The Android

In an already dark series, The Android takes a turn for even darker things.

The kids (the Animorphs) continue their battle with the evil alien brainslug invaders (the Yeerks). In this chapter book, they meet new allies: An alien race. Sort of. A race of androids, created by a race that was later destroyed. These androids (the Chee) are fighting against the Yeerks, though their hands are tied, since their creators programmed them to never directly fight. There's a super powerful plot device crystal that the Chee can use to reprogram themselves.

While this book had so so so many plot holes, the good outweighed the bad. I completely loved the idea that dogs are the living hosts of the spirits of that dead alien race. As messed up as it sounds, I loved that the kids experienced dying. And, while it was handled with a light touch (YA book...), I really enjoyed the brief talk about the costs of war and how that damages a person.

I'd love to see an adult version of this series, where the darker ideas could be more thoroughly explored.

4.5/5

Four and a half gravity-defying stars for this one!

In this installment of the Animorphs, we follow Marco's POV as the adventure continues.

Jake and Marco want to go to this awesome concert, but Jake's not so keen on the idea, being mister serious leader all the time. Marco manages to convince Jake that if they sneak into the concert as dogs, they won't have to buy a ticket, but all of that changes when they encounter Marco's friend Erek.

He's passing out flyers for the Sharing, and that's not all. He has no scent to him at all.

What does this mean? What trick do the Yeerks have up their sleeves this time? Is Erek some kind of abomination that the Yeerks created, or is there more to this than meets the eye?

I had a blast reading this book. I always like Marco's sense of sarcasm and trying to keep the situation light despite how screwed they always seem to feel as Animorph underdogs.

The plot started innocent enough as it usually does, but it turned out to be so much more, and I really loved the extra reveals along the way. I won't spoil it, but the stakes are beginning to get a bit higher in the grand scheme of things, and I'm all about it. It definitely made the pages fly by, and I was sad that it had to end so quickly.

I mean, these books are ADDICTIVE!

If I had to pick at anything, I'd say that a certain part of their mission fell a tad flat for a small bit, but overall this one was a knockout.

Mystery, more secrets revealed, and tons of action make this a great continuation of the Animorphs series. Can't wait to read the next one!

I just hate Erek King so, so much. My perspective is entirely colored by what happens in book #54, but what he did was so unforgivable that I’m hating him retroactively this time around.

An old classmate of Marco's gains the interest of the Animorphs after they spot him hanging around The Sharing, the "club" that's a front for the Yeerk's recruitment program. There's something not quite right going on with Erek, Marco's classmate, and it's up to him and the rest of the Animorphs to find out what's what.

Plot

The Android felt a bit too much like a “story-of-the-week” cartoon episode for me to enjoy like the other books. It started off slow and the climax didn’t have very much fighting before it ended. I suppose one could look at this book as one of the more idea-oriented ones in the series, as opposed to action-oriented. A story doesn’t need action to be interesting, but when all of the books up until this point have had major action, a lack of action stands out.

Writing

The writing was good as usual. Marco’s humor really shines through his internal thoughts and his books always do his sarcasm and wit justice. Unfortunately, the pacing for The Android is… eh. It’s slow and it took what felt like forever to get into the actual meat of the book. And, ten books in, the beginnings of the books are starting to feel tedious to get through.

Characters

I think The Android is the first book where the reader really sees how Marco treats his family versus the other Animorphs. Marco is the only one of the humans in the group that has lost a part of their family and only has one part left. Both Jake and Marco have loved ones that are Controllers, but Marco only has his dad and it seems like he’s willing to risk a lot more than Jake for the family he’s got left.

Things I Liked

I liked the idea behind the Chee. They’re capable of wiping out the Yeerks, yet their passive, peaceful nature (and coding) prevents them from doing this. I found it interesting that the Chee don’t necessarily want to save humans, as it mirror’s a lot of alien narratives where humans are saved by a benevolent alien race simply on the merit that we’re “super special humans”. I don’t think I’ve read a story where an alien race neither wants to destroy nor befriend humans. I hope the Chee aren’t just a one-time thing.

Things I Didn't Like

The repetitive introductions are still killing me. It was a little better with this book because I took a long break from the series, but I still can’t stand series that unsubtly remind the reader of what they just read. I understand its original purpose, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Diversity

Two girls: one white and one black; and three boys: one white, one Latino, and one technically white but now a red-tailed hawk. And now, there’s the added bonus of an Andalite who’s human form is non-white as well. With six characters, that brings means half of the cast is non-white.

Overall

Once I got past the first fourth of the book, the story picked up and I was once again happily in the exciting world of the Animorphs. I can’t say this is my favorite book so far, as it lacked the action I was expecting, but I can appreciate how The Android started to get into some heavier topics. I’m crossing my fingers that this isn’t the last time a topic like those presented crop up, but I’m guessing I don’t have to hold my breath.

Here is a link to my notes.

