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Animorphs #36
The Mutation
When the Animorphs morph into killer whales to battle a Yeerk ship, they make a startling discovery: an underwater civilization of mutated humans with both gills and lungs.
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1999
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933 people want to read
About the author
K.A. Applegate
251 books466 followersalso published under the name Katherine Applegate
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
September 9, 2022
Visser Three is trying to find a way to reach an alien ship, hidden thousands of feet beneath the ocean's surface. With their deep-sea morphs, the Animorphs try to stop him. But then they stumble across a whole underwater civilization.
This is very much just another filler story. This attributes nothing to the characters or the plot in the grand scheme of things. That said, this is pretty good as a standalone story. The characters are used well here. The plot is solid and gripping. And the story has quite a fast pace. It’s just a shame the concept of the story doesn’t feel like a good fit with the Animorphs universe, making it feel even more disconnected to the rest of the series.
This is very much just another filler story. This attributes nothing to the characters or the plot in the grand scheme of things. That said, this is pretty good as a standalone story. The characters are used well here. The plot is solid and gripping. And the story has quite a fast pace. It’s just a shame the concept of the story doesn’t feel like a good fit with the Animorphs universe, making it feel even more disconnected to the rest of the series.
December 26, 2016
OK, been a while since I’ve dropped one of these into the rotation. The Mutation is the first Jake-narrated book since #31: The Conspiracy. Whereas the previous book focused heavily on the tough decisions Jake must make as a leader, The Mutation instead explores more broadly the toughness required of all the Animorphs. This book is like a bizarre mash-up of James Bond and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The Animorphs discover that Visser Three has a shiny new toy to use to find the sunken Pemalite ship. So they decide to take the toy away from him the hard way. The first half of the book is fairly intense, because the Animorphs have to use a succession of morphs to locate, dive towards, and then fight the so-called Sea Blade vessel. Remember the good old days when the Animorphs used maybe two morphs in the entire book? This far along in the series, Applegate is signalling the way their lives have changed dramatically. Jake just casually mentions the Chee covering from them while they go on this trip. Similarly, although he acknowledges that all these quick morphs are draining, it definitely feels more routine than it once did.
Yes, the Animorphs are transforming from a motley group of unlikely heroes into actual heroes. If only they would start, you know, planning beforehand. But that’s probably too much to ask.
The second half of The Mutation is a whackadoodle narrative of epic proportions, however. Sea people, seriously?? I mean, I guess I could have gone with it—goodness knows I’ve gone with so many other weird turns in this series—but the execution is just terrible. They’re clearly a one-off, with little actual thought given to how they mutated from humans (radiation did it!, not that it works that way), and their bellicose attitudes towards the surface dwellers handwaved away by … you guessed it, radiation and inbreeding.
Applegate has gone to a lot of trouble to establish her youthful protagonists as forces to be reckoned with and moral forces equivalent to adults. Hence, it is always disappointing when this series pits these protagonists against cheesy, childish foes. This isn’t Power Rangers or another Saturday-morning Japanese import where teenagers are fighting goofy alien enemies. Yes, the enemies are alien—but they are serious business. And every time the Animorphs go up against dumb sea people, or have to temporarily make a truce with Visser Three, the series creeps closer to that Saturday-morning territory.
Small moments offer tantalizing glimpses of what makes Animorphs so good. Jake reflects on Cassie’s un-Cassielike bloodthirsty zeal for revenge against the Yeerks. He also has to weigh the destruction of the Sea Blade (to prevent the sea people from using it on the surface) against the Animorphs using it to escape and return to the surface. These kinds of decisions are always an interesting part of his role as leader.
Unfortunately, these small moments can’t carry an otherwise loopy plot. This one has some great underwater action scenes and lots of morphing, but in terms of substance, it’s disappointing.
I realize now I forgot to read Visser in between this book and the last one (I put them on my ereader a few books at a time, and these ones made it on but Visser didn’t). So, hopefully soon, we get to learn more about Visser Three!
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #36: The Proposal | Visser →
The Animorphs discover that Visser Three has a shiny new toy to use to find the sunken Pemalite ship. So they decide to take the toy away from him the hard way. The first half of the book is fairly intense, because the Animorphs have to use a succession of morphs to locate, dive towards, and then fight the so-called Sea Blade vessel. Remember the good old days when the Animorphs used maybe two morphs in the entire book? This far along in the series, Applegate is signalling the way their lives have changed dramatically. Jake just casually mentions the Chee covering from them while they go on this trip. Similarly, although he acknowledges that all these quick morphs are draining, it definitely feels more routine than it once did.
Yes, the Animorphs are transforming from a motley group of unlikely heroes into actual heroes. If only they would start, you know, planning beforehand. But that’s probably too much to ask.
The second half of The Mutation is a whackadoodle narrative of epic proportions, however. Sea people, seriously?? I mean, I guess I could have gone with it—goodness knows I’ve gone with so many other weird turns in this series—but the execution is just terrible. They’re clearly a one-off, with little actual thought given to how they mutated from humans (radiation did it!, not that it works that way), and their bellicose attitudes towards the surface dwellers handwaved away by … you guessed it, radiation and inbreeding.
Applegate has gone to a lot of trouble to establish her youthful protagonists as forces to be reckoned with and moral forces equivalent to adults. Hence, it is always disappointing when this series pits these protagonists against cheesy, childish foes. This isn’t Power Rangers or another Saturday-morning Japanese import where teenagers are fighting goofy alien enemies. Yes, the enemies are alien—but they are serious business. And every time the Animorphs go up against dumb sea people, or have to temporarily make a truce with Visser Three, the series creeps closer to that Saturday-morning territory.
Small moments offer tantalizing glimpses of what makes Animorphs so good. Jake reflects on Cassie’s un-Cassielike bloodthirsty zeal for revenge against the Yeerks. He also has to weigh the destruction of the Sea Blade (to prevent the sea people from using it on the surface) against the Animorphs using it to escape and return to the surface. These kinds of decisions are always an interesting part of his role as leader.
Unfortunately, these small moments can’t carry an otherwise loopy plot. This one has some great underwater action scenes and lots of morphing, but in terms of substance, it’s disappointing.
I realize now I forgot to read Visser in between this book and the last one (I put them on my ereader a few books at a time, and these ones made it on but Visser didn’t). So, hopefully soon, we get to learn more about Visser Three!
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #36: The Proposal | Visser →
January 22, 2022
Come check out my 4 hour 35 minute deep dive into reading every single Animorphs book for the first time on YouTube. I recap and review all of the books from the main series: https://youtu.be/H8kUM2q3CIU
December 21, 2024
Excruciating.
July 28, 2015
Ghostwriter: Erica Bobone, who hasn't done one of these before. I'm so conflicted about to rate this book! I want to give it 4 for the writing and characterisations, which I thought were so on-point (Bobone writes better Marco humour than the guy who's been handed the Marco books, and her Ax is fantastic)... but 1-2 for the ridiculous plot. I wish I knew how closely KAA was involved with that plot skeleton, because I don't know who we should blame for this one.
I know I've said before that I love the series' creative ways to get the Animorphs into strange places on this planet and off, and a museum-Atlantis at the bottom of the sea with mutated merpeople is an interesting setting, but it just doesn't feel like an Animorphs book -- there's some creepy abyssal exploration horror scenes that gave me Lovecraftian vibes, but mostly the adventure is just so bizarre and doesn't contribute much to the series, and even contradicts the previous Pemalite book.
Although to quote Janelle's review: "I needed a campy story to break up the dark and depressing tales littered throughout this series. Sometimes you don’t want a kid’s book that presents terrifying questions about humanity, sometimes you just want a ridiculous adventure at the bottom of the sea."
-- because I really just like pointing out, again, that this children's series is usually so dark and depressing and sophisticated. Even when it's sorta meh, as in this book, I still dig it.
Favourite quotes:
I know I've said before that I love the series' creative ways to get the Animorphs into strange places on this planet and off, and a museum-Atlantis at the bottom of the sea with mutated merpeople is an interesting setting, but it just doesn't feel like an Animorphs book -- there's some creepy abyssal exploration horror scenes that gave me Lovecraftian vibes, but mostly the adventure is just so bizarre and doesn't contribute much to the series, and even contradicts the previous Pemalite book.
Although to quote Janelle's review: "I needed a campy story to break up the dark and depressing tales littered throughout this series. Sometimes you don’t want a kid’s book that presents terrifying questions about humanity, sometimes you just want a ridiculous adventure at the bottom of the sea."
-- because I really just like pointing out, again, that this children's series is usually so dark and depressing and sophisticated. Even when it's sorta meh, as in this book, I still dig it.
Favourite quotes:
August 7, 2014
Finally, in 36, they find out that mutant people from Atlantis are still living underwater in this weird city. This one kinda bugged me. I would have preferred that they leave human folk tales out of this whole mess, but the author still made it fit. It's just, like, we're already dealing with about six different species of aliens, robots disguised as people with advanced holographic technology, super-beings like the Ellimist and Crayak, and then there just happen to be mutated fish people down there. Eh.
Notable moments and inconsistencies:
This book is ghostwritten by Erica Bobone.
The experimented-upon Hork-Bajir, Hahn Tunad, is dying on Cassie's dad's stainless steel operation table when the narration describes him. But then a couple pages later when Jake tries to pull an oxygen tank over to him, Hahn is described as being stretched out on a makeshift bed of hay bales. This is clearly an inconsistency since they did not move him.
Interesting that Jake notes that many prey animals include "wanting to find mates" in their instincts, but no mating instincts have been discussed in any of the Animorphs' morphing experiences.
