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freebooter posted:LMAO. "Hey remember when your wife carked it? Can you swing by and handle Russ' wife, she's being a real Debbie downer, you're good at that stuff." The fact Marco's dad didn't snap at them shows he has the patience of a saint. Well, that and dealing with a secret guerilla warrior camouflaged as a surly teen.
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# ? Jul 4, 2022 19:35 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 11:12 |
I don't remember this book well at all. Think it's time I picked up the series and read the endgame again!
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# ? Jul 4, 2022 19:38 |
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Sorry if this has been covered - I'm reading through the thread now - but do any of these books ever go into Rachel and Tom's relationship before the series, or even acknowledge it? I mean, they are cousins after all, but it seems like she only ever refers to him as "Jake's brother," even when she's narrating. I guess you could say they weren't ever that close - him being a few years older and all - but I have cousins I'm not that close with, and if one of them got taken over by aliens it would definitely make an impression on me.
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# ? Jul 4, 2022 22:15 |
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TCE posted:Sorry if this has been covered - I'm reading through the thread now - but do any of these books ever go into Rachel and Tom's relationship before the series, or even acknowledge it? I mean, they are cousins after all, but it seems like she only ever refers to him as "Jake's brother," even when she's narrating. I guess you could say they weren't ever that close - him being a few years older and all - but I have cousins I'm not that close with, and if one of them got taken over by aliens it would definitely make an impression on me. There's not much. They do say that Rachel's and Jake's families were more distant after the divorce and Rachel and Jake weren't close to begin with despite being about the same age, so it seems, lacking evidence to say otherwise, that Tom was mostly a nonentity in her life. I do think there are points where she acknowledges that there's a Yeerk in her cousin, but I can't remember any at the moment.
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# ? Jul 4, 2022 22:28 |
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Chapter 5quote:“Noooooo!” "So a coworker had died and my colleagues and I went to comfort his widow, and you wouldn't believe what happened next...." Chapter 6 quote:Dad had never looked as terrified as he did at that moment. He was really pale. Paper-white. He was trembling. Well, the secret's officially out. And Marco still can't drive.
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# ? Jul 5, 2022 02:41 |
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Epicurius posted:
Marco, you ain't kidding.
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# ? Jul 5, 2022 03:05 |
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disaster pastor posted:Marco, you ain't kidding. Well, he's half correct, at least.
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# ? Jul 5, 2022 03:14 |
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So this is the beginning of the end! I never got any further than, I don't know, ten or so books in as a kid; it feels weird now to be coming towards the end of a series that's occupied a small corner of my brain for decades.
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# ? Jul 5, 2022 06:52 |
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Chapter 7quote:We ordered burgers from an all-night diner on the outskirts of town. The place was too much of a dump for the Yeerks to check out. I hoped. I made us eat in the car anyway, in a dark corner of the parking lot. Yea, Marco is in a world of hurt here. Also, there's this role reversal. Marco is effectively the parent. He's the more experienced one guiding his father through a more complicated world and his father has to listen to him to survive. It's to his father's credit that he recognizes that. Chapter 8 quote:We got off the highway at an exit not far from our house. But we weren’t going home. It was six A.M. Rush hour had already begun. Who knew people left their houses that early? So Erek's "dad" hangs out naked around the house watching tv. Good to know, I guess. But at least Marco's dad is with the Chee and the dogs, and about as safe as he can be,
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 03:17 |
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Epicurius posted:So Erek's "dad" hangs out naked around the house watching tv. Good to know, I guess. some Dad things are universal, I guess
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 04:55 |
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I wonder what happened to the dissenting Chee we met on our first trip here? They might have generally signed on as the invasion got worse, or maybe the dissenting Chee had a falling out and Erik got the house in the divorce. The only other thought is that the Chee might not want to give the crazy humans fighting the war another target, but I honestly don't really buy that one. The Chee have been seemed in another league physically from the Animorphs. What could they even morph to physically threaten them?
