Series re-read #44 The Unexpected

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

The Yeerks are transporting pieces of a crashed blade ship somewhere. The Animorphs want to get the scraps and show them to the world. But a string of bad decisions leaves Cassie stuck on board a plane. It's going to someplace with the letters SYD, but she doesn't know until after she lands where that's at. The controllers catch onto her and in the fight, she ends up bailing out. Now she's alone, in the middle of the Australian outback. And Visser Three is there too.

I know this one is gonna get dumped on, because of the last time around LOL.

I don't like the whole isolating a single character for the whole book thing. It doesn't do much for me not having the whole group involved in the adventure.

And according to one of our Australian fans, there are some not-so-good Aussie depictions or stereotypes in the whole thing.

At least next week's is a book I enjoy a little more.

Comments

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

at the very least, this is the "it's always darkest just before the dawn" book

not that I think #45 is good

not that I think the whole denouement of the series is good, either

but at least real shit started happening again you know?

didn't they already do the "let's hijack the alien wreckage" thing? Like I understand there is only so much that can happen in this universe, but out and out RECYCLING PLOTS FROM PREVIOUS, BETTER BOOKS? whatever, off to a great start!

"Bet you're completely confused now?" 8
ugh, okay. This is book 44 in the series. I understand the point of chapter one recaps. Really, I do. And I suffer through them because I understand them.

But don't fucking patronize me you stupid fucking bitch. Don't act like what you're dealing with is *so beyond the understanding of the peons you deign to condescend to.* It's not. Psychic parasites, giant, bladed dinosaurs, flesh-eating gigantic centipedes. I get it.

SHUT UP CASSIE. Not even ghostwriter, any flaw in this book is going to be blamed on the character, not the writer, henceforth.

"They'd thaw out, never knowing time had elapsed, never knowing they'd been paralyzed and unconscious" 42
are you kidding me

like people on a 20-hr flight are doing anything except compulsively checking their watches?

this book is so fucking dumb.

also I love how it takes the Yeerks 14 hours to catch up with Cassie on a COMMERCIAL FLIGHT. IT TAKES THEM LIKE FOUR SECONDS TO GET FROM ONE SIDE OF THE PLANET TO ANOTHER, WHY DID IT TAKE SO FUCKING LONG TO FIND ONE COMMERCIAL FLIGHT UGHHHHHHHHHHH

so yeah, the backward native is totally okay with cassie not because they're intelligent enough to acknowledge crazy advanced technology, but because she's a figure from their religion. Only white people get to know what's really going on in this series.

no that's not true it was pretty diverse but I am SICK of the fact that the rainforest natives, the inuit kid, and the aboriginal kid are all as culturally aware as the european villagers in MM3. Come on. Seriously.

"I wanted to tell him the only things I'd given him were a broken radio antennae and exposure to an evil so absolute and terrifying that it had no place here in this untouched land" 102
Okay, so Cassie, who's given herself over to a Yeerk who later started a rebel group that disliked the political ideals of the Yeerk Empire, who freed said Yeerk and considered her a friend, thinks Yeerks are *absolutely evil*

I fucking HATE. CASSIE.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

The amputation scene was both laughable and depressing, ugh, but here...

<Surrender now, or I will annihilate every living thing within a square mile. You have three minutes.>
This is Visser Three's absolute lowest point in the entire series.

Visser Three in book 20, in book 10, in ANY OF THE CHRONICLES BOOKS would have sent in a contingent of Taxxons to sniff her out, or even just fucking blown the place off the face of the Earth. You really expect me to believe Visser Three has the EXACT LOCATION of one of the Andalite Bandits, in one of the remotest places in the entire world, where he can eliminate her with the smallest promise of exposure and news coverage (Americans don't fucking care about crazy Chinese people killing children in schools with machetes, are they really going to give a fuck about a small ranch in the middle of the Australian outback getting wiped off the face of the globe), and he WAITS? I mean, not only does this make absolutely no sense tactically, but VISSER THREE DOESN'T STRIKE ME AS THE KIND OF PERSON WHO HAS THREE MINUTES TO STAND AROUND WAITING, nor has he ever been characterized as the type of person who might consider "waiting it out" the best strategy. This is just appallingly stupid, out of character, and completely, irrevocably unnecessary.

JUST KILL CASSIE, JESUS.

And like...<Human aircraft approaching. Retreat. Now! Reboard and prepare for cleanup. These human pilots WILL NOT see the evidence of this battle.> 134

So if this were me...not even me as Visser Three, just me...I mean, shoot them down? Who fucking cares? Worry about some conspiracy, alibi, or excuse later? Why is this hard? YOU ONE OF YOUR SWORN ENEMY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, one who, you don't know this yet, but is DEFINITELY SOFT ENOUGH TO CRACK AND GIVE YOU THE LOCATIONS OF HER COMRADES, given of course that you CAN'T JUST INFEST HER AND FIND OUT YOURSELF. And you're letting some DUMB FUCKING HUMAN AIRCRAFT that can get thwarted by BAD WEATHER and SEAGULLS get in your way?

lol idk why this is making me so mad, it just seems like the most perfect opportunity to get rid of Cassie for good and she survives only because she has to. Like when I CHEERED when Kate from LOST got shot in the shoulder and then it didn't even fucking matter, god what a cocktease.

"While Jake had been ripping the city apart looking for me, I'd been taking boomerang lessons from somebody else. What kind of person was I?" 142
I'm sorry, is this ridiculous, over-exaggerating guilt supposed to be endearing? Because it only makes me hate you more.

Whatever, at least something cool happens next book.

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

Yeeeah I wondered about that...it starts off the same way as the book with the wild horses. WTF? (And wasn't that also a Cassie book, just to make it worse?)

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

I'm impatient and can't wait 'til Sunday. What's wrong with 45? I consider it one of my favorites.

[anijen21.livejournal.com]

mostly it's pacing. I think it's the most poorly paced book in the series. Based on its significance in the overall arc, you'd think it'd be one of the longest books in the series, but it's one of, if not THE shortest. And even being the shortest, it's full of some of the most unapologetic filler in the entire series. Plus I really don't like the way Marco's dad reacted, idk.

[buffyangellvr23.livejournal.com]

Sunday's talk should be interesting.

I think it should have been two books myself.