The Extreme

Animorphs #25

by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate

It's time for the Animorphs to acquire some cold-weather morphs. The Yeerks are at it again, and they're causing trouble near one of the coldest places on earth: The North Pole.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Aliens

146 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Kara Babcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

And so we’ve reached the ghostwriter era, with The Extreme delivering a fairly dull adventure to an exciting place: the Arctic.

There’s not actually much wrong with this book. The trouble is that it comes on the heels of a particularly strong moment in the series—the David trilogy and The Hork-Bajir Chronicles—and most stories would look boring in comparison. Unfortunately for a story called The Extreme, Marco and the other Animorphs don’t get up to anything particularly new here. We’ve seen them on board the Blade ship. We’ve seen them in bug morphs. We’ve seen them infiltrating/destroying Yeerk bases while facing off against strange alien life.

Rachel acquires her iconic polar bear morph here, and in fact, she’s one of the best parts about this story (but I’m biased). Her comments show an interesting, sympathetic warrior mindset: she is ready to fight, but she’s also sad when she has to kill these strange hybrids programmed to oppose them.

Normally Marco brings the humour to counteract the seriousness of the Animorphs’ war. And the writer tries, but it feels a little perfunctory. The book opens with Marco crushing hard on a date, whom the other Animorphs have to investigate, of course. Unfortunately it doesn’t really factor into the plot—that’s a shame, because it would have been more interesting. Marco having to go on multiple dates with a girl who might be a Yeerk would be a novel worth reading.

I wish I could be more enthusiastic, because the Animorphs go to the Arctic! They meet a (presumably) Inuit man who takes their morphing in stride and reminds them of the value of respecting those who call this land their home. But this part of the plot feels very aimless. On one hand, I love how the writer realistically deals with the fact that they are not prepared for such a cold, inhospitable environment (morphing outfits are not cold-weather garments!). On the other hand, “we need to stay in morph or we die of hypothermia” only stays interesting for so long.

The real missed opportunity is the Venber. They could have spent more time developing this plot, actually explored the implications of what the Yeerks had done much in the same way as they did with the Leerans ten books ago. Instead we get the thinnest exposition. Then they become anonymous, mindless bogeyman who barely pose a threat as the Animorphs curb-stomp their way through the base.

The Extreme is a mess, and not even a hot mess in the good way. It’s an all right story—there aren’t really any major plot holes, but that’s because there isn’t much of a plot. It’s only a level or two above “filler.”

Next time, though, we are in for a treat when the Animorphs get to visit another planet and the Crayak storyline kicks off properly….

My reviews of Animorphs:
← #24: The Suspicion | #26: The Attack →

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, and the ghostwriting begins. I was hoping that I wouldn't notice the ghostwriters when they popped up -- I never did when I was younger -- but this one stood out like a sore thumb to me now, likely because it was a Marco book, who has such a distinctive voice and sense of humour, and I'm probably better-attuned to KAA's writing style now that I'm older.

This one was written by Jeffrey Zeuhike, for posterity. Marco's banter just feels too forced and put-upon; the book is lacking the usual emotional punch and underlying message connecting the current mission to the current Animorph. It got a lot better later in the book, once it was past all the tired repetition of exposition and into the blood-and-guts of their fighting, but so much of the book is just them persevering against the crippling Arctic cold, morphing and demorphing and remorphing again, which doesn't make for compelling reading. The assault on the Yeerk base -- the best part! -- doesn't even happen until around the 90% point.

So: a really meh, forgettable book beside the fact that it introduces another alien species, they acquire polar bear morphs, and Derek the Inuit is the coolest. Apart from that, it's a bit of a waste of a Marco book. It was also the first time I've been bothered by a plot hole: if the Blade ship was personally escorting Visser Three to the base, why does it inexplicably disappear from the narrative later? It says that thte Yeerks simply chose to let the Animorphs go because they knew the cold would take care of them instead -- what??? what self-respecting Yeerk would ever let the Andalite bandits go if they could easily gun them down from the ship when they're lying shocked on the ice?? It says that there's no room at the facility to house the ship, so they don't need to worry about its presence later. What??? Where did it go?

My copy also didn't use thought-speech tags, which I'm hoping was a by-product of a shoddy ebook conversion, not a continuity error in the book itself, because that's hella sloppy if so. If I'm stubborn enough, I'll have to see if I can dig up a physical copy of the book to check.

[Gavin Hetherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come check out my 4 hour 35 minute deep dive into reading every single Animorphs book for the first time on YouTube. I recap and review all of the books from the main series: https://youtu.be/H8kUM2q3CIU

[Trevor Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

❄️❄️❄️

[Rachel from Friends · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty ok. It was the first time someone outside of the beastiality pairing acknowledged the beastiality so that was interesting 7.3/10

[Adam McPhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourites in the series, I think. Along with the one where the angry girl gets an alien disease on tv and the one where the bird-kid goes to a lawyer.

Just realized this one is about Vietnam, in two important ways.

First, there's the trope that became widespread in Vietnam (I'm sure it was present in other wars too, but it only reached the popular imagination here) of the American soldier being cuckolded while away at war. And not just losing his wife to any old civilian, but to dirty, smelly hippies. Obviously you can't have that in a kid's book, but it's evoked masterfully when the kids have their pacifist (!) robot friends take their place at home and at school so that they can sneak to the arctic. They're freezing in the arctic realizing that they've been completely forgotten about on the homefront.

Second, they take a page out of the George Lucas playbook and have the American heroes in the role of the war's more sympathetic force, the Vietcong. They're on a forced march with the arctic subbing in for the jungle, but otherwise it's the same. The conditions are grim and unrelenting, but by slowly mastering the terrain they're able to emancipate themselves and take on the largest imperial force. It's only when they accept that they may have to sacrifice their lives that they can really win, but in doing so they will bring about not just peace but a newfound freedom.

Wonderful!

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another exciting installment in this series; like a Saturday morning serial, these books constantly deliver action, intensity, and fun.

[Swankivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Animorphs go to the North Pole to stop the Yeerks from putting a Kandrona there. Hehe, their Spandex did not hold up too well in Arctic temperatures.

Notable moments and inconsistencies:

This book was ghostwritten by Jeffrey Zeuhlke.

A couple of early language mistakes: this book capitalizes "Android" once for no reason, and accidentally writes "Visser's Three" instead of "Visser Three's."

The Venber race is introduced here: An alien species that lived in sub-zero temperatures. Being that they melt above zero, the liquid they melt into is a good superconducter and another ancient race called The Five used them in their computers, as a harvest animal even though they were sentient. Their planet is called Venbea. The Venber that show up in this book are probably hybrids with humans, created and bred by the Yeerks.

