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ramiel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Time for the kids to get traumatized... with dinosaurs!
<There is one other consideration,> Ax said. <We are here. Which means we were here, sixty-five million years in Earth's past. In other words, maybe our presence here is vital to the future. Maybe we did something that caused the future to happen the way it happened.>
First, I have to say I think this Megamorphs book works much better in the Megamorphs format than the first one did. The world and plot they have to explore in this book is absolutely too massive for one POV to fully display the scope of what's going on. It goes beyond their town and beyond their time. More than just being good for the setting - literally sixty-five million years in the past, exploring the world of the dinosaurs - the multiple POVs is also good for the moral dilemma the kids find themselves faced with in a world where human morals are millions of years from ever being born.
Along with moral dilemmas (and possible war crimes?), we're also faced with: body horror galore! the kids almost being eaten alive (Rachel and Tobias literally being digested!)! ant trauma! and cool alien species!
Also, broccoli is an alien species is canon.
I definitely found splitting up the kids so early on was a great idea, in that way allowing everyone to spread out and discover even more about the world. Tobias being the dinosaur expert on one side and Cassie being the survival expert on the other was a good divide. We even got the kids making shoes and stuff out of dinosaur leather like damn.
Which, I say having the multiple POVs was good for the story, but I think Tobias and Cassie especially shine in this one. Not only being the survival experts of their respective groups, but also being the main ones vocalizing the sides of the moral dilemma. That being: "we have the opportunity to stop the extinction of the dinosaurs AS WELL AS a sentient alien species who saved us from certain death and fed us, but then history would literally not happen properly".
For more detail: after having their dinosaur adventures and everyone getting a dinosaur morph, the kids meet two different sentient alien species. There's the Nesk, violent, ant-like aliens who claim the earth and all the dinosaurs belong to them... and the Mercora, crab-like aliens who escaped a collapsing sun and are generally more peaceful. The Nesk don't want to share the earth with the Mercora, so when the Animorphs kids come and beat the Nesk to grab a bomb, the Nesk divert a massive comet towards the earth in an "if I can't have it, nobody can" manner.
The kids need the bomb they stole to get home (time travel shenanigans), but Cassie and Jake argue that they can't put their own lives above the Mercora and hand over the bomb.
Only to find that Tobias convinced Ax to disable the bomb before giving it back. So the comet would, in fact, crash into the earth.
"Tobias, what have you done?" I demanded.
<I did what had to be done, all right?!> Tobias yelled in a blaze of sudden anger. <I did what had to be done. I made the call, so that none of you would have to feel bad about it.>
Cassie, who's already had a crisis of faith when she lost control of her T. rex morph and attacked another dinosaur, is frustrated and furious.
One thing I like about the decision is that it's a burden on all of the kids, and while it's determined that this is the "right thing" (in terms of not actually interfering in history... by interfering in history? time travel shenanigans...) the moral part of the dilemma isn't solved. There are no easy answers, and sometimes there are no answers.
This book also deals a lot with the brutality of nature vs. human morality (especially with other humans being millions of years from existence). These are primarily Tobias's and Cassie's central plots (with Tobias being separated from humanity and Cassie being a very moral person but also very close to nature). Cassie reluctantly accepts the need for the comet to hit earth, and the need for time to remain consistent (I wonder if the canon of Cassie being an anomaly grounded in "correct timelines" was being considered at this point), also shows the need for her human side to mourn the loss of life and her own innocence in accepting the decision.
Not only is this a good character piece for both of her, it does also segue very well into the upcoming Cassie book (the best Cassie book).
Meanwhile, Tobias shows not only his willingness to protect the others' humanity/morality by making difficult decisions himself, in this combining his understanding of how brutal and cruel nature can be with his own human side. I mention on my Twitter that this also shows how well Tobias and Rachel complement each other, both being willing to shut down their own hearts to protect everyone else, as well as being the most accepting of the war itself.
Also: fuck ants.
I would say my main criticisms are more nitpicks than anything:
- Hey, why the fuck did morphing not cure Tobias's broken wing when it healed all the other kids wounds just fine and dandy and normal? That was weird!
- I wish we were given more information on the Nesk and Mercora, or that we met them a little earlier. The Nesk especially were mostly just hostile and then gone. Like, what even happened to them after the comet? Did they make it out? Are they still existing somewhere in the universe?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Xenophobia
Minor: War, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood
This is about the last age of the dinosaurs so um, mass extinction?
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