So I'm just sure where I stand with this one. It was one of my absolute favorites as a kid and I didn't remember a damn thing. The pacing is very very slow which was a huge downer. I'm not even sure how I feel about the plot. But also, the story at the very end turns insanely dark and disturbing, especially since the Animorphs are pre-teens who have become desensitized to murder, gore, violence and dying. At the end, it'll definitely have you *thinking*. However, it takes so long to ever get there, and it feels like there's a sort of sitcom air about it like here's something deep but no worries by the next episode it's all reset and fine. I really get the feel for this. Like here's Erek and here's some heavy stuff that happened, but things will reset by the next book, and that's such a shame.

Audiobook note: Still a great fan of Marco's narrator. Nothing to complain about.

I love the Animorphs tackle big ideas without trying to tell you the answers.

The Chee are a nonviolent species. No Chee has ever killed anything. Is it morally acceptable to give them the power to defend themselves and thus pushing their species in a whole new trajectory?

Pretty heavy stuff for a scholastic book fair book, huh?

*reads synopsis*

*reads title*

Gee, I wonder what the answer to the mystery could possibly be.

Sarcasm aside (and let's face it, I've already read most of the series so these books don't hold many surprises for me anyway), this is yet another one of those books that establishes important plot points or worldbuilding details, but which I somehow managed to miss the first time around, only picking up said details later from recaps in subsequent books. This is the one where we first meet the Chee, though, and there's quite a bit of interesting commentary on the nature of and justification for violence.

While the Chee genuinely do want to help in the war, their programming strictly prohibits violence and we find out later that there is very good reason for that. Even so, though, there's a lot of back-and-forth regarding how ethical it would be to give them the means to reprogram themselves, or for that matter how ethical it is on the Chee's part to be sitting on the sidelines doing nothing while others are being slaughtered and enslaved.

"No," Maria cried. "You don't understand. Chee do not hurt. Chee do not kill. No Chee has ever taken a life." She grabbed my arm and looked right in my eyes. "While humans and Yeerks and Andalites and Hork-Bajir and a million other species on a million worlds warred and slaughtered and conquered, we remained at peace. Would you end all that? Would you make us killers, too?"

"Yes, ma'am, I guess I would," I said, a little coldly. "We're in a fight for our lives, here. Our parents, our brothers and sisters, our friends—they are all going to be slaves of the Yeerks, if we don't win. So I'll do whatever it takes. If you'd fought all those thousands of years ago, the Pemalites would still be alive. And you wouldn't be living with dogs in a big underground kennel."

It's not expounded on too much, but it is bluntly acknowledged that even though the Chee are prohibited from committing physical violence, they're still capable of doing some pretty horrific things. There are some among them who take Yeerks into their heads, feeding them on their own internally-generated Kandrona, in a state of complete immobilization and sensory deprivation, and hold them there indefinitely. Even Marco is disturbed at this notion, which by any measure amounts to serious abuses of prisoners of war, and even this early in the series we've already started to get a more nuanced view of the Yeerks and learned that some of them at the very least are capable of caring for each other.

Then, there was whatever ensued when Erek did succeed in reprogramming himself, which left a whole building and everyone in it a smoking crater and was apparently so horrific that no one who'd witnessed it would give any but the vaguest details (and this right on the tail of a fight in which Marco had frankly described being sliced open and getting a view of his own guts). Then, there were the profound psychological effects; the human brain frequently copes with trauma by simply forgetting the memories or erasing the details, something that, as an android, Erek can't do. In Cassie's words, he may have saved their lives, but in return, he sold his soul.

I did get a little impatient at all the talk regarding the ethics of giving the Chee the ability to fight in terms of the principle of non-interference. Yeah, by all means, do not interfere with developing civilizations; after all, that's exactly how Seerow messed up the Yeerks, but... does it really count as "interference" if you're working to change a single member of a species that's literally millions of years more advanced than you, at their own request, by giving them access to a piece of their own technology? It just seems like sort of a silly point to get stuck on, is all, given some of the far more compelling talking points that were available regarding individual choice versus the cultural obligation to one's people, cultural obligation versus the ethical obligation to the peoples who are dying or being enslaved right under your nose, how far pacifism can ethically be taken in a universe that's by its very nature incredibly violent and unfair... All that, and instead you got stuck blathering on about the Prime Directive?

Is Marco my favourite of the Animorphs gang? Hard to say - but kinda. I love a snarky character.

The Animorphs just keep finding themselves in situations! This time it’s because Marco wants to sneak into an outdoor concert (Alanis & The Offspring - a decision just as valid in 2025 as it was in 1997) in dog morph and spots an old school friend who curiously doesn’t smell human… which COULD MEAN NOTHING but obviously doesn’t because this is an Animorphs book!

Love all the ethical dilemmas that are getting woven in to these stories - I just know that there is going to be a ripple effect of consequences down the line.