Mutation

Remnants #5

by K.A. Applegate

Caught in the bowels of their strange new world, Mo' Steel and Billy Weir encounter a lost Remnant, Kubrick DiSalvo. But Kubrick has been horribly changed. The ship has transformed him, replacing his skin with a transparent plastic coating. Scared and awed by the ship's vicious power, the group tries to rejoin their friends.

But the other Remnants are in danger, too, in another stratum of the ship. Yago and Jobs are stuck in a computer-generated sea battle, and can't agree on any kind of strategy. Cannons are blasting and pieces of the ship splinter all around them.
Mo'Steel's group does reach the others, but not in time to help...until Billy mysteriously communicates with the ship's powerful core. But will his strange past help him to understand-or even control-the ship in time?

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Aliens, Dystopia

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welp. As of the very first page, I instantly went "WELL THERE GOES THE NIGHTMARE FUEL SHELF". This is also why I can't in good conscience shelve this series as middle-grade! A boy is literally flayed alive!!!

Anyway, Mutation is interesting because of the addition of new characters(!) to make up for the veritable slaughter that has been the previous four books; Kubrick (most definitely nicknamed after Stanley Kubrick y/n) and his father are part of the Missing Eight. Which also means there's six more to go (I'm so excited and hope we meet all of them!). With such a large cast though, there's the persistent problem in this series that you still don't get a very good sense of who these people are deep inside. You have a sense of Jobs, Mo, Yago, 2Face, Violet, and Billy, but even with those 'core' six, it's pretty vague.

The visions from Billy's bloodied history from the Second Chechen War mingled with American kitsch were really great, though. I love dream sequences plumbing into people's memories, plus I think it's valuable to remind young American readers that there's a whole wide world outside of the USA, with their own war and conflict. Also, the Constitution! I love things with ships. Just anything to do with ships. Give me amateurs mucking around with a wooden ship and I will be forever entertained.

Is it just me, or does McDonalds seem to recur a lot as a setting in Applegrant books? In this book, it stands as a symbol of safe haven and a brief moment to rest and recharge; in Animorphs, you have the happy meal with extra happy secret Yeerk pool entrance; it's a major source of food and community and thus power in Gone; and I'm pretty sure the Everworld kids must have regrouped and had a strategy sesh at at McDonalds at some point. (As a result of finishing this book last night, I immediately went to McDs for dinner. srynotsry.)

I don't actually have that much to say about this book as a whole though. Despite there being a near-constant parade of nightmares and action, the individual books don't stand out to me quite so well, and I find myself hankering after more psychological depth. The brief glimpses we get are good, but it's just not enough!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

  This cover is a watered-down version of what the guy actually looks like. If they had drawn exactly what he looks like, well, he would look a little more like a Titan from the anime series Attack on Titan (images not for the faint of heart). Except he is encased in a clear plastic-like material.

  I read the first page aloud to my friend Naomi, and I think it grossed her out, because she did not want me to continue reading. This is supposed to be a middle-grade series, guys. Maybe if these kids have iron stomachs, okay, but I sure was not one of them when this series first came out.

  Anyways, the prologue of Mutation -- though I think “Transformation” or “Upgrades” or the like would be a more apt term to describe what happened – introduces us to Kubrick and Alberto DiSalvo, two of the Missing Eight. And what an introduction: Kubrick is being skinned alive, while his father has no choice but to watch it happen, powerless to do anything. Yup, marketed to middle-grade readers, did I mention that? Mo’Steel, Billy, and Wylson have been separated from the rest of the Remnants on the ship Constitution, and find themselves in an area which appears to be Mother’s basement, where Billy and Mo’Steel meet Kubrick and Alberto. Once again we have two groups of Remnants to follow: the group in the basement as they stumble across more information about Mother while in search of a way to get back above the sea, and the group on the ship as the kids pull dangerous maneuvers to try and prevent the ship from rolling nearly completely over in the waves after being damaged by the Blue Meanie’s attack.

