Book 18: The Decision
Publishing Date: May 1998
Narrator: Ax
My rating:
Ax and the Animorphs morph mosquitoes in an attempt to steal an important guy’s blood and morph him while he’s in a coma arranged by the Yeerks. While in mosquito morph, their excess mass in Zero-Space falls into the wake of a passing Andalite ship on its way to participate in the war on Leera. You remembers the Leerans from Book #15, where the Yeerks attempted to infest hammerhead sharks so they could take on the Leeran underwater world. They’re psychic amphibians.
The Andalites rescue the Animorphs, and Ax immediately transfers his allegiance to his own people, much to Jake’s annoyance. Turns out the Andalite captain is a traitor and the Dome ship is destroyed (the Animorphs escape, obviously), so while Rachel and Marco are raging and Tobias and Cassie come to Ax’s defence, Jake gets all “so what do we do?” on Ax’s ass. And Ax hates being a leader. But he’s clever enough to figure out what the Andalite plan is, so the Animorphs have a mission after all.
Also, Visser Three morphs a kafit bird (one of the compulsory morphs for any Andalite in the military) and Ax for some reason thinks this means Visser Three has been on the Andalite home world, not that it’s one of the first morphs Alloran ever did. Hello, Elfangor totally morphed on in the Andalite Chronicles. Ax would have the morph as well. Yet he can’t think that Alloran would have it? Totally weird, Ax, totally weird.
The Leerans are a race of psychic amphibians. They can read each other’s thoughts. When the Animorphs morph Leerans, they turn off their psychic sense. Ax remarks that it’s very lonely, being a psychic with no power. His loneliness really revolves around this entire novel, because he gets to be among his people again and declares that Jake is no longer his Prince. Harsh. He does revert his loyalty, because he’s come to realise that he no longer knows who his own people are. Are they the Andalites who betrayed him, that have heard of his exploits but haven’t sent any help, or are they the humans with whom he lives?
Because this novel deals with an outer-Earth conflict, it’s relevance to the overall plot of the Earth-based war is minimal. However, as it is a continuation from the events in Book #15, and as more about the Andalites in general are revealed, including the confession that soldiers don’t really morph and the technology is usually only used by spies so the Animorphs are the only ones with capable morphs to save the day, I think that makes this book one of the more important ones in the series and it shouldn’t be missed. Besides, it’s Ax. He’s hilarious in his own unassuming, dry way.
Join me for a review of Megamorphs #2: In the Time of Dinosaurs soon!
Share this:
About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
