Survival

Remnants #13

by K.A. Applegate

Tate is fighting for her life. Amelia, Duncan and Charlie are mysteriously transforming into slime creatures and they are desperate to "recycle" all of the living cells -- into their own bodies.

But Tate has something Amelia wants even more than cells. She'll manage to save her life by forging a strange alliance with these creatures.

Tate is haunted by a strange reoccurring dream of the renewed Earth. Do the dreams mean Tate can use the powerful ship to undo the devastation caused by the Rock?

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, Post Apocalyptic, Aliens, Dystopia

156 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, did I miss Tate. I had no idea how very much I missed Tate until I realised that here was a protagonist who was behaving relatively sensibly, who was at her wit's end but trying her best, who did reasonable and logical things when stuck in a terrible situation. A protagonist who is enjoyable to spend time with, and could carry the entire book by herself, almost completely sans the rest of the Remnants. (This really just reinforces to me that this series might have benefited from having 1 narrator per book, as with previous Applegrant series; it helps you get attached to them so much more.)

And Yago!! Oh my gosh. I had completely given up hope for him as a character, figuring that he'd just be an addled messianic mess for the rest of the series... but Survival undoes it, without fanfare. This is 100% a retcon, in my opinion, but it's one that I welcome. This book vaguely tries to posit that it was an act, or he just happened to recover, or something -- which doesn't strictly make sense, because his brain was scrambled, no doubt about it, it definitely was not an act in previous books -- but I welcome this sudden relapse of sanity. I don't even care that the narrative doesn't question it. Because I had missed his low, self-serving cunning and deceitfulness and willingness to throw anyone under the bus in order to save his own skin.

And then that changes. In which this series is back to being completely unexpected and going places that make me :O...

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS Tate freaking eats him alive and absorbs his consciousness and he turns into a disembodied voice piggybacking inside her body!!! WHAT. WHAT EVEN. It is so weird and bizarre. Never would I have expected this. And then Amelia and Charlie! This crazy body-sharing plot was a hoot to follow and I was riveted, possibly partially because it reminded me of Yeerk infestation. It's so ironic that Yago becomes his most level-headed and agreeable when Tate is completely and utterly stuck with him, but it makes sense, that now his self-preservation would extend to her.

And then the sixty year jump, y'all!!! Wow. How hopeless and bleak. It's maybe a little absurd that Tate didn't turn around and go back to Earth immediately, just to check to see if there was any chance the others survived, even if it's been over two months so the odds are slim -- but idk I sorta accept the explanation of her not wanting to face up to that crushing loss of hope. (Especially since, yanno, she was actually right. If she'd gone back then, sans time travel, the others probably would've been dead.)

And just, oh man oh man my heart. That ending. The time travel is completely nutty but the characters are what makes it worth it. Yago, an old man, wise and tempered and rational and Tate's biggest supporter, dying unfulfilled. (I never would have expected to have Emotions about freakin' Yago's death??? My god.) Tate and Amelia sharing all of their information and plans, working together, sacrificing themselves together.

It's all deus ex machina'd to hell and back, of course -- being the penultimate book, they're pushing the pedal to the metal in trying to wrap everything up and tie everything off in a rush. They pull plot out of left field. But it still somehow worked for me. Because I cared about Tate and Yago (and even Amelia's) fates, because I was rooting for them. Because I expected them to turn around and come home, and they did, sort of, but not in a way that I at all expected. Thankfully, this series still has the capacity to surprise me in ways that don't make me want to roll my eyes and scoff.

It's probably going to be a tidy ending where Earth is greened and repopulated, which might be too happy for me, but eh. I'll take it.

A couple small quibbles:
1) Tate losing weight so damn quickly on the ship when she's just sitting in the corner?

Tate let herself drift.

Sometimes she dozed off. That was nice. She looked forward to sleeping, to the release. When she was awake, she sat against the same wall and studied the horizon of the basement and tried to ignore the hunger clawing at her belly.

She told herself she was staying still to conserve her limited physical resources. Already the waistband on her pants felt loose. She was losing weight. Probably dehydration.

Granted, I haven't experienced complete food/liquid deprivation -- but since I can't see her having sat in the corner for longer than 2 days or so, that doesn't feel like enough time to lose so much weight that her waistband is noticeably loose?

2) The slug evolution is unbelievably gross. That's all I had to say. It's not even a quibble, I just couldn't think of where else to say it.

