Breakdown

Remnants #6

by K.A. Applegate

The best-selling author of ANIMORPHS and EVERWORLD presents a fresh, exciting, and gritty new science-fiction series that combines a little 2001, a little Armageddon, and a whole lot of action!

As Billy continues his mysterious encounter with the ship's powerful core, known as Mother, he begins to form a strange connection with her. Mother has generated the Remants' surroundings and she is lonely after centuries of isolation. But when Mother delves into the depths of Yago's sinister mind, a strange computer-generated battle pits Yago and an army of Civil War soldiers against the Blue Meanies. Will Yago sell the Remnants out to Mother?
And when the Baby's true identity is revealed, can the possibility of a new Earth be far off?

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

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Megha]

Okay the book isn't just twisted, it is straight-up scary. I had a nightmare during an afternoon nap, and it is officially a break for me. So long, a bunch of crazy humans in a crazier setting.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The monument had breached the hull. They were going to explode, freeze, suffocate. Their bodies, what was left of them, would hang around in space, so much trash.

It can't possibly get any worse, Violet thought and knew it probably would.

I think we've finally reached the point where these are no longer rereads! Because none of this really sounded familiar when I read it.

This one was exciting as usual, and felt like it had a bit more direction to it in that Yago's been handed a mission from Mother, and the book delves into Mother a bit more, as well as her Blue Meanies Children. I looooved the chapter set in their POV, so I kinda-hope each Remnants book features at least one chapter from an alien POV now.

We also get two more new characters -- Noyze & Dr. Cohen, both women of colour (as far as I can tell)! one of them hard-of-hearing! which turns out super useful in this book, which is cool!

The cover is definitely Yago on the left, and I think Jobs Billy on the right.

It's interesting to see into Yago's head more, and finally get some of the characterisation depth that I've been looking for: we get a glimpse into his racial anxieties, his discomfort being a mixed-race kid and being overwhelmed by his grandmother's heritage, and possibly also his latent fears re: not being worthy of living up to his courageous ancestors and their struggle in slavery. I do wish he wasn't painted with such a blunt brush throughout the whole series, though, because I think with a bit more subtlety (& intelligence?), he could have been so interesting as an antagonist. His blustering buffoonery sort of undermines his more compelling sides, unfortunately.

Also of note:

"Football stadium," 2Face confirmed. "For the Washington Warriors, formerly the Redskins. I had an uncle who was into football."

Guys, this book was published in 2002. I can't believe that name has still freaking persisted and still hasn't been changed. If I'd read this at the time, I would have been completely clueless re: sports and thought that the Washington Warriors really was the name of the team. It's such a random, quotidian little worldbuilding note re: Applegate's vision for the future, but I really like it.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, god. Oh, man these books are so good. I'm not even sure how to describe it, it's so good. I really do have to wonder, though, why this book doesn't have a fandom anymore. It's definitely not the kind of thing that gets popular, but you'd think some people would appriciate this series to this day, and it feels like a fandom piece, what with all the characters and aliens and weirdness.

So, I've talked about this tons and tons already, but I have to emphasize again: holy everloving fuck this is so weird. This is probably the weirdest series I've ever seen. I almost feel like Applegrant was on crack when they wrote this. But in a good way. There's so much originality throughout this series, so many new ideas and surprising events. Really, I've never seen anything like it. I feel like Applegrant was rushing through this, and they kind of just let every idea they had pour out, and then made it make sense. You wouldn't think that would work, but what results is a crazy and wonderful ride.

Last time I read a Remnants book, I complained that the overarching plot didn't seem to be advancing. We seemed to be stuck in one place, with Mother just throwing everybody around. I'm happy to say that this is no longer the case. We're starting to get explanations as to exactly what Mother is, what Tamara's baby (who is creepy) is, what Billy can do. There was also more than one definite event at the end of this book that'll change the course of the series dramatically. It helps that the plot is completely unpredictable, simply because there are so many possibilities. Trying to predict what happens next is a little overwhelming, actually, but in the best way possible.

And the characters! This was a very Yago-centric book, and his psychology is interesting as ever. I also really like Noyze, the new character that showed up in this book. And Violet was pretty cool as well. I'm pretty disappointed by the lack of 2Face in this book, but I guess she can't be awesome in every single book. There's not much to say about the characterization here that I haven't already said about Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate books - it's just as strong as ever.

