Book Notes

Doesn't really make sense for a human-Controller to not have a smell. The body's still human, after all. 

At least they figured that out quick. 

But, guessing by the title, I'm going to bet "Erek" is a robot. 

So they just roll with the "robot" idea without thinking about any other explanation? 

Why do they always wait right until a mission to try out a new morph? 

How sad for the Pemalites. 

How did Erek learn the word "Animorphs"?

Erek can create Kandrona rays from his energy, but where does he get his energy from? 

I hope the Howlers are explored so they don't end up as a simple plot device to get the Chee to Earth. 

It seems like some Chee are choosing to have their nonviolent code overwritten; that's not forcing them to fight, but giving them the choice the Pemalites never did. 

One of them could have tried swallowing the crystal. 

I'm gonna guess Erek feels too guilty about killing and won't involve the Chee in killing the Yeerks.

It's foolish for both of them to morph. 

How can small animals get through a force field? 

Why isn't Rachel as much of a leader is Jake us? 

She certainly takes charge when she needs to. 

They're being really mean to how Cassie's coping with all of this. 

Cassie skunked Visser Three!

How can Ax morph clothing? 

Clothing is not a part of our DNA. 

Interesting that Ax going wild with food is the same reaction the others have when they're in different animal bodies. 

Why doesn't Ax just tell them he's bound by an oath? 

I'm gonna guess the Andalites gave the Yeerks technology and they went nuts with it. 

Seems to me that if the Yeerks are the Andalites' problem, they should do everything in their power, including giving other people their technology, to help them.

We all know she's not going to go with her dad. 

What the heck is going on? 

No surprise there; the Yeerks have technology for days and the Earth has five children and a young Andalite. 

OK now I'm really interested.

Smart if the Yeerks, I must admit. 

If Tom's Yeerk can be about the same level of normal with Jake as non-Yeerk Tom, why is Chapman's Yeerks acting like a body snatcher to Melissa? 

Surely the real Chapman would be a more cooperative host if his Yeerk didn't treat Melissa like a living room lamp. 

After how many screw ups, they're finally practicing morphs! Hallelujah! 

Is it Visser Three in human form?

Called it. 

Not to help the Yeerks, but I would tell the human Controllers to shoot any red-tailed hawk they saw. 

A Yeerk being beaten down by Earth's animals and five kids is my bread and butter!

Two pages in and Marco's narration voice is very noticeably different from the others. 

Wouldn't if make sense for the stronger Visser to have the Andalite body? 

Plot twist! 

Now Marco's got a reason to stay! Yay! 

Though it came at a very planned out moment.

Andalites naturally speak in thought-speech. They don't have mouths.

Can't wait to see this Amazon Rachel's been hiding. 

Instead of just recapping, Cassie is giving her thoughts on previous events. 

I'm sorry I laughed but "That's a major ouchie." is just too funny! 

How did Marco just talk underwater? 

You'd think the aliens and humans would have different words for the same thing, like "acquiring" and "Blade Ship". 

Nobody mentioned those words to the Animorphs, at least to my knowledge, yet they use the same words for them as the aliens. 

The mardrut sounds like a giant heart with fish tails glued to it. 

Would've been cooler if Ax chose to be a female, or neither, or both, because genitals don't determine gender and he’s an alien so why would they have genders like Earthlings do?. 

And how would he know what (certain) humans deem as males anyways? 

So the alien’s human form isn't white, that's cool.

If thought-speech is only for morphed forms, then why could Elfangor and Visser Three mind-talk while not transformed? 

Is it a Andalite-thing instead of a morph-thing? 

It probably would have been better if they all acquired the female wolf. 

And alpha wolves don't really exist; packs of wolves are the parents and children, and the "alphas", male and female, are the parents. 

I thought the figured out their morph time resets after a quick change back to human. 

Refreshing to see Tobias fall to the Hawk's basic instincts. 

