oh I definitely agree about that. This book is by no means perfect. The black hole that appears out of no where? And Visser Three conjuring the Yeerk Homeworld in that twisted universe WHEN HE WASN'T EVEN BORN THERE AND IS OBSESSED WITH ANDALITES? Some parts are edited poorly (a third of the book running around some made up universe? idk...), and there are a LOT of parts I would have loved to see. Actually, if you sliced off the last 30 pages of this book it would have just been a mildly entertaining, sort of creative normal dormal adventure.
There are BITS of Andalite culture in this book. This is where we're introduced to wish flowers, and population controls that make no sense (if each Andalite couple was only allowed one child then the Andalite population would decrease by half each generation...I mean China does that, but China is totally overcrowded, though maybe an Andalite's definition of "overcrowded" is a little bit different from ours. All the same, Visser made it clear that BILLIONS of specimens on one planet was totally unheard of, so either this doesn't work or the Andalite homeworld is the size of Pluto), and we do get a tiny glimpse into their economy:
<Long ago we had cities...But we were free-roaming herd animals to begin with. I mean, that's how we evolved. Millions of years ago Andalites moved in vast herds, which would split off into smaller herds at different times of the year. Then, gradually, we got used to forming into smaller herds. Families, really. Each family made its scoop, and we each held our own grazing lands. All this Andalite environment you see is part of my family's grazing lands...Once we evolved to form families, we began to study science and nature. And again, over millions of years, we learned to build things. You know--weapons and vehicles that let us fly over the land. And communications for extending the reach of thought-speak. Scoops became larger. Families joined with other families. Buildings grew. Soon we had thousands of Andalites all crammed together without enough grazing space. But we were learning space travel at the same time. Still, we weren't happy. We knew something was wrong. We broke down our cities, divided the land, and went back to life in simple family scoops. We kept building spaceships, but did it in little bits and pieces, here and there, spread out through tens of thousands of scoops. My own family does some of that. We design heat transfer components for fighters. Another family builds the pieces from our designs. Another family transports the pieces to the spaceport. I guess the three spaceports are about as close to what you would call a city now.> 281
Phew. But, in reality, that's all we get about the Andalite Homeworld. I mean, it's kind of unfair, if you think about it. 95% of the series takes place on Earth. A third of this book takes place on the Taxxon Homeworld. An entire book (actually 2 books, now that I think of it) takes place on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. HALF A FRIGGING BOOK TAKES PLACE ON LEERA AND WHO GIVES A GODDAMN ABOUT THE LEERANS?? But do we actually get ANY scenes that TAKE PLACE on the Andalite homeworld, besides the swirly bits of this universe THAT DOESN'T HAVE ANY PEOPLE IN IT??
Well there is a chapter in the Ellimist Chronicles. BUT THAT DOESN'T COUNT BECAUSE IT'S LIKE ANDALITE CAVEMEN OR W/E!
Yeah I still wanted more Andalite development. Up there, that is not enough.
And I kind of disagree about the "Elfangor win" part...I mean, I guess that's why I find the ending so sad. We know he was wildly successful in the war, from Yeerk testimonies, from Tobias' death-throes hallucinations in #33, etc. But what the last 30 pages seemed to do was show us that Elfangor really didn't care about any of it. He'd found his happiness, he'd claimed his "happily ever after." And the universe wasn't okay with that. So even if Elfangor got women and glory and praise and monetary reward, it was all kind of shallow and not really what he wanted. idk.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-09-23 10:00 pm (UTC)There are BITS of Andalite culture in this book. This is where we're introduced to wish flowers, and population controls that make no sense (if each Andalite couple was only allowed one child then the Andalite population would decrease by half each generation...I mean China does that, but China is totally overcrowded, though maybe an Andalite's definition of "overcrowded" is a little bit different from ours. All the same, Visser made it clear that BILLIONS of specimens on one planet was totally unheard of, so either this doesn't work or the Andalite homeworld is the size of Pluto), and we do get a tiny glimpse into their economy:
<Long ago we had cities...But we were free-roaming herd animals to begin with. I mean, that's how we evolved. Millions of years ago Andalites moved in vast herds, which would split off into smaller herds at different times of the year. Then, gradually, we got used to forming into smaller herds. Families, really. Each family made its scoop, and we each held our own grazing lands. All this Andalite environment you see is part of my family's grazing lands...Once we evolved to form families, we began to study science and nature. And again, over millions of years, we learned to build things. You know--weapons and vehicles that let us fly over the land. And communications for extending the reach of thought-speak. Scoops became larger. Families joined with other families. Buildings grew. Soon we had thousands of Andalites all crammed together without enough grazing space. But we were learning space travel at the same time. Still, we weren't happy. We knew something was wrong. We broke down our cities, divided the land, and went back to life in simple family scoops. We kept building spaceships, but did it in little bits and pieces, here and there, spread out through tens of thousands of scoops. My own family does some of that. We design heat transfer components for fighters. Another family builds the pieces from our designs. Another family transports the pieces to the spaceport. I guess the three spaceports are about as close to what you would call a city now.> 281
Phew. But, in reality, that's all we get about the Andalite Homeworld. I mean, it's kind of unfair, if you think about it. 95% of the series takes place on Earth. A third of this book takes place on the Taxxon Homeworld. An entire book (actually 2 books, now that I think of it) takes place on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. HALF A FRIGGING BOOK TAKES PLACE ON LEERA AND WHO GIVES A GODDAMN ABOUT THE LEERANS?? But do we actually get ANY scenes that TAKE PLACE on the Andalite homeworld, besides the swirly bits of this universe THAT DOESN'T HAVE ANY PEOPLE IN IT??
Well there is a chapter in the Ellimist Chronicles. BUT THAT DOESN'T COUNT BECAUSE IT'S LIKE ANDALITE CAVEMEN OR W/E!
Yeah I still wanted more Andalite development. Up there, that is not enough.
And I kind of disagree about the "Elfangor win" part...I mean, I guess that's why I find the ending so sad. We know he was wildly successful in the war, from Yeerk testimonies, from Tobias' death-throes hallucinations in #33, etc. But what the last 30 pages seemed to do was show us that Elfangor really didn't care about any of it. He'd found his happiness, he'd claimed his "happily ever after." And the universe wasn't okay with that. So even if Elfangor got women and glory and praise and monetary reward, it was all kind of shallow and not really what he wanted. idk.