Well, that was another great Remnants book. The next one... gah, I don't want to think about the next one. RAGE! But this is another great book from Applegrant, and I'm still very sad that this series has been so forgotten. All of the books have been incredibly strong, and I'm always excited to read more.

You thought I was going to forget the statistics?
Body count: 1 (AlbertoHorror count: 0 (Y'know, I think this was another book without a whole lot of horror. Strange.)
Plot hole count: 1 (Where the hell were the Riders? Last time the environment changed like this, they freaked out and tried to kill all the humans. This time they didn't make an appearance. Why?)
'Marry me and live on a hosueboat' character of the day: Yago, because this book really was about him, more than anyone else. And 2Face. Always 2Face.

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Later, maybe, there would be time for grief. Maybe.”

It’s been close to two months since I read the fifth in the ‘Remnants’ series and I returned for the sixth installment feeling a little unenthused. Although there have been some very brutal moments, overall my response to this series is definitely nowhere near as positive as my response to K.A. Applegate’s ‘Animorphs’ series or even the lesser but still decent ‘Everworld’ series. I’ve felt like ‘Remnants’ is doing a lot of running in place and honestly thinking about reading nine more books feels a little exhausting. Thankfully, BREAKDOWN does push the story forward in some ways; I came close to giving the book a 4-star rating solely on the basis that it does things differently, but there weren’t really any of those really hard-hitting moments that have impressed me in some of the earlier installments, the action was a little hard to follow at times, and overall the positives about this book weren’t enough to totally overcome that feeling of discontent that I had going into it.

I say that this book does things differently because it begins with a prologue from Mother’s perspective! “Mother” is the name of the gigantic spaceship the Remnants are trapped inside of and which is creating a series of artificial environments full of dangers. There were references in the previous books to Mother having intentions and there being some equivalence between the ship and Billy Weir, but this is the first we’ve gotten a peek inside the mind of the machine. Secondly, more than one chapter is about the perspective of the race the Remnants have been calling “Blue Meanies”, but who refer to themselves as the Children. Their moral stance remains a bit hazy; they’re mostly enemies to the humans in this installment, but there’s a chance they might become grudging allies as the books progress. That development of the mythos of the series is welcome, even if the development is limited. It still suggests an expansion of the books’ world.

One thing I dug about the last book was near the end when the environment begins being produced from Billy’s memories and fantasies. It had a sort of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind feel to it, and that continues in this installment except that the person whose thoughts and memories are creating the environments now is Yago, the antagonist. This book tries to humanize Yago a bit by remembering that he is African-American and making America’s history of chattel slavery a sticking point in his mind. Unfortunately, this isn’t handled particularly well. It starts with the Remnants finding themselves on the grounds of a plantation… with slave quarters visible nearby. They believe that Yago has these latent thoughts because his “mother is African-American”. It’s odd to say that his mother is, as though he is somehow different from her. Yago’s mother, you may recall, was the President of the United States at the time the world was decimated—both the first female President and the first Black President (this book was written pre-Obama). Violet considers: “From slave quarters to the White House. That’s an impressive path. I wonder if Yago felt that he didn’t belong in the White House. That he wasn’t smart or brave enough.” WHAT? The suggestion that because his family rose out of slavery Yago might feel he’s not “smart” enough to be in the White House feels a bit gross, and even more so because she literally follows it up with a, “Hey, I’m just asking questions!” After this, the group sees a Black man being beaten by a white slaver. Although there is a knee-jerk reaction to intervene, 2Face shuts that thought down with, “I don’t think we can. This is Yago’s nightmare, not ours.” While clearly neither the man nor his tormentor are “real” human beings, there is nothing stopping them from interacting with these constructs and they have throughout the series to now. I do not understand the idea that they are compelled to stand by and let this happen. Anyway, this is the last the book deals in any discussion of slavery—from this point forward it’s all about the Union army and battle weaponry and whatnot. Much more comfortable ground to tread.