Ax and Tobias satisfying their hunger by drinking blood in flea morph brings up an interesting question. If they morphed to flea to eat and then morphed back to their natural forms, would it mean they wouldn't be hungry for a while? If they morph back, does "hunger" grow or shrink based on what state they left their morphs in, or would it be dangerous for one of them to expect a satisfactory amount of food for a flea to carry them through once they go back to normal?

The Five don't seem to get mentioned in any other books even though Ax suggests they had an important altercation with Andalites in the ancient past. The Andalites are insinuated to have assisted in their complete demise.

The character Derek is not as disturbed or as determined to question the Animorphs as most people would be if they saw people turning into animals. The explanation here is that he is an indigenous person and their tribe believes in animal spirits. This is the second time the Animorphs books have done something like this--relegated a witness to non-dangerous status because of some ideal Native naïveté. Most of the time if someone witnesses them morphing or gets in on their secrets, they become a security risk. But people who are rural natives of some kind--in this case, Derek is Inuit--always seem to be ignored as a security risk and assigned an unrealistic, stereotypical local tradition that covers this base. It's read as offensive by some since several times the Animorphs show up in remote lands and meet natives who act like this, and it's especially odd in this case since Derek otherwise seems aware of pop culture references.

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the intimate, lonely novels and appreciate putting aside the actiony A-plot to focus on that atmosphere, and not much is more intimate or lonely than a den of shapeshifted wolves shivering through a long Artic night. It works particularly well in Marco's PoV, effectively contrasting his normally humorous voice. Objectively this is nothing special, no particular developments in plot or characterization, but in a long episodic series there's room for smaller, more atmospheric installments.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is fun, but not hugely influential on the major plot at this point. It would probably be a three, except Marco is the narrator and he is always such quality.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very forgettable filler episode in the Arctic.

[Coolkid97 · Rating 3 out of 5]

ah, the first ghostwritten book 😔 i found this one especially stressful for some reason. there were some good parts tho!

[The Library Ladies · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Originally reviewed at thelibraryladies.com.)

Plot: So, all I remember about this one is that somehow, someway they end up at the north pole. And they were very cold. And that was much of the story.

The story opens with the usual listing of what’s really happening, we can’t tell you our names, etc etc. But, more importantly, Marco has a date. With Marian. The hottest girl in school. But unfortunately the date is for a trip to the orchestra. Worse, Marco discovers about halfway through that he is thoroughly not into the orchestra. So much so that he falls asleep and Marian ditches him. At school, as he is regaling Cassie with the tale of his terrible date, when Erek, the friendly Chee, shows up. Never a good sign. He informs them that the Yeerks are trying to set up a Kandrona ray broadcast system using satellites which would allow them to turn any ordinary swimming pool into a Yeerk pool.

The Animorphs all meet up with Erek at Cassie’s barn to discuss their plan. The Chee don’t know the location of the Yeerk base that is working on this project, but they do know Visser Three plans on visiting it soon and the location of his new feeding pasture. The plan is obvious: they need to hitch a ride with Visser Three from this pasture on the way to the site. But they still don’t know the location of the base, so to deal with what might be a prolonged absence, Erek and three of his Chee friends agree to pose as Marco, Jake, Cassie, and Rachel while they’re gone.

The next day they fly to Visser Three’s meadow, spot him, and one-by-one land in the woods surrounding him. They then morph fly, and Marco notes that they waste half an hour trying to find each other in the meadow cuz fly senses aren’t that great. Per Ax’s knowledge, the decide that the best way to intercept Visser Three without him seeing is to fly up beneath him and try and land on his underbelly. They all manage to land, and Visser Three boards his ship. As they get ready to depart, they overhear some bad news: the flight time will be 3.5 hours long.

As they contemplate what to do, the Bug Fighter lands in the Blade ship. They overhear Visser Three ask if all of the Venbar are on board, and Ax becomes very excited, only to then say he must has misunderstood. Time passes, and they wait, still on Visser Three’s belly while he works on his computer in his personal cabin. Marco passes the time by telling terrible jokes, but eventually they decide they need to do something to allow them to demorph. Ax, using his best Visser Three impression, yells out for guards to come into the cabin. He does this a few times, each time resulting in Visser Three becoming more irate at being interrupted. Finally, he becomes so mad that he charges out of his room and the Animorphs bail off him. They quickly demorph and try to remorph, but Marco highlights how exhausting the entire process is, comparing it to a 200 yard dash. Everyone gets through but for Ax and Marco when a Taxxon barges into the room. Ax takes it out with his tail blade, but now they have a problem as it will be clear that something else happened here.

All now back to flies, they buzz out of the room. They plan to head to the storage bay, hoping it will be empty, when Visser Three returns, sees the Taxxon, and calls for guards. They manage to make it, but Cassie notes that the Yeerks know about their bug morphs and could flood the place with insecticides, so they all demorph. Marco quickly notices a long line of tall cylinders each containing some type of new alien, ones with silver bodies slashed with streaks of red and blue. They’re all frozen. Hesitantly, Ax says they look like Venbar, but that they have been extinct for thousands of years. The most notable thing about them was the fact that they lived on an ice moon in below freezing temperatures.

They feel the ship landing. Marco wonders why Visser Three would land, knowing the “Andalite bandits” are trapped on his ship. They morph their battle morphs. As they land, three of the bay doors open: they are surrounded by Hork Bajir warriors and Visser Three himself. Marco realizes that the fourth door hasn’t been opened, and that’s the door to the outdoors. They guess that Visser Three won’t fire lasers in the room for fear of hitting the canisters, so Marco goes for the control panel to the door outside while Rachel slams into the nearest canister. As he frantically tries to pry open the door, tiger!Jake is overwhelmed by Hork Bajir, and wolf!Cassie is thrown past him, obviously injured. Rachel finally mages to break open a canister, releasing the freezing mist that freezes any body part of the Hork Bajir it touches. Marco gets the door open, and they all bail. Visser Three calls for the ship to take off, but the manage to jump out when it is only 20 feet up. The Blade ship, following Visser Three’s orders, continues to rise.

They land on ice in the freezing air. Quickly, those who are injured try to demorph and remorph. Gorilla!Marco’s skin sticks and peels off on the ice. Tobias spots a base or town in the distance, and tries to morph himself, his hawk body not handling the cold. But before he can, he collapses. Rachel grabs him and curls herself around him as she re-morphs grizzly. Above them, the Blade ship heads for the base. Still, they know they need to get out of there. They take off running, but don’t get very far before Ax starts to stumble. Without good cold weather morphs, Jake tells Ax and Tobias to morph fleas and hide in Rachel’s fur. The remaining four continue to run. Throughout it all, the cold bites and hits them all hard. Marco begins to become confused and disoriented.

