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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Audiobook review (October 8, 2021) here.
October 27, 2020 re-read
The good thing about having an ally is they can pass you information. The bad thing about having an ally is that they can pass you information. Which is exactly what Erek the Chee does: he lets Marco and Jake know that the Yeerks are up to something underwater off the coast, so naturally the Animorphs decide to go and check it out. But it’s not just any Yeerks up to something. Visser One is in charge of this secret operation, and Marco is going to have some difficult decisions to make if he sees her face to face. After all, Visser One is inhabiting his mother’s body, and he and Jake are still the only ones who know. For now.
I’m still thunderstruck by just how deep these books get, even (especially?) this early yet in the series. Marco will come face-to-face with his mom, Visser One, and have to decide what the right thing is to do. Follow his heart, or be as ruthless as the Yeerks are in achieving their ends. I was really feeling for Marco this book, with how pulled apart he felt and how honestly, he just didn’t know how he would react to seeing his mom. Marco, the one who is honing his abilities as a cold-hearted strategist who has to add in the morality later, can’t even being to guess at how he will personally react to a difficult situation, even as he can peg everyone else, even as he is acutely aware already of the roles each Animorph plays in their group dynamic. We also get some more aliens on the scene, the psychic Leerans and a swimming snake-worm morph of Visser Three’s, which is always a welcome teaser to just how expansive the Animorphs’ – and perhaps more importantly, the Yeerk expansion – world is. I love seeing these glimpses of the greater Yeerk expansion machine, and how it plays into and bounces off other beings and brings them into the Animorphs’ circle. I’m actually tempted to bump this up to 5 stars from my original 4, but I think I’ll let past-me prevail. This time.
And since it’s late and I want to get to bed, just a couple brief things I noted to finish up:
< I cannot believe I'm flying with seagulls, > Tobias sneered. < I could get kicked out of the hawk fraternity for hanging out with lowlifes. > -- page 31 – This read, what strikes me isn’t that Tobias is knocking on gulls and how it’s funny, but the implications and patterns of some of his commentary towards other types of birds of late. They say that people always need someone else to look down on, to feel superior to, and it’s quite visible in Tobias in moments like this. Sure, it’s only human, and it definitely keeps his humanity and him real and relatable as a character/person, but it’s still…disconcerting. Maybe all the more so because it is used as a point of humor, and rather regularly of late.
[“…] Ax, Marco, and Tobias in the first group. Rachel, Cassie, and me to cause a distraction.” – page 122 – I think this is the very first instance of Jake putting Ax, Marco, and Tobias as a team (they are also pretty much known as a dream team – they’re very good at getting stuff done together)
I had hit a metal trash can and gone rolling inside it. – page 127 – Why, yes, Marco does really just hate trash cans! Hits them with a truck, now as a bird he takes another one down…
I couldn’t resist after all, though I tried…Some favorite quotes that really popped and just wouldn’t be ignored during this read-through:
< Do what's right. Forget about what anybody thinks. Do what's right. > - page 151
If [my mother] was gone…really, really gone, then I could be a normal person again. I could be sad and then put it behind me. I could be free.
If she was still alive, still trapped, then I was still trapped, too. I still had to try and save her. I would still be a prisoner of hope. – page 162
Typos:
…takes, >Cassie said. –page 47
…like a race? >Tobias asked. – page 48
It wasn’t an order. Or even a suggestion for me to do something. But figured I was better at talking than any of the others. - page 78 – missing a noun or pronoun after “But”
Original Review: July 4, 2015
This book is considerably more solid than the last one in the plot and the logic of events. Even considering the events at Ocean World and the Leeran's comments regarding the "Andalit bandits" - but then, once someone has an idea in their head of what's going on, it can be really hard to change it. This book was really about Marco grappling with what he wants to see happen to his mother, even though she is the host to Visser One, and him deciding how to go about acting upon his decision.
Do what's right. Forget about what anybody thinks. Do what's right.
I'm a joker. I'm a comedian. That's how I deal with life. See, I've always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, "Oh, isn't it all so tragic, so grim, so awful." Or you can look at the world and decide that it's mostly funny. -- page 22 -- Though I think there's a few more ways to view the world, Marco sets up a good dichotomy, one that is clearly more attractive and encouraging for the youth.