Just as the fifth book introduced Kubrick and his father, this one also introduces two new characters: Noyze (hooray—another dumb nickname!) and an adult named Dr. Cohen. Noyze’s superpower (not really a superpower) is that she grew up mostly deaf before her hearing returned and, as a result, learned to speak sign language and read lips. She therefore is able to understand the sign language communication of the Children/Blue Meanies, giving the humans an edge in their attempts to interact with them. Also, speaking of Kubrick, there is a moment in this book where he gets to utilize his invincibility, walking through a laser to save somebody who is being tortured and then looking at his own sizzling skin with dispassionate curiosity. So that’s kind of cool. Edward, a.k.a. “The Chameleon”, also gets to utilize his superpower for a moment by blending in with horses to find out where Yago’s Union army is heading. So. You know. That’s cool, I guess, that they’re starting to put these powers to use. Also there’s a neat moment where Tamara and her creepy eyeless baby suddenly appear and save the day and then the baby seemingly evolves temporarily into a more advanced form before returning to its normal state. Billy (I think?) even suggests that the baby is a Shipwright, the species which I believe originally created Mother, so that’s more mythos that’s ripe for further exploration.

As I said before, though, the action scenes are sometimes hard to follow and the number of characters does lead to some of them just being pushed off to the side in favor of the most prominent ones. Amd though it’s cool that Yago was creating the environments this time, they aren’t as unusual as the ones in Billy’s head. The ending takes place in a version of the stadium of the Washington (D.C.) Warriors football team, formerly the Washington Redskins. Although it’s not stated explicitly, it’s clear that the name “Redskins” was changed because it is offensive, much as it was (eventually) changed in real life (20 years after this book was published). What’s different about the stadium created from Yago’s memories, though, is that it is colored with pink and green swirls. So WaCkY!

I don’t know. I am still hopeful that the series will turn in a way that really moves me, but at this point I feel like I’ve basically gotten a feel for what it’s going to be like for the remainder of its run. The deepening of the worldbuilding is a bit of a treat and the shift to the perspectives of non-human characters is something I appreciate getting in this installment, so there is stuff I am still enjoying… but the strongest moments of ‘Remnants’ hit only intermittently, and I don’t know how long that’s going to be enough.

[Arska-täti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Telepaattisia kykyjä omaava Billy haastaa Äidin kaksintaisteluun, mutta menettää lopulta yhteyden. Yago huomaa tilaisuutensa tulleen ja tarjoutuu tuhoamaan häijyt siniset Äidin avulla. Sisällissodan aikaisella armeijalla ei kuitenkaan häijyjä sinisiä voiteta.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

  Too bad Yago and Billy are not quite facing off on this cover… since so much of it basically is about Yago/his side versus Billy/his side...

  So much goes down in this book. We get our first glimpse of how Mother thinks, we meet two more of the Missing Eight, we learn a lot more about the Blue Meanies’ society, not to mention we get to see some epic battles of will both in the interior mental domain and in the more physical domain. Plus, it gets seriously psychological, guys. I mean, it almost had me sympathizing with Yago, of all people! As in, the guy who is the easiest to hate for all of his twisted and ruthless politicking and desire for power no matter the cost to anyone else. THAT Yago.

  While we are still balancing far too many primary characters, despite the focus on maybe 6 or so, and the addition of two more, we at least get a good clue into both Mother and Yago’s heads, which helps considerably. With the revelations we get from those two and the Blue Meanies/Children themselves (yay for alien POVs!), there is starting to be more of a mission, a goal forming for the Remnants. And I’m getting excited to find out where this is all going to go. I like when I have even a vague idea of where a book/series is going, instead of just building and building and building with no solid direction in sight. The book/series is more than welcome to surprise me along the way and change the rules/destination, but as long as I can see some sort of path, I am much happier.

  The Remnants are not entirely at the mercy of whatever scenes Mother dreams up for them any longer, or are at least not grappling in the dark as much about it as they were before. They’ve learned some very important information about what is going on, and they are just starting to realize that they will need to make plans on what to do if they are going to survive. 2Face is showing more of her true colors, and at the end when the Remnants divide up on Mother’s side or 2Face’s side, ooo boy! I’m a bit confused why Tate would go with Yago/Mother, as she was the least approving of “Yago’s goonies”, but her plan could be to be basically a mole in Yago/Mother’s team, working to collapse it from the inside. I hope! Things just got a whole lot more interesting, and I’m eager to find out where things will go from there. Nowhere good, that is for sure!

Quotes and commentary:

  “But tolerance is a quality we honor,” Two Righteous Trees noted. “Because the humans are not equipped to distinguish between what is original to the architecture of the ship and what is Mother’s work does not necessarily mean they are blind. It implies only that they have yet to be educated.” – page 14 – (emphasis added) Oh boy. And it is still so, so very true today… hopefully the Blue Meanies will at least give the humans more of a chance to prove themselves!

