hmmmm. the big moral question of this one: is it right to give another species free will?

the story sets it up as if, if the androids use the crystal, they will all be forced to fight. when in reality, if they use the crystal, they will all have the choice whether or not to fight. i understand that all of the androids having the ability and desire to fight with the humans would trivialize the fight. i understand why applegate didn't want that. but then... why introduce them in the first place? having them just disappear off to "maybe someday send information" AND the crystal be thrown into the ocean left me feeling like this entire book was pointless. i know that they all kind of are to some extent, because of how many they are and the nature of serialization. this just felt more egregious than any other book up to this point.

I loved this one. Even more and more aliens are popping up. I love the whole Pemalite Chee and dog thing. It's so sweet. And the ending... It is interesting how even though the Chee were programed and decide to stay non violent, they still find a way to help.
And one question that came up- if, when they morph something smaller or that has less organs or whatever, the extra goes to z space, what about when they morph something bigger? Like Rachel's bear, it has all the parts of a human internally and the same number of limbs, so where does the extra mass come from?

The fucking Chee are here. In addition to a really weird backstory for dogs, the Chee introduce new ethical dimensions to Animorphs, once again presenting Applegate's ability to explore really interesting and screwy dynamics of power and violence in science-fiction, which is, even more than the fact it's loaded with surface-level horror, a reason it's probably more readable at a late teen/adult level than it is for kids (which is, by the way, a very interesting friction?). I can't say this is the best Animorphs book, but I think that it's one of the more exciting ones conceptually, so fuck it, five stars.

CHEE TIME.
so first of all choosing not to participate while others suffer is a privileged position the chee are in because they can just pack up and move along with their dogs so just jot that down. the animorphs come to the chee and state "so our whole species might die" and the chee respond with "so? you're asking me to dirty MY hands? for what, billions of defenseless lives? jail for animorphs. jail for a hundred thousand years" hysterical reaction. this comes up multiple times in the future and has been said better mainly by the tumblr user thejakeformerlyknownasprince who I would highly recommend for analysis on these books.

ANYWAYS

The fact that pain wouldn't reasonably abate for androids is one of the more interesting quandries this book proposes. Humans, in time, are always shedding both old memory and old biological remnant. It's a body of change which eventually undergoes a final metamorphosis out of selfhood-- the Animorphs will eventually be out of the war, one way or another. But Erek, who is functionally (locally) immortal, not only can not remove these memories from his brain, but they're as fresh as anything from any point in the past. He's, in essence, forced to commit violence forever if he does it at any point on the timeline. This is not something which comes up often with immortals but I've lately been obsessed with problems of memory and trauma (how to reshape the self around a wound) so I find Erek's response to "just not do it again" interesting, for selfish reasons-- and for the simple fact that his hands ARE dirty now. He can't undirty them. He can make the problem *not worse* for himself, but whatever he's hoped to perserve is already gone, and he decides not to help in the future anyways. Still, he has a right to object, technically, even if the cost in lives ends up being high-- and it at least begs the question, when dealing with quality of life and cost, how do immortal lives weigh in? It's an interesting thought exercise, especially after dealing with some LessWrong stuff which tends to go apeshit around extreme cases like these.

I can't remember if I read this one as a kid, though I vaguely recognized certain plot elements by the end. This one feels like a bit of a detour for the series, moving away from the central plot to explore the theme of war. Some of the premise was pretty silly, having to do with an extinct alien race, androids, and...dogs. The tone doesn't quite match between the silly, kid-friendly concept that dogs are a happy-go-lucky species because they come from a happy-go-lucky alien race. Not to mention it overlooks the fact that some dogs can be downright mean. But whatever--it's a kid's books. The bigger problem here is that this follows closely on the heels (heh...) of The Secret, which also had tonal issues by the end. In that case, most of the book was overly serious, and the ending became a bit of a farce. In this case, the story has the reverse problem. Most of the book is somewhat goofy, but the climax contains what should be one of the darker points of reflection in the entire series so far. Unfortunately, that moment is undercut (for me, anyway) by the disjointed tone of the book overall.