The Pemalite ship should not be accessible to living creatures if Erek hid it "where only an android can reach it" in a previous book.
Rachel saves Jake from drowning in this book, and the narration specifies that she is an orca at the time. However, when Jake takes a survey of who else is there, he counts "two sperm whales and three orca." It's not clear who's who if that's the case. Rachel has to still be an orca, but Tobias is the only other person besides Rachel who ever acquired the sperm whale. (Cassie sure had a chance to, but didn't.) This is most likely just an author mistake.
There's a typo: Ax says "On my commnad" instead of "command."
Another typo involves a thought-speak tag pointing the wrong way on Jake asking about "the visser."
Notable moments and inconsistencies:
This book is ghostwritten by Erica Bobone.
The experimented-upon Hork-Bajir, Hahn Tunad, is dying on Cassie's dad's stainless steel operation table when the narration describes him. But then a couple pages later when Jake tries to pull an oxygen tank over to him, Hahn is described as being stretched out on a makeshift bed of hay bales. This is clearly an inconsistency since they did not move him.
Interesting that Jake notes that many prey animals include "wanting to find mates" in their instincts, but no mating instincts have been discussed in any of the Animorphs' morphing experiences.
The Pemalite ship should not be accessible to living creatures if Erek hid it "where only an android can reach it" in a previous book.
Rachel saves Jake from drowning in this book, and the narration specifies that she is an orca at the time. However, when Jake takes a survey of who else is there, he counts "two sperm whales and three orca." It's not clear who's who if that's the case. Rachel has to still be an orca, but Tobias is the only other person besides Rachel who ever acquired the sperm whale. (Cassie sure had a chance to, but didn't.) This is most likely just an author mistake.
There's a typo: Ax says "On my commnad" instead of "command."
Another typo involves a thought-speak tag pointing the wrong way on Jake asking about "the visser."
August 6, 2019
Disclaimer: I'm reading this series for the first time as an adult. (Unfortunately) I have no fond memories coloring my reading.
One of the interesting things about this series is how the darkness of it can surprise you.
Through unimportant happening, the animorphs found a group of "people" (the Nartec) living under our seas. The Nartec collected ships and more worryingly collected people to man those ships. Dead people. Or so it seemed at first.
The animorphs get captured by the Nartec, and through them we learned the truth. The Nartec capture people alive. And then they drug them and remove their bones and muscles and stuff them. At some point during that process the humans die, but they're awake and aware of it happening until that point.
Gah! That is nightmare material! To be awake and yet unable to move, unable to speak, while you're cut open and your insides removed? One of the Nartec even described how they do it: Cut people from the base of the neck down to the back of the knees, open them up, remove the bones and muscles... and they drug them so they can't fight back while it's happening.
Oh and then they use their genetic material to make babies, too.
While the plot had some silly elements, mostly I enjoyed this one. I can't imagine kids reading it though, the idea of it bothered even adult me.
And word is, the series only gets darker from here. Woo!
Edit: I always like reading others' reviews once I'm done with my own, and I was very surprised to see how hated this book was. Maybe it took 30-something books to just go with the wacky plot stuff instead of questioning it? Yeah, this book had a lot of silly plot stuff, but so have 34 of the last 36 books in the series. To me, the silly plot stuff was just structure to get the characters into a situation where they had to deal with bad emotional stuff.
One of the interesting things about this series is how the darkness of it can surprise you.
Through unimportant happening, the animorphs found a group of "people" (the Nartec) living under our seas. The Nartec collected ships and more worryingly collected people to man those ships. Dead people. Or so it seemed at first.
The animorphs get captured by the Nartec, and through them we learned the truth. The Nartec capture people alive. And then they drug them and remove their bones and muscles and stuff them. At some point during that process the humans die, but they're awake and aware of it happening until that point.
Gah! That is nightmare material! To be awake and yet unable to move, unable to speak, while you're cut open and your insides removed? One of the Nartec even described how they do it: Cut people from the base of the neck down to the back of the knees, open them up, remove the bones and muscles... and they drug them so they can't fight back while it's happening.
Oh and then they use their genetic material to make babies, too.
While the plot had some silly elements, mostly I enjoyed this one. I can't imagine kids reading it though, the idea of it bothered even adult me.
And word is, the series only gets darker from here. Woo!
Edit: I always like reading others' reviews once I'm done with my own, and I was very surprised to see how hated this book was. Maybe it took 30-something books to just go with the wacky plot stuff instead of questioning it? Yeah, this book had a lot of silly plot stuff, but so have 34 of the last 36 books in the series. To me, the silly plot stuff was just structure to get the characters into a situation where they had to deal with bad emotional stuff.
July 10, 2022
We begin this story with an innocent’s death. Jesus.
The Yeerks are experimenting to alter the physical bodies of their enslaved Hork-Bajir and the Animorphs run into a centuries-old race of underwater beings living in a secret submerged society.
It’s odd and bizarre and uncomfortable from start to finish.
It’s a weird side quest of sorts to say the least where instead of the typical formula of Animorphs find new species > species become new allies against the Yeerks, this new civilization is simply a newly cruel threat.
Rachel is her same concerning Rachel self.
I hate all these plot detours.
CW: war, violence, slavery, death, torture, grief, experimentation, murder, brief/vague implication of sexual assault
The Yeerks are experimenting to alter the physical bodies of their enslaved Hork-Bajir and the Animorphs run into a centuries-old race of underwater beings living in a secret submerged society.
It’s odd and bizarre and uncomfortable from start to finish.
It’s a weird side quest of sorts to say the least where instead of the typical formula of Animorphs find new species > species become new allies against the Yeerks, this new civilization is simply a newly cruel threat.
Rachel is her same concerning Rachel self.
I hate all these plot detours.
CW: war, violence, slavery, death, torture, grief, experimentation, murder, brief/vague implication of sexual assault
May 12, 2022
This one's filler. Basically just an excuse for a cool new morph to put on the cover. The Yeerks are making an oceangoing ship to try to get to the Pemalite ship. The Visser is trying to mutate Hork-Bajir. The Animorphs morph orcas, because there's suddenly a convenient new exhibit at The Gardens with an orca.
They encounter mutated amphibious humans who look like aliens and who preserve shipwrecks they find at the bottom of the ocean, complete with taxidermied crew.
It's just kind of lazy. Though Tobias is the real hero. Saves everyone's lives.
Oh, and I liked the part where Cassie guided Jake through controlling the morphing process, kind of said how she does it, that was cool.
They encounter mutated amphibious humans who look like aliens and who preserve shipwrecks they find at the bottom of the ocean, complete with taxidermied crew.
It's just kind of lazy. Though Tobias is the real hero. Saves everyone's lives.
Oh, and I liked the part where Cassie guided Jake through controlling the morphing process, kind of said how she does it, that was cool.
March 4, 2023
Literally the most violent animorphs book thus far. FOR CHILDREN :) ! Become orca, get disemboweled. Become human, drown. Become orca again, get sliced in half. Don't worry we found a safe underground ca- OH MY GOD it's filled with human taxidermy. Atlantis chooses violence and sedates minors to rip out their spines Predator style. FOR CHILDREN :)
May 7, 2024
The animorphs discovering the equivalent of Atlantis was not on my animorphs bingo card
Also Jake just man up and fucking KILL CIVILIANS, THEY ARE TRYING TO KILL YOU ANYWAY?!?
No surprise Tobias saves the day
Also Jake just man up and fucking KILL CIVILIANS, THEY ARE TRYING TO KILL YOU ANYWAY?!?
No surprise Tobias saves the day
December 30, 2021
"I think I was getting a little desperate for ideas!""-Katherine Applegate
After my usual break, we're back to Animorphs with out next cycle. Our ghostwriter today is a one off named Erica Bobone. I couldn't find too much on here myself but Poparena did and he couldn't find much books under her belt before this. She later did more but comedy stuff, and infact she writes stand up sometimes. An odd fit for the series and it shows. Her writing has stiff parts, overusing the short sentences and repetitive word usage. It works in parts and wasn't a deal breaker, but of the ghostwritten books, I'd say it has the weakest actual writing. Still had plenty of vocabulary words though.
This one gets mocked for the concept alone, much like The Prophecy. I figured it'd be like that one where it's actually good and just gets unfairly bashed because of the idea. It...kind of. I like it but I'll admit it's in the middle tier of good, if I wasn't so generous it'd be lower but more so for being in the middle.
Remember The Exposed, where there was this Pemalite ship the Yeerks wanted to find? Well, they aren't giving up and want it again, and this time they tried mutating Hork Bair to get to it somehow, but it just killed them. Now they built some craft to get to it and they have to stop them again.
And along the way they discover Atlantis. Well okay, it's just a general underwater city that has fish people but come on, it's funny to say that this is about the Animorphs going to Atlantis. Yeah, that's the plot, a bit of an odd one.
And I get it, it's another silly high concept idea. But by now you know I don't judge based on that. The thing with this book is that despite some jokes in there, it's more serious than you'd expect. It's one of the gorier ones in a while, there's a death early on and some violent moments. It's wild and I appreciate that.
Despite the idea, it is taken seriously and it sorta works? I wish they just went silly as the main bulk is a bit generic. We get the usual intense moments as they carry out their mission. And hey, them getting the morph happens off page to save time! But we have been here before in The Exposed so it didn't feel quite as fresh.
It takes too long to get to the city and explore this race. They are kind of cool, the location is neat with interesting history. They are kind of interesting, and a bit morally interesting although they don't dive as deep as they could. What we get is still okay there. My main problem is that I just wanted more.