They find a cave and do an assessment. None of their morphs are equipped for this level of cold, but wolf!Cassie and grizzly!Rachel are managing. Marco slumps to the floor, his thoughts becoming muddled. The others frantically try to get him to demorph, and he only comes to when grizzly!Rachel punches him in the face. They decide that the wolf morph is best, so the other three join Cassie in that form. Cassie says they may be able to use the wolf morph to survive, but they’re barely functional and will need to avoid fights. Looking out of the cave, they spot a pair of the Venbar sliding around on their ski-like feet. They realize that the Venbar are using echo-location to find where they are. The Venbar turn towards them and fire canon like weapons, bringing down the cave walls around them. The Animorphs take off, running along the shoreline of the half-frozen ocean.

After running for almost their allotted two hours, the manage to lose the Venbar and proceed circling each other as they, one-by-one, demorph and remorph. They continue on their way, desperately looking for shelter as it begins to get dark. Behind them, every once in a while, they get a whiff of the Venbar still following them. Suddenly they get a new scent: a polar bear. They continue to run, with the polar bear meandering to their side, but eventually they decide they need to stop for the night and dig themselves a snow lair. Overnight, they continue their miserable rotation of demorphing and remorphing.

As they wait through the night, Ax tells the history of the Venbar, how they were wiped out by another race called The Five, who then also disappeared to history. He theorizes that the Yeerks have been able to retrieve some frozen DNA from Venbar corpses and combined it with other DNA and used it to grow the Venbar now chasing them. Even more disturbing, Ax suggests that it is likely human DNA that was used as a patch.

The night is terrible, and only the morphing ability which restores them to full health each time, saves them from freezing to death. Morning comes, and outside they spot the polar bear out on the ice fishing for seals. Starving, they do what they have to and gorge themselves on the remainders of the bear’s leftover seal. After eating they spot a pair of baby seals, ideal cold-weather morphs. Cassie and Marco morph dolphin and quickly nab one of the babies for the others to acquire. They all morph seal and relish in finally being warm.

Suddenly the Venbar turn up and start shooting. As they all flop towards the sea, they realize that the Venbar must have seen them morphing and now know the truth about them. They now have two choices, not allow the Venbar to return to the Yeerk base or destroy the Yeerk base itself. As they swim towards the base, a pair of orca whales attack. Chaos ensues, but the Animorphs manage to get back on top of the ice and demoprh into less-appealing meals. But as they’re standing on the ice, they realize that an Inuit man has been watching them from his boat. He asks whether they are animal spirits.

“My grandfather used to talk about animal spirits all the time. I just thought he was crazy.” He spun his finger around his ear in that universal gesture of insanity. “But I always told him, ‘Yeah, that’s right, Grandpa.’ “

What follows is a very bizarre scene with the Inuit guy (Derek) thinking the Animorphs are animal spirits, handing them seal skins to wear, and discussing how mad he is at the “Star Trek guys” who are shooting the seals with lasers. Turns out he knows quite a lot about the Yeerk base and the space ships he’s seen there. Also doesn’t seem to think much of conversing with an alien (Ax) and a talking bird (Tobias.) What’s more, Derek has been following around Nanook (the polar bear) for days and can lead the Animorphs back to him. Grizzly!Rachel and gorilla!Marco go in together to try and subdue the polar bear and manage to pin it to the ice so the others can acquire it. After this action, Derek just takes off and they all morph the polar bear.

They make their way back to the base once again, just as a storm winds up. Darkness begins to fall and they sneak up on the base. The Venbar are working away on building the satellite, but they don’t see Visser Three’s Blade ship anywhere. They slowly sneak towards the base, until a woman finally spots them and raises the alarm. Another Controller shouts to program the Venbar to attack quadrupeds. The Venbar attack, nearly taking out Jake and Tobias, but also opening a convenient “door” in the wall of the hanger that the rest pile through. Ahead of them, they see what remains of the Venbar that went through the wall: it was a biological computer. In the warmth, the Venbar chasing them desolve, but they follow their programming and continue to come in. Boarding a Bug fighter, the Animorphs watch as all of the Venber destroy themselves. They demorph. Ax takes the flight controls and Marco covers the guns. This isn’t the first time they’ve been in a Bug fighter, and it helps them fly this one now. Using the ship, they destroy the satellite and the entire base.

As they turn to fly away, the see the Blade ship moving to intercept. They fly as far as they can south, then set the ship to auto-destruct and fly away as birds. It takes them two more days to finally get home, flying and hiding out on trains and trucks. Back home, Marco luxuriates in a lot of hot showers.

The Comic Relief: Well, this was a dud for a Marco book. Up to this point, Marco books have been some of my favorites. Not only is his internal voice one of the strongest, but he has a good point of sustained drama and emotional tension with the situation with his mother as Visser One. Here, not only did we get none of that, but the story itself didn’t play to Marco’s particular narration strengths. In fact, this book wouldn’t have played well to ANY of their narrative strengths. There was simply no heart to it. Marco’s telling of this story could have been anyone’s telling of this story: it was cold and it sucked. The end. The one real moment of “Marco-ness” we got, other than some of the jokes in the beginning about his date, was when they were realizing they would need to eat a seal to live:

If I had to be the jerk in this situation, that was fine. I was used to it. I was usually the first one to state the obvious, no matter how ugly it was. Just call me Mr. Ruthless.

This was a pretty good character beat, and in line with what we know about Marco. Too bad it came from such a nothing moment.

Our Fearless Leader: Jake comes up with his usual good plans, remains the steady leader they need, and notably has a few self-sacrificial moments. When they first end up in the cold, Jake lasts the longest in his tiger morph, never complaining even though he was suffering as much as the others. When they attack the base in the end, he fights off the Venbar with Tobias as back up telling the other to go on without him. They are small moments, but good ones to show how well Jake holds up even under the most strange of circumstances.

Xena, Warrior Princess: Early in the book, when they’re first escaping the Blade ship amidst all of the freezing gas, grizzly!Rachel walks into the mist to save an unconscious wolf!Cassie, and when she walks out…she leaves a foot behind. First of all, yes, this is another great example of Rachel always being the first to sacrifice herself to save her friends, braving anything to get to them. But also…WHAT IS WITH RACHEL LOSING PAWS IN HER BEAR MORPH! I swear, this is at least the third time it’s happened. First, in book #7 when they attack the skyscraper with the Kandrona. Second, in Megamorphs #1 when she has amnesia. And now again, here!! And I can’t remember if she also lost a paw during the jungle craziness in Jake’s book #11? Either way, this seems to happen to her a lot!

Also, Rachel…and polar bears…and now all of the sobbing.

A Hawk’s Life: Tobias, with Ax, ends up spending the majority of this book in flea morph. Which just raises the question about why more of them didn’t do this. Have maybe two of them stay as wolves for the two hours, the rest go flea, and then alternate. Seems like this would limit the time each member would actually need to spend in the freezing cold.