The Yeerks mastered intergalactic space travel but don't have the technology to filter salt from saltwater?

Imagining an eagle with a rifle in it's claws is hilarious. 

Way to make being handicapped sound so terrible, you guys. 

Rachel summarizing everything is strange. 

Are these books their journals? If so, why would they feel the need to give a "previously on..." part? 

And if these aren't journals, what are they? 

There are some parts of dialogue that are exposition-y. 

They should have put the real Fluffers in the cat carrier again to ensure he wouldn't walk in while Rachel was morphed into him. 

Can they morph from one animal to another? 

If so, Rachel should morph into an elephant to get out of the cage. 

You'd think they'd have tried experimenting with double morphs or questioned how long they had to return to their human form before the two hour limit reset.

And why has nobody's mentioned Tobias being missing? 

Surely the school would have mentioned it to his classmates.

I like that the spaceship wasn't described too complicated. 

The narration shifts between being written like a journal and being written like I'm in Jake's head. 

It's a bit confusing, because this is supposed to be Jake recounting all of this. 

Past Jake's talking like we should know what "silent way that you only hear inside your head" is because it's common knowledge. 

Jake says the cube seems heavy before he even picks it up. 

What's stopped the Yeerks from taking over until now?

I like the reason the Yeerks want Earth. 

We're not special, we're just weak and plentiful. 

Is Tom a Human-Controller? 

Jake can't be that stupid to not have seen that. 

You'd think Jake would have practiced morphing if he was going to do something so important.

Why the shift in POVs compared to the previous books? 

Daystar says he's shocked or confused, or whatever, but he never actually reacts. 

 Are we supposed to like Shiara? 

Of course, once Daystar decides the water's safe to drink, it's all fine. 

 "I decided Shiara was right.."; these lines are so awkward. 

 After how cautious Daystar has been, why would he be stupid enough to pick up a wizard's staff while holding a magic sword? 

Crying is not self-indulgent, you cow. 

There's something... gross about men reprimanding women about their manners. 

Every wizard in this series thus far has been evil, and Shiara has probably only ever seen evil wizards as well, so nobody's prejudices are "baseless". 

This princess is so annoying!

Where else would someone learn dragon spells?! 

Daystar incinerated a fire-witch so clearly he should realize Cimorene's "nursery rhyme" is more than that. 

This moron can't think of one reason people might want the magic sword of the king of the Enchanted Forest?

Every other chapter is them explaining their entire journey thus far to some random in the Forest. 

Being afraid of using "said" is something to avoid, but so is using nothing but "said". Would it kill someone to "ask" something? 

I'm pretty sure the wizards trying to steal magic from the Enchanted Forest is what started the war, not the sword. 

Why couldn't Telemain transport them? 

Daystar had rocks fall on his legs and all that happened is "they felt kind of rubbery". 

Shiara breaks her arm, but nothing happens to Daystar? 

Daystar corrected that Darkmorning Elf on using "I" versus "me", but he keeps using "me" as incorrectly as the elf did, on multiple occasions no less! 

I thought bowing was just being polite in this world; Daystar bowed to multiple people, including Suz the lizard, and people have bowed to him. What's changed all this with the dwarves? 

Daystar said he wouldn't forget if a dragon was right behind him, and yet he just did. 

It's bad enough Daystar would force Shiara to be polite, but now her magics doing it too? 

That key is going to be used to unlock the door Mendanbar's behind, isn't it? 

Daystar picking up the key didn't happen by chance, as this book series has been having these “accidents” since the first book. 

Wouldn't Antorell have noticed the simulacrum looked exactly like his father, and pointed it out? 

And how exactly did Daystar know Mendanbar was his father; saying "I didn't know until just know" is not an answer. 

Continuity error; Kazul hadn't taught Cimorene dragon magic in the first book. Cimorene listened to a spell, if anything, and read books in Kazul’s library, but Kazul didn’t actually teach Cimorene any magic.