As silly as the idea is, what we get works fine and I wanted to go more into these people. Aside from a quick moment or two, there's no character stuff for Jake at all. A few things are brought up but that's it, despite the tone it doesn't get into the interesting moral stuff we usually get. It has the makings of that stuff but doesn't quite get there.
And the ending is abrupt. This feels like a victim of doing one a month, some have to be filler and this is a clear example. It mostly works well enough, with some interesting lore and the usual intense moments. It just becomes generic as a result of being a repeat we didn't need and not doing quite enough with the premise.
I can see others being harsher as a result but I still enjoyed reading through it. Me calling it Good and mostly due to it lacking anything bad. It stays on the rails and is certainly better constructed and more engaging than than the scant few I rated lower than Good at any rate.
It could be better but given the nature of it, it could be worse. It doesn't fully tank Jake's solid streak, but it does hurt it a bit. Ah well.
Next time, we see if Rachael rebounds with one I have not heard great things about. Oh boy. See ya then.
After my usual break, we're back to Animorphs with out next cycle. Our ghostwriter today is a one off named Erica Bobone. I couldn't find too much on here myself but Poparena did and he couldn't find much books under her belt before this. She later did more but comedy stuff, and infact she writes stand up sometimes. An odd fit for the series and it shows. Her writing has stiff parts, overusing the short sentences and repetitive word usage. It works in parts and wasn't a deal breaker, but of the ghostwritten books, I'd say it has the weakest actual writing. Still had plenty of vocabulary words though.
This one gets mocked for the concept alone, much like The Prophecy. I figured it'd be like that one where it's actually good and just gets unfairly bashed because of the idea. It...kind of. I like it but I'll admit it's in the middle tier of good, if I wasn't so generous it'd be lower but more so for being in the middle.
Remember The Exposed, where there was this Pemalite ship the Yeerks wanted to find? Well, they aren't giving up and want it again, and this time they tried mutating Hork Bair to get to it somehow, but it just killed them. Now they built some craft to get to it and they have to stop them again.
And along the way they discover Atlantis. Well okay, it's just a general underwater city that has fish people but come on, it's funny to say that this is about the Animorphs going to Atlantis. Yeah, that's the plot, a bit of an odd one.
And I get it, it's another silly high concept idea. But by now you know I don't judge based on that. The thing with this book is that despite some jokes in there, it's more serious than you'd expect. It's one of the gorier ones in a while, there's a death early on and some violent moments. It's wild and I appreciate that.
Despite the idea, it is taken seriously and it sorta works? I wish they just went silly as the main bulk is a bit generic. We get the usual intense moments as they carry out their mission. And hey, them getting the morph happens off page to save time! But we have been here before in The Exposed so it didn't feel quite as fresh.
It takes too long to get to the city and explore this race. They are kind of cool, the location is neat with interesting history. They are kind of interesting, and a bit morally interesting although they don't dive as deep as they could. What we get is still okay there. My main problem is that I just wanted more.
As silly as the idea is, what we get works fine and I wanted to go more into these people. Aside from a quick moment or two, there's no character stuff for Jake at all. A few things are brought up but that's it, despite the tone it doesn't get into the interesting moral stuff we usually get. It has the makings of that stuff but doesn't quite get there.
And the ending is abrupt. This feels like a victim of doing one a month, some have to be filler and this is a clear example. It mostly works well enough, with some interesting lore and the usual intense moments. It just becomes generic as a result of being a repeat we didn't need and not doing quite enough with the premise.
I can see others being harsher as a result but I still enjoyed reading through it. Me calling it Good and mostly due to it lacking anything bad. It stays on the rails and is certainly better constructed and more engaging than than the scant few I rated lower than Good at any rate.
It could be better but given the nature of it, it could be worse. It doesn't fully tank Jake's solid streak, but it does hurt it a bit. Ah well.
Next time, we see if Rachael rebounds with one I have not heard great things about. Oh boy. See ya then.
August 30, 2013
Brought to you by The Moonlight Library!
Jake and the Animorphs discover Visser Three’s newest toy, the Sea Blade, a ship designed to discover the location of the hidden Pemalite ship. If the Yeerks get their hands on that, it’s all over. The Animorphs need to stop Visser Three at all costs, even if it means entering an unknown world full of amphibious human mutations…
This book is pretty crap. There, I said it. It’s not badly written, but the plot it just so… it’s like they didn’t even try. Applegate or her ghost writer. The Animorphs get trapped underwater in a giant cave that is supposed to be Atlantis or something, and it’s ruled by mutated humans with blue skin and gills and enormous eyes. The amphibious people call themselves Nartec and can speak every language because they steal shipwrecks and turn the survivors into mummies after extracting their DNA to help with their breeding program.
Still with me? Yes, this is an Animorphs book. The Nartec aren’t aliens, they’re mutated humans, rapidly dying out after thousands of years of living way below the surface just off the coast of California in a hidden cave.
Still with me?
There is no reason why humans haven’t discovered the Nartec – the Animorphs can reach the save in orca morph. They didn’t need their giant squids, so it’s not particularly deep. And all those unaccounted for shipwrecks? Don’t you think someone would have found something when ships are being towed from two oceans away? And why didn’t the Nartec take anything from the Titanic? It would have been prime for them. (probably on the wrong side of the ocean)
Still with me?
Visser Three shows up to help them escape their watery prison and the Animorphs betray him at the last minute.
Don’t read this book. It’s a waste of time. Jake spends most of his time moping and questioning himself and beating himself up because he keeps making the wrong decisions. Yet the Animorphs emerge relatively unscathed, as usual, and the Nartec are never heard from again in the entire series.
April 24, 2023
Yet another study on how foolish human wars prove themselves to be. Love the concept of the Nartec species.
December 26, 2024
Ough. Rough.
The Mutation is so confusing, lore-wise, tone-wise, and ending-wise.
Fascinating premise, bloody action, and some horrifying medical moments, which would usually intrigue me. But everything comes together in such a wonky way that it all feels out of place for Animorphs. Throw in some weirdly charged cultural implications and this entry feels, bad.
The Mutation is so confusing, lore-wise, tone-wise, and ending-wise.
Fascinating premise, bloody action, and some horrifying medical moments, which would usually intrigue me. But everything comes together in such a wonky way that it all feels out of place for Animorphs. Throw in some weirdly charged cultural implications and this entry feels, bad.
April 24, 2024
the one where they find an underwater museum of ghost ships full of dead bodies and then almost get preserved and stuffed themselves. unreal. katherine applegate ur mind
December 8, 2021
Wasn’t one of the better stories
I did like that they introduced a new race into the Animorph world, and it was even cool that the Nartec were an Earth based civilization. How it was pulled off though is where it really missed the mark.
That the Nartec, aka Blue Gills, have been around for what looks like centuries, and adapted to using the surface worlds level of technology in addition to their own was interesting. They obviously know enough on how to introduce new DNA, at a cellular level into their society, from breaking down people they have captured. That is much further then human science. I would have thought with that expanding level of knowledge and skills, they’d have realized that their advanced mutations had to be caused from their exposure to their own glowing rocks. Not that radiation really causes mutations in that way, but we can forego that in the name of science fiction.
I would think some of their people would have splintered off, as they realize the radiation was potentially the cause of their race losing genetic viability. If the Animorphs figured this out so quickly, then the Nartec should already know. Maybe they have and there is another group of this race elsewhere in the oceans, and we will see them again. Still, they can breathe underwater, so there is no reason the entire civilization couldn’t move to another location. Maybe it wouldn’t be as secure, but with their tech level, I think they could create enough safety in a short amount of time.
I liked the potential of the Nartec, but I think there were just too many holes in the story and plot. Even the interactions between the main characters seemed off. They were slow and missing any character development. If this had been a live action sequence, I would have called the actors out for ‘phoning in’ their performances. The author kept everything more on the surface without any depth. That they were going out to protect the Pemalite ship from a new Yeerk ship, yet there wasn’t even a dialogue between Jake and Eric or any of the Chee, except as a paraphrased utterance of telling us that they got the exact location of the ship from them. Wouldn’t the Chee also have been able to give the Animorphs more detail regarding the new Yeerk ship, at least in the abstract?
Another missed step was not doing anything in regards to the modified Hork-Bajir. The free HB and the Animorphs were all rightly saddened and disgusted with what happened to these victims. But then their answer was to stop a ship that the Yeerk was building. Yes, that is an important piece, but wouldn’t the first have been to be sure that they stopped experimenting on the enslaved Hork-Bajir.
That Visser Three hid aboard the ship while it was captured was very likely but a sloppy plot point. Yet the Animorphs didn’t give much, if any, thought into walking around the Nartec community in humanoid forms, while V3 was potentially around and might see them. Then the final ending was disappointing with massively lazy writing. They help each other to escape the Nartec caves, but magically have the option to allow for the ship to be destroyed after leaving the cave. Then the Animorphs risk exposure again as they morph from their animal forms back to human and then into shark and whale bodies. They have no idea the capabilities of the Luminarian beast, so it’s certainly feasible, even wet, it would see them as they morph.
Finally, what is to stop the Yeerks from creating another ship, they have proof it works, as it only failed due to damage caused by the Animorphs. Hey can make another and be more careful, and the Nartec wouldn’t likely even bother them as they search for the Pemalite ship. The Animorphs have done nothing to stop the body modification experiments being preformed on the Hork-Bajir, so what is to stop the Yeerks from continuing this practice until they get it right. What do they tell the free HBs, except sorry for your loss and nothing we have done will stop this from continuing to happen.
A sadly disappointing story that was poorly written. It had potential with the Nartec and the new Sea Blade ship. There was even potential in the intelligence mentioned in regards to the Orca morph, yet none of that was explored. Now that the Yeerk know of another race, tailor-made for underwater work, shouldn’t they go after them to turn them into controllers.