In the beginning of the book when they’re all in battle morphs on the Blade ship, it’s starting to feel more and more ridiculous that Tobias’s “battle morph” is his original hawk body. I mean, really? It made sense when he couldn’t morph, but now that he can it’s just crazy that he wouldn’t use something with more fire power in moments like this. Particularly after this book, he’ll have a polar bear morph to use and yet he’ll continue with the hawk. It’s just weird.

Peace, Love, and Animals: Early in the book, when they’re all morphing on the Blade ship, there’s a mention to Cassie demorphing from her fly morph in a matter of seconds. This seems like an error (I’m going to start blaming ghost writers for everything, now that that’s at thing.) Yes, it is referenced that Cassie morphs more quickly, but I don’t think that it went down from 3-4 minutes to her being able to do it in a matter of seconds? But maybe I’m wrong.

She also has this to say in the face of Marco’s skepticism about whether or not she’d be on board for eating seals:

Do you guys think I’d put an animal’s life over yours? Or mine, come to think of it?”
“I don’t know,” I started to say.
“You don’t know? When did you start thinking I was some kind of fanatic? We’re freezing, we’re starving, and I’m going to go all tree-hugging, never-eat-anything-with-a-face on you?”

It is a nice sentiment, and it does make sense for her. But there have been books in the past where she seems to have this EXACT thought! I can never quite get a feel for where her moral lines really are. They seem to change quite a lot from one situation to another with little explanation. It makes her unpredictable and also a bit less real seeming, as if her character is just there to present whatever moral lesson is needed in whatever moment.

E.T./Ax Phone Home: Ax recognizes the name “Venbar” when they hear Visser Three mention it on the Blade ship, but then doesn’t inform the others about it until much later. Presumably to build tension in the story, but it mostly just reads as false. Jake would immediately call him on it and get him to explain. Later, when he does explain, this turns out to be a subject that he did pay attention to in school, and he is able to give a pretty thorough history of the species.

The best part for Ax (and arguably the entire book) is the running gag joke between him and Marco about Ax’s tendency to refer to time as “your minutes.” Two examples:

“Ax, I really think you can just deal with the fact that they aren’t our minutes. They are everyone’s minutes.”

and

“About twenty minutes,” Ax replied. “Of your minutes,” he added, with what I swear was deliberate provocation.

It’s a joke that has come up repeatedly throughout the series, but they really go all-in on it in this book, and it plays pretty well. Especially in a book that really is a snooze fest in most other ways.

Best (?) Body Horror Moment: There were actually quite a few disgusting moments in this book. Marco’s bird morph early on describes his fingers growing back out of his shoulder blades and twitching around back there. Ick. And then when the Taxxon walks in on them in the Blade ship and Ax swipes it with his tail blade, we get a lovely description of it eating its other half. And then later, the description of the polar bear hunting the seal pulls no punches. It catches the seal through a hole, but the seal won’t fit back up, so…shredded seal. Very gross.

Couples Watch!: At one point, Marco blatantly calls Tobias and Rachel’s relationship out, when flea!Tobias is, according to Marco “all nice and warm in his honey’s back fur.” Rachel is shocked, but Marco shrugs the whole thing off, noting that it’s not like it’s a big secret. More examples of the fact that Tobias and Rachel’s relationship seems to be more of an accepted thing than Cassie and Jake’s ongoing awkward flirt-fest.

If Only Visser Three had Mustache to Twirl: First thing of note: when they’re on the Blade ship in Visser Three’s quarter, he has a collection of torture equipment on his walls. Cuz of course he does.

Second, it seems like a huge miss that he let the Blade ship even get close to landing when he was trying to trap the Animorphs in the loading bay. How many times have they escaped him by jumping out of windows? You’d think he’d learn his lesson on this by now.

Adult Ugly Crying at a Middle Grade Book: The baby seals of the dead mommy seal the polar bear kills!! Though the moment does, again, provide Cassie an opportunity to highlight her inconsistencies. Because here she says a very nice bit about how you can’t feel bad for the deaths of baby seals without feeling bad for the deaths of baby polar bears and baby whales who would die without hunting them. Right, yes, that makes sense Cassie! Tell me again about the part where Tobias was terrible for killing a baby skunk? I WILL harp on this until the last! #NeverForget #NeverForgive

What a Terrible Plan, Guys!:

Basically this:

We had a plan. The four fateful words that usually end up meaning a lot of yelling, screaming, mayhem, and madness.

Most of their plans were fine here. I mean, there’s no way they could have known about ending up in the north pole, so I’ll give them a pass on this. I still think they could have managed the cold better with more people going flea, but who knows, the psychological bit about being more alone in the cold for the one or two who had to remain as wolves might have been even harder.

Favorite Quote:

“No, no, no votes,” I said. “Jake decides. Then if it goes bad we can all blame him.”

They’re all pretty good about not blaming Jake for decisions, but as we’ve seen in other books, there is a distinct element of panic when he’s not around to make calls for them.

(Ran out of word count space, check out the link for my full review!)

[Suvi]

Okay, it wasn't hard to guess that this book was ghostwritten. Marco reads like an odd fan fiction version of himself. Otherwise, the plot holds together even less than usual. I admit I'm biased, since I hate descriptions of extreme cold, frostbite, frozen limbs falling off and other fun stuff like that. I think the only one whose characterisation didn't feel off was Ax, and his hints of Dark Andalite History were promising.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story is good. Audiobook narrator...not so good for Marco. I loved learning why Marco jokes so much. This book adding a lot more depth to him.I liked the humanity they should when makig a troubling desicion for survival. The understanding of the food change order and not intervening. Marco's morphing descriptions are probably the best/worse. But then, maybe there is no good way to become a fly or flea. LOL

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Rounded up!
The descriptions of cold in this book make me nauseous. Cold, real cold, is so terrifying and I think this book does a pretty good job capturing that! Other than the environmental hazards, the Yeerks and SPOILERSSS are pretty mild threats, and in the overall story, this one is pretty weak.

[Jonathan Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

hell yeah

[Hillary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Animorphs reread continues! I liked this one! I have a very vague recollection of maybe having read this one before, but didn't really remembering. In any case, the Animorphs end up in the Arctic for reasons, and have to avoid turning into popsicles. Marco's POV is endlessly entertaining, and I loved Derek the remarkably chill and snarky Inuit dude.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

And so we've finally reached it, the ghostwritten era. For those who don't know, around this time, K.A Applegate (as in, the team of Katherine Applegate and Micheal Grant) got busy between starting a new series, Everworld (which I may get to someday, who knows) and having a child. So thus, they had to start using ghostwriters. Apparently it was their idea, according to them. They'd do the outline, hand it to a ghost, and then edit it further and so on. They actually their start as ghostwriters, so they knew how it worked.

