The Alien (Animorphs #8)

I was looking forward to this book *so* much - finally a story told from Ax's perspective! - but I'm sorry to say that I was largely disappointed. Sure, the "Ax doesn't understand everyday things" episodes where amusing enough and actually made me laugh a few times (and the scene with Cassie's mum and dad was one of my favourites from the book), but I can't help but be disappointed that Ax is so... alien in a very superficial way, if that makes sense. Sure, he's overwhelmed by taste and Doesn't Understand Normal Human Things but overall he's just like a slightly weird human. But okay, that I can forgive.

The Human Supremacy thing, not so much. Human supremacy, you ask? But nobody said humans were superior to other species! Not in these show more words, no. But this touches on the same problem I had with the previous book and the Elimist's view of Earth: Humans are just so special! They are braver than other species, fighting against impossible odds! They are so much more inventive than other species! They develop so much quicker, make inventions much more quickly than other species! Their sense of justice is just so amazing and the Andalites can learn so much from them!

I am certainly not against a "let's learn from each other" narrative, but when do humans ever learn something from Andalites? No, instead Andalites as a whole, with the exception of very few decent individuals like Elfangor or Ax, are set up to be wrong. That's really what a good part of this book is about: How Andalites and their honour-based society are Wrong. How Ax needs to accept the humans as his new people and learn from the humans and understand that the way his new human friends do stuff is much more reasonable than what Silly Impractical Andalite Tradition says.

It's just humans and aliens here, but it still creates an "Us versus Them" narrative that I find a whole lot more poisonous than Ax's new rattlesnake morph.

Add to that that "Oh no I have a secret that I cannot tell you about even though the whole plot would be over if I just talked to you for two minutes but I can't because of, uh... reasons!" is my least favourite kind of plot in anything, even though it's kind-of-sort-of-somewhat justified here... and you'll see why this isn't exactly my favourite Animorphs book.

Oh, and also, SPOILER WARNING: I can't be the only one who was irritated by the sheer stupidity of the showdown. They have Alloran right there! Even if none of them can bring themselves to kill him as he begs them to do, they could at least take him away! Hide him somewhere! Do ANYTHING except letting him just lie there so Visser Three can come back to take him over again. They could've gained an amazing new ally and taken one of the Yeerks strongest Controllers away at the same time! But no, we can't do that. We must properly push the reset button at the end of the episode after all.

But! Big news! Yeerk have infiltrated the Andalite homeworld! Ohmygosh. Now *that* is quite the plot development. Now why the heck did Ax not tell Alloran's wife about *that* when he contacted her? Please, plot. You're relying on your characters being insufferably stupid. Stop it. show less

Animorphs Read 2020 (March);

I really like that this series finally gave Ax his own book. I do find it a little unbelievable there are only like five or six words that are vastly different we get introduced to from the alien point-of-view, and I have issues with "I" point of view managing to hide anything of importance from the reader until it's being revealed to other characters. As that's not how either of those work. But it is a children's book, and it gets a small bit of a write off for that.

I loved the 'kindness' story/history, and I was sure it would be something like that. Where benevolence was answered with crude grasping power. It definitely makes me feel for the whole of their culture, and the prince's both vying with what to show more do with their world, who to believe, why and what risks they must take now to help and hope to stem the tide of even more worlds falling into slavery. show less

Hmmm…Having watched the entire television show (which I know takes us past this particular volume) I was pleasantly surprised by the events. It was great getting to see more of Ax’s culture and people and learning more about the Andalite’s history and failures.

Super fun reading about life on Earth from Ax the alien's perspective.

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.

Fun fluff with moments of seriousness.

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