3) lol the time travel!!! This is just the silliest thing, in the authors' frantic rush to piece it all together at the end. I just needed to reiterate how hilarious it is to me that our characters managed to invent time travel in the space of like a single paragraph. But again, it worked for me -- because this whole book led to a very firm conclusion and definite ending, and one which will feed into the overall ending for the rest of the Remnants.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best book in the series, but it's a big improvement over the last three. Goddamn, this series is weird.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's almost unreal how much of an improvement this book was over the last. If I didn't know better, I'd say K.A. stepped in to write this one, but apparently she only wrote the first four. This was certainly one of the more talented ghostwriters the series has had.

After two (!) whole books, we finally return to the ship Mother and find out what happens to Tate, Yago, and the Troika. This story could have been an afterthought but instead it ties in cleverly -- if farfetchedly-- with the main plot while being a strong story in its own right. I connected instantly with Tate: she's pragmatic, brave and thinks outside of the box. She has to struggle for survival from the start, trapped on an empty ship with the people who betrayed her and the other Remnants. But she has one key advantage: the mutation she calls the Mouth.

When Yago tries to feed her to the Troika to accelerate their weird evolution, the Mouth devours him--and here's where things get interesting: instead of dying, his consciousness takes up residence in her head. I could feel shades of Animorphs on the theme of sharing one's head with other minds and fighting them for bodily control. Survival goes in a very different direction though, with the noncorporeal intelligences eventually becoming Tate's companions on the lonely interstellar journey.

Thoughts in no particular order:
1) Survival does amazing character work; not only does it believably develop Tate (whom I wish we'd gotten to spend more time with earlier) but it rehabilitates Yago's character in a way I didn't expect. Not only does he return to the way more interesting conniving Yago from before his brain was scrambled--an effect perhaps attributable to being disembodied?--but by the end he and Tate have lived together for decades and become friends. I was feeling genuine emotions at his death, which I never would have expected.

2) The scale is both intimate and larger in scope. Unlike earlier books, we spend most of the time in Tate's point of view, and this lets us really get to know her and makes the narrative much more immersive. The introspective mode also enhances the existential horror of being possibly the last human in existence, which Tate even weaponizes at one point: they drive Charlie insane by not talking to him, everyone.

Yet the book also effortlessly covers sixty years of Tate exploring the galaxy in a few pages. What could be a jarring time jump is grounded by Tate's quest to find complex life somewhere, anywhere other than Earth. Her failure to do so drives her decision to return, in a moment of narrative resonance I was surprised to get from this series so late in the game.

3) In short, I loved this book. I was very tempted to give it 5 stars, but couldn't justify it in light of how weak preceding books were. You have to read those to understand what's happening here. This is absolutely a 5 star within the context of the series though. It almost makes me sad how much I enjoyed it, because it was like getting a glimpse of how good Remnants *could have been* the whole way through, while knowing that what we got was not this.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before writing the full review below: Might even bump this up to 5 stars after I figure out my review. This is the solidity I want from a book/installment in a series. Twists, turns, characters being pragmatic and sensible, and really getting into their head :)

Full review:
  That is definitely Tate on the cover! And those definitely look like cocoons of a sort….

  Of all of the Remnants books, this one reads the most solid; I would almost go so far as to say that it gives off the vibe of being of the level of quality of a later Animorphs book. We mostly follow around only Tate, so there is not a constant shifting of perspectives after the beginning. Even in the beginning, the perspective switches are well-planned and orchestrated, each fitting to the next like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. They don’t feel spotty, or half-baked; each one contributes to itself and to the next scene. The quality is so high compared to the rest of the series that I don’t know if Applegate wrote this book herself or if it was just one of the really good ghost-writers she has ever had write for her (like Ellen Geroux in some of my favorite Animorphs installments).

  As good as the beginning was, it was a little bumpy, but it was all an adjustment contributing to the form and structure of the story and I found it very easy to forgive. I also found some of the choices made in the first half or so a little strange, like how we are suddenly getting all of this information about Tate’s life before the Rock, snapshots of her home, family, and school life. Also that Amelia, Duncan, and Charlie seemed so determined to get to this planet called Attbi – I never quite got what was so important about Attbi, which was probably the original destination for Mother. I do also wonder why, when Tate went down to the basement, she didn’t use the upside-down question marks on tracks to get around instead of walking?

