The Attack (Animorphs #26)

This one was different. Bizarre, otherworldly, crazy circumstances, but then had such a unexpected, clever twist at the end I was intrigued. The Animorphs team are engaged once again by that all-powerful being the Ellimist - who it turns out is having an eternal war with an all-powerful, evil being called Crayak. Instead of wiping out entire galaxies with their battles, the Ellimist and Crayak decide to pitch their best warriors against each other. Crayak chooses a group of ruthless war-machine creatures called the Howlers. Ellimist choses the Animorphs (plus Ax and Chee the android). They are pitched to fight on an alien planet inhabited by the strange Iskoort. For once, the battle turns out to be the focus of most of the book, not a show more sudden hurried hectic scene at the end. The Howlers seem impossible to defeat; the Animorphs have to figure out their weakness, and also how the android can help them (because it's programmed to be a complete pacifist). Their realizations about the Howlers are startling; also they have another revelation near the end about why the Ellimist put them on this particular planet to fight. Something about the ancient history of the Iskoort holds a key to possibly ending the parasitic domination of the Yeerks, if only the Animorphs can win- and now they realize how important it is to do so.

Once I saw the issues and complexities raised in this book, I was hooked to find out the answers. I didn't see many of them coming. On the other hand, there's still a smattering of humor through the whole thing, even though the battle was pretty brutal. I thought at one point this was going to be the book where a main character dies- but they didn't. Almost though. It was very close. Oh, and there's a first kiss between Cassie and Jake.

from the Dogear Diary show less

Now this, this is what sci-fi is for! Ethical dilemmas with weird alien creatures!

The Attack is (like all the Animorphs books) about five kids: Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and Tobias. With the help of their alien friend Ax and their power o turn into any creature they touch, they are trying to stop some evil aliens, the Yeerks, from taking over Earth . In this book, their mysterious and powerful friend, the Ellimist, sends them to a planet full of weird creatures called Iskoort to battle some deadly aliens called the Howlers from killing everyone. But the Howlers seem invincible! And what will they do when they learn some shocking information about their enemies... and their friends?
I like this book because it makes you wonder whether any "bad guys" are really evil. Can the Howlers really be blamed for what they show more did? As you'll find out, it wasn't actually their fault. I recommend this book to anyone who has read the other Animorphs books or likes stories about space, aliens, extremely advanced technology, and people becoming animals. show less

A short comment for every book of the series until I get a chance to re-read them. All three of my sons and I loved this series and read every single book - I even bought every single book (most, but not all, used; some through school book sales). I'm excited to re-read them to see how the five main characters develop and to watch all the different transformations again.

The best books appeal to *readers* universally - not children versus adults. These may not be quite worthy of the adjective 'best' but they do have that crossover appeal.

Animorphs was a good series that kept me reading. Enjoyed these as a kid.

Fun fluff series that gets less and less fluff over time.

00007052