The Change / The Unknown / The Escape / The Warning (Animorphs #13-16)[April 1, 2024]

[Yanique, Thread Master]

This is a Buddy Read for Animorphs Boxset: The Change / The Unknown / The Escape / The Warning by K.A. Applegate starting on April 1, 2024.


Happy Reading!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Book Cover images, inner flap images, and the flipbook GIFs...

Book 13 - The Change:





Book 14 - The Unknown:





Book 15 - The Escape:





Book 16 - The Warning:





Had to find Marco's from a Tumblr superfan... missing from wiki for some reason... Jake's Beware of Rhino sign in USA location seems super jokey... Tobias might be a spoiler to not hide, but it also made me thing (view spoiler)[Tobias could have gotten a human morph at any time, and made a blend like Ax did, I think, to remember his humanity?... except for the human memory worries... and issues with doing it with non-Animorphs... I dunno if there's a time issue with blending DNA... Ax got the DNA to blend all at once... Tobias would probably have to find a bunch of people one by one to do it with non-Animorphs... (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Huh, what's up with all those "image error" bits?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Huh, what's up with all those "image error" bits?"

I copied a template for what I plan to add to all the sheets in the future, with img src tags, but I haven't filled in all the image URLs from the wiki yet... I have plenty of time...

Each BR thread is gonna have the book covers, inside images, and flip book animations associated with them, for you guys' perusal, without risking wiki spoilers...

Basically, what I did for books 1-12 in the March thread, monthly...

[Nirkatze]

Ah, gotcha... it was all those "image error" bits that were throwing me off, but that makes sense if you're just using the template for the html and will be filling in the pertinent parts later... sorry for spamming...

[Nirkatze]

Read #13 The Change Today. I'm glad to be back with Tobias--it's been too long. (view spoiler)[The Hork-Bajir being adapted to eat tree bark reminds me of Old Man's War--the terrifying creatures that are algae-eating pacifists and the bunnies that eat people...

When we saw the Hork-Bajir shoot escaping, my first thought was "oh, that's right, isn't the next side-book the Hork-Bajir Chronicles?" Now I'm wondering if they'll chronicle the Hork-Bajir pair going forward, planning the rescue of their fellows--or if they'll go backwards, showing us how they were conquered, or even how our pair escaped. How do a species which has been completely taken over by the Yeerks even find the time to have a wife or husband? How long ago were they conquered? I'm very curious.

I also have to wonder how much of Tobias's strange encounters here were due to his heritage, and how much were just the Ellmist messing around. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Read #13 today as well... alot going on, and purposely confusing at times... but all well-meaning...

Next Chronicles: (view spoiler)[The Hork-Bajir Chronicles goes back and fills in the details of the Hork-Bajir invasion, but I think it's told by the Free Hork-Bajir here...

Serves 2 purposes... backstory for the Hork-Bajir, and more backstory for Alloran, host of Visser 3, after everything we learned in Andalite Chronicles... (hide spoiler)]

Tobias: (view spoiler)[I never really think much about Tobias' heritage... maybe my memory is faulty, but I feel like that's an underutilized plot point in the series... (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Looking forward to getting to those Chronicles...

Read #14 The Unknown yesterday, (view spoiler)[and it kind of felt like a joke story with a potty punchline... literally. I was laughing a lot, especially with all the "innocent horsie" stuff--wait, there weren't this many of you? And Ax knowing exactly what the Unknown tech was... Silly humans, and the Yeerks wasting their time investigating it...

I also loved how Cassie's parents deal with her staying out without permission--embarrass the kid with threats of meeting the parents and how she luuuuurves someone... LOL (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Just read Unknown... it was good... and agree with everything Nirkatze said... it had some ominous lines early on, tho (view spoiler)[about evil horse conspiracies... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Finished The Change #13 ... Tobias book... (view spoiler)[The Hork-Bajir couple were adorable! The way the male proved he was not a Yeerk was traumatizing! I just wanted to hug the ugly, terrifying, but good hearted vegan creatures! The one really good thing the Elimists have done so far is create that Garden of Eden for them! Well, making Tobias able to morph again is pretty cool too... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Someone online did a bunch of fan-art inspired by the book covers, and tried to find a more accurate depiction, from the descriptions, more reminiscent of dinosaurs or birds/raptors...



Less vertical, more diagonal...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/co...

[Nirkatze]

Oh cool, I'd been trying to conceptualize the Hork-Bajir...

[Tonari no Emily]

I love alien species, animals, etc that scream Danger! to us humans, but are really mostly harmless in their natural environment.. The Change was definitely a high point for me.
For some reason I could not pay attention AT ALL to the Unknown. Might revisit that one...

[Nirkatze]

Just finished #15 The Escape and I'm feeling kind of similar to how @Emily was for The Unknown, lol. These go so fast... and then you're through and done and what did I just listen to? I swear I was paying attention during the book, I swear... (view spoiler)[I mostly remember the ending, where Marco finally comes out to his friends about his mother... I'm glad that isn't a secret anymore.

And there was another body-horror moment with a bug morph, and investigating sharks... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Just finished #15 The Escape and I'm feeling kind of similar to how @Emily was for The Unknown, lol. These go so fast... and then you're through and done and what did I just listen to? I swear I wa..."