I did like that they introduced a new race into the Animorph world, and it was even cool that the Nartec were an Earth based civilization. How it was pulled off though is where it really missed the mark.
That the Nartec, aka Blue Gills, have been around for what looks like centuries, and adapted to using the surface worlds level of technology in addition to their own was interesting. They obviously know enough on how to introduce new DNA, at a cellular level into their society, from breaking down people they have captured. That is much further then human science. I would have thought with that expanding level of knowledge and skills, they’d have realized that their advanced mutations had to be caused from their exposure to their own glowing rocks. Not that radiation really causes mutations in that way, but we can forego that in the name of science fiction.
I would think some of their people would have splintered off, as they realize the radiation was potentially the cause of their race losing genetic viability. If the Animorphs figured this out so quickly, then the Nartec should already know. Maybe they have and there is another group of this race elsewhere in the oceans, and we will see them again. Still, they can breathe underwater, so there is no reason the entire civilization couldn’t move to another location. Maybe it wouldn’t be as secure, but with their tech level, I think they could create enough safety in a short amount of time.
I liked the potential of the Nartec, but I think there were just too many holes in the story and plot. Even the interactions between the main characters seemed off. They were slow and missing any character development. If this had been a live action sequence, I would have called the actors out for ‘phoning in’ their performances. The author kept everything more on the surface without any depth. That they were going out to protect the Pemalite ship from a new Yeerk ship, yet there wasn’t even a dialogue between Jake and Eric or any of the Chee, except as a paraphrased utterance of telling us that they got the exact location of the ship from them. Wouldn’t the Chee also have been able to give the Animorphs more detail regarding the new Yeerk ship, at least in the abstract?
Another missed step was not doing anything in regards to the modified Hork-Bajir. The free HB and the Animorphs were all rightly saddened and disgusted with what happened to these victims. But then their answer was to stop a ship that the Yeerk was building. Yes, that is an important piece, but wouldn’t the first have been to be sure that they stopped experimenting on the enslaved Hork-Bajir.
That Visser Three hid aboard the ship while it was captured was very likely but a sloppy plot point. Yet the Animorphs didn’t give much, if any, thought into walking around the Nartec community in humanoid forms, while V3 was potentially around and might see them. Then the final ending was disappointing with massively lazy writing. They help each other to escape the Nartec caves, but magically have the option to allow for the ship to be destroyed after leaving the cave. Then the Animorphs risk exposure again as they morph from their animal forms back to human and then into shark and whale bodies. They have no idea the capabilities of the Luminarian beast, so it’s certainly feasible, even wet, it would see them as they morph.
Finally, what is to stop the Yeerks from creating another ship, they have proof it works, as it only failed due to damage caused by the Animorphs. Hey can make another and be more careful, and the Nartec wouldn’t likely even bother them as they search for the Pemalite ship. The Animorphs have done nothing to stop the body modification experiments being preformed on the Hork-Bajir, so what is to stop the Yeerks from continuing this practice until they get it right. What do they tell the free HBs, except sorry for your loss and nothing we have done will stop this from continuing to happen.
A sadly disappointing story that was poorly written. It had potential with the Nartec and the new Sea Blade ship. There was even potential in the intelligence mentioned in regards to the Orca morph, yet none of that was explored. Now that the Yeerk know of another race, tailor-made for underwater work, shouldn’t they go after them to turn them into controllers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 21, 2015
I heard that this book was not as good as some of the others, but I ended up surprisingly really enjoying it. Poor Jake. He's having a rough time. He didn't ask to be in charge, but he is, and everyone looks for him to make the decisions. He can't make the right decisions all the time and when he makes a mistake it weighs so heavily on him. I really fear for him going forward... the decisions are going to get tougher and the impact of those decisions is going to be so much worse :(
January 1, 2015
Great, now we have some mutated humans underwater with huge eyes called Nartec. Can we stop adding races just because?
May 30, 2016
This series delivers once again!
February 19, 2025
probably the best ghost written filler book in the series
August 3, 2016
Visser Three’s experiments to make aquatic-capable Hork-Bajir has failed at the expense of the lives of 50 Hork-Bajir, but he still has a new toy to test: the Sea Blade, a ship which can fly and dive into the ocean to try and locate the Pemalite ship. Now it is up to the Animorphs to take out this Sea Blade and prevent the Visser from obtaining the Pemalite technology.
At least, that’s how it starts out. Thing is, Jake has been listening to Cassie a lot, and the line between the reasons for the mission gets blurred. Is it just about destroying the Sea Blade, or is it about avenging the lives of the Hork-Bajir? While it may start out as the former, Jake does not forget to mention vengeance on the heels of the preventative destruction of the Sea Blade. Then, as the Animorphs get deeper and deeper into the ocean (literally) the stumble across a lost mutated-human civilization, the Nartecs, who makes museum displays of sunken human air and water crafts, as well as the preserved bodies of those unfortunate souls who drowned. The mission is still about the Sea Blade and avenging the Hork-Bajir, but I would argue that a new reason to keep moving forward drives Jake: pure and simple curiosity.
The Nartec civilization is an interesting one, and we get a tantalizing glimpse into how they operate. Sadly, we don’t get to see the tour of the Nartec palace the Animorphs get taken on (not enough space in the book?). Despite that, we still get a very over-arching idea of how their society is organized, and how remarkably and disturbingly similar it can be to human society.
At any rate, the Animorphs are in way over their heads, and they have to team up with an unexpected person to get out of the messy situation, or risk becoming a museum display.
Overall this book is much lighter than the most recent previous ones, and only succeeds in advancing Jake’s character if he learns some lessons from this escapade (or should I say, relearns the lessons he learned about decision making way back in #11 The Forgotten?). Though Jake’s style of narration seemed out of character for him (he’s not usually one for such short, curt sentences), I found it a relatively effective way to make certain points. Ax and Marco are wonderfully on-point in their characterization, which had been a bit lacking as of late, with the exception of Marco in Visser. I also really enjoyed that Tobias was once again the source of random historical information.
We want to hate them for what they do? Maybe we should stop helping them do it.
At least, that’s how it starts out. Thing is, Jake has been listening to Cassie a lot, and the line between the reasons for the mission gets blurred. Is it just about destroying the Sea Blade, or is it about avenging the lives of the Hork-Bajir? While it may start out as the former, Jake does not forget to mention vengeance on the heels of the preventative destruction of the Sea Blade. Then, as the Animorphs get deeper and deeper into the ocean (literally) the stumble across a lost mutated-human civilization, the Nartecs, who makes museum displays of sunken human air and water crafts, as well as the preserved bodies of those unfortunate souls who drowned. The mission is still about the Sea Blade and avenging the Hork-Bajir, but I would argue that a new reason to keep moving forward drives Jake: pure and simple curiosity.
The Nartec civilization is an interesting one, and we get a tantalizing glimpse into how they operate. Sadly, we don’t get to see the tour of the Nartec palace the Animorphs get taken on (not enough space in the book?). Despite that, we still get a very over-arching idea of how their society is organized, and how remarkably and disturbingly similar it can be to human society.
At any rate, the Animorphs are in way over their heads, and they have to team up with an unexpected person to get out of the messy situation, or risk becoming a museum display.
Overall this book is much lighter than the most recent previous ones, and only succeeds in advancing Jake’s character if he learns some lessons from this escapade (or should I say, relearns the lessons he learned about decision making way back in #11 The Forgotten?). Though Jake’s style of narration seemed out of character for him (he’s not usually one for such short, curt sentences), I found it a relatively effective way to make certain points. Ax and Marco are wonderfully on-point in their characterization, which had been a bit lacking as of late, with the exception of Marco in Visser. I also really enjoyed that Tobias was once again the source of random historical information.
We want to hate them for what they do? Maybe we should stop helping them do it.
November 13, 2018
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
)
Narrator: Jake
Plot: Ah, yes, the Atlantis book. It’s at this point in the series where I very distinctly remember switching to this attitude:
Why rage against what is? Of course, Atlantis! Why NOT Atlantis?!
Jake gets the always dreaded late night phone call to meet in Cassie’s barn. There he finds her and several of the Hork Bajir from the free valley along with another Hork Bajir that is clearly dying despite all of Cassie’s best efforts. The Jara Hamee and Toby report that this is one of 50 Hork Bajir that were experimented on by the Yeerks in a search to create a being that could thrive underwater in order to again pursue the Pemalite ship. The experiments went horribly wrong and all of the Hork Bajir died, including, shortly following, the one in the barn. When these experiments failed, the Yeerks turned to creating a new specialized ship called the Sea Blade and they will be launching it soon.
The Animorphs jump into action and conduct their usual airborne stakeout of the Yeerk pool. When they see a large, cloaked ship emerge, they know this is it and pursue it to the ocean where they all morph orca whales (because of course The Gardens recently got an orca). They follow the ship down and eventually decide they have to attack it and destroy it and the only real way is brute force. They start going after it only to be quickly spotted and shot at by the ship’s powerful laser weapons. The group takes a lot of damage with various members, including Jake, needing to demorph and remorph several times. Finally, their only option is to all ram the ship at once. The massive blow works, crippling the ship, and it starts to sink. The group follow it to make sure it’s really destroyed, but instead see it come to rest outside of a large, underwater cave where a bizarre set of beings emerge and pull the ship inside.