< Not everyone has a dolphin morph, > Tobias pointed out. < I can fly cover. >
I saw Cassie cock an eyebrow at Tobias. I think we were having the same thought. It was a little like Tobias didn't want to morph, now that he had his morphing power back.
"Ax has a shark morph from when we first rescued him," I said. "That will do as well as dolphin. And if Tobias doesn't want to morph--"
< I didn't say that, > Tobias said quickly. -- page 27-28 -- This might sound bad but.... aww, Tobias is afraid of water! Of course, whether that is more because he is a hawk or because he didn't know how to swim as a human before or something, who knows?
< I cannot believe I'm flying with seagulls, > Tobias sneered. < I could get kicked out of the hawk fraternity for hanging out with lowlifes. > -- page 31 -- Tobias sure likes to sneer at the others when they're in seagull morph lately, huh? (Actually, a lot of sneering in general seems to happen in this book...)
< Yeah. Well, I'm me, no matter what, > I said defiantly. < No matter how many morphs, no matter how many battles. No matter what. I'll still be me. Everyone better accept that. > -- page 34 -- Another good little 'life lesson/words of wisdom'.
[After Tobias dug his talons into a dolphin to acquire it and proceeded to get dragged above and below water by said dolphin, and only got off after Marco-seagull bodily flew in to him to get him off the dolphin.] < Well, as long as the dolphin is okay, > Tobias said. < Because I really, really hope the dolphin is okay. >
< Are you going to be sarcastic the rest of the day? > I asked him.
< Yes, I am going to be sarcastic the rest of the day. I nearly drowned. Now I'm going to go become the thing that nearly drowned me. I will be sarcastic until further notice. > -- page 40-41 -- It's also nice to see Tobias showing more of his human emotions. He had seemed rather quiet and down-to-business between books 3 and 13, like he had given up or forgotten how to show his human character more.
< You know, > I said thoughtfully, < that could be a regular act at The Gardens. Hawk and dolphin. Kind of a dolphin rodeo, if you really think about it. >
< Hey, Marco? You need to remember that you're just a lowly seagull right now, which is practically a pigeon, and I'm a hawk, > Tobias said. < You want to keep grinding my nerves, I'll be glad to show you the difference when it comes to aerial combat. >
< Dolphin rodeo. I'm just saying it has possibilities. > -- page 41 -- Yeah Marco, and who would you propose be the first dolphin rider? Because I don't think Tobias is ready to saddle up for that! (And, you tell him, Tobias, haha!)
< Okay, let's focus a little here, > Jake said, trying to impose some order on our idiot play. < Keep the shore to your left and let's take a quick run around the island. >
< You mean like a race? > Tobias asked. < Because that would be cool! >
In my head, I heard Cassie laugh. < So, Tobias. I guess you're past your fear of the water? >
< It's kind of hard to be afraid of anything right now, > he said. < This was worth it. This is so cool. It's like flying, but with a really thick wind. Come on! Race you! > -- page 48-49
"Sharks can all die as far as I'm concerned," I said. I laughed like I'd made a joke. But it wasn't a joke.
< They are just predators being predators, > Tobias said. < They aren't evil. Just hungry. [...] Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. That's the predator's law. I know. I am a predator. I say we do what we have to do. >
Tobias has toughened up a but since being trapped in hawk morph. -- page 75
< Now, this is an interesting human concept, > Ax said approvingly. < This hologram makes it almost appear that we are under the water. >
"Ax? It's not a hologram," Rachel said.
< Then ... we are underwater? Protected only by badly made human plastic? > - page 80 -- Dissing human products again, Ax? Tsk tsk, no more Cinnabon for you!
[Jake just told Marco being tense is weirding out the others] I just stared at him. "You're telling me it's more relaxing for everyone if I act like we're all going to die?"
"It's what they expect from you," Jake said. -- page 98 -- We all somehow seem to end up filing a particular need in the lives of the people around us. And when we don't follow that pattern, the ones closest to us notice it and start to worry about us. That's part of how friendships and relationships work.