Apparently the ghosts were paid reasonably well but they admit they could have treated them better and whatnot, it was a hetic process. This is gonna be super interesting, it'll be fun to dissect these and how each writer brings to the table. It's just nice to read a series like where they tell you up front you're dealing with ghostwriters, cough cough. Applegate fully returns for the last two books, and between this and that, there are too others fully credited to them, as well the remaining special edition books.

Anyway, our first ghost is Jeffrey Zeuhlke. Looking him up, it's mostly kids educational books. Didn't look super deeply but this seems to be an interesting outlier for him.

This one is fairly basic, and doesn't give me much to talk about it besides the ghostwriter thing. They find out the Yeerks built an outpost up north to do some stuff, so they hitch a ride on a bug fighter to get there. They end up at the north pole where they face the cold, and an interesting species the Yeerks are using.

This is on the filler end, no deeper character stuff here, and it's not that important. Just another Yeerk plan, it's just not a weirder one. The main highlight is the setting. It does a good job of making you feel cold. There's solid stuff as they face the elements, and the fact that their morphs are mostly not made for the cold. Some good harrowing bits in there.

The closet to character stuff comes from a bit that is a classic example of them having to rough stuff to survive, it's effective. There's also a brief appearance from an Inuit character who was cool That new species we are introduced too as some extra danger too.

Otherwise, not much to say here. It's fairly basic and honestly another I'd rank a bit lower. It was a fun quick read but not one that will stick with me. That makes sense, gotta start the ghosts on one that's hard to screw up. And it's a filler that at least isn't super silly, although I have a soft spot for those.

I kinda expected more to be honest, especially since Marco books tend to offer more. As for how Jeffery does, I can smell the ghost-ing here but not horribly so. You can tell he's trying to get a feel for the characters. I can also tell he needed to remind himself of the info he got, because the usual infodump feels clunkier than it is has been lately. Early-ish on, they would sometimes tell us each characters deal, even though even if we didn't already know we could catch on without all that.

That's been dropped lately but this brings it back, which was a bit annoying. Jeff comes back so we'll see how he improves. For now, he was okay. Overall, a more mid tier but still good one for solid use of the location. Not great, but it works for our first ghostwritten outing.

I wish I had more to say but that's about it. Next time, we begin our next cycle and go back to Jake, you'd think the ghostwriters trek on, but instead K.A. Applegate throws in one more before mostly leaving the bulk to others. So, see ya next week for that.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, this was a solid book. It was pretty self-contained, and didn't advance any major plot points or reveal any essential information, but it was still recognizably Animorphs, which is more than I can say for the previous book in the series.

Probably the best part was the intense survival scenes. They've just been dropped into the Arctic with no cold weather morphs. Everyone who has a wolf morph uses it, but even though wolves are pretty good at enduring cold, they're not adapted for a climate that cold. Ax and Tobias end up as fleas hiding in the others' fur. They have to take turns demorphing and remorphing while the others huddle around them in a big wolf pile to keep them from freezing to death.

Given all of the irrational hatred, abuse, and bashing that Cassie has been subjected to by the fandom for trying to maintain some ethics of all things, it was immensely satisfying to see her let Marco have it for implying that she'd be willing to let her friends starve to save the life of a seal.

«But you're waiting for me to give my approval? Is that it?» she said.

«Look,» I began again. If I had to be the jerk in this situation, that was fine. I was used to it. I was usually the first one to state the obvious, no matter how ugly it was. Just call me Mr. Ruthless. «In case you haven't noticed, there doesn't seem to be a Mickey D's around here.»

«I noticed that,» Cassie said, a little annoyed. «It's obvious what we have to do. And not just to the bear's leftovers, but to any live seal we can find. What I don't understand is why you're asking me for permission. Do you guys think I'd put an animal's life over yours? Or mine, come to think of it?»

«I don't know, I—» I started to say.

«You don't know? When did you start thinking I was some kind of fanatic? We're freezing, we're starving, and I'm going to go all tree-hugging, never-eat-anything-with-a-face on you?»

«Well, I can never tell what you'll think,» I whined, taken aback and feeling like I'd insulted Cassie.

«Here's a clue. Don't kill a sentient creature except in absolute self-defense, try not to wipe out endangered species, and if you're going to raise animals for food, treat them as well as you possibly can. But when you're a wolf, a starving wolf wandering around the frozen Arctic, and you see a meal, eat it.»

Much as Cassie has built up this image of being a gentle tree hugger, she's also always been the member of the team (along with Tobias, who has no choice but to live it) with the best understanding of how nature works, and that includes its brutality as well as its beauty:

"No, they won't make it. But they'll feed some orca or polar bear, and you can't go all mushy over these guys without realizing that orca babies and polar bear babies have an equal right to live."

...as a matter of fact, can we just switch Marco and Cassie's narration between this book and the previous one? Marco as a narrator would've done the stupid comic relief filler plot a lot more justice than Cassie did, and the focus on ethics that permeates this one is much more up Cassie's alley than Marco's.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 4 ***

Marko's POV. We are going to the North Pole, and we meet Derek, who absolutely made the book for me! 😀👍

[Grapie Deltaco · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the Yeerks headed to the North Pole, we get another generally tame installment that centers extra information for background (and potentially foreshadowing) purposes.

We learn about the Venber, an extinct race of aliens from a frozen moon, and that they were wiped out by “The Five.” Why they called themselves that is unclear, but we know the Andalites interfered and now “The Five” are extinct alongside the Venber.

It’s a lot to unpack, learning about these previous wars and battles that led to the complete annihilation of two pretty significant species that we’ll never get to meet (unless we get more time travel installments).

One haunting takeaway, though, comes in the understanding that Andalites helping to defeat the “bad guys” will not guarantee the survival of the race they’re attempting to protect. As we know from the Hork-Bahri chronicles, the Andalites are not above murdering entire communities of beings as a means of “saving” them from Yeerk enslavement.

The Andalites eventually coming to earth to assist humanity means very little.


CW: war, slavery, violence, death

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

2025: Ehhhh I still feel it's painfully obvious this is ghost-written as Marco reads so phony. The pacing is rough and the story is just uninteresting. This is another skippable one in the series.
______________________
Original Review 2016: Yes. This was written by a ghost-writer. Yes. It was extremely obvious. Marco's narration was very awkward on this first ghost-written adventure. The Animorphs morph fleas and hitch a ride via Visser Three's fur on the Blade Ship to find this new Yerk base. The idea is that the Yeerks opened this new remote base that can turn any body of water into a Yeerk pool. The base ends up being in the Arctic North Pole region. The majority of the book is the Animorphs trying not to freeze to death plus another moral dilemma about killing animals for food. Introduction to the Venbar, an alien race that should be extinct, and little battle sequences. Disappointing.

