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[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

I heard this one and The Resistance were released together, and although The Return is what is previewed in back of this one, I'm just going to go ahead and do this one.

He is called the Ellimist. A Being with the ability to alter space and time. A being with the power that will never be fully understood. He is the reason the Earth now has a fighting chance. And though his actions never seem quite right or wrong, you can be certain they are never ever what anyone expects.

This is the beginning and the middle of the story. A story that needs to be told in order to understand what might happen to the future. The future of the Animorphs. The future of humanity. The futur eof Earth.
He is called the Ellimist, and this is his story.

This is the last of the chronicles books and obviously where we find out someone's going to die. If you got the chance to read this book before the release of the final few books, who did you think would be the one to die?

Did you like the Ellimist being in the story all along? I know there had to be a way to return Tobias's morphing powers, and I think it does add interesting stuff to the story.

I really wish I had some nice profound questions on this one, maybe I feel more pressured with the special books, IDK *shrugs*

I notice the Ellimist mentions the Pemalites but not their destruction. And we learn that he created them.

Wasn't there another book where it's alluded to that Andalites didn't yet have tail blades at the time the Ellimist was supposed to have been there? I can't remember.

I can't think of a prompt right now, maybe later after I've had some sleep.

Next week: a flashback to the Civil War

Comments

[caitieness.livejournal.com]

this was one of my favorite books. it was just so sad and really made this seemingly all powerful creator, who appeared to like nothing more than to mess with the animorphs, really really likable. man i felt so bad for him.

and on my first reading i had no idea who was going to die. except i knew it couldn't be Ax because the "Did I matter?" question didn't seem like something he would ask.

[devimelete.livejournal.com]

I actually thought it would be Jake because it seemed sort of fitting for his character arc. He reluctantly rose as the leader, did his job, stumbled, hit the floor, and then dies while stopping the invasion by killing his own brother personally, whom he swore to free. Considering what actually happened, I think I would be more satisfied with his character than I did in post-invasion.

But for Rachel, her death made it so twisted and messed up, and that's what made Animorphs so awesome. But on the other hand, it really doesn't seem to fit her, really. As tragic and awesome as her death scene is (and she really went with a bang), it doesn't seem to fit her character arc. I'm not entirely too sure what would happen, but if she would have lived, she lived as a mercenary at least.

But then, Rachel would lose what she thought what made her special after the war, so I guess it works out for both Jake and Rachel in the end. If Jake died, it would come full circle of him wanting to save his brother. Rachel died taking the last battle of the invasion, the last finishing punch, if you will. I just think it would be more fitting for Jake's arc, at least.

[geritar.livejournal.com]

I think Rachel dying was a cop-out- it would've been much harder to write about Rachel struggling to regain her humanism after the war. I mean, in several of the other characters' books they describe Rachel as hanging onto the cliff by her fingernails, but in Rachel's own personal books she always seemed so human, and aware that she was losing it and not wanting to. It would've been awesome to read about how she regained her humanity; or, consequently, DIDN'T regain it. Killing her off effectively solved that problem but created another- Jake's depression.

I guess I'm pissed that anyone had to die. I understand it's a war and bad stuff happens, but Rachel's death was completely pointless and totally avoidable. It was almost like KAA tried to write as much negative depressing stuff as she could in the end, and that's not realistic either. :(

If Jake had died, I agree, it might have fit better- but the point is that nobody HAD to die. KA just chose for Rachel to.

[genies9.livejournal.com]

This book was weird for me, just because I started reading it when it first came out, but I didn't actually finish it till after I'd finished #54. And when I came back to it, I'd forgotten what part I'd stopped at before, so I'm pretty sure I missed out on a good chunk of the book.

I remember in HBC Aldrea mentioned that way back when, before they had tail blades, Andalites were preyed on. I don't remember if it said anything about when they developed the tail blades, though. And I don't actually recall mention of Ellimist ever being on the Andalite Home World before EC, because I know when I read that part I went "Oh. I get it. That makes sense why they've got stories about him."

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

they must have developed tail blades pretty early, if they were prey. What with Darwin and *natural selection* and *advantageous traits* and whatever. An Andalite that can at least mildly defend itself, even if the predator is huge, is going to have a better shot at surviving to procreate than one that cannot.

doesn't really explain why the female's blades are shorter, though. I guess if they developed a patriarchal society pretty early, where the males protected the home and the females vacuumed and cooked and gossiped with the neighbors then they wouldn't need long blades. Still, she's got to go out for groceries at some point...

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

I really liked this book.

I think KA got a lot more liberal with her sci-fi as the series went on, culminating in this mess. I've read this book at least twice and I still don't fully understand the way Ket society works or what a Ket is supposed to look like. And the whole thing with "Father" sounds really similar to what happened with "Mother" in the Remnants books, but I haven't read any of those so idk.