The cover of this book and the plot is one of the ones that stuck with me the most over the years... I did my re-read a day or 2 ago... (view spoiler)[the underwater facility and the patrol shark frenzy reminds me of Arc of the Scythe on re-read...

These books are always a bit of controlled chaos, with the group morphing gorillas and bears and going on a rampage in enclosed spaces...

This one introduced the Leerans, an aquatic telepathic tentacle-y race that is revisited at some point in the future of the series...

Yeerks are bio-engineering sharks for a hostile invasion of the Leeran planet...

(hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Ah, thank you for that recap... though I eek I could have done without a reminder of that Arc of the Scythe scene *shudder*...

And woah that's a cool piece of art. Fanart?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I got it from the wiki… I think it’s official… it’s a zoom in on a back cover or poster with a bunch of aliens on it and the animorphs logo and maybe some text to lure readers

[Tonari no Emily]

Glad I just decided to relisten to The Unknown.. I don't know what I was doing when I was listening the first time because all's I remembered was there was horse morphs lol (view spoiler)[ my favorite part was Cassie eavesdropping on her parents when they said the only way to punish such a good kid was to deeply embarrass her. Love it lol (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Marco's books are surprisingly my favorite of the bunch! The Change (view spoiler)[ this kid breaks my heart with how hard he tries... And also not wanting to be pitied or thought of as weak.. I hope he can open up a bit more.. Revealing to the rest of the animorphs about his mom is a good start (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Iain, always appreciate the art you find! :)

[Nirkatze]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Marco's books are surprisingly my favorite of the bunch! The Change [spoilers removed]"

Agree on all fronts--doesn't hurt that Marco's narrator has great comedic timing.

[Choko]

Just finished The Unknown #14 ... Cassie is such a sweet kid, I absolutely love her! Emily, her parents resolution of how to punish her had me smiling too:)))

(view spoiler)[ So the big bad secret military base has an alien Toilet?!?! Hahaha! That is hilarious! Also, Cassie didn't let us down and won her race as a racehorse! Wow! I don't think she would have gotten out of there as easily as it happened, if she was really a winner though...

Every time that we see Hork-Bajir now, I wish the kids would be able to free them from the Yurks... It just makes me sad that such naturally gentle creatures are used as killers:((( (hide spoiler)]

Another fun one:)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The series is pretty good at giving the aliens a happy ending I think… even the Taxxons that want it become nothlit snakes I think… any creature with better hunger control is a win for them…

[Choko]

Makes sense:) I hope for the best for all of them!

Finished The Escape #15 ... Marko does bring the feels. Not as much as Tobias for me, but still... Actually, all of the kids are very relatable and likable.

I liked the Hammer Sharks! Scary, but kind of cool.

I want to know more about the new aquatic aliens and what will happen to them. Also, what happens with Viscer 1...

[Choko]

Finished The Warning ... Jake... Man, I am not sure I agree with his choice at the end at all... However, I really like that the author is not shying away from giving the kids hard situations and them maybe making questionable decisions... Not everyone is good under pressure every day and people make mistakes. It kind of makes me feel like Jake is more of a regular kid, rather than this grown man in a kid's body...

The rhino morph was cool though:)))

[Nirkatze]

Read #16 The Warning today... I'm still trying to decide if I find Jake's constant leadership related internal crises annoying or realistic. Maybe realistically annoying? He's definitely my least favorite POV. (view spoiler)[That discovery was pretty chilling, when the rich dude said "how do you think i'm getting the Yeerks out?" ... it never says it outright, which just makes it all the scarier... For some reason it makes me think of Ellie in the Last of Us, too...

Would they have had the resources--or the guts--to kill him? They haven't actually killed anyone yet, have they? (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

I think realistically annoying works.. Not sure how else they would be written and still be realistic to his situation.. Maybe if he asked for more help on the burden of making decisions... That's a common theme with these books though. The kids are under a lot of stress and only have eachother to talk about these things with so they can't really unburden themselves

[Nirkatze]

That's a good point--how it's not like they have any adults they can rely on...

[Choko]

I did wish they had killed him, but I think you are right, they haven't killed anyone yet...

[Katie]

I found the threads! Yay! haha. I'm going back to re-read all of your comments to catch up!

"The Change" was definitely a favorite of mine. I love Tobias's perspective. And switching over to the audiobooks has been great! Though Marco does have his fair share of trauma between the giggles. I'm rooting for all of these kids!

Books 14-16 were kinda so so for me. Kinda jokey in some ways. Which is good. We don't want them to die of insects or in terrible ways all the time. (view spoiler)[The toilet big was omg XD (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Pretty much all of them are marinating in traume, right from the get go...

From turning into ants and almost being murdered by the ant colony because they lack the right pheromones...

Then constantly breaking the rules of physics/reality, and getting flung across the galaxy (the book where their Z-space morph mass gets caught in the gravitational field of an Andalite space ship, and they get to go on an Andalite/Leeran mission, before being rubber-banded back to Earth)... or #6, I think, where they end up in the jungle and some characters die and only Jake remembers...

By the end of the series, so many of the characters have died multiple times, and SOMEBODY in the group remembers the death timeline...

And then mortal injuries healed by morphing... etc etc etc... this doesn't even touch much on the rigors of war itself