Jake decides they need to follow the ship, still set on the original mission to make sure the Sea Blade is completely destroyed. They all morph hammerhead shark and head into the cave. At the back of the cave, they pass through some type of force field masquerading as a dead end. Behind this field, they come out in a bizarre ship graveyard. The space is massive and is filled with various ships from throughout the centuries, old sailing ships to more recent Russian subs. But what is really horrifying is when the examine the ships more closely, they see stuffed, dead humans displayed as if they were mannequins in a museum. They continue through the massive cave and through another entrance. Past this door they discover Atlantis.
Cassie wondered.
Rachel said dryly.
The city has clearly been constructed over centuries, with the bottom layer made up of older materials and the upper with more recent steel and such. The Animorphs decide to morph birds to get a better look. They find the Sea Blade and see the Hork Bajir on board being lead away be a group of underwater beings. The Atlantians look like humans, but with larger eyes and gills in their necks. They’re armed with a variety of weapons, from bow and arrows to handguns. As they continue their search, they begin to hear what sounds like the captured Hork Bajir screaming in pain. They decide that it might be best to leave.
When they land to demorph, however, they are captured, all but Tobias who remained in the air. In their human (and Andalite form), they are brought into the city and presented to a woman who is their queen. She identifies herself as Queen Soca and that her people are called the Nartec. She invites them to tour her city and join her for a banquet, though it is clear that these are orders and not invitations.
At the banquet, the group hears the history of the Nartec people. Long ago, their city began sinking below the water. Eventually the walls they built bent inwards and formed a cave which protected them as the city fully submerged. Below water, they found glowing rocks to provide light and their people quickly adapted to their new life. Ax theorizes in private thought-speak that the rocks that are currently lighting the area are radioactive and that it is this that helped mutate the people into beings who could survive underwater. Queen Soca then goes into her plan to use the Sea Blade to attack the world above. She then dismisses them to continue their “tour.”
The group now knows that they cannot simply flee. While the Sea Blade alone could only do limited damage, there is a good chance that the Nartec people also have access to a plethora of missiles (potentially even nukes) that have sunk over the years. They also discuss why Queen Soca would be wanting to attack the surface people now of all times. Ax again theorizes that the Nartecs are perhaps going extinct due to a lack of biogentic diversity. He suspects they are very inbred and have had to breed with past ship wrekc victims to keep their people alive.
They also suspect that Visser Three is lurking around somewhere, which prevents them from immediately morphing and trying to escape. As the tour continues, they eventually end up at the Nartec hospital. Jake is suspicious about this and tries to refuse to go in. The group is surrounded, however, and soon sedated using tranquilizers. He and the others wake up face down on operating tables. They are informed that their DNA will be harvested to help the genetic cause and then they will be mummified and added to their collection. Under heavy sedation, the team struggles to move until suddenly another Nartec enters and begins taking out his fellows. Nartec!Tobias rescues the group and they all morph their battle morphs and head towards the Sea Blade.
On board the ship, Ax struggles to get through the security protocols. As he works, the Nartecs assemble outside and begin attacking the ship. They fire canons at it and blow a whole in the back end. They also begin squeezing their way through the door. The Animorphs try to hold them back, but start to become overrun through sheer numbers. Luckily (?), Visser Three shows up in a morph that has super-hot skin and can incinerate things. He starts taking out the Nartec’s himself and proposes they strike a deal: they work together and get out of this hellhole. Jake publicly agrees, but privately instructs gorilla!Marco to go to the back of the ship and try to hold the hull hole shut. Marco won’t be able to hold it against the full force of the ocean, but it should work for a bit, and Jake suspects that Visser Three doesn’t know the ship is damaged.
Visser Three gives them access to the ship’s controls, and Ax takes over as pilot with Rachel on weapons. They blow their way through to the next cavern with the museum of ships. There Jake tells Marco to let the hull go and the ship quickly begins filling with water. The Animorphs all escape and re-morph to sharks. They spot Visser Three escaping as well. They make their way out of the last cavern and return to shore. They are horrified by what the Nartec people, especially by their desecration of the dead, but, of course, the fight with the Yeerks comes first.
Our Fearless Leader: For the narrator of the book, Jake goes through very little personal growth or exploration in this book. It’s primarily focused on the action of the story. And look, when you’re going to try to sell a “Atlantis is real!!!” storyline, I get not wanting to cram in a lot more. But it’s always disappointing, too, when we miss out on these character building moments. And typically, Jake, Marco and Rachel often have the best in this area, so missing it from him is even worse.
What we do get is a lot of evidence of how far Jake has grown as a leader. In the beginning of the mission, he evaluates the group and where they are at with the new plan. He notes that with most missions, at least half of the group is having some issue or another (here, Cassie seems to be in it for the wrong reasons, Marco is rather indifferent, and Tobias is also potentially more emotionally invested than is good, while Ax and Rachel are behaving normally). It’s a good example of him quickly identifying where each member of the group is at, and also an interesting reminder of the group dynamics. Thinking back on it, this seems pretty right: it usually is about 50% of the group who has some particular struggle with any given mission with the other 50% behaving mostly normally. Ax and Tobias probably fall in the normal group more often than the others, but the stats are generally the same.
Then, throughout the story, we get the usual Jake stuff with his concerns that he is risking his friends’ lives for nothing or made the wrong choice. However, we never see any outward expression of this. He doesn’t have any freeze up or spirals of anxiety like we’ve seen in the past. Instead, at the very end of the book we get this:
My own mistakes would keep me awake at night for a while to come. But I’d been in charge for a while, now. I’d gotten past thinking I would always be right. It’s a war, I reminded myself. You did what you could, Jake. You tried to do what’s right. You tried not to make it any worse than it had to be. And you got everyone home alive.
This is a very mature outlook on things, and the first time we’ve really seen this settling of Jake’s thoughts regarding his role as leader.
Xena, Warrior Princess: Other than her usual gung-ho-ness, Rachel doesn’t have too many moments that stand out in this book, other than a scene at the very end. When they’re on the Sea Blade fighting off the masses of Nartecs, there’s a pretty badass image of Rachel standing in the doorway alone, using one Nartec as a body shield and taking out tons of others with a single paw. It’s a pretty neat image of the absolute warrior that she is.
A Hawk’s Life: Tobias to the rescue! It’s often confusing why he stays in hawk morph some of the times he does (another example comes at the end of this book when they’re all fighting on the Sea Blade. I HAVE to think that another morph would have been better against the Nartecs than staying in his hawk form). But arc of this story goes to show why it’s also a good thing for him to remain as a bird. As such, he doesn’t get caught with the others and is able to acquire a Nartec morph and rescue them in the end. From his experience as a Nartec, he’s also able to report that the Nartecs are misrepresenting their own strength and that the Nartec giving them a tour is one of the few stronger ones that is able to walk on land for long periods of time. Most of the Nartecs, like the one he morphed, are only strong in water and don’t do well on land for long.
Peace, Love, and Animals: Cassie has a very strong reaction to losing the Hork Bajir in the beginning of the story. She even has to be strong enough to advocate for letting the Hork Bajir die rather than prolong his suffering with extra measures, which is Jake’s knee-jerk reaction when he sees him start to fade. But she then takes these feelings to a very blood-thristy and un-Cassie-like level which leads to Jake placing her on his “problem” list. This reaction seems in line with Cassie, both with the stronger aspects of her personality and weaker ones. She is incredibly empathetic and, especially being the one who is tasked with healing others, it is not surprising that the death would hit her hard. But she then quickly succumbs to a revenge attitude which is another example of her moral weakness (in that her much vaunted “morality” often falls away at convenient (for her) moments.) Marco even calls her out on this poor attitude:
“What they did to the Hork-Bajir was evil,” she said.”Over the line. Way over the line. We need to teach them a lesson.”
Marco said what I was thinking. “Hey, we don’t teach lessons. And we don’t do revenge. Besides, everything the Yeerks do is over the line. We stop them. That’s what we do.”
The Comic Relief: Marco is fairly reluctant throughout this entire mission. In some ways, it seems that this falls in line with his general and ongoing frustration with the Chee’s inability to manage some of their problems, like the ship. After the events of “Visser,” it is clear that Marco has an eye on the bigger picture and partially sees this mission as not worth their time. But he doesn’t push Jake too far and agrees when it comes down to it that he will follow Jake’s lead. We don’t get to see him holding the ship together in his gorilla morph, but we have to imagine that that was one of his cooler feats of strength.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax is the one to put together most of the pieces that make up the mystery of the Nartec people. He figures out how they could have adapted so quickly to life under water (the radiation) and is also able to figure out what is now suddenly driving their desperation to attack the surface world (their slow extinction). The Nartec queen also calls him the other Animorphs “pet” at one point, which he doesn’t take well.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: Stuffed, mummified people is pretty horrifying. But what really sets it off is that when the group finally makes it back to the Sea Blade, it is already set up with the stuffed bodies of the Hork Bajir. They had just been alive and the team had heard their screams, and now here they are, stuffed and mimed to be performing functions on the ship. It’s pretty bad.
Couples Watch!: Jake gives Cassie a hug after the Hork Bajir dies in the barn and calls her his girlfriend at another point in the story. Rachel and Tobias also comment on their worry about each other when they are reunited after Tobias rescues them from the Nartec hospital.
Rachel said.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: There was a noticeable difference in the way Visser Three’s dialogue was written in this one. He was much more savvy and well-spoken than his usual, corny, rage-induced mania. It’s always a bit strange when readers can notice changes in characterization like this that come down to different authors writing differently. Though his plan to find the Pemalite ship to prove a big point to the Council of Thirteen about his worth seems right in line. It’s also always interesting when we see the Animorphs have to work alongside the Yeerks, and this was a fun example of them taking advantage of the private vs. public thought speak modes to outwardly agree to Visser Three’s plan while also plotting against him.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: The beginning where the Hork Bajir dies is definitely cry worthy. The story doesn’t pull back on the anguish of the Hork Bajir and the sadness of Jara Hamee as he watches his friend die.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: It’s not really a plan, but they sure are determined to make sure the Sea Blade is good and destroyed. It seemed like there were a lot of opportunities where some good old fashioned sneaking would have worked better than what they were up to. Jake’s plan at the end to trick Visser Three about the damaged ship was probably the best plan in the whole book.