  Finally, [Yago]’d superseded [his parents]. Yago had had no use for his parents back on Earth and they had no use for him. At least once they’d realized what – who – he was. Then even the pretense of concern had fallen away. – page 55 – Way to almost—ALMOST—make me sympathize with Yago.

  “Or,” Mo’Steel said, “there’s another player in this game. Someone, or a whole group of someone’s, who arranged for us and the Meanies to arrive simultaneously. Someone wanting just a good time or something bigger down the line. I don’t know.” – page 66 – Revisiting of theme that there is a big player out there, moving the characters like chess pieces. Very like the game the Ellimist and Crayak play in Animorphs, and maybe even a bit of the watcher of the space between the real world and Everworld.

  The fact was that Mother was dangerous.
  The answer seemed clear to Billy. At the same time, the answer disturbed him deep down. You could know what you had to do and still choose not to do it, right?
  But I’m the crazy one, he thought. So what do I know? -- page 76

  But [Jobs] couldn’t let sadness overwhelm him like it had so often since they’d come to this ship. Later, maybe, there would be time for grief.
  Maybe. – page 130 – Sadness has overwhelmed him already? Um… when exactly did we see that? Up until now, for the most part, we’ve mostly seen people note that if they let the sadness and loss take them then, they wouldn’t be able to climb back out, so they keep putting it aside.

  And strains of music, lovely, soaring melodies, a voice singing words Jobs could not understand but which spoke to him anyway, spoke to the poet in him.—page 140 – Again? I think I could believe Jobs’ “poetic soul” more if he actually tried to create a few verses – just him observing disconnectedly, noting that it “speaks to him” is not tangible enough to really get behind.
 
  Then, a thought occurred to 2Face. The baby needed them, didn’t it? Why else would it be trying to convince the humans to follow it? The baby needed them. But why?
  And why only now was the baby making this outrageous offer? What did the timing mean? – page 150

[Mariah Wamby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book progressed the series in a really good way! Yago had always come off as a caricature of entitlement rather than someone I could take seriously, and this book rounded him out quite a bit more. There was also some great development with the Children/Blue Meanies that I appreciated. Basically, these last two books have really seemed to be gearing us up for The Plot.

[Ema]

How prescient that Applegate made the Washington Redskins the Washington Warriors. How optimistic that she thought it'd happen by 2011...!

This whole series I've been wondering what's up with the baby. I'd totally forgotten that subplot. Plot? Plot.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd really like this series if I was a kid because of the postapocaliptic creepy world but now not really.

[Dodau · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've got to disliking this series so much I'm not bothering with the rest

[Thistle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even know anymore. These books are so short, I can't keep track what happens in one as opposed to the next.

There are three different alien species along with the last of the humans, all fighting for control of Mother (the ship). These two books were about a war, a "final battle" between the aliens, the humans just trying to stay alive.

In addition to the editing, one of the characters is really reducing my enjoyment of the series. He's the US president's son, spoiled rotten. As the book is set in the near future, people can get genetic work done to themselves, so he used it to look perfect and used the DNA of cats to get golden, glowing cat eyes. He won the "hottest teen in the world" award many years running. He's just such an unpleasant person, I hate spending any time reading about him. And now, due to plot happenings, he thinks he's a god, which only makes him even more unpleasant to read about. He's just the type of bad guy I hate: black/white. He's nothing but 100% bad, nothing to balance him or make him interesting. In these last two books, he wasn't featured much, but I worry where this whole god plot is going.

This series has been pretty good thus far about making the survivors' skills reasonable, until this last book. One of the kids, who is a computer wiz, is confronted with a "keyboard" (a panel of symbols) to an alien computer in an alien language. In minutes, he realizes a firewall is blocking their task. Moments later, he's successfully hacked through it. All in a language he does not know, using something he hadn't even realized was a keyboard/computer moments earlier. Blah.

The series is 14 books long, so I just hit the midpoint of it. I'm quickly losing interest in it though, I don't know if I'll make it to the end.

[Julie Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ship, Mother, is engaging with Billy. This ship has desires and wants to not be alone anymore, and Mother agrees to make a new home for the desperate remaining humans if only they will do her one favor: kill the Meanies. Well, no one thinks that's a good idea except Yago, and that usually means it's a bad idea. Too bad the ship jacks into Yago's mind and creates a battle scenario, and there's no going back. Yago isn't the sanest of characters, and this only makes it worse. We now also get to know more about the extent of Billy's abilities, the real core of what/who the Baby is, and . . . weirdly . . . we get another couple of characters who were mysteriously missing since the beginning. Something's got to give. . . .