  We get to learn more about Mother, and get a glimpse inside her “head” so to speak. Most of this book consists of Remnants either pulling dangerous maneuvers to stay alive (seriously, SO MUCH TIME was spent with them up in the mainmast trying to get it shorter), or running like mad to survive attacking this, that, or the other thing. This book barely takes any breathers, except for a brief respite in a McDonald’s, really. The active and more or less revelatory nature of this book means that, other than meeting Kubrick and Alberto, we do not get much deeper into anyone’s heads. Rather, it is a book of action, of setting things up for future events, so far as I can tell. I mean, if Mother or whoever did this to Kubrick for some unknown reason, who knows what has been done to the other members of the Missing Eight?

  I would be inclined to give this a 2, as I found it just “okay”, but it is not markedly “worse” than any of the other books either, so it will get a 3. It definitely relies on being connected to the books which come before and after it, though, to feel like even an installment in a series. By itself, there is not quite enough to hold this book together in anything approaching a stand-alone book. It has a bit of rising action/climax in the strange dream-like sequence at the end with soldiers from Billy’s memories of Chechnya, school kids and random patrons of a McDonald’s, and of course the influx of Mother’s own creations into the mix, as the Remnants just try to survive the fluctuating and murderous environments. And the “descending action” with how that show shakes out definitely has me wondering just what is going to happen next between the powers of each Billy and Mother.

Quotes and commentary

Favorite (meaningful-type) quotes first:

  Billy felt a wave of sadness. The same sadness that had been with him for as long as he could remember.
  Wylson was gone.
  He’d thought he could save her. – page 29 – Something about this, it just hits me. It’s so simple, and so much is unsaid – his feelings of powerlessness even now, his regret for what he cannot do now, nor could he do before either.

   “What do you think of the situation?” 2 Face asked when [her and Jobs] were alone. […] “The civil war is already on. The question is who’s going to win.” – page 49-51 – This entire conversation between 2Face and Jobs, with 2Face laying out the situation, and basically trying to be manipulative, to force Jobs into seeing what her and Yago are seeing/doing, to win him over to “her side.”

  Then a new thought occurred to Billy. He loved new thoughts! Loved feeling his brain close around something that wasn’t there before. The existence of the thought was just as interesting as the thought itself. – page 75 – These little bits about Billy, which give us peeks at just how much he suffered in those five hundred years of madness, of solitude, of inertia.

  Mo’Steel envied him.
  Kubrick could barely absorb the fact.
  But what was even more disturbing was his own reaction: He was disappointed.
  Disappointed he was strong.
  Disappointed he was “impervious to pain.”
  Disappointed he would be hard to kill. – page 100 – Now I am even more curious about Kubrick, and who he is inside. It’s clear that he has been told for years and years that he is worthless, he’s not smart, he cannot do much – and now that someone has expressed envy for anything pertaining to Kubrick, it is like he does not know what to do with the information. I cannot think of many situations when someone would be disappointed to be envied by another, but Kubrick is. It is like he wants little more than to be allowed to just disappear from the world of people and die, alone.

  Then there was the fact that so many had already died. Both of Jobs’ own parents. The six or seven billion people they’d abandoned on Earth. If they stopped now to mourn for Wylson, how would they ever stop? – page 128 – Another instance of “Let’s bring up a big thing, and then just leave it hanging in favor of moving forward.” Of course, this same exact situation has come up a couple of times, with how many people have died since they first woke up and got off of the ship.

Rest of the quotes, mostly selected for me to make commentary:

  2Face didn’t laugh. She didn’t even smile. “I think I understand,” she said. “You’re like my father, like my father was. You’re a coward. You don’t want to choose [sides] because you’re terrified of making the wrong choice. You’re afraid someone will blame you if things go wrong. Of course, nobody can blame you if you refuse to get involved.” – page 53 – Harsh, 2Face, that’s harsh.

  [Yago] sighed. Just one more of the many irritations he’d had to deal with lately. Good thing he wasn’t some spoiled brat who couldn’t take it. – page 56 – Except he IS, and he CAN’T, as we’ve seen.

  And what about Tamara and the baby? Now there was a regular riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma rolled up in a conundrum. – page 57-58 – I just like the description bit :)

  [Yago] wasn’t a detail guy. – page 70 – Seriously, by all this acting like a high and might know-it-all who will have all the power, he’s just setting himself up for a long, painful fall.

