Book 25: The Extreme
Publishing Date: January 1999
Narrator: Marco
My rating:
The Animorphs get a lead from Erek the Chee that the Yeerks are planning to beam Kandrona rays from a secret location directly into the Earth’s atmosphere, so that every swimming pool, lake and puddle becomes a potential Yeerk pool. With no plan and little preparation, the Animorphs hitch a ride with Visser Three (instead of trying to kill him, because it’s a kids book, yo) to the secret location and find themselves stranded in the North Pole.
Sometimes the Animorphs books feel like a TV series. I know they made a TV series (it wasn’t that bad, was it?), but it feels like there’s a bunch of writers sitting around a big table brainstorming situations for the team to fall into. “South American jungle! The future! The Arctic!” Instead, it’s one writer who outlines the novel, and from now on (mostly) a ghost writer who pens the ‘episode’.
This book feels like an ideas episode. Put the Animorphs in the Arctic, listen to Marco whinge about how cold it is, Cassie gets indignant because everything think she’d rather starve than eat seal meat, nothing much happens until they get some fire power in the shape of a polar bear, then one two three the bad guys are easily defeated, skip the Visser Three monster morph of the week and bim bam boom they’re home after allegedly flying the whole way in bird morph…
It just felt a little lacking. Too much wandering in the snow and morphing wolves, seals, and polar bears and not enough time spent actually fighting the aliens. The Animorphs felt lost in this book, and I didn’t much enjoy being lost with them.
But hey, that happens sometimes. It’s a long series.
Join me for a review of #26: The Attack next week!
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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.
the scarecrow
See, now I adored this volume, but only because POLAR BEARS. Just goes to show what personal biases can do to you. I remember reading this as a kid and being shocked that polar bears are, y’know, killers. Well, duh, they’re predators, but I guess my naive, bear-loving mind assumed they’d be like overgrown mobile soft toys. Whoops. Talk about a reality check.
Nemo
Oh I totally get it. This is rated on my adult reading experience, not my childhood one. I think I liked it more as a child because I was like THE ARCTIC. I enjoyed it a lot more, but as an adult i wanted more substance than “Ice. Cold. Morphing. More cold. Aliens.”
the scarecrow
True! Don’t forget the ‘killing seals is bad’ spiel. How the frak else are polar bears gonna eat? You guys, u guise, polar bears > seals.
Nemo
Well to be fair Cassie did surprise everyone by turning around saying “Yes, eating food with faces is bad, but we’re starving freezing wolves so let’s totally scavenge that carcass.”
Eve
Just read through this whole thing. I so love that you’re doing this. Animorphs is still my favourite series–I started reading it when I was 6, and I pretty much never stopped. I have all the books, and have read them all more times than is probably reasonable. Hell, my license plate is “VISSER1” (EVA IS A BOSS) 😀
Excellent insights!! I will leave more thoughtful comments later, but right now I’m basically just going: EEEEEEEE!!!
Nemo
I love so much that your licence plate is VISSER1. That is so damn cool. And please, feel free to leave comments wherever. I love spreading the Animorphs love.