[Tommy Grooms · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite simply one of my favorite Animorphs adventures, one I remember rereading several times. The Arctic setting is harrowing, Marco's narration and jokes give me genuine chuckles, and the Venbar story is sufficiently poignant. I like the occasions when the Animorphs are pitted primarily against their environment rather than the Yeerks, and The Extreme is aptly named, as it is one of the best examples of this. Killer whales, polar bears, guilt about nature "red in tooth in claw" - this book has it all.

[Melissa F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ohhhhhh boy, I was wondering as I read this why Marco was resorting to old jokes we'd left behind, and why the interactions sounded so forced when I usually enjoy his books, and turns out this was one of the early ghostwritten books. I don't remember noticing this stuff as a kid, but I hella did this time around, which is a shame because it definitely distracted from an interesting story, a new setting, awesome new morphs...

Ah well, can't win them all. I will say, I was shivering by the end of the book. The cold was written very well.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

   This book does an excellent job of putting the Animorphs in a new extreme environment: the Arctic. Sub-zero temperatures versus skintight morphing suits and warm-weather morphs. In fact, this book ends up being more about survival than destroying a new Yeerk base, though they do get back to the original reason for being that far north in the first place at the end.

   This is the first time in a while that I found myself asking a lot of questions about decisions that the Animorphs make as well as Visser Three, and the first book with a weaker-than-usual plot, which ends up being on par with the Area 91 installment.

        You can’t keep all the fear and all the pain right there in the front part of your brain.

   Quotes and comments:

   [Cassie] winced. “Okay, so the Chee helped us out. It’s not easy to watch someone for three days.”
    “Swell. Is there anyone, anywhere who doesn’t know that I crashed and burned on The Big Date?” – page 14 – Well, they’ve done it before… but I guess it’s one thing if it’s an Animorph (Jake) or some random person who may or may not have an interest in Marco/an Animorph.

    [Andalites] communicate in thought-speak. So whenever Ax does his human morph, he’s fascinated by the sounds he makes.
   By the way, he’s the only one who’s fascinated. – page 18 – Guess you have to let him have his fun sometimes, right? Since most of Marco’s and the other’s jokes just slip right past Ax anyways.

   I scanned my super osprey eyes ahead, toward the line of trees half a mile off the road. Sure enough, just beyond was a big meadow, maybe about two blocks wide. And galloping around in that meadow was a blue-furred, four-eyed, scorpion-tailed Andalite. – page 22 – That seems awfully close to civilization for the Visser to go out for a meal. Too close.

   /Let’s do it,/ said Rachel.
   I sighed. /The three words I hate most./ -- page 23

   /Three and a half of our hours! Where are we going, the moon?/ Tobias asked.
   /Don’t you start with the our-hour-your-hour thing, Tobias/ I warned. – page 34

   /Have I mentioned that I hate this morph?/ Tobias added. /I mean, I’m finding myself very attracted to the Visser’s sweat. How sick is that?/
   /Yeah,/ Cassie agreed. /He stinks. But to my fly brain, he actually smells kind of good./
   /He certainly does not stink,/ Ax said defensively. /This is an Andalite body, and Andalites have never been known to stink./ -- page 35 – Very few people recognize when they stink…and apparently Andalites are no different.

   /Could be Alaska,/ Tobias said. /About a mile that way I see some kind of base or even a town. Lots of gray, corrugated metal buildings. One bigger than the rest. There’s like this giant bowl attached to the roof. And that’s the hawk report, boys and girls. I am morphing before I end up in the frozen foods section next to the frozen chicken./ -- page 62

   /I do not believe it,/ Ax cried. /A perfect description of a Venber./
   /Venber? What happened to them being extinct?/ I cried.
   /Reports of their extinction may have been exaggerated./ -- page 73 -- Excellent comeback, Ax. Even though you probably don’t think of it as a comeback.

   /No way they gave up,/ Tobias said. /We have to keep moving./
   /So says the flea all nice and warm in his honey’s back fur,/ I muttered.
   /What did you say?/ Rachel demanded. I guess she was shocked that I’d dare to make any remark suggesting she and Tobias were more than just friends and Animorphs. Like that was some big secret. – page 77 – Just like Cassie/Jake probably isn’t a big secret… but cute all the same.

   /Polar bear!/ Cassie said delightedly. /I guess that means we’re Arctic and not Antarctic./
   /I did tell you our direction was north,/ Ax sniffed from down deep in Jake’s fur. – page 82 – I’m with Ax on this, and calling foul on Cassie for not connecting the dots earlier when he said which direction they were clearly headed.

   /What do polar bears eat?/ Jake asked.
   /Dumb kids playing hero,/ I muttered. – page 83

    [While trying to speculate about how the supposedly extinct Venbers are alive and well.]
   Ax hesitated. /You would want to use a species with the most complex DNA structure available. It would make it easier to attach new DNA./
   /And what creature would that be?/ Tobias asked.
   /Of the species available to the Yeerks?/ Ax said. /Humans. Those Venber may be a hybrid of Venber…and humans./
   After that we fell silent and stayed that way.
   We curled up against one another, four wolves and a pair of fleas, deep in a hole in the snow, lost in a frozen wilderness, thinking of faraway tragedies on dark, frozen moons.
   I’d have traded my left lung for a fire. – page 89-90 – Now that is a disturbing idea. Gene splicing by the Yeerks, ladies and gentlemen.

   /In case you haven’t noticed, there doesn’t seem to be a Mickey D’s around here./ [I said.]
   /I noticed that,/ Cassie said, a little annoyed. /It’s obvious what we have to do. And not just to the bear’s leftovers, but to any live seal we can find. What I don’t understand is why you’re asking me for permission. Do you guys think I’d put an animal’s life over yours? Or mine, come to think of it?/
    […]
   /Here’s a clue: Don’t kill a sentient creature except in absolute self-defense, try not to wipe out endangered species, and if you’re going to raise animals for food, treat them as well as you possibly can. But when you’re a wolf, a starving wolf wandering around the frozen Arctic, and you see a meal, eat it./
    […]
   /Nature isn’t pretty,/ Tobias said, reassuring us. /It isn’t supposed to be./
   /Yeah, survival of the fittest…/ Rachel muttered.
   /A good philosophy,/ Ax said mordantly, /unless it turns out that the Venber are fitter than we are./ -- page 95-97 – Plus, the seal was already dead. It’s not like she could swim back and take care of her babies. Tobias and Rachel have the right idea, and Ax’s comment has perfect comedic timing…if they weren’t so worried about freezing or starving to death.
   Though I do have to wonder: what happens to what they eat in morph? I mean, it’s not like human or Andalite systems can digest raw meat and/or blood as sustenance. Does it just morph out of them when they return to their normal bodies? If so, wouldn’t they still be hungry in between morphs, at least?
   At one point they note that it is 2pm and the sun is setting. According to my brief research, it seems that in Arctic Village, Alaska (one of the northernmost Alaskan cities), sunset at 2pm would mean it is roughly sometime in December. Plus, they encountered an Inuit, and he could either be from the Alaskan or Canadian ranges. That will be a very long hitch-hike and fly home for them…
   I guess they were also too hungry at this point to even consider, "Hey! A polar bear! Let's acquire him so we won't be cold anymore!" instead of waiting until they had acquired seals and met Derek.