I loved the stuff with the prehistoric Andalites. I love the Andalites though, so seeing that portion of their *societal development* just made me nerdgasm. It makes a lot of sense, that they were prey, both in the evolutionary need for their tail blades and kind of their outlook on everything. Other than that...idk, I just read #7 and though the "we" that the Ellimist refers to in that book could be handwaved as either him and Crayak or some royal "we," it's pretty clear she decided sometime between then and TEC that they were not a race, but one being.

I liked all the Chronicles the best, though. I'm not sure if I like this one or HBC better. Probably this one.

[kaerya.livejournal.com]

Heh, I'm with you on the exponentially increasing weirdness. I really liked this book, but I can't reread it very often because I at least have to be in just the right kind of mood to deal with it. Oddly enough, I've found it's easier when you've at least got a character you can identify with also boggling at the weirdness. 26 with the Iskoort might not have been nearly as crazy, and I don't like it nearly as much, but I reread it much more often 'cause there at least you've got the team going ?.? along with you.

I think this is probably why I never really got into Remnants or Everworld. Both had more strangeness than I could handle on a regular basis.

And re: the Ellimist's "we", I always kind of assumed it had to do with the fact that the Ellimist essentially absorbed all the consciousnesses that "Father" had, that that was how he finally defeated him, therefore all those minds and memories now exist in the Ellimist. Making him both one and many in a Borg Collective kind of way. Which I thought was a really neat way to make his vagueness something more than just an omnipotent being just being annoying.

I have to admit, I think my personal nerdgasm moment happened when I realized that the name of the closest thing to a 'God' figure in the books was essentially an internet screenname.

[janinedog]

This is my favorite Chronicles book, I think. It's sad and bittersweet and awesome. :)

[kaerya.livejournal.com]

It's funny; I remember reading this when it first came out, but I didn't really spend much time actually pondering who was gonna kick the bucket. I think it mostly had to do with me kind of going, "Huh, someone's gonna die at the end. Wow. But that's ages away," with the subconscious assumption that the series would never actually end. I mean, at that point I wasn't worried so much about reading every single book, 'cause my allowance just couldn't keep up with them.

Rereading it now though, I've got a bit of a love-hate relationship with that damn prologue/epilogue. I mean, on the one hand, I'm always behind blatantly foreshadowing character death and then actually following through; that's got my full support. But the way she did it just bothers me.

I mean I feel like she took what should have been the single most powerful and affecting scene in the entire series, and she neutured it. (And by neutered, I mean instead of being the most powerful scene, it dropped to one of the five most powerful scenes. What can I say? I'm so difficult to please.) By writing Rachel's death so vaguely, by writing it in such a way as to keep who died a secret (human, happy accident and strong, turbulent spirit aside there's not much in that scene that is inherently Rachel) by choosing to write that scene that way she severely limited herself. I feel like essentially, by trying to write it as though it could be any of them, she ended up writing someone that was none of them. In one of the creative writing classes I took, the professor warned us about the dangers of hiding identities in your writing. It almost never works well because each character is supposed to have such a strong, unique voice that no one character could ever sound like anyone else. And that's something KAA always did really well, giving each of the kids their own voice. Honestly, that pro/eppie thing would almost have fit better in the Alternamorphs where vagueness and generalities are the name of the game.

And for Rachel's death especially, I feel like every single word, every moment, every breath should have just been saturated with Rachel. Who she was, who she is, what she has become, and at the last in particular, as Rachel felt and reacted to and dealt with the last emotions she would ever experience. I wanted all that, so I feel a bit cheated in that she ditched it all in favor of upping the suspense with a "Who's it gonna be? Who shall I kill with my mighty pen? Muahahahah!!!".

[geritar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally agree with you on all points. :(

[geritar.livejournal.com]

I cannot, cannot handle this book. ;-; Because of this line:
"A small strand of space-time went dark and coiled into nothingness."

If she had left the stupid prologue and epilogue out, it might have been different. But Rachel's death makes me utterly depressed. It's like one of my best friends died, haha, because I grew up with the series, and the ability to get into each person's head makes them almost like real people.

But, I guess the scary thing about this book is that there is no life after death in this series. Not to jump into religion and all that... but not ANY life after death. No reincarnation. No heaven and hell. No nothing. And I mean, for me at least, maybe there isn't life after death after all, but life sure is a lot nicer pretending that there is. So thinking that Rachel died and is dead for good is kind of a horrifying thing.

Maybe I'm just a pansy. :C

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

I didn't get that impression. I guess I always figured the Ellimist is *above us all*, sure, but even he admits that there are powers he doesn't understand, levels of existence that he can't comprehend. I really like that she left religion out of it, but she didn't preclude the possibility of something else. She just left it open. Rachel's strand coiled out of our existence, but even he doesn't know what happened to her then.

[geritar.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. Hmm. I will have to think about that one, haha.

But at least it gives me hope for Rachel... ;)