  As for how it all came together: The snapshots we got of Amelia and Yago especially in the beginning did well to show us just how messed up they had become, and how they were no longer thinking even remotely clearly after all this “evolution” stuff. Which is why, when Tate first consumed/absorbed Yago, I was in disbelief that he actually sounded normal -- even more normal and level-headed than he had sounded leading up to boarding the Mayflower. It was such a drastic change that I could hardly believe what I was reading, but then this new/reverted characterization stayed steady. Which led me to conclude that Tate’s mutation neutralized the mutations/evolutions of anyone she consumed. Let’s face it, Amelia was pretty messed up by the whole “evolution” bit, but once she was also consumed (willingly) by Tate, the psychosis and mental break she had as an “evolved life form” ebbed away. Maybe not quite as stark of a change as Yago at the beginning, but she definitely reverted back to what we can only assume is the state of mind she had before the Mayflower. (Oddly enough, when Amelia was in her “evolved” state, I kept pronouncing her name as “Ay-melia” even though until now I had always pronounced that name as “Ah-melia” – and after she merged into Tate’s body, I once again read her name as “Ah-melia.”)

  By and large, then, we were inside Tate’s head for the majority of this book. We had a consistent narrator, and one who acted the most normal of, well, pretty much every single person in this series. The only “contenders” for the title of Most Normal I would nominate are probably Billy and Olga, and maybe Mo’Steel with an honorable mention, and Tate blows them all out of the water with ease. Despite the lack of control of her situation, Tate always seemed to be the most in control of herself and her decisions, even when sharing her body with Amelia, Yago, and Charlie. She’s the most logical, and the most practical, and really, her decisions and views and characterization are, in my mind, the most believable in this entire series. She’s the most grounded, and seems the most … human. She possibly has the best characterization and personality with the most consistent and logical evolution of character of everyone else in this series.

  As the book unfolded, and we were left with being inside Tate’s rather crowded head, it only got better. For once I feel like I know a character in this book, and that she is so solidly crafted and portrayed that she feels more real and relatable than anyone else in this book. The dilemma she encounters with plotting the destruction of Duncan, and the prospect of giving Charlie the silent treatment until he disappears from her head completely, the struggle she has to figure out how to redefine her existence to accept living with Yago and Amelia inside of her head… it was brilliantly executed. And then, we got to fast-forward with them about seventy years, seventy years where Tate has survived with no one but the consciousnesses of Yago and Amelia in her head for company. In all that time, we find that she has kept very true to the pragmatism which we had seen in her. They have spent all this time avoiding Earth, cruising the universe in search of new life. The entire conversation between Yago, Amelia, and Tate, where Yago takes them in a new direction instead of sticking to the old argument, I found so starkly real. It is clear that time has passed, that they have gone through a lot together, that they know each other more than almost anyone can know another person; there is a rawness to their conversation, to Tate’s emotions and reactions, in addition to those of Yago and Amelia. They are not the same as they once were, and yet … they have not truly changed all that much. They are true to themselves in a way that virtually no one else in this series has managed to stay true to themselves.

  Allow me to backtrack a bit here on the quality of the writing in this book itself. In addition to the character viewpoint switches fitting nicely together, and each one serving a clear purpose to lead into the next development and viewpoint, the style of the language is much higher than most of this series has been. Take this one phrase:

“He was a character in a novel and she was his reader – unable to change the flow of events, unable to do anything but suffer along with him.”

  There is a clear artistry in the language and tone of Survival. Sentences, descriptions, and even character narration is carefully crafted, and there is nothing half-hearted or half-baked in any of it (contrary to the rather half-baked mess that was Aftermath, in all honesty). The language is solid and stands tall and strong, and even compliments the solidity of plot in this installment. This … relative perfection, I dare to say, in comparison not only to all the previous Remnants books, is even comparable to the laudable Animorphs series. It is far and above better and stands out markedly from the rest of the Remnants books. I wish the rest of the Remnants series were up to par with Survival. This book alone is a big payoff for the series, if you even managed to make it this far. (I’m a completionist, so I did; but if I wasn’t a completionist, I honestly doubt I would have made it past #8 Mother, May I?, if that far.)

  Yup, I'm bumping this up to 5 stars.