I'll be curious to see if tone remains an issue with the series going forward. So far, tone and logic are the two major problems for the weaker books in the series. We'll see how that plays out over the next 40 books. (I mean, did there really need to be 50+ books to tell this story...?)

Rating 4.5

RTC

If this series continues to improve the way it has between the first wave of books and the second, whoa boy. We're in for a ride!

This book introduced another wave of species to the galaxy, as we meet the Chee. Super powerful androids, this book both tackles a huge concept and ends with little impact.

The Chee are a product of a super advanced alien species that was wiped out due to their embracing of love. This one Chee is like, hey Animorphs, I want to help you but I can't unless you do this one thing.

Then they do it. He goes crazy and shows that he could basically end the whole war on his own. But he's like wow... that's some crazy emotional baggage.

And then they part ways.

Despite its circular storyline, the book continues to explore the moral dilemmas facing these characters as the consequences of their actions way on them. The children are surviving their PTSD in some regard by trying to forget their experiences and move on. But what if those experiences were constantly presence, fresh in their minds at all times?

Plus all this exploration of non-violence and is it right to opt for non-violence at the expense of others around you?

That's the world of the Chee.

Seriously what the fuck was Applegate smoking when she wrote this?

It’s the “dogs are the souls of an ancient alien civilization” for me

I remember being so frustrated by this pacifist race as a child, but re-reading it as an adult I can appreciate it more. Now I wish they had spent more time with their horror at unlocking their capacity for war, but this would have further frustrated child me so I can see why they didn't.

I really liked this one. This really took a look at what it means to be violent. What it means to be at war. What if there was peace? What if we could be a peaceful race. Pretty big stuff for a young adult novel... love it.

Animorphs tropes:

When trying a morph for the first time, the morpher will always temporarily lose control to the animal mind, only reasserting himself or herself after a brief scrape with death.

If the Animorphs ever find themselves in a situation where the enemy has guns or Dracon beams, an excuse will be found to have Hork-Bajir fight them in hand-to-hand combat instead. "You fools, don't destroy the equipment!" -- "You fools, don't destroy the crystal!" -- "You fools, you'll hit the Visser!" The Animorphs are not bullet proof. If the Yeerks weren't so painfully incompetent, they would have killed the kids in one of the first five books.


This was another okay entry, but for a book that revealed a whole new "species," it's disappointingly by-the-numbers. The dialogue was stiff, and Marco's internal narration wasn't nearly as witty as we've come to expect. The whole "dogs have the spirits of aliens" thing was too mawkish for my tastes. Blah blah blah, aren't doggies wonderful.

The crystal setup was pretty ridiculous. The Yeerks have this priceless artifact that will win the war for them and they can't even bother to load it on a Bug fighter and shoot it to the Blade ship? And when the Animorphs obtain it, they... give it to a dog!? I know they're just five kids and an alien cadet, but how stupid do you have to be? At the very least, if they couldn't figure out how to do anything with it, they could've bargained with the Yeerks, used it to set up a trap, etc. There were many possibilities that didn't involve throwing away a huge coup.

this one was weird lol

It's always fun to learn about new aliens, so I really liked that aspect of this story. I also liked the final battle - using their battle morphs is one of the best parts of the animorphs series.

I have to say, Marco's two stories so far seem to have the most traumatic morphs. First the ant fiasco, now his Wolf spider morph (already gross enough on its own) gets eaten by a bird and he has to morph back while still in the flying bird's throat. Like, what the heck???

The simple writing definitely helped me to visualise it... not sure if I should be grateful or not.

Also, finding out about Zero space and the fact that their 'mass' just hangs out there while they're in smaller morphs is kind of terrifying? Also, what happens when they morph larger creatures then? Where do they draw that mass from?

The fact that Eric will have fresh memories of his violent massacre forever now is also really dark. But, what can you expect?

Overall I really liked this one.