  Somehow Billy sensed [the switches in Alberto’s mind] had been killed not by the power of Mother’s mind, not by her vastness, but by her madness. – page 111

  Violet’s mother had spent her whole life working. She’d spent her whole life making money and impressing people with her work ethic. […] And yet… and yet it seemed odd not to have her mother marching around barking orders. To know that she would never do that again. – page 134 – Just drop this in, then move right along to the next thing. Again.

  Jobs felt an ache in his chest. A machine that experienced loneliness. The idea spoke to the poetic side, spoke to his techie side, spoke to all of him.
  He thought of all the pain, suffering, and death that Mother’s loneliness had caused. He thought of the extreme danger Billy had put himself in to try and save their lives. He’d never seen anything as sad as those two strange creatures at the diner counter. – page 159

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant were high when they wrote this...

Whenever I consider writing a review of this book, that's pretty much all I come up with. This has got to be the most original and the most bizarre thing I've ever seen or read in my life. This is what fiction about aliens should be like: strange, terrifying, and filled with death.

That said, I do take some issue with the way the death was handled here. I've mentioned this before, but there's not nearly enough mourning for the loss of life that happens in this series. In real life, people don't just get over the death of people they love - it has a huge impact on them, even defining them for some time. That's not illustrated accurately here. A couple of characters have lost family members in the last book, and by all means they should be wrecks at this point, with all that's been going on. Yet they seem to be fine. Other than the occasional mention, they're not really suffering from any long-term effects due to what's going on.

But other than that, the characters were great. As is typical in these books, the characters are developed excellently. Kubrick, in particular, was an interesting new character, one who I'm looking forward to seeing more from. That said, as with the last book, their character arcs didn't progress too much, but it happened more here than there, so I'm okay with it.

And... plot! Good god, the plot was weird. Have I mentioned that yet? I feel certain it's come up once or twice... anyway, the plot here is genuinely unpredictable and constantly surprising. I'm really looking forward to finding out the answers to all these mysteries, because damn are they engaging. I really am invested in the answers, and I want so badly to know what happens.

That said, we don't seem to be making any progress towards that. There's not much of an overarching plot so far, just WEIRD SHIT HAPPENING. We made a little progress with the discovery of the basement, but only a little. I get that Applegrant felt pressure to make more and more books, because Animorphs was such a cash cow franchise and this could've been, too, but it's still frustrating.

Still, this was another great installment in a series I'm really enjoying. I regret waiting so long to read this - I think I would've loved it as a kid.

As usual, we have STATISTICS:
Body count: 0 (Yes, it appears we have another book where nobody dies. What a shame...)
Horror count: 4 (Kubrick's... skin transplant, shall we say, Alberto's madness, the worms, and the cockroaches.)
Plot hole count: 0 (Alright, seriously, there are no plot holes in this thing. Why was I told that the series was filled with them?)
'Marry me and live on a hosueboat' character of the day: Kubrick, because he has a really interesting personality. And 2Face, because... do I even need to explain? She's fucking 2Face. That's all you need.

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of MUTATION, the fifth book in this 14-book series, still consists of the characters running around in confusion without much of a guiding purpose. They still don’t know what’s going on in the gargantuan spaceship (“Mother”) they’ve found themselves trapped on and are mostly reacting to the series of obstacles and dangers it keeps throwing their way. In that respect, this entry is not much different from what came before and admittedly that aspect of the story is growing wearisome. Something needs to change—and quick.