[Ax, Tobias, and Marco just had to navigate some tight indoor spaces as birds. Tobias told them what to do, tighter and tighter spiral to get ready to land. Ax hit the desk, Tobias hit the floor, and Marco hit a metal trash can and was rolling inside it.] < Everyone okay? > I asked.
< I have damaged my bird body, > Ax said calmly, < but I am alive. >
< Me, too, > I said, testing a painful tail. < I think I broke my tail. >
< Good grief. This is the last time I ever fly through a building with you two amateurs, > Tobias said. -- page 127 -- Good thing Tobias was there to instruct them, though! Otherwise they would have crash landed much sooner, and with considerably more damage.
I guess there are times when the only way to survive is to be as ruthless as the enemy. To destroy before you can be destroyed. -- page 137 - A dark outlook for Marco, and in a way, it is his revised interpretation of the predator's law from earlier.
"Like you've already lost Earth, despite the fact I handed it over to you in perfect shape?" [Visser one snapped back.] -- page 145 -- As Marco said, "politics". Though I think Visser Three has hardly lost Earth; he just keeps encountering... set backs. As for him calling Visser One "half-human" --.
< Marco? [...] Do what's right. Forget about what anybody thinks. Do what's right. > [Jake said.] -- page 151 -- Good words to live by.
And a good last Rachel to Marco zinger to finish up: < Thanks for what? For hearing that sub? For paying more attention than you, Marco? > Rachel sneered in her usual Rachel sneer. < You know, possibly the reason I notice more than you do, Marco, is that I don't use half my brain making dumb jokes and the other half of my brain laughing at them. > -- page 162
October 27, 2020 re-read
The good thing about having an ally is they can pass you information. The bad thing about having an ally is that they can pass you information. Which is exactly what Erek the Chee does: he lets Marco and Jake know that the Yeerks are up to something underwater off the coast, so naturally the Animorphs decide to go and check it out. But it’s not just any Yeerks up to something. Visser One is in charge of this secret operation, and Marco is going to have some difficult decisions to make if he sees her face to face. After all, Visser One is inhabiting his mother’s body, and he and Jake are still the only ones who know. For now.
I’m still thunderstruck by just how deep these books get, even (especially?) this early yet in the series. Marco will come face-to-face with his mom, Visser One, and have to decide what the right thing is to do. Follow his heart, or be as ruthless as the Yeerks are in achieving their ends. I was really feeling for Marco this book, with how pulled apart he felt and how honestly, he just didn’t know how he would react to seeing his mom. Marco, the one who is honing his abilities as a cold-hearted strategist who has to add in the morality later, can’t even being to guess at how he will personally react to a difficult situation, even as he can peg everyone else, even as he is acutely aware already of the roles each Animorph plays in their group dynamic. We also get some more aliens on the scene, the psychic Leerans and a swimming snake-worm morph of Visser Three’s, which is always a welcome teaser to just how expansive the Animorphs’ – and perhaps more importantly, the Yeerk expansion – world is. I love seeing these glimpses of the greater Yeerk expansion machine, and how it plays into and bounces off other beings and brings them into the Animorphs’ circle. I’m actually tempted to bump this up to 5 stars from my original 4, but I think I’ll let past-me prevail. This time.
And since it’s late and I want to get to bed, just a couple brief things I noted to finish up:
< I cannot believe I'm flying with seagulls, > Tobias sneered. < I could get kicked out of the hawk fraternity for hanging out with lowlifes. > -- page 31 – This read, what strikes me isn’t that Tobias is knocking on gulls and how it’s funny, but the implications and patterns of some of his commentary towards other types of birds of late. They say that people always need someone else to look down on, to feel superior to, and it’s quite visible in Tobias in moments like this. Sure, it’s only human, and it definitely keeps his humanity and him real and relatable as a character/person, but it’s still…disconcerting. Maybe all the more so because it is used as a point of humor, and rather regularly of late.