   [Standing over the dead seal in wolf morphs (Ax and Tobias are fleas), trying to get up the gumption to eat.]
   /Ax? Tobias? What about you guys[, are you hungry]?/ Jake asked. They were both stuck on my skin somewhere.
   /Actually,/ Ax replied sheepishly, /I am not hungry./
   /Uh, me neither,/ Tobias mumbled.
   /What?/ said Rachel. /How can’t you be hungry?/ Then: /Oh./
   /I apologize, Marco,/ Ax said. /The flea’s instinct was quite strong./ -- page 98-99 – Hahaha… very nice reactions, Ax and Tobias.

   The pup struggled, but this was a case of Great Dane versus Chihuahua. – page 103 – I am fairly certain that almost this exact analogy has been used before, just with a different subject matter. And I think it was in the third David book, maybe. Or I’m just overly fixated on the David trilogy, which is entirely possible too.

   We swam for maybe a half an hour. Back toward the Yeerk base. Back toward our mission, long-forgotten in the rush to stay alive. – page 111 – Really, what you hope and assume is the Yeerk base – after all, the Blade ship kept on flying north, and so far as we know, you never saw it land. That could have just as easily been a random town or research facility with a satellite as the Yeerk base.

   We left Derek. He said there was as storm on the way. So we said good-bye and let him go to tell whatever stories he wanted to tell. If he told a Controller he’d seen humans morphing, it would be trouble. But it occurred to us that an Inuit village in the middle of absolute nowhere was probably not high on the Yeerks’ list of places to take over. – page 128 – Aren’t you forgetting that the Yeerks are trying to take over the entire world? It’s amazing that they’ve only seemed to be focusing on your hometown area. You really have no idea just how widespread they might be – except you kind of do, if they have a base set up in the Arctic. I mean, look how numerous the Yeerks are with their Hork-Bajir and Taxxons – how can you be confident enough to know that they don’t have similar operations elsewhere on Earth? As for “Well, why isn’t Visser Three in those places ever?” For one, we don’t know he doesn’t go to other areas of Earth. And for another, it makes sense to have the “big general” in the most troublesome spot – where there is active resistance (the Animorphs). Come on, Marco, you’re supposed to be the suspicious one.
   Plus, I don’t think you should have written off Derek so easily. He clearly gets pop-culture references, so don’t let it fool you just because he’s out there hunting seals for their hides to meet a quota. I can see taking advantage of him thinking them incarnations of animal spirits, but your interactions with him are downright clumsy, culturally insensitive (somewhat excusable given the Animorphs are barely teenagers, but not insofar as the author characterized Derek), and bad for security.

    [The polar bear] could go for weeks without eating. Hunting was more about play than survival. He actually spent more time lounging around than he did looking for food. – page 130 – I thought polar bears spent a lot of time hunting, not lounging. They may be able to go for a while without eating, but I doubt they prefer it. You never know when you’re going to find your next meal, and you don’t want to wait until you’re hungry to hunt – because if hunting is bad, you’ll just get hungrier, and weaker. According to “Polar Bears International” – “Polar bears' lives are a cycle of feasting and fasting”

   I find it rather hard to believe that Visser Three did not pursue the Animorphs after they destroyed the base and self-destructed the Bug fighter. Even though he was about 3 minutes away, that is still enough time to get to the sight, find the downed fighter, and start a search. The “Andalite bandits” couldn’t have gotten that far in that landscape. And with a Blade ship to track them, what was stopping him? Birds of prey may be small, but they’re not invisible. Especially with their dark colors against the white landscape. Guess he couldn’t be bothered, since he had to go try to “clean up” the destroyed base and punish some insubordinates?

   Finally, that is awesome that the Chee were able to fill in for the Animorphs while they were gone. Except, how much do the Chee know about the Animorphs’ personalities? Their style of speaking, of making jokes? Did they ask a lot of questions in order to get an idea of how to act? I think Tom especially would have been suspicious if “Jake” suddenly started acting very different. But on the flip side, that is extremely convenient that the Chee can actively help out the Animorphs like that. I wonder if they’ll do that more often?

   I put the whole thing behind me. You have to do that. You can’t be in a war and think about all the stuff that happens. You can’t keep all the fear and all the pain right there in the front part of your brain, you know? You go nuts like that.
   But some things are hard to get past. Sometimes it’s the little things. – page 144

[Josh T · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first low rating I've had to give an Animorphs book. Coincidentally, it turns out this is also the first ghost written book. Applegate at most reviewed and edited this for publication. This publishing atrocity comes after the stupendous David Trilogy and then the excitement of the Hork Bajir Chronicles. What a low point in the series this book is. I've loved all the other books. The only reason this isn't a 1 star is because the ending picked up a tiny bit of slack for the boring middle 60% of the book. For this reason, it took me forever to actually get around to reading and finishing this. Today I told myself... self... we're going to finish this drivel. I don't like leaving books unfinished, and that my friends is the only reason I bothered finishing it. That and the hope it would get better. It didn't really...

If you wanted to, you could simply SKIP this book. It's terrible. Just maybe google Venber, if the Venber ever pop up, or go to youtube and watch the video summaries one guy does of every book. This book isn't worth reading really, unless you're a diehard completist. Go watch a 10 minute review on youtube instead, and move onto what I hope will be a better book, number 26.

There will be plenty of SPOILERS here, so read at your own discretion.

I had a lot of issues with this book. The characters dialogue for instance most certainly did not match what Applegate writes like. I noticed something off earlier on, but shrugged it off, until it just kept being awful. I googled which books were ghost written (I thought it started at book 26). Wrong. This was ghost written.

So as I read through, I had in the back of my mind for 60-70% of this book, that this is ghost written, which may have made me over analytical about my reading.

Aside from the dialogue, the plot was painfully boring and dragged on with constant interjections about how cold it was, how tired they all were. I mean constant. I swear a third of this book was comprised of complaints of that sort.

Another issue was that this book didn't feel as much like a typical book in its lack of Xena comments. Marco was our character and at times he describes himself as giggling, and other such things. It just didn't feel like other Marco books. He wasn't the Marco I grew to know and like. There wasn't any depth to his character. I didn't feel anything for him. Usually Applegate will draw on our emotions somewhat and this book didn't do that, because it's not Applegate writing it.

The book did get better 85% in, if only very briefly. The Venber were interesting, but not interesting enough. Perhaps we will learn more about them in later books. I was interested by the Derek character, but he also wasn't really flushed out at all. They just kind of abandoned him and flew home.

