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

[blue_rampion]

Okay, I know there are many, many issues that people would have with this book. Stereotypes being among them. And I am sure that others will go into great detail about them. However, there is one thing that is seriously, hopelessly, glaringly wrong with this book that I feel the need to point out.

To help illustrate this point, I have drawn a handy map. Examine this map closely, and see if you can figure out what is wrong with this book.



This is how planes usually fly form the US to Australia, and vise versa. I have personal experience of this, in fact, from when I visited the US. I traveled between Sydney and San Fransisco, and since the consensus is that the Animorphs lived somewhere in California, this provides a rough estimate. This is a fourteen hour flight. As you can see, there is pretty much NO LAND flown over during this flight. I know I spent some time wishing my plane would just land on one of those tiny islands we would see occasionally so that I could actually move around, but alas, that was not possible. It is water all the way.

[mattiris.livejournal.com]

Not a fan of this book at all. I'd probably rank it my second least favourite after #37.

The two main things that bugged me were the unecessity of the plot and the tone of the book. We've had "Cassie goes solo" in several books before this: #19, #29, even #34 to an extent. There's no way this book can do what those did better.

Secondly, I'm Australian, and wasn't heaps impressed with the way the book handled our country. Ignoring the many, many inaccuracies, it's the equivalent of someone flying to Los Angeles, getting in a plane crash, and being isolated with a bunch of Native Americans in the middle of Kansas. There's really no way Cassie would have been stuck out there for as long as she was and in the conditions she was in.

[perfect-ruin.livejournal.com]

Why did the Australian book have to be a Cassie book? -_-

I mean, even back when I was younger and saw the cover of this, as soon as I saw the kangaroo, I knew it was going to be bad. Really bad.

I'm Aussie, and this book physically hurts me. -_- *goes and cuddles up with TAC again*

[staysleeping.livejournal.com]

Honestly I think this book could have been a bit more interesting if it had been someone like Marco or Tobias or something stuck in Aussie-land. Favorite part of the book was when Rachel and Tobias were making fun of Jake at the end :|

[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.