Continuity error; Kazul decided to go back on her own because she wanted to go hunt wizards and she offered to go back, but Cimorene did not send her.

Big continuity error; in the second book, Mendanbar says the Forest, not the sword, chooses the kings, and only the kings could use the Forest's magic and wield the sword. 

Does Wrede even remember what she previously wrote?!

Being able to use the sword is, by Wrede's own words in previous books, a byproduct of being king of the Enchanted Forest and being able to use the Forest's magic. 

And he also said, and this is a direct quote: "...for no one else could safely use the sword...". 

So only kings can use the sword and use the Enchanted Forest's magic. 

That means either Daystar was made king as soon as he could use the sword and Mendenbar lost his title to Daystar (which would have been interesting), or all of this book goes against the rules set up previously. 

So magic suddenly affects this fire-witch, despite the reader being beaten over the head with the fact that they supposedly aren't affected by magic? 

Cimorene does not know what it's like because she ran away from that life.

Plus, Shiara is physically incapable of magic unless she's polite, which is different from being a regular royal person raised to be that way. 

Telemain and Morwen are another couple with no romantic chemistry. 

But Shiara's fire magic didn't really work even before the sword put the spell on her!

If you're going to make a novel about fairy tales and making commentary on them, it does the author good to actually learn where certain things come from.

For example, popular witch descriptions (ugly, warts, long nose, dark hair) come from anti-semetic caricatures of Jewish women. 

 So a witch being proud she doesn't look like "all those other witches" can be seen as troubling at the very least. 

 Even if people come to witches for silly potions, they don't have to make them.

I'm not seeing the problem. 

So are they just standing around not talking while these cats prattle on? 

You can't just throw references out like that; especially if your reference has nothing in common with your story.

I thought the brown spots are where a wizards' staff sucks up the magic of the Enchanted Forest; something that, as of the end of the previous book, is impossible. 

Once again, Mendanbar, the exact same moron who knew next to nothing about magic, has to explain Telemain's theories to poor, stupid Cimorene.

You're not supposed to drink from a still body of water. 

No, being pregnant doesn't mean you can't do anything; but you do need to do less of some things. 

What about that does Cimorene not understand? 

They are well outside of the Enchanted Forest; Cimorene has no authority.

Continuity error; Telemain was never removed from the basket so there's no way Scorn should be pointing down at him. 

Continuity error; Morwen didn't have anymore room in her sleeves for cider.

Did everybody just forget about Arona? 

All of the action scenes in this book are disrupted by talking! 

Telemain's complicated talking was irritating at best in the last book, and now it's just downright grating. 

Honestly, who cares about Mendanbar's fate? Certainly not I. 

Of course it's a boy.

Cimorene’s only role in this book was sword grabber and baby incubator. 

And what does this book have to do with calling on dragons?

Marriage being brought up with Mendanbar and him not wanting to marry any regular princess because they're too stupid (?) means he'll marry Cimorene eventually, I assume. Interesting to see a fantasy work with short elves. 

I don't like Mendanbar. Isn't it better to assume the princess isn't truly selfish seeing as how she wasn't lying about the waste she had to cross to get to the forest? 

Even if someone got into the Enchanted Forest wouldn't the other trees stop them from going further in? 

Wasn't it pretty obvious in the beginning that there was only one dragon? 

Mendanbar isn't a very good king if he doesn't know who the king of the dragons is. 

I didn't get the feeling that Mendanbar was very busy. 

Constantly ragging on other princesses doesn't make Cimorene look better by comparison. 

I feel like Cimorene is the type of person to try to fix the plumbing herself, even if she has no knowledge of what she's doing. 

Again with the princess bashing! Good Lord, stop! Cimorene has been dumbed down just to make Mendanbar seem like the wiser one.

Cimorene has never once been this foolish, and even when she was in peril in the first book, she still thought things through. 