  Now I can only sincerely hope that with the twist introduced between Tate’s dreams and the end of the book, that Begin Again can carry on the torch for the final stretch. Though with a title like that, let’s just say I have some serious doubts…


Quotes/comments:

  The Troika – that’s what the other Remnants called Amelia, Charlie, and Duncan […] – page 14 – I can’t help but notice their initials are A, C, and D…. now if I remember right, Yago’s real name is Robert. Which can give to Bobby. And if he merged with ACD, they would have ABCD! (… the little things that amuse me…)

  < < Not so fast. It looks like we have a little plot twist on our hands. > > -- page 34 – What, one set of angle brackets is not good enough for Remnants like it was in Animorphs, hm? Also, I am highly amused at this self-awareness of the story/characters, even if I do have a hard time believing at this time that suddenly Yago seems… almost normal? At least compared to how far off the deep end he had been acting. Could it be the loss of his body itself has freed his mind to no longer be subject to the changes “evolution” had forced on him?

  The last thing they needed was Charlie having a breakdown in their head.
  Her.
  Her head.
  Not theirs. Never theirs. This was her body. Only hers. She didn’t have to share. Didn’t want to. Wasn’t going to. – page 83 – I like seeing how Tate slips at first, referring to her head as “their head”, and then quickly asserts that it is “her head” and no one else’s – she is in denial, believably so, and her reaction seems the most normal, too.

  Tate went to him. She tried to comfort him, but he was unaware of her presence. He was a character in a novel and she was his reader – unable to change the flow of events, unable to do anything but suffer along with him.
  Billy recovered quickly. He was tough.
  An orphan.
  A child of war.
  A Remnant. – page 108

  “Now could you all please shut up!”
  The voices died down into a sullen silence. – page 115 – I’m kind of surprised they all obeyed…

  < < Nobody has ever discovered a life-form that can live in the vacuum of space. > > -- page 121 – Except now we have -- the water bear!

  “Ollie, Ollie, all come free,” she whispered. – page 137 – So that’s what the call is! I always thought it was some nonsense phrase, “Ollie Ollie onsenfree!”

  Yago was silent.
  Tate experienced a cold flash of fear that made her stumble on the way to her chair. Yago was dead. Suddenly she knew it was true. He – he must have felt something. He must have known the end was near. That was why he’d made that comment the day before. He’d known..
  […] “He’s gone,” Tate whispered.
  < < Yes, > > Amelia said. < < I think I know that. > >
  Tate felt as if she had killed him all over again. He’d asked her to take him to Earth, and she’d refused. Perhaps he simply couldn’t stand the disappointment. – page 153-154

Typo:
Three cycles later
* * *
-- page 134 – the “Three cycles later” should come after the dots marking a break, not before.

[Nowhere Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was way more interesting than anything in the last few volumes. The dynamic between Tate/Yago/Charlie/Amelia/Duncan is great and the stakes feel more real.
The twist is something else. I tend to hate long, abrupt time skips like this. I don't like skipping to the end of a characters life, though I may accept it more if it's meant to be tragic. I don't think I'll end up accepting Tate spending decades in space as a valid addition to the story, or the time travel, but it does make me very invested with reading what happens next. Also, I will say it kind of sucks how the killing of the Riders and the Blue Meanies isn't treated with much weight. Ignoring the fact that they're sentient creatures, they've been a part of the story since the beginning and I have nostalgia for them. A Blue Meanie saved the protags lives in one of the most evocative chapters of the whole series. I didn't just forget that.
I'm a bit disappointed because I feel all in all yago didn't get a real character arc. He was a cartoon villain who only progressed by getting eviler. I wouldn't really consider what he goes through in this book to be a character arc but just a change in role or dynamic; suddenly it makes sense for him to be on the side of the protagonist. And I love this! From the beginning the most interesting thing about remnants was the group dynamics, who would end up working with who, what allegiances would form and be betrayed. The constant shift of alliance in this book alone is part of what makes it the best in a while, and yago ending up on Tate's side, while not explained on a character level, is the most interesting choice. Though personally I hold more affection for Charlie than Amelia.
I guess a big problem I have with the time skip is that it leaves one of the biggest sources of tension in the volume - the urgency of tate getting back to earth to help her friends - unresolved. I don't like that. I like the beautiful tragedy of her death - especially the eerie beauty of the dream sequences - but I hate skipping to the end of a human life like it's nothing.

[Moxie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is proof that good characters can carry even the most ridiculous plot. This book was by far my favorite out of all of the Remnants series. I don't care that the ending was clearly a rush job in order to complete the series, I don't care that it was a departure from equally-if-not-more important events, I actually ENJOYED this book, which is more than I can say for most of the series. The first book absolutely nailed the "we're all going to die and everything is terrible" tone, and after that it just became boring. This book, though, is a welcome departure. The tone is still bleak, but the dialogue and characters are fantastic and (somewhat) believable, so much so that I found myself actually liking it. I didn't put it down and immediately have to go watch a bunch of Moominvalley in order to cheer myself up. It's a shame it comes so late in the series.