Favorite Quote: A good burn by Visser Three:
And for some reason, we’re doubling down again on the weirdness of whales morphs and their “special knowledge.” It’s just as stupid this time as it was the first time. This just doesn’t seem right. Again, getting into the fact that the “orca” here is just the remnants of instinct. Its body is Jake’s body made up of his cells changed to orca cells. There IS NO ORCA. Ugh, I hate it when the story goes down this kind of nonsensical “but are we any better than the Yeerks??” hand-wank path. Luckily, it’s never touched on again, which just makes it all the more unnecessary to include at all.
I had encountered intelligence in a morph before. But there was something new here. New for me, at least. The orca was aware. Of me. Of something, someone directing its behavior. It knew, in some incomplete, simplistic way, that it was being controlled.
Scorecard: Yeerks 8, Animorphs 15
A point for the Animorphs! While it wasn’t the biggest mission ever, destroying the Sea Blade was their prime objective and they completed that, thus at least further delaying the Yeerks’ attempt to recover the Pemalite ship.
Rating: There was no where else to really put this bit, but there was a really strange portion of the book that briefly discussed the Nartecs using captured sailors as “breeding stock.” Cassie even goes so far as to say that that may end up being their fate as well. And then Rachel makes a joke about Marco finally getting a girlfriend. It was….very strange, seeing that in a middle grade/young adult book. I mean, if you actually think about what they’re saying there, that’s serious stuff and really seriously horrifying stuff. I get that the book was using the genetic issues as a motive for the Nartec wanting to attack the surface, but to get into the details of breeding stock and to even bring it up with relation to the Animorphs themselves (who are CHILDREN) is pretty messed up. It’s tough, because one of the things I like best about this series is that it takes a serious look at war and its effects on soldiers. But this was a story about freaking Atlantis for pete’s sake. I think if we’re that far down the nonsense path, we can maybe leave out the speculation about the rape of young kids in this go around.
Other than that, this book was enjoyable enough. I had to make sure not to let my mind turn on at any point, but the action itself was fun. I do wish there had been a bit more development for Jake’s character as I always feel like it’s a missed opportunity in Jake/Rachel/Marco books if they don’t add some good character angle.
Narrator: Jake
Plot: Ah, yes, the Atlantis book. It’s at this point in the series where I very distinctly remember switching to this attitude:
Why rage against what is? Of course, Atlantis! Why NOT Atlantis?!
Jake gets the always dreaded late night phone call to meet in Cassie’s barn. There he finds her and several of the Hork Bajir from the free valley along with another Hork Bajir that is clearly dying despite all of Cassie’s best efforts. The Jara Hamee and Toby report that this is one of 50 Hork Bajir that were experimented on by the Yeerks in a search to create a being that could thrive underwater in order to again pursue the Pemalite ship. The experiments went horribly wrong and all of the Hork Bajir died, including, shortly following, the one in the barn. When these experiments failed, the Yeerks turned to creating a new specialized ship called the Sea Blade and they will be launching it soon.
The Animorphs jump into action and conduct their usual airborne stakeout of the Yeerk pool. When they see a large, cloaked ship emerge, they know this is it and pursue it to the ocean where they all morph orca whales (because of course The Gardens recently got an orca). They follow the ship down and eventually decide they have to attack it and destroy it and the only real way is brute force. They start going after it only to be quickly spotted and shot at by the ship’s powerful laser weapons. The group takes a lot of damage with various members, including Jake, needing to demorph and remorph several times. Finally, their only option is to all ram the ship at once. The massive blow works, crippling the ship, and it starts to sink. The group follow it to make sure it’s really destroyed, but instead see it come to rest outside of a large, underwater cave where a bizarre set of beings emerge and pull the ship inside.
Jake decides they need to follow the ship, still set on the original mission to make sure the Sea Blade is completely destroyed. They all morph hammerhead shark and head into the cave. At the back of the cave, they pass through some type of force field masquerading as a dead end. Behind this field, they come out in a bizarre ship graveyard. The space is massive and is filled with various ships from throughout the centuries, old sailing ships to more recent Russian subs. But what is really horrifying is when the examine the ships more closely, they see stuffed, dead humans displayed as if they were mannequins in a museum. They continue through the massive cave and through another entrance. Past this door they discover Atlantis.
Cassie wondered.
Rachel said dryly.
The city has clearly been constructed over centuries, with the bottom layer made up of older materials and the upper with more recent steel and such. The Animorphs decide to morph birds to get a better look. They find the Sea Blade and see the Hork Bajir on board being lead away be a group of underwater beings. The Atlantians look like humans, but with larger eyes and gills in their necks. They’re armed with a variety of weapons, from bow and arrows to handguns. As they continue their search, they begin to hear what sounds like the captured Hork Bajir screaming in pain. They decide that it might be best to leave.
When they land to demorph, however, they are captured, all but Tobias who remained in the air. In their human (and Andalite form), they are brought into the city and presented to a woman who is their queen. She identifies herself as Queen Soca and that her people are called the Nartec. She invites them to tour her city and join her for a banquet, though it is clear that these are orders and not invitations.
At the banquet, the group hears the history of the Nartec people. Long ago, their city began sinking below the water. Eventually the walls they built bent inwards and formed a cave which protected them as the city fully submerged. Below water, they found glowing rocks to provide light and their people quickly adapted to their new life. Ax theorizes in private thought-speak that the rocks that are currently lighting the area are radioactive and that it is this that helped mutate the people into beings who could survive underwater. Queen Soca then goes into her plan to use the Sea Blade to attack the world above. She then dismisses them to continue their “tour.”
The group now knows that they cannot simply flee. While the Sea Blade alone could only do limited damage, there is a good chance that the Nartec people also have access to a plethora of missiles (potentially even nukes) that have sunk over the years. They also discuss why Queen Soca would be wanting to attack the surface people now of all times. Ax again theorizes that the Nartecs are perhaps going extinct due to a lack of biogentic diversity. He suspects they are very inbred and have had to breed with past ship wrekc victims to keep their people alive.
They also suspect that Visser Three is lurking around somewhere, which prevents them from immediately morphing and trying to escape. As the tour continues, they eventually end up at the Nartec hospital. Jake is suspicious about this and tries to refuse to go in. The group is surrounded, however, and soon sedated using tranquilizers. He and the others wake up face down on operating tables. They are informed that their DNA will be harvested to help the genetic cause and then they will be mummified and added to their collection. Under heavy sedation, the team struggles to move until suddenly another Nartec enters and begins taking out his fellows. Nartec!Tobias rescues the group and they all morph their battle morphs and head towards the Sea Blade.
On board the ship, Ax struggles to get through the security protocols. As he works, the Nartecs assemble outside and begin attacking the ship. They fire canons at it and blow a whole in the back end. They also begin squeezing their way through the door. The Animorphs try to hold them back, but start to become overrun through sheer numbers. Luckily (?), Visser Three shows up in a morph that has super-hot skin and can incinerate things. He starts taking out the Nartec’s himself and proposes they strike a deal: they work together and get out of this hellhole. Jake publicly agrees, but privately instructs gorilla!Marco to go to the back of the ship and try to hold the hull hole shut. Marco won’t be able to hold it against the full force of the ocean, but it should work for a bit, and Jake suspects that Visser Three doesn’t know the ship is damaged.
Visser Three gives them access to the ship’s controls, and Ax takes over as pilot with Rachel on weapons. They blow their way through to the next cavern with the museum of ships. There Jake tells Marco to let the hull go and the ship quickly begins filling with water. The Animorphs all escape and re-morph to sharks. They spot Visser Three escaping as well. They make their way out of the last cavern and return to shore. They are horrified by what the Nartec people, especially by their desecration of the dead, but, of course, the fight with the Yeerks comes first.
Our Fearless Leader: For the narrator of the book, Jake goes through very little personal growth or exploration in this book. It’s primarily focused on the action of the story. And look, when you’re going to try to sell a “Atlantis is real!!!” storyline, I get not wanting to cram in a lot more. But it’s always disappointing, too, when we miss out on these character building moments. And typically, Jake, Marco and Rachel often have the best in this area, so missing it from him is even worse.
What we do get is a lot of evidence of how far Jake has grown as a leader. In the beginning of the mission, he evaluates the group and where they are at with the new plan. He notes that with most missions, at least half of the group is having some issue or another (here, Cassie seems to be in it for the wrong reasons, Marco is rather indifferent, and Tobias is also potentially more emotionally invested than is good, while Ax and Rachel are behaving normally). It’s a good example of him quickly identifying where each member of the group is at, and also an interesting reminder of the group dynamics. Thinking back on it, this seems pretty right: it usually is about 50% of the group who has some particular struggle with any given mission with the other 50% behaving mostly normally. Ax and Tobias probably fall in the normal group more often than the others, but the stats are generally the same.
Then, throughout the story, we get the usual Jake stuff with his concerns that he is risking his friends’ lives for nothing or made the wrong choice. However, we never see any outward expression of this. He doesn’t have any freeze up or spirals of anxiety like we’ve seen in the past. Instead, at the very end of the book we get this:
My own mistakes would keep me awake at night for a while to come. But I’d been in charge for a while, now. I’d gotten past thinking I would always be right. It’s a war, I reminded myself. You did what you could, Jake. You tried to do what’s right. You tried not to make it any worse than it had to be. And you got everyone home alive.