There were plot issues. There's always some silly plot issues. But my issue here is that Visser Three could have annihilated the animorphs with the blade ship early on, and just didn't bother. Visser Three flew off, knowing his arch enemies were right there for the taking. What did he do? He sent the Venber after them. NO... I'm sorry... but Visser Three had them in his clutches. He could easily have shot them to bits with his blade ship, an advanced alien combat vessel, which would most certainly have advanced navigation and targeting systems vastly superior to anything we have in the real world.

Another problem I had was the constant morphing. At one point they eat some left over seal a polar bear killed, and this is supposed to explain their continued morphing. However, they had morphed back and forth for 24+ hours every couple hours. There has to be more of a consequence for using an ability. I can't bring myself to believe they can morph 13 or so times back and forth. It just isn't believable. I've seen them get tired after just 3-4 morphs to the point of nearly collapsing. Then, all these morphs are done in the arctic. It's cold in the arctic. I really found this entire plot to be boring, unbelievable, and simply contrived. I've never been frustrated like this with an animorphs book before.

I have to ask whether Applegate read this at all, at this point in my frustration. You see, she has a remarkable gift as a writer. I don't know how she does it. These books are targeted at children and yet Applegate is able to write something that, even at age 31 I find highly enjoyable. It's partly nostalgia, but not entirely. Her characters are alive with emotion and intrigue. She is able to make me actually feel for the characters (well, Jake less so, but that's a rant for another day). The David Trilogy was the true high point of this series. I couldn't believe how amazing and how dark they were.

At this point, this book was so terrible I almost want to give it a one star, BUT I know that books can be worse than this, so I am restraining that urge. I sincerely hope the other books are better, because if this is a sample of what's to come, I do not know if I have the patience to read more of this drivel. Sorry Applegate. I know it isn't entirely your fault. But this book was just bad on too many levels to ever recommend anyone to read.

[ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is really fun. really interesting. i love animorphs books where they are in different locations. i loved when they were in the amazon and it was scary and unfamiliar and dangerous. and i really like this. like these are children and it’s sad and scary seeing them go through these horrifying conditions but woah. i am so obsessed with the sequences of them nearly Freezing to death trying to understand the unbelievable cold they’re in. rachel was making me 😭 she was so sweet and kind and protective in this book i love her so much. her losing a bear paw to save cassie. catching tobias while he’s falling and just keeping him as close as possible. insisting that tobias and ax stay as fleas on her even while she’s morphing i just love her so much she’s my everything. this isn’t even her book but in my mind everything is all about her all the time. i love when marco is talking about how nice it is to travel flank to flank as a wolf pack because the deadly cold makes something we simple as body to body warmth deeply touching. like what a beautiful thing to say. and wow. i’m autistic. i love animals. i love learning about animals. the seal facts i learned in this are awesome. i had no idea they could echolocate and TRUST i will be researching more about it! and polar bears are just awesome. i honestly didn’t know they were the biggest predator on earth! it must be so awesome to be a polar bear. their paws especially… just so HUGE and WEBBED too? ugh i love it. and i bet it was awesome in the 90s, ESPECIALLY compared to today. that’s what’s kind of wild in this book: you can tell it was written before global warming has completely fucked the arctic. okay update on the seals and echolocation there’s a lot of conflicting information that has been written within the past 30 years but the final verdict i can find is that the auditory system of pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses) doesn’t technically allow for echolocation, however some seals can create sonar noises at frequencies that could be confused for echolocation. does anyone read my reviews or care about my seal facts? is there a person on earth who cares as much about the validity of the seal facts in animorphs books as i do? probably not. good marco book i loved it.

[Jonathan Pongratz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original Review at Jaunts & Haunts

4/5

I gave this book four freezing stars! 

This time around, we are in Marco's POV, which I tend to enjoy most times. Turns out, I really did, four stars worth at least. 

Everything's returned to normal for now, and Cassie and Marco are hanging out in the school gym when Erik the Chee comes up and starts a conversation. "Oh no," says Marco. And he's right. There's a rather nasty development in the works on the Yeerk side. 

You see, they have a base somewhere that is working on converting all water on Earth to be adaptable for Yeerk pools. Not so great. With the world's water supplies at stake, Marco and the other Animorphs jump into action. 

I have to say, this was much better than the last book. 

As always, the characters are pretty good and stick to their personalities. This mission includes all of them, and everyone got a good amount of screen time. I will note that Marco didn't seem quite as funny as usual throughout, though I did still burst out laughing at several of his sarcastic jokes. 

The plot, while interesting did end up falling a bit flat, which is why I knocked off a star. The stakes are high, yes, but a lot of the book ended up being more about them learning to survive in the cold extremes. There was a small plot hole where they could've clearly tried to acquire a morph earlier on but didn't. That being said, there was a lot of action and fun along the way, and I was totally there for the thrill of it! 

I had quite a bit of fun with this one and look forward to the next. Hoping to squeeze maybe one or two more in on my Animorphs readathon week! 

[Florence Mullot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le résumé annonçait une aventure assez palpitante et pourtant, une fois plongée dans le roman, je dois avouer que j’ai été un brin déçue. Il faut dire qu’avec les tomes précédents qui avaient placé la barre très haute, il fallait s’attendre à une petite baisse à un moment donné.

Je pense que le plus « gros problème » réside dans notre narrateur. On revient au Marco du tout début de l’histoire des Animorphs. Celui qui se plaint tout le temps et qui ne cesse de faire l’andouille. C’est son rôle dans le groupe mais dernièrement, il avait évolué et ce côté de sa personnalité que je trouvais parfois très enquiquinant s’était amoindri. Il n’est jamais très plaisant de voir un personnage régresser et ici c’est ce que j’ai ressenti.

Et franchement, j’ai eu l’impression que la mission passait en second plan face à Marco. Il réussit ici à prendre tellement le pas, que la mission pourtant très périlleuse et cela jusqu’au bout reste l’une des moins marquantes.

Je ne me suis pas ennuyée pour autant, car il y a tout de même pas mal d’action, et nos héros sont en danger durant quasiment les trois-quarts du roman ce qui permet de rester concentré. On peut tout de même classer cette mission comme l’une des moins marquantes. On était arrivé à un point où les tomes enrichissaient soit les personnages soit l’univers, mais là pas grand-chose. Une mission de plus qui ne nous fait pas tellement avancer. Elle fait son job, j’entends bien, mais maintenant je m’attends à un peu plus. Disons que c’est le genre d’aventure que l’on s’attend à trouver au début du saga, mais au milieu.

Je me dis qu’il va peut-être y avoir un moment de flottement avant que l’intrigue reprenne vraiment une vitesse supérieure, donc il faudrait que je garde cela en tête, même si ce n’est pas que je souhaite. La lecture de ce tome vingt-cinq n’a pas été déplaisante, mais pas à la hauteur de mes espérances.