A book about Cimorene coming into her magic and learning it would have made for a more interesting story. 

Would've been nice to all of this technical magic talk.

Did that back and forth with Dobbilan really need to be written? 

Is Cimorene really surprised the wizards kidnapped Kazul? 

This book can use an anti-Rromani slur and probably has not a single Rromani person. 

There are too many sections where the characters are just standing around and talking. 

Every chapter has someone being interrupted! Mendanbar, who knows bubkis about magic, suddenly knows enough to translate Telemain's ramblings into layman's terms. 

Couldn't they just teleport to right outside the Enchanted Forest? 

Why hasn't that been brought up? 

This is all so stupid! Jorillam and Rupert's story is so dumb! 

Wrede is forcing a romance between Mendanbar and Cimorene when there obviously is none. 

He's known her for two days, and the book doesn't show how he feels about her; it only tells, and not very well. 

Why is Cimorene being written like she's stupid? 

This is the same girl who was translating advanced Latin with only half an education in the language. 

The climax was extremely dull and boring. 

There was not an iota of romantic tension between Mendanbar and Cimorene.  

Also, he's twenty and she's sixteen to seventeen years old; that's creepy. 

 So Mendanbar's still a raging douchebag about princesses. Wow, that was all completely boring.

Over twenty years and nobody knows what Bull blood does to humans? Really? 

The features of the Bull are hard to picture because it's given such a vague description. 

 There's too many "looked like"'s. 

 Of course, once humanity falls, roving bands of rapists start attacking women (this is sarcasm). 

 Do women suddenly not own guns and not know how to operate them? 

Rape in post-apocalyptic novels is boring, tried out, and extremely alienating to rape-victims and women as a whole. 

Automatic star off from my final rating. 

Besides, ignoring that other men would get raped as well shows a level of uncritical research and thought about why people rape and women being the only victims is misogynistic on the part of the author. 

Rape in post-apocalyptic worlds are used purely to show how dark people are without "humanity". That's it. There's no real point to it, so it's extremely lazy. 

Caffeine doesn't make you more alert.

Siblings... don't talk to each other like that. 

I'm sure women would like humanity to rebuild so there wouldn't be as much rape, but alright. 

How are they talking about banishing military soldiers that aren't in their community; it makes no sense. 

Has Evan and the rest of them just forgotten about the rape epidemic because the Bulls made the Earth a little less polluted? 

Pulling weapons on Hardaway and his crew and then throwing them in a jail cell probably has potentially turned them against The Farm more than the citizens not agreeing with him. 

The only East Asian character is a Dragon Lady. 

 And the Asian man is a spineless ninny. 

 Why is Evan acting like he's some hardened professional torturer? 

Evan is like a dollar store version of Joel from The Last of Us. 

So they criticize the military for killing millions, but practically praise the Bulls for killing billions because of "overpopulation"? 

The relationship change between Mom and Evan came completely out of nowhere.

That line about giants was funny. 

Genderless dragon; nice. 

Interested how the dragons choose their leader. 

For a books dealing with dragons versus wizards, it's more than a bit boring. 

We get little nuggets of interesting things, but not much else. 

Continuity error; Cimorene got off of Kazul's back when they first got to the house, but the text said she dismounted again after Morwen appeared. 

Continuity error; Antorell said he'd come back for a visit, not Zemenar. 

 What's the difference between witches and wizards? 

Cimorene was absolved of her killing guilt rather quickly, which is... a bit lackluster. 

There are jinn, who are from the Middle East, in this world, so are there any actual Middle Eastern characters?

 And the only dark skinned character in the book thus far being a demon is more than a bit racist. 

 There's a reference to 1000 Arabian Nights, but no positive Middle Eastern characters. 

 Morwen's answer is completely unsatisfactory.  

Cimorene' stone was a deus-ex-machina. Cimorene had never before taken things, especially potentially dangerous things, and her taking the stone was done solely to wrap up the plot.