Yago is spoiled, megalomaniacal, and just plain entertaining. He basically wants to be his mom and run the world as president, and his war fantasies would be way funnier if they weren't so dangerous. Billy's bond with the computer is really interesting--I remember a similar connection between Toomin and Father in The Ellimist Chronicles--and so many of the mainstream characters from previous books become background characters to let Yago have the stage. But I think Mother broke his brain. Uh-oh.

[Krystl Louwagie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm happy that this book really felt important to the progression of the story-things are finally really happening here, people are really taking a stand and clear divides are forming, also, now it's clearer to see the importance and shape of the over all large plot, instead of things just happening and reactions. Events are coming together. And, I'm still happy with the imagery, characters, etc. For now though, I'll have to stop reading, as I don't have any of the rest of the books in this series at my finger tips. (But maybe I should utilize my local library in the next year or so on the rest so I don't forget things...)
Also, I'm really happy I like this series since I've got other books in series by her. And, it makes me optimistic about those Animorph series that used to be so popular. Now that I know I like her writing, I might pick those up at book sales as well.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a little while since I read #5 in this series, but I was really looking forward to getting back to it.

This book was okay. Not a lot of action. We did get a closer look at the Blue Meanies (Children) who showed up at about the same time that the Remnants were rescued by Mother. We get a better understanding of what Mother is and what is happening.

The Remnants come together to battle the Blue Meanies, but by the end of the book they have again divided into two distinct groups, 2Faces' group and Yago's group.

Looking forward to reading the rest of this series to see how it all comes out.

[Swankivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear this is one of the coolest covers ever. Anyway, when these were coming out I had to read them immediately. Heh, Yago's insane! Insaaaaane!

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things are getting really weird, but the over-arching plot is significantly progressing, which is a good thing. I'm interested to see what's going to happen with that baby.

[Erika Forth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was OBSESSED with this series in middle school.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was good, I liked it.

[Azri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the "showdown" between Mother and Billy. I liked the chance to see how she felt and I eagerly look forward to seeing how their relationship continues to progress.

[Trihaly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as much as the rest in the series, but it has some interesting aspects. The battles of wills were interesting, and it was fun to see how the mind can translate to reality.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I'll be taking a short break after this to read other things. A quick dip into my Read shelves revealed it's been a little over 10 days since I started rereading the series, and I'm almost halfway through. As a predictable side effect of tearing through them like this, the individual books are starting to blend together just a bit. Breakdown deserves better than that, because it was, again, pretty good if not everything I wanted.

After coming to something of a truce with Billy, Mother recruits Yago to lead a campaign against the Blue Meanies/Children. What ensues is a rather fascinating glimpse inside Yago's head as Mother mines it for information, including of course his grandiose ambitions to the presidency but also his racial anxieties, insecurities, and (finally) the genesis of his claustrophobia. This is just the sort of character development I'd like to see done for more of the Remnants. I feel like I understand Yago better now, even if he's still a jerk.

Breakdown also introduces one of my new favorite characters, Noyze, who was Deaf/Hard of Hearing before receiving a cochlear implant. There's an interesting exploration of her feelings around having gotten the implant, and how she misses some aspects of her life before the hearing enhancement, such as using sign language. Plus, her ability to understand sign ties into the plot in a very cool way later on, which I don't want to spoil.

This book also introduced POV chapters from the Blue Meanies, which, yes? GIVE ME ALL THE ALIEN POVS. I'd love to see if we ever get the perspective of the Shipwrights, although my hazy memory is telling me not to hold my breath.

My main beef with this book is that the ending seemed a bit disjointed and kind of directionless compared to the last book. After the climax, the ship dumps them back in the default environment and the book kind of just ends. This issue might be to do with the more serial structure of the plot compared to Animorphs or Everworld: even though they were serial installments, those books usually had complete arcs within each book (with some notable cliffhanger exceptions).

With Remnants, the end of every book feels a bit like those shorts they played before the feature film in the '40s: "Tune in next time to find out how our heroes get out of this one!" Which is an effective way to keeping readers turning the pages--as my ridiculous pace through the series has proved--but does leave me wanting just a little bit more than I got.