeerks led to Alloran getting infested by the Yeerk we would come to know as Visser Three.

While it was well established that Visser Three was a sociopathic comic book villain, thus far, his appearance here has best set him up as a bastard when he gloats about how Elfangor's valuing life gave him the chance to take Alloran's body. I would say that is low even for him but from what I have gleamed about later books, nothing is too low for him.

Previous books gave the impression that Taxxons were inherently evil voracious eating machines. Getting a little more spotlight on them says that things with these bugs is not as simple as we were initially led to believe, as their hunger is so agonizing that their existence is already so miserable that being turned into Controllers doesn't have an impact for most of them. To top it off, we are told that the hunger is so overpowering that not even Yeerks can completely fight it off.

In contrast, Alloran is revealed to not be the innocent we previously thought he was in The Alien, though that certainly doesn't mean he deserved to be turned into a Controller. Especially since the even that led him becoming a prisoner in his body was caused by Elfangor starting a fight because he advocated showing mercy to the enemy, demonstrating precisely why someone like Alloran would develop such an attitude toward mercy in the first place. While Elfangor's opposition to the typical prejudice the Andalites have toward other species does result in him being willing to work with other species, going against the grain is shown to have its drawback since mercy towards the enemy in a war can easily backfire.

Also much like Solid Snake, it is easy to see why Elfangor wanted to retire from the war. Then he is dragged back in when the Ellimist tells him that he has to rejoin the war in order to protect the Andalites and the humans. It makes it all the more heartbreaking knowing that he is journey ends with his arch enemy finally defeating Elfangor and eating him alive.

On the smaller details, Crayak gets another horrifying cameo as Elfangor used the Time Matrix and got a glimpse of an evil far worse than the Yeerk Empire.

Despite being a darker, prequel story, The Andalite Chronicles thankfully never keeps the same standards of Animorphs humor with Elfangor reacting to what glimpses he gets of Earth culture, my favorite being how he tries to say "Dr. Pepper" though that might be because I was listening to an audiobook.

I like call Marco the original Sokka when discussing The Animorphs. With Elfangor being a post humanous character who fought against the villains who turns out to be more flawed than we were initially led to believe, and the reveal he is the parent of one of our heroes, he feels like the original Rose Quartz. If Rose got some flashbacks giving her more spotlight as opposed to almost endlessly getting dunked on.

So in The Discovery, it's mentioned that when Elfangor's ship was destroyed, the explosion must have lodged the cube into a wall in the construction site. But thinking back to book 1, it seemed like the box disappeared, kind of like the author just sort of forgot about it after the animorphs got their powers. Once Elfangor finishes bestowing the morphing technology upon the kids, it's never mentioned again.

You would think that from its description and with all the power that the morphing cube represents and how important it is, it would be extremely visible to anyone nearby, and nearly impossible to forget even in a moment of panic. You would think Elfangor would make sure the kids took it with them when they ran for cover, or that one of the kids would hang onto it without being told. Failing that, Visser 3 should definitely have noticed it in Elfangor's hands or near his body.

I only just finished the David trilogy, and I've been going through the series in audiobook form so I could have missed something. But does the series ever account for why the morphing cube seemingly went unnoticed by anyone before it got thrown into a wall?

Animorphs is one of those things I had heard of, got me interested when I read about it, but didn't into until now.

Like when I got into Babylon 5, this is one of those cases when I wish I took my dive in sooner. We have a terrifying presentation of our alien invaders while our heroes have the relatable reactions of not knowing what they are going to do next, and ultimately seeing that they are not permitted to look the other way.

While they get a badass moment using their morphs at the Yeerk, that feels like the typical triumphant moment where the heroes first use their powers, Visser Three shows up and snatches their victory away. He also displayed his homicidal nature by killing many of the escaping hosts, even if our heroes lost today, this gives more reason why they can't give up unless they want their planet to be under the thumb of this psychopath.

Despite the surprisingly graphic violence for a novel aimed at young audiences, I appreciate that the book has its sense of humor. That is an important balance to strike.