Reviews

The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate

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spacepandita2022's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

skyeoak's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

veggiefest's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad 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

4.25

The Andalite Chronicles is such a fun ride. Not only is it longer than a regular Animorphs book and so has more room to create an exciting plot, it also substantially widens our understanding of this universe. You know how sometimes you’re reading a book and you just think “I wonder what goes on with these other aliens across the galaxy we keep hearing about. Huh, I’ll probably never know.” Well, this book delivers. We learn about the Andalite society and their military structure, that there are rebel Taxxons and something called the Living Hive, and that our hero Elfangor has been involved in the Animorphs’ destinies for far longer than they imagined.

Spoiler

But most significantly, we come to understand that the entire galactic war is being played in 10D by powers as yet unknown. This will all finally come to fruition dozens of books later in the Ellimist Chronicles, if I remember right.

It’s such a treat to get to explore more corners of any sci-fi universe, and this book serves a whole course of it.

Plus, this story is just bonkers. It steadily escalates from a space battle to an infiltration mission to

Spoiler

a wild triple-universe created from three different species’ brains, complete with predators on wheels, people without faces, and a time hurricane. Yes please!

A few other thoughts:

I find it striking that Elfangor’s story is focused on when he was an aristh - hardly older than the Animorphs and not very experienced at morphing at all. He goes on to become an accomplished war-prince

Spoiler

(after a long stint on Earth in an alternate timeline)

, but the book skims over all that at the very end.

I admire how much Applegate strives to make the Animorphs universe make sense. It was a nice touch to explain translator chips and interstellar languages when on the Taxxon planet, where most sci-fi universes (at least in my experience) tend to shrug and wave away why all aliens can understand each other. Sure, there are some fantastical parts of the universe she’s built – like Zero-space and magic whales – but it seems dedicated to being internally consistent.

radradradish's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

bookishintentions's review

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4.5

best animorphs book

fae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

bdorf's review

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Just reread this before listening to Morph Club ep 15 (https://soundcloud.com/morphclubcast/morphclub-episode-15-the-andalite-chronicles).

Holds up pretty well, although its very short and rushed. And I was surprised how much of it I remembered (every time I drink. Dr. Pepper I still think of "that must be human for bubbling brown liquid").