Series Re-Read: #22 The Solution

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm a terrible person (maybe not as terrible as David) because it's been a year since the last re-read, AND I left us hanging 2/3 of the way through a story arc. But let's move on now, shall we?

<Ax? Tell me something. When Jake sent you to get help, why did you come for me and not Marco or Cassie?>
<Prince Jake was specific. Get Rachel.>
<Did he say why?>
Ax hesitated a moment. Then he said, <Jake told me Tobias was probably dead. I said this was a terrible thing. And Prince Jake said, "Yes. If David's killed Tobias, we may have to do a terrible thing, too. Get Rachel.">

First off, this is one of my favorite books, if only for the number of emotional punches contained within. This is the first time the other Animorphs start to realize that Jake has become more than just the guy calling the shots--he's using them. Because he's a good leader, he's using them in ways that make sense, but subtly, possibly without even realizing it, and realizing what that means for each of them based on what Jake values them for is interesting. And of course, for Rachel, it's somewhat disturbing.

On top of that, we've got a guy who they tried to save, a guy who is only alive and free because they intervened, and he's trying to kill them. Not to mention, the whole leaders of the free world meet-up they've got to keep the Yeerks from taking advantage of. I love the way they handle stopping the Yeerks here, because it's actually the closest to fun they seem to have had in awhile. It's a bright spot of levity in what is an otherwise extremely dark book.

Then of course, there's the solution they come up with--or really, that Cassie comes up with--for handling David after he's made it clear they can't just leave him to his own devices. It's brilliant, but is it really the best solution? Should they have just killed him and been done with it? I always wonder just how Ax and Rachel really dealt with what they had to listen to at the end.

What did you like about this book? What did you not expect? How do you think you'd have reacted to everything if you had been David?


Next time: #23 The Pretender--the Ellimist continues to fuck with Tobias!

Comments

[acts_of_tekla]

I think this was the best of the three books in the David trilogy. The first was leaning too much towards Idiot Plot (characters acting much dumber than we know them to be in order to advance the plot), and David's turn in the second just didn't work for me, but David as a villain works spectacularly well. There were a lot of character moments that made this overall more good than bad, and an effective turning point in the series. The ones I most remember are Jake's realization that he was an effective leader because he used others, Rachel's acceptance of the violence in her nature, and Cassie's (sadly not really followed-up on) ability to manipulate.

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

I always thought that the reason Cassie's ability to manipulate wasn't followed up on much was because of how things turned out with David. As in, she was probably horrified at herself for figuring out how to do what they did, and probably tried to avoid doing that again; there was really no other non-murderous alternative for David, and they never really faced another situation that required such a dire response. And I think that looking back, they realized that what they did to David might have been worse than death.