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 04:56 |
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Capfalcon posted:I wonder what happened to the dissenting Chee we met on our first trip here? They might have generally signed on as the invasion got worse, or maybe the dissenting Chee had a falling out and Erik got the house in the divorce. dog, and short circuit their logic gates
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 06:55 |
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I distinctly remember the chapter where they eat burgers in the car and Marco tells him the story, which I think must be because I read it in the preview at the end of 44. And yet even the indication that everything was about to change didn't stop me from dropping the series. Either I didn't believe them, thought they'd find some way to revert everything back to normal; or I thought the quality of the series had been dropping for ages (I don't think I realised they'd been ghostwritten for a while) and didn't care anymore. I checked back in on the very last book but that was it, until I re-read the whole series plus the final arc when I was 19 or 20. tl;dr because that's just my personal reading history: I find it weird how by the age of 12ish I'd become very blase about books which I now obviously look back on very fondly, and I'm curious if anyone else had a similar experience. Epicurius posted:“I have about twenty other animals I could morph to,” I said as the last feather disappeared. “Want to see my lobster?” I think surely at this point it's closer to 40 or 50? Also I personally probably would've given him some breathing space and waited until tomorrow to drop the Eva news on him.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 08:46 |
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I recall thinking that the series was getting interesting when this book came out but I never personally pinpointed the endgame having started until a later date in an Ax book.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 09:14 |
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IIRC (and I may be wrong) Marco gets outed and has to go into hiding but they try to rumble on with business-as-usual for a few more books with the other Animorphs still living double lives, which is an odd choice edit - oh the Ax book is the very next one, 46! Because this is where they started giving Tobias and Ax the same number of books as the others, which broke the whole "ending in 1 or 6 is Jake, 2 or 7 is Rachel" etc pattern. freebooter fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Jul 6, 2022 |
# ? Jul 6, 2022 09:29 |
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freebooter posted:IIRC (and I may be wrong) Marco gets outed and has to go into hiding but they try to rumble on with business-as-usual for a few more books with the other Animorphs still living double lives, which is an odd choice No, that's right, there are some big changes in this one but they go on for a while before actively starting to destroy the premise of the series.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 09:46 |
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I never read this one, and I’m so happy we get to see Marco’s Dad react to everything. I knew this happened because they recap it later, but I was afraid it might end up like Tobias discovering Elfangor is his father. We don’t get to see the rest of the team react to learning that, presumably to save space because it’s information we as the reader already know. But it’s an incredibly important character moment for Tobias, and Ax, and really everyone. It’s good they are willing to slow the action down a little at this point to make room for character interactions with weight. I seem to recall we get slightly less episodic adventure-of-the-week from here (though… not entirely), so that probably gives some breathing room.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 15:11 |
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freebooter posted:IIRC (and I may be wrong) Marco gets outed and has to go into hiding but they try to rumble on with business-as-usual for a few more books with the other Animorphs still living double lives, which is an odd choice Rochallor posted:No, that's right, there are some big changes in this one but they go on for a while before actively starting to destroy the premise of the series. Yup, we get the Ax book, which is remarkably intense and high-stakes, the weirdly high-concept Jake book where they start to debate taking the war public, the brutally bad Rachel book, then everything hits the fan in Tobias's book. There's enough going on that I wouldn't say they're business as usual, but they're closer to the existing formula than what comes after.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 15:30 |
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Mazerunner posted:dog, and short circuit their logic gates Dang, that's the play isn't it?
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 16:22 |
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disaster pastor posted:Yup, we get the Ax book, which is remarkably intense and high-stakes, the weirdly high-concept Jake book where they start to debate taking the war public, the brutally bad Rachel book, then everything hits the fan in Tobias's book. There's enough going on that I wouldn't say they're business as usual, but they're closer to the existing formula than what comes after. I stand by my assertion that Jake is the least interesting of the Animorphs, which is why his books tend to be either high concept surreal stuff, Jake has to deal with leadership, or Jake worries about his family.. He's just bland, and before he joined the Animorphs his distinguishing trait was.....he plays basketball but isn't great at it? Compare that with the other characters who have some hook. Marco resorts to sarcasm to cover up his grief, Rachel is an adrenaline junkie with anger issues, Tobias is a neglected kid who's lonely, Cassie has a highly developed sense of right and wrong, and Ax is an alien warrior who's trying to live up to his brother's legacy. Jake, though, doesn't really have a lot you can write a book around.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 21:21 |
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Epicurius posted:I stand by my assertion that Jake is the least interesting of the Animorphs, which is why his books tend to be either high concept surreal stuff, Jake has to deal with leadership, or Jake worries about his family.. He's just bland, and before he joined the Animorphs his distinguishing trait was.....he plays basketball but isn't great at it? Compare that with the other characters who have some hook. Marco resorts to sarcasm to cover up his grief, Rachel is an adrenaline junkie with anger issues, Tobias is a neglected kid who's lonely, Cassie has a highly developed sense of right and wrong, and Ax is an alien warrior who's trying to live up to his brother's legacy. Jake, though, doesn't really have a lot you can write a book around. I still find him more interesting than Cassie, but you're not wrong, either.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 21:35 |
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Epicurius posted:I stand by my assertion that Jake is the least interesting of the Animorphs, which is why his books tend to be either high concept surreal stuff, Jake has to deal with leadership, or Jake worries about his family.. He's just bland, and before he joined the Animorphs his distinguishing trait was.....he plays basketball but isn't great at it? Compare that with the other characters who have some hook. Marco resorts to sarcasm to cover up his grief, Rachel is an adrenaline junkie with anger issues, Tobias is a neglected kid who's lonely, Cassie has a highly developed sense of right and wrong, and Ax is an alien warrior who's trying to live up to his brother's legacy. Jake, though, doesn't really have a lot you can write a book around. Jake's only real interesting hook is his Living With The Enemy subplot with Tom and Tom's Yeerk. But Tom only shows up in a meaningful capacity like once every five books, and often in a role that's peripheral to Jake's personal ongoings, so it's like... eh Especially when Tom's Yeerk is so easily outwitted and not an actual threat unless the kids are doing some blindingly overt poo poo that STILL sails right over their head. That's going to change in very short order, mind you, but it took WAY too long in getting here. nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jul 6, 2022 |
# ? Jul 6, 2022 21:35 |
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I agree with all the stuff about Jake's character but still find it interesting from a storytelling perspective they kicked off the final arc with Marco's dad finding out, rather than Jake's parents. Purely just because the series started with Jake so I would've been instinctively inclined to assume the beginning of the end would also start with him.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 21:41 |
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I never made it this far in the series as a kid (I dropped out in the early 20s right before Helmacrons. It was probably the preview of that book that dissuaded me from continuing). If this had been the book right before I stopped I probably would have kept up with it.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 22:48 |
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Oh wow, finally found and binged this thread after not noticing it for 2 years. Really glad I caught up here because I really like this book.