On the other hand, this book begins with a prologue about a new character nicknamed Kubrick (again with the dumb nicknames!) numbed by anesthetic while being flayed by a laser beam. He’s introduced hearing “[t]he sound of flesh being torn wetly away from his muscle in square after perfect square” and smelling “fat smoking as [the] laser beam burned through his skin”. It goes on:

He was floating in midair, suspended by some sort of invisible field, unable to move as the robotic machinery worked slowly and carefully. First the laser beam tracing the sides of a square, then a robotic arm moving in to peel back the skin.
Starting from his scalp, moving down over his face and neck, across his chest and belly, and then down his legs and feet.
He lost the hair on his head. He lost his lips, his fingers, and his toenails.
There was only one explanation. He was in hell, in purgatory, in one of Dante’s circles, being punished for the wickedness of his life. Punished for stealing from his mother’s purse, for hating his father.
Skinned alive.
Finally, it was done.
Several long minutes passed during which Kubrick waited, eyes squeezed shut, heart pounding. He expected somehow for it to start over again, for the robotic arm to move back to his head and begin again on his scalp. He would be like Sisyphus with his stupid rock, condemned to this one awful experience for eternity.

WOW. That is an intense was to open the book and is more in line with the kind of stuff that impressed me with the first couple of books. It’s the kind of thing that impresses me about most of the books of Applegate and Grant: how dark the story can be despite being putatively aimed at an audience of children. There’s not a lot that matches this moment in the book, unfortunately, but yow does it throw down the gauntlet at the outset.

Jobs and the majority of the Remnants still spend most of this book on the U.S.S. Constitution battling baddies and trying not to get sunk. Meanwhile, Mo’Steel and Bill Weir find themselves in the basement of the ship (the belly of the whale?) where they find a computer interface and laser beams that turn out this time not to be murderous or violent but instead—spoiler, sorry—transform the person struck by it into a freakin’ kaiju. Mo’Steel gets struck and finds himself turned into a giant version of himself, able to pick up the ships attacking the Constitution and break them apart before sinking back down again into the water. It’s a definite deus ex machina… literally, since a machine turned him into a god momentarily, but it’s still a neat moment.

Then there’s the whole end sequence. Billy links his brain to Mother’s in an effort to take control and drain the ocean after the Constitution capsizes and the remaining Remnants are drowning/freezing. Kubrick, who is with them, warns Billy that connecting his brain to the ship will drive him insane, as his father had (accidentally) done it before and was left a blubbering mess. Billy’s response? “I’m already insane.” Indeed he is, after his horrific experience of being awake but immobile for 500 years. As it turns out, more spoilers, Billy and Mother have something in common: they’ve both gone insane from being virtually alone for an extended period of time, though in Mother’s case it’s likely been millennia rather than a mere 500 years. In all fairness, though, millennia to a computer probably isn’t the same as millennia to a human. Billy does succeed in draining the ocean, replacing that environment with a strange mix of his memories, dreams, and fears as Mother battles with him for control. This part of the book finds the group in an ever-shifting scene, at once war-torn Chechnya, then in a brightly-lit McDonald’s, then trapped in the crossfire between soldiers and scantily-clad sci-fi babes from the covers of pulp paperbacks, then in Billy’s home in Texas but with creatures coming through the plumbing. It called to mind, for me, something like INCEPTION in the way it skips around and fades in and out of these settings. I found it hugely entertaining.

There also is more about the political posturing of the Remnants, with Yago trying to maintain control for its own sake, I guess, by immediately repeating any good idea he hears to make people think it’s his own and 2Face trying to position herself as the alternative, Tamara doing her own thing, and Jobs doing most of the actual leadership by virtue of being the brain. Kubrick is a wildcard, and I’m kind of digging his addition. It seems like he’s not necessarily a bad dude but he’s got a lot of pent-up anger and self-loathing. In addition to having all of his skin removed until he’s become Inside Out Boy in the flesh (so to speak), that numbing agent from the start of the book is still in effect, making it so he can’t really feel anything... which is to say, he can’t be injured. Kubrick feels like a monster, but Mo’Steel suggests that in reality it’s a blessing: maybe it makes him a super-hero! Kubrick realizes that Mo’Steel envies him, which is a shock, but he’s even more disturbed by his own reaction: “He was disappointed. Disappointed he was strong. Disappointed he was ‘impervious to pain’. Disappointed he would be hard to kill.” I’m imagining that Kubrick may find himself manipulated into being an unwitting weapon for Yago until he learns to love himself. His arc could be worth keeping an eye on.