[“…] Ax, Marco, and Tobias in the first group. Rachel, Cassie, and me to cause a distraction.” – page 122 – I think this is the very first instance of Jake putting Ax, Marco, and Tobias as a team (they are also pretty much known as a dream team – they’re very good at getting stuff done together)
I had hit a metal trash can and gone rolling inside it. – page 127 – Why, yes, Marco does really just hate trash cans! Hits them with a truck, now as a bird he takes another one down…
I couldn’t resist after all, though I tried…Some favorite quotes that really popped and just wouldn’t be ignored during this read-through:
Spoiler
I guess there are times when the only way to survive is to be as ruthless as the enemy. To destroy before you can be destroyed. – page 137< Do what's right. Forget about what anybody thinks. Do what's right. > - page 151
If [my mother] was gone…really, really gone, then I could be a normal person again. I could be sad and then put it behind me. I could be free.
If she was still alive, still trapped, then I was still trapped, too. I still had to try and save her. I would still be a prisoner of hope. – page 162
Typos:
…takes, >Cassie said. –page 47
…like a race? >Tobias asked. – page 48
It wasn’t an order. Or even a suggestion for me to do something. But figured I was better at talking than any of the others. - page 78 – missing a noun or pronoun after “But”
Original Review: July 4, 2015
This book is considerably more solid than the last one in the plot and the logic of events. Even considering the events at Ocean World and the Leeran's comments regarding the "Andalit bandits" - but then, once someone has an idea in their head of what's going on, it can be really hard to change it. This book was really about Marco grappling with what he wants to see happen to his mother, even though she is the host to Visser One, and him deciding how to go about acting upon his decision.
Do what's right. Forget about what anybody thinks. Do what's right.
I'm a joker. I'm a comedian. That's how I deal with life. See, I've always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, "Oh, isn't it all so tragic, so grim, so awful." Or you can look at the world and decide that it's mostly funny. -- page 22 -- Though I think there's a few more ways to view the world, Marco sets up a good dichotomy, one that is clearly more attractive and encouraging for the youth.
< Not everyone has a dolphin morph, > Tobias pointed out. < I can fly cover. >
I saw Cassie cock an eyebrow at Tobias. I think we were having the same thought. It was a little like Tobias didn't want to morph, now that he had his morphing power back.
"Ax has a shark morph from when we first rescued him," I said. "That will do as well as dolphin. And if Tobias doesn't want to morph--"
< I didn't say that, > Tobias said quickly. -- page 27-28 -- This might sound bad but.... aww, Tobias is afraid of water! Of course, whether that is more because he is a hawk or because he didn't know how to swim as a human before or something, who knows?
< I cannot believe I'm flying with seagulls, > Tobias sneered. < I could get kicked out of the hawk fraternity for hanging out with lowlifes. > -- page 31 -- Tobias sure likes to sneer at the others when they're in seagull morph lately, huh? (Actually, a lot of sneering in general seems to happen in this book...)
< Yeah. Well, I'm me, no matter what, > I said defiantly. < No matter how many morphs, no matter how many battles. No matter what. I'll still be me. Everyone better accept that. > -- page 34 -- Another good little 'life lesson/words of wisdom'.
[After Tobias dug his talons into a dolphin to acquire it and proceeded to get dragged above and below water by said dolphin, and only got off after Marco-seagull bodily flew in to him to get him off the dolphin.] < Well, as long as the dolphin is okay, > Tobias said. < Because I really, really hope the dolphin is okay. >
< Are you going to be sarcastic the rest of the day? > I asked him.
< Yes, I am going to be sarcastic the rest of the day. I nearly drowned. Now I'm going to go become the thing that nearly drowned me. I will be sarcastic until further notice. > -- page 40-41 -- It's also nice to see Tobias showing more of his human emotions. He had seemed rather quiet and down-to-business between books 3 and 13, like he had given up or forgotten how to show his human character more.
< You know, > I said thoughtfully, < that could be a regular act at The Gardens. Hawk and dolphin. Kind of a dolphin rodeo, if you really think about it. >
< Hey, Marco? You need to remember that you're just a lowly seagull right now, which is practically a pigeon, and I'm a hawk, > Tobias said. < You want to keep grinding my nerves, I'll be glad to show you the difference when it comes to aerial combat. >
< Dolphin rodeo. I'm just saying it has possibilities. > -- page 41 -- Yeah Marco, and who would you propose be the first dolphin rider? Because I don't think Tobias is ready to saddle up for that! (And, you tell him, Tobias, haha!)