This is a very mature outlook on things, and the first time we’ve really seen this settling of Jake’s thoughts regarding his role as leader.
Xena, Warrior Princess: Other than her usual gung-ho-ness, Rachel doesn’t have too many moments that stand out in this book, other than a scene at the very end. When they’re on the Sea Blade fighting off the masses of Nartecs, there’s a pretty badass image of Rachel standing in the doorway alone, using one Nartec as a body shield and taking out tons of others with a single paw. It’s a pretty neat image of the absolute warrior that she is.
A Hawk’s Life: Tobias to the rescue! It’s often confusing why he stays in hawk morph some of the times he does (another example comes at the end of this book when they’re all fighting on the Sea Blade. I HAVE to think that another morph would have been better against the Nartecs than staying in his hawk form). But arc of this story goes to show why it’s also a good thing for him to remain as a bird. As such, he doesn’t get caught with the others and is able to acquire a Nartec morph and rescue them in the end. From his experience as a Nartec, he’s also able to report that the Nartecs are misrepresenting their own strength and that the Nartec giving them a tour is one of the few stronger ones that is able to walk on land for long periods of time. Most of the Nartecs, like the one he morphed, are only strong in water and don’t do well on land for long.
Peace, Love, and Animals: Cassie has a very strong reaction to losing the Hork Bajir in the beginning of the story. She even has to be strong enough to advocate for letting the Hork Bajir die rather than prolong his suffering with extra measures, which is Jake’s knee-jerk reaction when he sees him start to fade. But she then takes these feelings to a very blood-thristy and un-Cassie-like level which leads to Jake placing her on his “problem” list. This reaction seems in line with Cassie, both with the stronger aspects of her personality and weaker ones. She is incredibly empathetic and, especially being the one who is tasked with healing others, it is not surprising that the death would hit her hard. But she then quickly succumbs to a revenge attitude which is another example of her moral weakness (in that her much vaunted “morality” often falls away at convenient (for her) moments.) Marco even calls her out on this poor attitude:
“What they did to the Hork-Bajir was evil,” she said.”Over the line. Way over the line. We need to teach them a lesson.”
Marco said what I was thinking. “Hey, we don’t teach lessons. And we don’t do revenge. Besides, everything the Yeerks do is over the line. We stop them. That’s what we do.”
The Comic Relief: Marco is fairly reluctant throughout this entire mission. In some ways, it seems that this falls in line with his general and ongoing frustration with the Chee’s inability to manage some of their problems, like the ship. After the events of “Visser,” it is clear that Marco has an eye on the bigger picture and partially sees this mission as not worth their time. But he doesn’t push Jake too far and agrees when it comes down to it that he will follow Jake’s lead. We don’t get to see him holding the ship together in his gorilla morph, but we have to imagine that that was one of his cooler feats of strength.
E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax is the one to put together most of the pieces that make up the mystery of the Nartec people. He figures out how they could have adapted so quickly to life under water (the radiation) and is also able to figure out what is now suddenly driving their desperation to attack the surface world (their slow extinction). The Nartec queen also calls him the other Animorphs “pet” at one point, which he doesn’t take well.
Best (?) Body Horror Moment: Stuffed, mummified people is pretty horrifying. But what really sets it off is that when the group finally makes it back to the Sea Blade, it is already set up with the stuffed bodies of the Hork Bajir. They had just been alive and the team had heard their screams, and now here they are, stuffed and mimed to be performing functions on the ship. It’s pretty bad.
Couples Watch!: Jake gives Cassie a hug after the Hork Bajir dies in the barn and calls her his girlfriend at another point in the story. Rachel and Tobias also comment on their worry about each other when they are reunited after Tobias rescues them from the Nartec hospital.
Rachel said.
If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: There was a noticeable difference in the way Visser Three’s dialogue was written in this one. He was much more savvy and well-spoken than his usual, corny, rage-induced mania. It’s always a bit strange when readers can notice changes in characterization like this that come down to different authors writing differently. Though his plan to find the Pemalite ship to prove a big point to the Council of Thirteen about his worth seems right in line. It’s also always interesting when we see the Animorphs have to work alongside the Yeerks, and this was a fun example of them taking advantage of the private vs. public thought speak modes to outwardly agree to Visser Three’s plan while also plotting against him.
Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: The beginning where the Hork Bajir dies is definitely cry worthy. The story doesn’t pull back on the anguish of the Hork Bajir and the sadness of Jara Hamee as he watches his friend die.
What a Terrible Plan, Guys!: It’s not really a plan, but they sure are determined to make sure the Sea Blade is good and destroyed. It seemed like there were a lot of opportunities where some good old fashioned sneaking would have worked better than what they were up to. Jake’s plan at the end to trick Visser Three about the damaged ship was probably the best plan in the whole book.
Favorite Quote: A good burn by Visser Three:
And for some reason, we’re doubling down again on the weirdness of whales morphs and their “special knowledge.” It’s just as stupid this time as it was the first time. This just doesn’t seem right. Again, getting into the fact that the “orca” here is just the remnants of instinct. Its body is Jake’s body made up of his cells changed to orca cells. There IS NO ORCA. Ugh, I hate it when the story goes down this kind of nonsensical “but are we any better than the Yeerks??” hand-wank path. Luckily, it’s never touched on again, which just makes it all the more unnecessary to include at all.
I had encountered intelligence in a morph before. But there was something new here. New for me, at least. The orca was aware. Of me. Of something, someone directing its behavior. It knew, in some incomplete, simplistic way, that it was being controlled.
Scorecard: Yeerks 8, Animorphs 15
A point for the Animorphs! While it wasn’t the biggest mission ever, destroying the Sea Blade was their prime objective and they completed that, thus at least further delaying the Yeerks’ attempt to recover the Pemalite ship.
Rating: There was no where else to really put this bit, but there was a really strange portion of the book that briefly discussed the Nartecs using captured sailors as “breeding stock.” Cassie even goes so far as to say that that may end up being their fate as well. And then Rachel makes a joke about Marco finally getting a girlfriend. It was….very strange, seeing that in a middle grade/young adult book. I mean, if you actually think about what they’re saying there, that’s serious stuff and really seriously horrifying stuff. I get that the book was using the genetic issues as a motive for the Nartec wanting to attack the surface, but to get into the details of breeding stock and to even bring it up with relation to the Animorphs themselves (who are CHILDREN) is pretty messed up. It’s tough, because one of the things I like best about this series is that it takes a serious look at war and its effects on soldiers. But this was a story about freaking Atlantis for pete’s sake. I think if we’re that far down the nonsense path, we can maybe leave out the speculation about the rape of young kids in this go around.
Other than that, this book was enjoyable enough. I had to make sure not to let my mind turn on at any point, but the action itself was fun. I do wish there had been a bit more development for Jake’s character as I always feel like it’s a missed opportunity in Jake/Rachel/Marco books if they don’t add some good character angle.
July 29, 2020
Original Review at Jaunts & Haunts
2.5/5
I gave this book two and a half stars.
I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with this one.
Overall, the past few books haven't been all that great, and I'm really hoping that it gets better soon. Even if these were ghostwritten, it's not an excuse for poorly executed books. Anyways.
This time we are in Jake's POV. Cassie calls him late one night and he rushes over to see what the problem is. Turns out, Visser Three did experiments on Hork Bajir to give them gills in hopes of finding the Pemalite ship. While that failed, the Animorphs are determined to stop Visser Three's plans by any means necessary, which could mean a whole lot more trouble than they could possibly imagine.
I think the biggest issue for me with this book was the characters. It's clear this was ghostwritten, and the characters aren't portrayed correctly. Rachel was kind of nice to Marco (what the heck?), Cassie wanted cold-blooded revenge (what the heck heck?), Marco knew WAY too much about ships (that's three hecks now), and Jake made some seriously faulty decisions that a seasoned leader (even a young seasoned leader) wouldn't make.
I did like the premise. Visser Three looking for the Pemalite ship again is very bad news for the Animorphs, but this feels very been there, done that. Why beat a dead horse?
The focal point of the story felt very underwhelming. The underwater race didn't really wow me, and though the take was creative, I just didn't enjoy it all that much. It just felt like a filler installment in the series, and if things aren't progressing at this point, why are readers wasting their time reading this one?
In the end, I can't really recommend this one. If you happen to be reading the series, maybe you should just skip this one. Nothing of real consequence happens in my opinion. Despite all that, I'm in it for the long haul, so here's hoping the next book isn't as cringeworthy.
2.5/5
I gave this book two and a half stars.
I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with this one.
Overall, the past few books haven't been all that great, and I'm really hoping that it gets better soon. Even if these were ghostwritten, it's not an excuse for poorly executed books. Anyways.
This time we are in Jake's POV. Cassie calls him late one night and he rushes over to see what the problem is. Turns out, Visser Three did experiments on Hork Bajir to give them gills in hopes of finding the Pemalite ship. While that failed, the Animorphs are determined to stop Visser Three's plans by any means necessary, which could mean a whole lot more trouble than they could possibly imagine.
I think the biggest issue for me with this book was the characters. It's clear this was ghostwritten, and the characters aren't portrayed correctly. Rachel was kind of nice to Marco (what the heck?), Cassie wanted cold-blooded revenge (what the heck heck?), Marco knew WAY too much about ships (that's three hecks now), and Jake made some seriously faulty decisions that a seasoned leader (even a young seasoned leader) wouldn't make.
I did like the premise. Visser Three looking for the Pemalite ship again is very bad news for the Animorphs, but this feels very been there, done that. Why beat a dead horse?