In all, yes, the series feels a bit like it’s running in place. I am getting frustrated by this and would like it to hurry along now, but I was worried after NOWHERE LAND that it had lost its spark altogether. This book is a bounce back, giving me hope once again that the whole effort could turn around by the end. I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up too high given the way that the ‘Everworld’ series yada-yada-yada-ed its ending, but dammit I can’t help myself. Fingz xd that things keep going in a positive direction from here.

[Arska-täti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Selviytyjät ovat vakavan ongelman edessä: hämmennyksen ja paniikin ristitulessa ystävän erottaminen vihollisesta on mahdoton tehtävä. Mo'Steel törmää toisiin selviytyjiin, joista on tullut eläviä ja hengittäviä, kammottavia ihmismutantteja. ”Äidin” luoma sekopäinen keinotodellisuus muuttuu yhtä arvaamattomasti kuin television tarjonta satunnaisen kanavasurffailijan otteessa. Kuinka U.S.S. Constitutionia luotsaavat Jobs ja kumppanit pärjäävät tulitaistelussa 1700-luvun brittilaivaston fregatteja vastaan ja texasilaisen hampurilaisbaarin välienselvittelyssä, joihin he tempautuvat mukaan ilman kertausharjoituksia? Billy Weirin todellisten tai kuviteltujen kokemusten ja ”Äidin” datamuistin väliset painiottelut hakevat visuaalisuudessaan vertaa. Edessä häämöttää vielä uusia ongelmia, mikäli jo pahasti poreileva selviytyjien sisällissota pääsee kiehumaan kuumalle levylle!

[Arlenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would trust Mo'steel with my life.

[Mariah Wamby · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’re back! The fifth book brought back the overall theme for the Remnants series in a big way — we got actual interaction with the supercomputer! We also got weird laser beams and an opening scene straight out a sci-fi torture dungeon. Can not wait to meet our mad computer.


Also! I don’t think I’ve seen any other reviews touch in this, but I felt there was a decent attempt at some looks in to role reversal between Jobs and Mo in this book, in which Jobs tried to be more physical (removing the mast) and Mo tried to be more technical (trying to understand the basement computer set up) and like… they both sucked at those other roles. It wasn’t until they embraced their own strengths again that stuff started getting closer to working out for the whole crew.

[Ema]

I forgot how 2Face is... well, two faced.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2-3/5. Still darker and gore-ish but I've mixed feelings...

[Thistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoilers*

While the plot is great, the number of non-story issues are growing. As I said in my last reviews of the books in this series, these books are darned short. They very very much feel like chapters, not whole books. Related to that: It's getting annoying how much recapping the author has to do, when it feels like we just read about it in the last chapter.

Unfortunately there's an even bigger issue: I'm afraid poor Mrs. Applegate's editor might have died. The first book was near-perfect in editing, then in the second and third books more and more errors were slipping in. Book four crossed the line into an unacceptable amount of errors, and book five was so bad I nearly stopped reading it. Each page had a number of errors -- it wasn't uncommon for 2-3 periods to be missing per page. Major spacing issues. Typos. Misspellings. It read like a draft instead of a published book. The current book I'm reading, #6, is quite a bit better, so maybe the publisher brought in a new editor. (Book 6 is far from perfect though. This amusing thing appeared in a sentence. "slight[l]y" -- someone's mark to fix the spelling, I guess?)

I've always thought that the Holodeck (of Star Trek) would make a great setting for a book or TV series, since your group of characters could go anywhere, anytime, meet any people. That's essentially what this book has featured, at least thus far. Book 6 is going more into the ship's AI and the aliens though, which I'm enjoying.

Other than the shortness of the books and the editing issues, I'm really enjoying this series a lot. It's so creative, and it avoids all the things I usually hate about YA books (the kids being perfect at everything/adults being useless or just plain evil, stupid romance/love triangles, etc).

