dogs are people too. ancient and unknowable.

this just in!! the kids discover the consequences of being tired of being nice and deciding to go apeshit. one iDog will never be the same.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I always like Marco books, I think he’s genuinely funny, but It also introduces a lot more interesting stuff about the universe (the Chee, Z-space, etc.) while having a great self-contained story. The themes of violence and guilt get even more intense, and I felt really emotionally impacted by this book more so than any of the previous ones. Plus I was amused by the weird tidbit about the Pemalites domesticating wolves.

The lack of a proper setup made the twist of having another ancient alien race exist since before time seem like nothing more than a cheap and contrived (not to mention cliche) way of trying to extend an ongoing serial.

It also didn’t make any sense for the protagonists to just so irresponsibly toss away the powerful weapon that could have aided them in their fight against the Yeerks. Even with the author trying to reason that they are not ready for it. Have dogs lose it in the water at the beach? Really? And risk having it end up in who knows whose hands, the enemies’ even.

Not to mention the blind climax. All of a sudden they just won. Action was offscreen.

Still, this is just a quick read meant for kids to breeze through and enjoy an adventure.

Marco usually provides comic relief to the series. However, his books usually deal with issues that seem a lot heavier than his use of comedy would imply.

"The Android" as usual with books in this arc does a lot of heavy world-building. We learn about more alien species as well as their interactions with Earth.

Overall, I definitely think "The Android" reads like quintessential middle-grade stuff. The stakes are reasonable high, there are enough moral questions and dilemmas to get a person thinking about war.

At 10 books in where the Animorphs series still holds up for me about 20 years later is this. The characters are teenagers with responsibility, while there are some convenience points, a lot of it feels very real. Such as Marco's dad dealing with grief, Tobias' family essentially abandoning him or Rachel's divorced parents figuring out how to co-parent their children.

I wish we got more commentary on race because while I think the series has great conversation on gender (considering what I know of the time period), race isn't something that isn't as talked about apart from the different species of aliens that we meet.

Brought to you by The Moonlight Library!

When the Animorphs notice that a school friend of theirs isn’t entirely human and is involved in the Sharing, the Yeerk front organisation that preys on the socially weak, they decide to investigate, only to find out he’s an ancient android called a Chee created by an extinct pacifist race called Pemalites. The Chee can’t fight the Yeerks, but they can if the Animorphs retrieve a special crystal computer the Yeerks are currently guarding in a high-security compound.

The Android is an important book to read because it introduces Erek King, originally a guest star, a small bit part that evolves over the series and turns into a major ally and strong secondary character. The Chee are powerful allies for the Animorphs, but as they can’t fight, they are reduced to spies and on more than one occasion are the plot point for entire novels. In this novel, the Animorphs slowly discover that Erek isn’t human, and then decide it’s a great idea to retrieve the crystal. Except for Cassie, because she has issues with helping a race that’s been peaceful for thousands of year become violent, even though their creators, the Pemalites, were wiped out by another violent race called the Howlers because they couldn’t fight back.

Once again, the fight also becomes personal for Marco because Jake’s brother, human Controller Tom, hints that Marco and his dad should join the Sharing. This is because Marco’s dad now works for a weapons development company and the Yeerks want his brain. Literally. I find it interesting that Marco’s only keen to fight in his novels because they make it so personal. He was originally the most reluctant until we found out about his mother, and now the Yeerks are after his dad, he’s happy to admit that it’s personal and that’s why he’s fighting. I mean sure, Cassie is a moralising over-thinker but at least she wants what is best for everyone, and is not just thinking about herself all the time.

But hey, that’s Marco for you.

The climax of this novel is pretty powerful. Sometimes the Animorphs don’t win, and sometimes they run away, and sometimes they kind of win and something happens to help them survive, like a deus ex machina. Well, Erek is that role in this novel. He gets the crystal, rewrites his own programming, and slaughters about two dozen people to save the Animorphs from a brutal fight where Marco actually dies (which is why we don’t actively see Erek wreaking havoc, which is a good device because it’s all in our imagination). But Erek’s an android, and he can’t forget anything. He has to relive this awful event over and over. It’s a very powerful moment, when he decides to change his programming back. That’s why the Chee can’t fight: because they are eternal and remember everything.

This is one of those novels you really shouldn’t skip.

Marco's POV.

The Animorphs meet the Chee and discover that they aren't alone against the Yeerks on Earth. There's a very well-done interplay between pacifism and practical immortality, exploring the consequences of violence for beings who cannot forget.

Only 10 books in there are a lot of ptsd-type nightmares going on in this series and this book paints a horrifying picture of how much worse it would be for the Animorphs if they couldn't forget, if the memories wouldn't become dull with time.

Something I don't want these reviews to lose sight of is just how...dark... this whole series is. At this point they're canonically in middle school and they have the weight of the planet on their shoulders. I know series for kids can feel overblown because they're trying to capture how big everything feels when you're younger and don't have the tools to solve problems, but Animorphs really does a good job of keeping alive the idea that just being a kid is hard enough while still keeping all the planet-defending stuff in proportion.

This series can be easy to dismiss with all the goofy book covers, but they're dark, darker than I can easily convey while staying away from spoilers.

(This book also raises the nerve-wracking answer as to where the extra mass goes during small morphs, I just wish it answered where the extra mass came from when doing large morphs.)

Come check out my 4 hour 35 minute deep dive into reading every single Animorphs book for the first time on YouTube. I recap and review all of the books from the main series: https://youtu.be/H8kUM2q3CIU

... Huh. This was a weird one, folks.
Having Marco as a narrator is always fun. He's as cute and funny as a bisexual-coded juvenile badly coping with PTSD can be. (That's not sarcasm; he IS cute and funny, and I want only good things for him.) And some moments of this were genuinely good, or tense, or interesting. (I found Marco's musings on rage and vengance particularly poignant for a kid no older than... What is he, 12? 13?)

But this is the first book where the "science" didn't really work for me. Androids? Come on, now. I can accept mouthless aliens who drink through their feet, but somehow a whole society of ancient androids that just so happen to live in the same city as our heroes, even attending the same school, is a bit hard to swallow.

I would have accepted even that, but it's hard to when it feels, ultimately, irrelavant. Nothing was changed or gained (unless the Chee eventually become important to the plot later on, I suppose). Marco's dad is in no more danger now than he was at the start of the series. Even the pretty McGuffin they faced hell and high water to acquire was lost to sea. What was the point of all that peril? Even Marco made it clear that, despite the trauma he's suffered (he was mangled pretty badly in this book), he'll forget it over time. So... What's the point?

This all just felt like filler.

These books just keep getting wilder and darker.

I was going to give it three stars, but then I read the last page.

This volume was a little 90s-tastic : Nine Inch Nails, Alanis Morrisette, and The Offspring .... I haven't listened to those bands in ages, haha. All dated references aside though, this was a solid entry. We got a lot of nice lore and a new race of aliens added to the world. I also thought addressing the issue of 'nonviolence' was very important, and it didn't just cover the 'violence is bad' that we normally hear everywhere in the 90s but also the 'inaction or nonviolence can be as bad as violence can depending on the situation.'