The focal point of the story felt very underwhelming. The underwater race didn't really wow me, and though the take was creative, I just didn't enjoy it all that much. It just felt like a filler installment in the series, and if things aren't progressing at this point, why are readers wasting their time reading this one?
In the end, I can't really recommend this one. If you happen to be reading the series, maybe you should just skip this one. Nothing of real consequence happens in my opinion. Despite all that, I'm in it for the long haul, so here's hoping the next book isn't as cringeworthy.
June 16, 2017
A one off, but not bad, just different and strange. The Sea Blade was an interesting idea as well as the Nartek, but they kinds seam like the Hemlacons (I think that's how to spell it? Don't feel like digging out book to look at it). I think it was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't, it came off as serious so that just made it stranger.
A phone call at three A.M. is rarely a good thing.
When you're an Animorph, the chance of good news ever -- day or night -- is zero.
Any of these people might have a Yeerk in their head. Might be what we call a human-Controller.
My brother Tom is one. His bedroom is two doors down from mine. Marco's mother is a Controller. We don't know where she is.
Our vice principal, Chapman, is one. How many more? We don't know. More. Always more.
We are not winning this war. We're delaying the final defeat. No more than that.
Maybe not as much as that.
Sometimes I'm secretly proud when Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the Andalite cadet who joined us not long after we encountered his older brother Elfangor, calls me "Prince" Jake...
I'm proud when we're winning. When we're "kicking Yeerk butt" as Rachel would say.
I'm also proud when we don't win but have done the best we could. Acted with courage and honor.
Most of the time I'm also terrified.
Like when I heard Cassie's trembling voice on the other end of the line.
Rachel liked the idea of delivering a harsh lesson. I expected that from Rachel. But from Cassie it worried me.
I said.
Ax said.
Marco said.
A phone call at three A.M. is rarely a good thing.
When you're an Animorph, the chance of good news ever -- day or night -- is zero.
Any of these people might have a Yeerk in their head. Might be what we call a human-Controller.
My brother Tom is one. His bedroom is two doors down from mine. Marco's mother is a Controller. We don't know where she is.
Our vice principal, Chapman, is one. How many more? We don't know. More. Always more.
We are not winning this war. We're delaying the final defeat. No more than that.
Maybe not as much as that.
Sometimes I'm secretly proud when Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the Andalite cadet who joined us not long after we encountered his older brother Elfangor, calls me "Prince" Jake...
I'm proud when we're winning. When we're "kicking Yeerk butt" as Rachel would say.
I'm also proud when we don't win but have done the best we could. Acted with courage and honor.
Most of the time I'm also terrified.
Like when I heard Cassie's trembling voice on the other end of the line.
Rachel liked the idea of delivering a harsh lesson. I expected that from Rachel. But from Cassie it worried me.
I said.
Ax said.
Marco said.
July 7, 2022
This one was pretty nuts. From Cassie performing surgery on an alien to uh the lost city of Atlantis? At this point in the series I feel like there are more types of aliens than we can keep track of, every time they introduce a new alien (or in this case radioactively mutated human) I’m like enough already. But truly one of the weirder and creepier books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2022
“They were trying to make fish people”
April 28, 2023
Another somewhat-middling Animorphs adventure, this time by one-off ghostwriter Erica Bobone. The initial premise is fine: the Yeerks are apparently still searching for the sunken Pemalite craft from #27 The Exposed, and have built an advanced heavy-duty submarine that the heroes decide they need to take down. Halfway through the book, however, as the teens are desperately trying to dodge the vessel's weapons and ram it with their new orca morphs, their target is suddenly hijacked by a group of strange beings... who turn out to be mutated fish-people living in a cavern deep under the sea.
It's one of those goofy developments that this franchise regularly fits in around all the child-soldier trauma, but this one feels less motivated than usual. At this point in the series, we know that the galaxy is teeming with intelligent life, that time-travel is possible, that morphing technology is unpredictable, and so on. Any plot springing from one of those directions, like a new species visiting earth, seems reasonable enough. But amphibious descendants of Atlantis, who have spent centuries seizing / causing shipwrecks, extracting DNA from their captives, and planning to wage war on us surface-dwellers? That's a bit tougher to suspend disbelief and accept, and the story would have to work that much harder in order to sell it. In this case, I don't think it entirely succeeds, especially with a dramatic climax involving the kids teaming up with their enemy Visser Three to escape the Nartec clutches.
I wouldn't call this title a complete mishap. The challenges are distinctive, and the taxidermied victims left standing in their beached ships make for some effectively creepy set dressing. If nothing else, the novel gives us Jake's amazing line, "Interesting morph, Visser. Does it work underwater?" as he floods the command bridge they've been sharing. (Rachel's earlier wry comment to Tobias after he's rescued them, "I hate it when you don't get taken prisoner with us," is also a delight.) But it's hard to square this outing with the team's typical concerns, or this version of their arch-foe with the one who generally tries to murder them on sight. And there's not much thematic depth to the material besides a few gestures at the narrator still grappling with his role as leader, long after he seemed to have settled into that.
Ultimately, I guess it's not the worst of the lot, but it sure is a far cry from the best.
[Content warning for body horror, gore, near-drowning, medical experimentation, and implied threat of rape.]
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It's one of those goofy developments that this franchise regularly fits in around all the child-soldier trauma, but this one feels less motivated than usual. At this point in the series, we know that the galaxy is teeming with intelligent life, that time-travel is possible, that morphing technology is unpredictable, and so on. Any plot springing from one of those directions, like a new species visiting earth, seems reasonable enough. But amphibious descendants of Atlantis, who have spent centuries seizing / causing shipwrecks, extracting DNA from their captives, and planning to wage war on us surface-dwellers? That's a bit tougher to suspend disbelief and accept, and the story would have to work that much harder in order to sell it. In this case, I don't think it entirely succeeds, especially with a dramatic climax involving the kids teaming up with their enemy Visser Three to escape the Nartec clutches.
I wouldn't call this title a complete mishap. The challenges are distinctive, and the taxidermied victims left standing in their beached ships make for some effectively creepy set dressing. If nothing else, the novel gives us Jake's amazing line, "Interesting morph, Visser. Does it work underwater?" as he floods the command bridge they've been sharing. (Rachel's earlier wry comment to Tobias after he's rescued them, "I hate it when you don't get taken prisoner with us," is also a delight.) But it's hard to square this outing with the team's typical concerns, or this version of their arch-foe with the one who generally tries to murder them on sight. And there's not much thematic depth to the material besides a few gestures at the narrator still grappling with his role as leader, long after he seemed to have settled into that.
Ultimately, I guess it's not the worst of the lot, but it sure is a far cry from the best.
[Content warning for body horror, gore, near-drowning, medical experimentation, and implied threat of rape.]
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6...
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
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August 7, 2014
After discovering a terrifying Yeerk experiment to turn Hork-Bajir into aquatic creatures (which failed, at the expense of fifty Hork-Bajir lives), Jake also finds out that the Yeerks have a powerful ocean ship called the Sea Blade. He wants to go destroy it because they're going to use it to find the Pemalite ship (among other things), so they investigate. But after damaging it in a fight between their whale morphs and the Dracon-capable ship, they notice it getting rescued by strange human-like aquatic creatures. Following it in to make sure it's destroyed, Jake and the others discover another world at the bottom of the ocean. This Atlantis-like city is populated by amphibious humanoids called Nartec who collect human shipwrecks and preserve their crews in creepy taxidermy. The group gets to meet their queen, Soco, and she is pleasant to them but ultimately arranges for them to get their DNA harvested and become specimens themselves. The Nartec are desperately trying to stop themselves from inbreeding to extinction, so this is how they cope with it. After narrowly escaping the operating tables with Tobias's help, they try to recover the Sea Blade ship and hope to use it for escape before destroying it, but they find Visser Three aboard, with whom they must make a deal in order to break the security measures to fly it. They briefly work together in fighting off the attacking Nartec, but then they manage to turn against the visser and go their separate ways to escape.
My favorite lines:
Jake: At any given point, on any given mission, maybe half the team was going to be difficult in one way or another. Including me, of course. Maybe especially me.
Ax: "This is so irrational and strange that I assume it must involve humans."
Jake: "The weapons they used on us? Human weapons. We want to hate them for what they do? Maybe we should stop helping them do it."
My favorite lines:
Jake: At any given point, on any given mission, maybe half the team was going to be difficult in one way or another. Including me, of course. Maybe especially me.
Ax: "This is so irrational and strange that I assume it must involve humans."
Jake: "The weapons they used on us? Human weapons. We want to hate them for what they do? Maybe we should stop helping them do it."
Read
July 29, 2011Okay, it looks like I had stopped reading Animorphs at just about the right time when I was a kid and they were still being published on a monthly basis. This is the first book in the series (even after all the ghost written books) where I was seriously like, "Wtf? Out of ideas much?" Animorphs is known for having really strange wtf moments, but it's usually something so strange that it actually works. That is not the case with this book. I get that the idea behind this creepy underwater race is supposed to make us feel weirded out because they're supposed to be these inbred mutants (think Hills Have Eyes only underwater), but this just didn't feel like a real Animorphs book as I was reading it. It could have been written from anyone's perspective. I often forgot that it was Jake narrating! The whole back story with this being a mission about getting revenge on the mutant Hork-Bajir, and then the Yeerks wanting the Pemalite ship, was just ridiculous and didn't tie in at the end at all. This was just some lame excuse to put together a random thoughtless story that introduces another pointless species. There was no creativity here and the author was just terrible. This had potential to be a great book, but NOT an Animorphs book.
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