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# ? Jul 6, 2022 23:02 |
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Hiding in the Chee house. Unfortunately, a cocker spaniel is hogging the modem. I complained to the Chee, but they said he was using it first and I have to wait my turn. New chapters tomorrow.
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# ? Jul 7, 2022 05:11 |
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Tree Bucket posted:So this is the beginning of the end! I never got any further than, I don't know, ten or so books in as a kid; it feels weird now to be coming towards the end of a series that's occupied a small corner of my brain for decades. Yeah, same. I stopped wherever it was, somewhere around the mid-30s.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 02:22 |
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Chapter 7quote:I was the last to arrive at the barn. Rachel quickly looked away when I met her glance. So, she’d already told the others. First, good on Rachel for recognizing the full implications of the Z-Space transmitter. Second, given what he did to save his father, Jake is the last person to throw shade at Marco here. Chapter 10 quote:Ax and I fell into a gentle dive over the blocks of indistinguishable subdivision houses, until bamm! We were right over Erek’s. I have to admit, Marco's dad is taking all this like a champ.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 04:39 |
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So, to the Chee, going full deep cover infiltrator to snuggle out info on targets of opportunity to the Animorphs is completely fine, but giving someone parts to make an intergalactic cell phone that can listen in on calls because someone might die from it is a deal breaker? That's... utterly wild.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 05:01 |
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It's phrased like 'don't give technology' is a separate directive from their pacifism one. Probably to help paper over why we haven't gone to the Chee for tech stuff in the past.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 05:07 |
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Good on Rachel for sticking up for Marco.quote:<This human-made device is, seemingly at least, equal to or even superior …> I swear he was trying to stop himself from choking on the words. < …superior to Yeerk technology.> Quite a party trick to "choke" on your words you don't have a mouth and are using telepathy! quote:“Dad, Dad, Dad. You underestimate your son. Burglary - in the name of justice and freedom, of course - is among the great variety of talents the Animorphs possess. You want it, we can get it.” Again with this weird moralism about "theft" in a book that has its characters consistently kill! Is this an American thing, or a '90s thing, or what's the deal?
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 08:36 |
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I guess theft is much more in reach for kids to actually do out and do, murder being seen as a bit out there and not much of a risk
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 09:05 |
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I mean, what is murder but theft of their employer's worker? -capitalism. But yeah I think they are skirting hard away from the idea that theft can be ok sometimes.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 10:09 |
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I think it's more striking because they have sincere conversations about the morality of the killing, genocide, slavery etc. In a very big way, that's what the books are really about. Yet when it comes to lesser crimes in service of the same cause the discussion is not even on the table.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 10:59 |
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Didn't Ax already build a z space transponder with parts from Radio Shack?
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 12:23 |
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freebooter posted:Again with this weird moralism about "theft" in a book that has its characters consistently kill! Is this an American thing, or a '90s thing, or what's the deal? Both. It's come up before, but the books were written during the weird "End of History" period, after the USSR dissolved but before 9/11, where the leading line of thought among American "thinkers" was that there was nothing major left to stop humans and human life from increasingly improving. The morality of killing "bad guys" was still a discussion topic, but this is the heyday of "broken windows" policing, so lesser crimes like "petty theft" were completely unacceptable, because if you allow them, criminals will eventually work their way up to murder.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 12:32 |
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Strategic Tea posted:I guess theft is much more in reach for kids to actually do out and do, murder being seen as a bit out there and not much of a risk I think that's what it is.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 13:13 |
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Didn't Ax already build a z space transponder with parts from Radio Shack? I remember them hijacking a big satellite dish station or planetarium or something for that? Or was there a third time?
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 16:57 |
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Didn't he build a distress beacon from RadioShack parts and they called a bug fighter down and got captured? Maybe that wasn't a z space thing though.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 17:54 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 11:12 |
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Didn't he build a distress beacon from RadioShack parts and they called a bug fighter down and got captured? Maybe that wasn't a z space thing though. Yeah, so far the only time he's done a Z-Space thing he piggybacked onto the powerful radio telescope. The RadioShack stuff has mostly been to facilitate stuff for things like the distress call, or building his own super-computer and stealing cable.
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# ? Jul 8, 2022 17:58 |