[Julie Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mo'Steel and Billy find a pair of leftover people who hadn't been with their roving band of refugee humans since the beginning. Alberto and his son Kubrick join up with them, but Kubrick has been operated upon by the ship, with his skin removed and replaced with a transparent protective sheath. Not only is he walking around with his organs visible, but he no longer has a sense of touch. Meanwhile, as Mo'Steel learns more about Billy and his odd abilities, the rest of the crew fights historical bad guys and aliens, with Yago and 2Face still flipping out over who should be running things. Billy has to battle the ship even though he's not completely cognizant of how to do so or whether this entire experience is another hallucination; reality isn't a given for him.

The fight against the baddies just started to become tiresome, but the characters kept the interest focused. The addition of new members to the group was also a nice kick in the butt to keep the audience guessing--not that the bizarre things that are happening are predictable in any way. Still a series worth reading at this point.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful chapter in the life of the Remnants. Billy and Mo are separated from the rest of the group when Billy goes overboard and Mo jumps in to save him. With his special abilities Billy is able to save himself and Mo long enough for the ship to suck them into what appears to be another part of the ship. Here they meet another Remnant and his father.

While this newly formed group becomes acquainted the others are stuck in a node where they are in a battle for their lives. A losing battle. Lucky for them, Billy and Mo discover a way for Billy to interact with Mother, the computer controlling the ship that they are on. But Mother does not like Billy trying to take over and starts a battle of her own with him.

When we leave this book, Billy and Mother have agreed upon a form of cease fire while they take stock of each other. We are left with a ton of questions and I can not wait to read the next book in the series. Sadly I do not have it and will have to try to get my hands on it sooner rather than later.

Love this series!!!

[Paul Emily Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review written: sometime before September 16, 2015

Mutation by Katherine Applegate

Why I read it: Still reading Remnants.

Rating: 3/5

What I thought: Kubrick why are you like what you are? Billy how the heck are you doing all this? What the heck happened with the room and the sea and all that? I don’t even know anything anymore. Also, Yago still sucks.

[Shell Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more like it.
This book focuses more on Jobs & Mo'Steel's relationship & differences.
I like the comparison of war and loneliness. This book was really interesting and seemed a little deeper than the previous in the series.
We also get our first view of the "antagonist" and a civil war begins between Billy and this antagonist. It's getting "real" in the way of juvenile literature.

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this is where the Remnants series starts getting really weird, I think. Although I suppose it still sort of makes sense. In a weird way. But it's getting more and more trippy and bizarre. We'll see how this goes....

[Krystl Louwagie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love knowing/learning more about Billy. That's about all I have to say that I haven't already said in previous reviews about this series. This could make a great (if done well) horror series right now.

[Swankivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always had to read these as soon as they came out. This one was freaky. People discovering what changes had happened to them while they were asleep in space. . . .

[Zahra Matarani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can tell from the first couple of pages that this thing's pretty worth reading.

[The Third Place A Teen Library]

F APP remnants bk.5

[Erika Forth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was OBSESSED with this series in middle school.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really good.

[Trihaly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just when you think the story can't blow your mind any more, there comes another twist or another revelation! Onward to the next book to find out what happens!

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something I want to get out of the way: "Mutation" doesn't really make sense as a title for this book. I assume it's in reference to Kubrick's skin transplant, but that's the result of a bizarre surgery, not genetic alteration.

On to the review: not a whole lot of progress is made in the plot or character development this time round. The main thing that gripped and held me for this installment was the worldbuilding backstory. We get to learn a lot more about Mother, and even develop a degree of sympathy for her; after all, she was abandoned by the alien Shipwrights and left to wander the universe until she went insane. There are mad parallels between her and Billy, which is heightened by the last act of the book which involves him and Mother battling for control of the ship.

The horror was also strong in this installment, personified in the character of Kubrick, one of the Missing Eight. The first scene involves him having his skin surgically removed (painlessly, but still) and replaced with some kind of clear neoprene while his father watches helplessly. I love that the reason for this is not explained (never, IIRC), because it lets the reader imagine their own reasons. Is Mother trying to make him look more like one of her creators? Maybe trying to relieve some of her loneliness?

Even though not much happens in this book, there was enough action and bizarre imagery to make it stick in my mind. The final haunting scene of Billy and Mother (in the guise of a Shipwright) sitting inside an illusion of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks at the Diner is one that will stay with me for a long time.