That being said, I have one complaint, which is: what was going on with Yago? Throughout the past few books, I honestly thought he had some form of schizophrenia and was living under the delusion of godhood. And in this one, that's just suddenly... gone? It doesn't work like that. I guess you could make the case that he snapped out of it because he was inside Tate, but that doesn't make any sense either? Charlie still had symptoms despite being in the same situation as Yago. I liked having his character back, and was willing to overlook that because he was a welcome source of comic relief, but to create a decent plot it was very strange.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first started reading Survival when I was about 10 years old after I had picked it up at a book fair. I read a little bit of it but stopped because I thought that I had to read the whole series before getting to this one. When I had to go live with my grandmother just before my 11th birthday, this book was among the things that I lost. This year, I decided to revisit the past and read the books that I had as a child that I never got to read. (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was another one.)

It took me 22 years to finish reading this book. Yet I believe I read it at the right time in my life, as I am writing a series of poems about something apocalyptic happening to the Earth. I had remembered the cover of the book and went from there. I found it on a website for used books; it was a library discard. It’s amazing that I could still remember the parts that I had read (no more than the first few chapters). As with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I do not believe that I will be reading the other books in the series.

[Ema]

And finally, THE TATE BOOK! I knew I liked this one. I knew it was one of my favourites. But I think my memory had actually made it twice as long and fleshed out all the details that are missing. Still, I cried at the end. There's something so simple and beautiful about it all. Tate always was the most generous. There could have been a lot more characterization (hello, Yago and Amelia suddenly are...nice?) but this book actually moves the plot forward and makes sense for the first time in a few.

But how did Yago round up all the Riders and Blue Meanies?

[Arlenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The things happening on this book are done for the sake of wrapping up the series yet it works and I believe this to be the best book in the series so far. This book is both hopeful and desolate, it was a beautiful balance and never in my life I would think I'd be happy to have the original Yago back, or even more for his death to make me feel so emotional.

[Mariah Wamby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! Remnants is coming in to its potential - it just sucks that it happened so close to the end of the series. Survival is easily my favorite of the series so far - it has the body horror and psychological trauma, but it’s also got a story. An actual plot and events that happen. It’s so freakin’ good.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

😴 Just... one... more... 😪

[Julie Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tate has had prophetic dreams about the future of Earth for a long time, but nobody's really paid much attention. But now that she's on this wandering ship with the folks who didn't get off on Earth, she's in trouble: Yago has gone insane, and she and everyone else is being stalked by a gestalt entity known as the Troika, who have turned into weird sentient slime and are coming for her cells. Her fight for survival is a beacon of greatness in this series as it spirals to a close.

I had a theory about this book; after the series didn't sell as well as Animorphs and a lot of the seeds Applegate planted couldn't be allowed to grow, they decided to end it with #14, but they couldn't go out without one more deliciously dark, weird, morally ambiguous fight of kill or be killed. Tate became really cool in this book, and the partnership she eventually becomes part of is really interesting for the series, though the paradoxes involved in this ending made me kinda tilt my head. It's well written, fast-paced, and really fun.

[Dexter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty cool installation of the series. Tate's never been my favorite character, but it was still interesting. I was very surprised that I ended up liking Yago so much, and I'm not entirely sure the ending makes sense even though I kind of saw it coming. I think the last book in the series will really be what makes or breaks THIS one, as well as the series as a whole.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book we follow Tate as she is left alone on Mother when Yago and the Trioke take over and leave the other Remnants stranded on a destroyed Earth. Very interesting chapter and I can not wait to see how it all ends in the last book.

[Swankivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remnants #13 was awesome! It's all about Tate and her survival aboard the ship when four crazy "evolved" beings are trying to eat her. Let me just say there is a whole new meaning to "you are what you eat," and I have heard of multiple personalities but this is ridiculous.

[Sami · Rating 5 out of 5]

There have been so many twists and turns in this story, I can't believe it's still going. Tate's story was unbelievably sweet, but also very very sad. There's only one book left, and I'm not looking forward to the series I've been reading for 5 years to end.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

ew.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a really good twist in this book. I liked it.