Series Re-read #41 The Familiar

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

Jake is just a normal kid. Well, as normal as possible considering he can morph animals and he's in a war against parasitic aliens. But as unbelieveable as it sounds, something even stranger has happened. One morning Jake wakes up and he's 25 years old.

Okay maybe it's some kind of wierd hallucination. Maybe it's a nightmare. Or maybe Jake's just lost it for a while and misplaced a few years. And there's another problem. The world Jake-the-kid went to sleep in has changed, and it's ruled by Yeerks. Jake has to find out if the other Animorphs and Ax are still around. Still somehow fighting. Or if he's really on his own.

I like this one because I'm a sucker for dystopian novels. A lot of wierd things in it though. You can't tell if it's a dream, hallucination, or what.

Why do you think the end is left ambigious? What was Jake's choice? I think he saved the world, there wasn't really any other choice. I have to break the rule about not going ahead this time. Was the voice at the end of the book The One, or someone else? Some people think it was.

And why didn't Cassie or Rachel either one morph?

I'm pretty sure the Aftermath game(http://www.animorphsafter.proboards.com) was at least partly inspired by this. *inserts blantant plug lol*

Prompt...dagnabit I can't come up with one this time. But I'll edit later if one comes to mind.

Comments

[geritar.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually reread this book. I just skimmed through it to the interesting parts, lol. I remember that I didn't care for it very much because of it's overall detachment from the series, but as I skimmed, I realized that, in some ways, this book does foreshadow A LOT for the end of the series. And it also gives some insight to Jake's leadership-induced depression in #54 by explaining a lot of his guilt.

Obviously Jake keeps the memory of the events, at least enough for them to fuel his desire to call Cassie, but oddly enough, does not ever mention them again, particularly as they might relate to events that happen later in the series.

(WARNING- RANDOM TANGENT)
The Rachel not morphing thing kind of bugged me, and did Tobias become a nothlit or did he just remorph to an Andalite every two hours?
This question spawns two(hundred) other related questions-
If he WAS a nothlit, why did he become one? Did he not want to be with Rachel?? If that's the case, then why did her dying in #54 bother him so much? Also, if he didn't want to be with Rachel, why not?? Because she's a cripple?? I mean, she loved him while he was a bird, and he can't love her too, regardless of her physical condition? (of course, this is assuming that they would have worked out as a couple in all other aspects, haha) But it makes me question his character.
Vaguely Related Question Number Two is more complicated. Let's say Tobias is a hawk. How long does that hawk last? I mean, everytime he morphs, he restores his DNA. Does the time actually spent as a hawk count towards the life span, or does the entire amount of time of the being count? I mean, does he age at all? Wouldn't restoring his DNA restore him to the same age? Obviously it doesn't, because all of the others continue to age... KASU? Or, let's say that it doesn't- what if his hawk body died while he was in another morph, assuming that's possible. Would he be unable to morph back, or would he morph back only to die instantly?
Weird questions...

But anyway. I think that Jake, at this stage in the game, would have saved Cassie. However, I think as the series progresses, particularly after the events of #49, I think Jake would have saved the world.

Also, I guess it would have to be THE ONE if it's not the Ellimist or Crayak. I commented about the bolded words in #45, which appear more often in Jake's next book, #47.

Which frustrates me. Because KA just did not give us ANY information about The One, but it seems like she spent more than one book setting it up. ARRRGGGH.

[acts_of_tekla]

KAA stated in an interview that a morph ages the amount of time you spend in it, so Tobias aged as a hawk, and if he became an Andalite nothlit (seems likely due to the age of his Andalite body and the fact that the hawk would be quite old after 12-odd years) he'd physically be a bit younger than Ax.