< Okay, let's focus a little here, > Jake said, trying to impose some order on our idiot play. < Keep the shore to your left and let's take a quick run around the island. >
< You mean like a race? > Tobias asked. < Because that would be cool! >
In my head, I heard Cassie laugh. < So, Tobias. I guess you're past your fear of the water? >
< It's kind of hard to be afraid of anything right now, > he said. < This was worth it. This is so cool. It's like flying, but with a really thick wind. Come on! Race you! > -- page 48-49
"Sharks can all die as far as I'm concerned," I said. I laughed like I'd made a joke. But it wasn't a joke.
< They are just predators being predators, > Tobias said. < They aren't evil. Just hungry. [...] Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. That's the predator's law. I know. I am a predator. I say we do what we have to do. >
Tobias has toughened up a but since being trapped in hawk morph. -- page 75
< Now, this is an interesting human concept, > Ax said approvingly. < This hologram makes it almost appear that we are under the water. >
"Ax? It's not a hologram," Rachel said.
< Then ... we are underwater? Protected only by badly made human plastic? > - page 80 -- Dissing human products again, Ax? Tsk tsk, no more Cinnabon for you!
[Jake just told Marco being tense is weirding out the others] I just stared at him. "You're telling me it's more relaxing for everyone if I act like we're all going to die?"
"It's what they expect from you," Jake said. -- page 98 -- We all somehow seem to end up filing a particular need in the lives of the people around us. And when we don't follow that pattern, the ones closest to us notice it and start to worry about us. That's part of how friendships and relationships work.
[Ax, Tobias, and Marco just had to navigate some tight indoor spaces as birds. Tobias told them what to do, tighter and tighter spiral to get ready to land. Ax hit the desk, Tobias hit the floor, and Marco hit a metal trash can and was rolling inside it.] < Everyone okay? > I asked.
< I have damaged my bird body, > Ax said calmly, < but I am alive. >
< Me, too, > I said, testing a painful tail. < I think I broke my tail. >
< Good grief. This is the last time I ever fly through a building with you two amateurs, > Tobias said. -- page 127 -- Good thing Tobias was there to instruct them, though! Otherwise they would have crash landed much sooner, and with considerably more damage.
I guess there are times when the only way to survive is to be as ruthless as the enemy. To destroy before you can be destroyed. -- page 137 - A dark outlook for Marco, and in a way, it is his revised interpretation of the predator's law from earlier.
Spoiler
< You'll lose Leeran yet, you half-human fool! > [Visser Three screamed.]"Like you've already lost Earth, despite the fact I handed it over to you in perfect shape?" [Visser one snapped back.] -- page 145 -- As Marco said, "politics". Though I think Visser Three has hardly lost Earth; he just keeps encountering... set backs. As for him calling Visser One "half-human" --
Spoiler
if I remember right, Visser One eventually does an about-face and sides with the Animorphs< Marco? [...] Do what's right. Forget about what anybody thinks. Do what's right. > [Jake said.] -- page 151 -- Good words to live by.
And a good last Rachel to Marco zinger to finish up: < Thanks for what? For hearing that sub? For paying more attention than you, Marco? > Rachel sneered in her usual Rachel sneer. < You know, possibly the reason I notice more than you do, Marco, is that I don't use half my brain making dumb jokes and the other half of my brain laughing at them. > -- page 162
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Okay, more choppy then normal. Seemed off that viser 1 thought Marco was a controller. Didn't have any backstory of how they tried to make Marco a controller. You'd also think viser would know if someone had a urk in their head
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This one is so fucking sad. Truly, Marco’s internal battle with his mom just bums me the fuck out. The way this poor kid has to grieve her loss over and over and over again. Whew what an adventure!!
Stayed up way too late to finish this one thanks to Marco unexpectedly breaking my heart a lot. Definitely one of the best (most agonizing) so far.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated