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Animorphs #11
The Forgotten
There's been an accident. Someone crash-landed a Yeerk Bug fighter. And the Yeerks have been trying to cover it up—quickly. But not before Tobias spots it. So the Animorphs and Ax decide to steal the ship to show the world that Earth has been invaded.
That's when things go terribly wrong. Before they know it, Jake, the other Animorphs, and Ax find themselves in another place. Another time. And there's no way home...
That's when things go terribly wrong. Before they know it, Jake, the other Animorphs, and Ax find themselves in another place. Another time. And there's no way home...
162 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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1022 people want to read
About the author
K.A. Applegate
251 books486 followersalso published under the name Katherine Applegate
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
December 22, 2016
I remember loving The Forgotten when I was a kid, but it really is pretty useless in the grand scheme of things, other than to establish that time-travel is a thing (this is achieved by falling through a Sario Rip, literally a hole in space-time, as the Andalites call them). That lazy genre classic, the Reset Button, shows up here and shows up hard. By the end, no one but Jake even remembers most of the events in the book.
Actually, most of the time-travel stuff in this is pseudo-science nonsense. Time-travel is hard to get right in the first place, but here it just felt like it was trying too hard, reaching for answers that didn't quite work, and that were for the most part way too convenient. A lot of the book felt like that, just off, like Applegate was out of ideas.
Imagine my surprise when I clicked over to Hirac Delest only to be informed that K.A. Applegate had a bit of a creative crisis in the midst of writing this, and panicked that she was out of ideas for the series. It really does show in the writing. Jake makes a series of really dumb choices, doubling down on those choices and refusing to communicate, and lets his impulses get in the way. More importantly, there doesn't actually seem to be a reason for him to have made these mistakes. They're just there, and not born out of some flaw he needs to correct or lesson he needs to learn. Just like the story of the Animorphs being lost in the Amazon, his arc is ultimately pointless. (There is some effort towards having Jake struggle with being a leader, but it doesn't really go anywhere.) I didn't expect this, since it used to be a favorite, but this is actually the weakest book in the series so far.
Next up, Rachel has an allergic reaction.
Actually, most of the time-travel stuff in this is pseudo-science nonsense. Time-travel is hard to get right in the first place, but here it just felt like it was trying too hard, reaching for answers that didn't quite work, and that were for the most part way too convenient. A lot of the book felt like that, just off, like Applegate was out of ideas.
Imagine my surprise when I clicked over to Hirac Delest only to be informed that K.A. Applegate had a bit of a creative crisis in the midst of writing this, and panicked that she was out of ideas for the series. It really does show in the writing. Jake makes a series of really dumb choices, doubling down on those choices and refusing to communicate, and lets his impulses get in the way. More importantly, there doesn't actually seem to be a reason for him to have made these mistakes. They're just there, and not born out of some flaw he needs to correct or lesson he needs to learn. Just like the story of the Animorphs being lost in the Amazon, his arc is ultimately pointless. (There is some effort towards having Jake struggle with being a leader, but it doesn't really go anywhere.) I didn't expect this, since it used to be a favorite, but this is actually the weakest book in the series so far.
Next up, Rachel has an allergic reaction.
June 20, 2015
It’s time … to travel … in time.
Animorphs played with time travel once before, in #7: The Stranger , but that was at the hands of the Ellimist. This time, the Animorphs accidentally create a Sario Rip—technobabble for “hole in space-time,” which is technobabble for … well … you know … stuff—when the Dracon beams they fired from a stolen Bug fighter intersected with the Dracon beams from Visser Three’s Blade ship, and—
—what? Oh, yeah. The Animorphs totally steal a crashed Bug fighter, get it operational (thanks, Ax), and initiate an epic suborbital chase sequence with Visser Three. Sorry I skipped that part.
In terms of just pure awesome action sequences, The Forgotten has to rank up there with the first Megamorphs novel, which was really the Michael Bay of Animorphs novels. In this book, we have the aforementioned spaceship duel, with five kids and an Andalite facing off against the biggest, baddest six-shooter in the galactic west. The fight is so badass it punches a hole in the space–time continuum, and so everyone gets thrown back in time.
To the day before.
(It wasn’t that big a hole.)
Jake is our narrator, so in between more epic chase sequences and monkeying around (literally—they morph monkeys), he worries he’s going crazy. There is a totally legitimate explanation for his crazies (other than, you know, being a child leader of child soldiers in a messed up secret war). But I commend Applegate for broaching this subject. There is a lot of pressure on all the Animorphs, and more so on Jake than any other. Marco, in his trademark lack of subtlety, points this out: Jake is the leader, so he isn’t allowed to go crazy. He can’t have a day off; he can’t mess up. Because everyone follows his lead, so if he makes a mistake, people could die.
Welcome to the big leagues, son.
Applegate uses the big ol’ reset button excuse that is all too common in time travel plots. She can get away with this simply because, as children’s/young adult literature, Animorphs is likely introducing a lot of readers to some of their first science-fiction stories. So what’s cliché to me is going to seem pretty cool and novel to a new reader. And even to someone as jaded as I am now, I’ll concede that the reset button makes sense in the context of what Applegate wants to do here. The Forgotten is precisely that: it’s a pocket adventure for only Jake to remember, one where he learns the important lesson: sometimes being a leader is luck.
This idea kind of flies against the face of the big American Dream that you can get ahead purely by working hard. But it jives entirely with Applegate’s series-long crusade against the glorification of war. I’m pretty sure most veterans will tell you that a large part of why they survived is just luck. They were in the right place at the right time, missed the bomb, the mine, the bullet—or got injured, but just enough to get sent home rather than killed. Similarly, we like to talk up the great strategic victories in the history of warfare and laud the minds of the Alexanders, the Attilas, the Caesars, the Napoleons. We don’t talk nearly as much about how most of the time these people are lucky—or at least, the luck allows them to survive long enough to get good.
This also explains why the Animorphs seem to fail an awful lot. Marco himself lampshades the fact that their hasty plans always fall apart in this book. Applegate is deliberately and carefully trying to delay the power creep that is inevitable in a series about superpowered people. Even though Ax can fly a Bug fighter, things still go wrong, and they crash. The best plans inevitably fall apart on first contact with the enemy.
The Forgotten was not as engaging for me as some of the more recent books. However, I see the appeal, particularly for less experienced and jaded readers. And it’s a good Jake book, if you are Team Jake. In fact, it’s mostly a Jake book, and that’s probably why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. In addition to Jake being the only one who remembers what happens, the other Animorphs don’t quite come through as distinctly as they do in other books. This is a super-Jake book, in other words. So if you need a Jake dose, Jake yourself up with this Jake. Jake jake jake jake.
Next time, Rachel burps crocodile DNA. Need I say more?
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #10: The Android | #12: The Reaction →
Animorphs played with time travel once before, in #7: The Stranger , but that was at the hands of the Ellimist. This time, the Animorphs accidentally create a Sario Rip—technobabble for “hole in space-time,” which is technobabble for … well … you know … stuff—when the Dracon beams they fired from a stolen Bug fighter intersected with the Dracon beams from Visser Three’s Blade ship, and—
—what? Oh, yeah. The Animorphs totally steal a crashed Bug fighter, get it operational (thanks, Ax), and initiate an epic suborbital chase sequence with Visser Three. Sorry I skipped that part.
In terms of just pure awesome action sequences, The Forgotten has to rank up there with the first Megamorphs novel, which was really the Michael Bay of Animorphs novels. In this book, we have the aforementioned spaceship duel, with five kids and an Andalite facing off against the biggest, baddest six-shooter in the galactic west. The fight is so badass it punches a hole in the space–time continuum, and so everyone gets thrown back in time.
To the day before.
(It wasn’t that big a hole.)
Jake is our narrator, so in between more epic chase sequences and monkeying around (literally—they morph monkeys), he worries he’s going crazy. There is a totally legitimate explanation for his crazies (other than, you know, being a child leader of child soldiers in a messed up secret war). But I commend Applegate for broaching this subject. There is a lot of pressure on all the Animorphs, and more so on Jake than any other. Marco, in his trademark lack of subtlety, points this out: Jake is the leader, so he isn’t allowed to go crazy. He can’t have a day off; he can’t mess up. Because everyone follows his lead, so if he makes a mistake, people could die.
Welcome to the big leagues, son.
Applegate uses the big ol’ reset button excuse that is all too common in time travel plots. She can get away with this simply because, as children’s/young adult literature, Animorphs is likely introducing a lot of readers to some of their first science-fiction stories. So what’s cliché to me is going to seem pretty cool and novel to a new reader. And even to someone as jaded as I am now, I’ll concede that the reset button makes sense in the context of what Applegate wants to do here. The Forgotten is precisely that: it’s a pocket adventure for only Jake to remember, one where he learns the important lesson: sometimes being a leader is luck.
This idea kind of flies against the face of the big American Dream that you can get ahead purely by working hard. But it jives entirely with Applegate’s series-long crusade against the glorification of war. I’m pretty sure most veterans will tell you that a large part of why they survived is just luck. They were in the right place at the right time, missed the bomb, the mine, the bullet—or got injured, but just enough to get sent home rather than killed. Similarly, we like to talk up the great strategic victories in the history of warfare and laud the minds of the Alexanders, the Attilas, the Caesars, the Napoleons. We don’t talk nearly as much about how most of the time these people are lucky—or at least, the luck allows them to survive long enough to get good.
This also explains why the Animorphs seem to fail an awful lot. Marco himself lampshades the fact that their hasty plans always fall apart in this book. Applegate is deliberately and carefully trying to delay the power creep that is inevitable in a series about superpowered people. Even though Ax can fly a Bug fighter, things still go wrong, and they crash. The best plans inevitably fall apart on first contact with the enemy.
The Forgotten was not as engaging for me as some of the more recent books. However, I see the appeal, particularly for less experienced and jaded readers. And it’s a good Jake book, if you are Team Jake. In fact, it’s mostly a Jake book, and that’s probably why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. In addition to Jake being the only one who remembers what happens, the other Animorphs don’t quite come through as distinctly as they do in other books. This is a super-Jake book, in other words. So if you need a Jake dose, Jake yourself up with this Jake. Jake jake jake jake.
Next time, Rachel burps crocodile DNA. Need I say more?
My reviews of Animorphs:
← #10: The Android | #12: The Reaction →
March 14, 2020
FIRST REVIEW / MAR 15, 2015
So remember that time the Animorphs BLEW A FUCKING HOLE IN THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM and traveled through time and ended up in the rainforest?? YES. I absolutely dig the weird, crazy places that this series goes, and the creative ways KAA comes up with to place them in new, varied settings. Jake's slow progressive breakdown and self-doubt in this one makes me care for him more, as you can really feel the stress that being The Leader is putting on him. He's just one last straw away from snapping if the others put too much pressure on him, and it's completely understandable, because it really is an awful burden to put on a kid... and yet they're right to do it: none of the other Animorphs are remotely near right, characterisation-wise, to lead them.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAR 14, 2020
A of all, I'm charmed that I managed to read this one almost exactly five years after my previous re-read.
B of all, and this is repeating stuff from my previous review, but gosh I continue to love Jake. You continue to get a sense for him growing into his role as their leader, chafing at the bit but having to deal with the responsibilities anyway: his tough-love approach to pushing the rest of the team back into the saddle (which requires Cassie to step in and smooth over the rough edges instead), making decisions that might leave them dead, sacrificing specific members of the team for the good of them all, having to live with the vitriol directed at him afterwards for it. My heart:
Also, this adventure is just super cool and also absolutely horrifying at times (the ants!!!), and if I recall correctly, Sario rips will come into play again later. Just, fun stuff. 3.5 stars rounded up.
Favourite quotes will be moved to Google Docs.
So remember that time the Animorphs BLEW A FUCKING HOLE IN THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM and traveled through time and ended up in the rainforest?? YES. I absolutely dig the weird, crazy places that this series goes, and the creative ways KAA comes up with to place them in new, varied settings. Jake's slow progressive breakdown and self-doubt in this one makes me care for him more, as you can really feel the stress that being The Leader is putting on him. He's just one last straw away from snapping if the others put too much pressure on him, and it's completely understandable, because it really is an awful burden to put on a kid... and yet they're right to do it: none of the other Animorphs are remotely near right, characterisation-wise, to lead them.
---------------------------------
SECOND REVIEW / MAR 14, 2020
A of all, I'm charmed that I managed to read this one almost exactly five years after my previous re-read.
B of all, and this is repeating stuff from my previous review, but gosh I continue to love Jake. You continue to get a sense for him growing into his role as their leader, chafing at the bit but having to deal with the responsibilities anyway: his tough-love approach to pushing the rest of the team back into the saddle (which requires Cassie to step in and smooth over the rough edges instead), making decisions that might leave them dead, sacrificing specific members of the team for the good of them all, having to live with the vitriol directed at him afterwards for it. My heart:
[Ax] was still focusing on that. Not thinking ahead to the fact that we needed the Yeerks to have the stupid computer now. I know it sounds weird, but I was actually mad at Ax for not seeing what an idiot I'd been. I wanted someone just to say, "Jake, you've blown it, man. You're not the leader anymore."
It would have been a relief.
Also, this adventure is just super cool and also absolutely horrifying at times (the ants!!!), and if I recall correctly, Sario rips will come into play again later. Just, fun stuff. 3.5 stars rounded up.
Favourite quotes will be moved to Google Docs.
January 8, 2012
WOW! I was thinking this morning that it was getting really difficult to write a review on the Animorphs books, first of all because there are over 50 of them, and secondly because it's all pretty much
1) Find out the Yeerks are doing something
2) Investigate
3) Have everything go wrong
4) Fight
5) Narrowly escape, usually not making much of an impact
Now this book (as far as I recall) has no major plot points. Normally that would be a HUGE turn-off for me.
This book follows the main formula - but very, very loosely. What I loved about it was that it wasn't really the Animorphs fighting the Yeerks. Nope. This was about good ol' earth trying to kill the Animorphs. Which made all the difference. It was all getting so routine (and consequently, boring). The Yeerks are dangerous, the Yeerks are a threat, Visser Three is a horrible, nasty creature...you get the idea.
Makes you forget how dangerous our own planet can be.
1) Find out the Yeerks are doing something
2) Investigate
3) Have everything go wrong
4) Fight
5) Narrowly escape, usually not making much of an impact
Now this book (as far as I recall) has no major plot points. Normally that would be a HUGE turn-off for me.
This book follows the main formula - but very, very loosely. What I loved about it was that it wasn't really the Animorphs fighting the Yeerks. Nope. This was about good ol' earth trying to kill the Animorphs. Which made all the difference. It was all getting so routine (and consequently, boring). The Yeerks are dangerous, the Yeerks are a threat, Visser Three is a horrible, nasty creature...you get the idea.
Makes you forget how dangerous our own planet can be.
July 21, 2022
There’s some time travelling. Some battles. The reset button gets pushed at the end. This doesn’t really do anything to advance the main plot of the series.
January 22, 2022
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
February 21, 2024
“I’m having the strange desire to eat a monkey, and yet I was a monkey a few hours ago. We’re all gonna end up in the nuthouse someday. You realize that right?”
March 22, 2022
ACCIDENTAL TIME TRAVEL !? ALTERNATE TIMELINES ??? HELLO ?
This book was so unsettling…literally wtf😀
Jake is at a point where the weight of leadership is cracking down on his mental state and this role is truly tearing him apart. That mixed with a complete split in reality gives us insight into Andalite technology as well as driving home how little the Animorphs truly know about the enemy they’re up against.
This one made my skin crawl and my stomach drop numerous times.
CW: war, violence, murder, animal cruelty, blood, death, misogyny
This book was so unsettling…literally wtf😀
Jake is at a point where the weight of leadership is cracking down on his mental state and this role is truly tearing him apart. That mixed with a complete split in reality gives us insight into Andalite technology as well as driving home how little the Animorphs truly know about the enemy they’re up against.
This one made my skin crawl and my stomach drop numerous times.
CW: war, violence, murder, animal cruelty, blood, death, misogyny
May 3, 2016
I know this one is mostly filler, with pretty much nothing of great importance to the main plot, but I can't help but relate to Jake in this one, as he deals with the pressure of being the leader and having people look to him for answers.
September 15, 2020
September 14, 2020 re-read:
�� This read-through, I found myself not quite as focused on what this book meant to Jake as the leader – the lessons it had to impart to him, the risks he assumes of his friends’ lives as well as his own, the amount of sheer luck he/they have, that he doesn’t have to take on every single mission which presents itself – but the little pieces of observation he has about his teammates, even his enemies. He notes that Tobias is probably hungry with all the flapping he has to do, and how bird metabolisms don’t tolerate hunger as well. He’s “really ticked off” at Rachel for being impulsive and running into danger headlong even though he knew her near-death experience meant she wouldn’t shake it off, but would react by becoming more aggressive (page 105). He judges that of them all, Ax can run the fastest and so can be the last to morph/leave a place. How the Taxxons He probably snapped at Marco at some point, though I didn’t mark it, and he lets Cassie comfort him and ease his burden of leadership. He’s already become so good at utilizing his team’s strengths and taking into account their weaknesses – we easily forget this is only book 11, only his third narration, and that the kids have been fighting for what, maybe a few months at most by this point? That’s why I think this quote is probably a close tie for the quote about luck bolded in my original 2015 review to get this installment in a nutshell:
Not much of a plan. But I was the leader, and a leader has to give people hope. Even when he doesn’t have much himself.
And then, when we take into account what Ax says of the Sario Rip at the end – about why Jake is the only one who remembers it – the above observations Jake makes about the Animorphs makes even more sense. They were all acting . Oh, did I not mention the Sario Rip event yet? It’s time and space travel! After all, what would a science fiction series be without at least one time travel plot? I like how it was used in this – even though time travel is a bit of a cliché/trope, there’s some nice twist to how it works and what it means overall. Besides, it meant we get to see another cool (terrible?) Visser Three morph – the Lerdethak, from the Hork-Bajir homeworld. Which is another cool reminder how this is science fiction – we spend so much time on Earth with the Animorphs, that these often-one-liner drops about alien species or activities seem out of the blue (and usually end up staying that way), yet in reality fit right in. Space is big, and why shouldn’t there be an incredibly diverse number of creatures out in it? I digress, though. All in all, while The Forgotten generally keeps to a pretty standard time-travel formula, it still has interesting bits to offer: intriguing insights, valuable knowledge, and fun world-building.
Favorite quotes anew:
Did [Tom] enjoy watching the fight through eyes he no longer controlled? Was there anything, anything at all, he could enjoy? – page 33
It’s the worst thing about being a so-called leader – the times when you take a risk with someone else’s life. If Ax ended up dead, it was going to be very hard to explain to my friends.
And to myself. – page 86
“Because you’re the same, you and Polo. He’s you, and you’re him. The leaders. You know, he took a risk putting down his spear. We might have killed him and his people. There was no way he could know if it was the right thing to do. He just made the best decision he could. That’s all anyone can ask from any leader.” – page 134-135
Not much of a plan. But I was the leader, and a leader has to give people hope. Even when he doesn’t have much himself. – page 142
Original Review: June 30, 2015
Sometimes, success is just luck.
And that pretty much summarizes the entire Animorphs series.
This book was a nice departure from the usual pattern of “discover Yeerk plot; attempt to plan a solid mission; have something go awry; have to improvise; and barely make it out alive”. And at the same time, it also in a way acknowledged and explored just how lucky the Animorphs have been thus far. What if they didn’t get lucky? What would the end result be? (Not that anyone really wants that answered…) I think more than this being a “Jake” book because it is his point of view, it is also very much a “wake up Jake” book, where he realizes just how lucky he and the Animorphs have been, and that if nothing has seemed easy or simple before, well, it is certainly not going to become that way any time soon. What's more, it also serves to show Jake that just because a mission presents itself, does not mean that they have to take it on. Furthermore, it also helps drive home for him his role as leader, and just how serious everything is. Sure, he knows this fight is serious, and he knows how much danger the entire team has run in to, but I think this is where it all becomes completely, solidly, undeniably real for him.
Though I do have one fairly big question: why is it only Jake who has this experience? What twist of fate selects him to be "the one"? Surely it is not just because he is the elected leader?
And why stop a good thing? Here are some of my favorite quotes from this book, largely for either their humor or their poignancy.
< Rachel, why is it that whenever I hear you say “let’s do it” my blood runs cold? > Marco asked. – page 23
Marco put his hand on my shoulder. “Phasers on full power!” he said in a Captain Picard English accent. “Arm photon torpedoes! If the Borg want a fight, we’ll give them one! Make it so!”
– page 63 – While I might have recognized who Captain Picard was, and maybe even the Borg when I was what, 10 or 11? – probably the most I would have been able to say was that they were from Star Trek. And that was it. Now that I know more about Star Trek (okay, have actually finally seen some Star Trek), I can better appreciate all these Star Trek references which keep popping up throughout Animorphs.
After Jake has called out Cassie and Marco’s names twice, and Rachel’s once after crash-landing in a jungle:
< How about Tobias? > a voice said in my head. – page 76 – Aw man, this just hurts. I read this as Tobias (and Ax) were basically forgotten by Jake. You know who is most important to him in this harried situation. Cassie and Marco foremost, then family/Rachel next. Third rung goes to Tobias and Ax :( (And never mind that Tobias would likely have had the best chance of finding anyone a lot quicker than well, everyone else, even “out of his element".)
“Did we go forward or back? Are we in the past or the future?” [Jake asked]
< Yes, > Ax said. < It’s definitely one of those two choices. > -- page 79 – Ax-man, I love your answer. It is just perfect.
“Could we concentrate here?” I said gruffly. Actually, I was relieved to see everyone behaving normally. It’s when Cassie isn’t talking about animals and Marco and Rachel aren’t teasing each other that you have to worry. – page 112
I know there is a difference between human life and the lives of other animals. I mean, I guess there is. And I definitely know there is a difference between human life and the lives of trees. But still, that mindless, pointless massacre of trees and the animals in them made me sick. – page 122 – Wonders never cease about just how careless the Yeerks are about Earth, the home planet of the species they are trying to take over. Do they every stop to think, “If we kill everything on this planet which is not human, up to and including the flora, then our human hosts won’t have a planet to sustain them, and they’ll have to rely on whatever we can create on ships in space”? Man wouldn’t that be a drag for the Yeerks! And while I’m on the subject… Yeerks must show some care for their hosts, because Hork-Bajir don’t have super long lives like Andalites do. And considering the Hork-Bajir have been enslaved for over 30 years, at least, you have to figure that the Yeerks were doing something to make sure their best hosts were procreating.
[Cassie said,] “…There was no way he could know if it was the right thing to do. He just made the best decision he could. That’s all anyone can ask from any leader.” – page 135 – Just the sort of pep-talk Jake needs; leave it to Cassie to give it to him, as usual.
Not much of a plan. But I was the leader, and a leader has to give people hope. Even when he doesn’t have much himself. – page 142 – Wise words from a boy forced to grow up way too fast in a war that he had no choice but to take on and lead in.
�� This read-through, I found myself not quite as focused on what this book meant to Jake as the leader – the lessons it had to impart to him, the risks he assumes of his friends’ lives as well as his own, the amount of sheer luck he/they have, that he doesn’t have to take on every single mission which presents itself – but the little pieces of observation he has about his teammates, even his enemies. He notes that Tobias is probably hungry with all the flapping he has to do, and how bird metabolisms don’t tolerate hunger as well. He’s “really ticked off” at Rachel for being impulsive and running into danger headlong even though he knew her near-death experience meant she wouldn’t shake it off, but would react by becoming more aggressive (page 105). He judges that of them all, Ax can run the fastest and so can be the last to morph/leave a place. How the Taxxons He probably snapped at Marco at some point, though I didn’t mark it, and he lets Cassie comfort him and ease his burden of leadership. He’s already become so good at utilizing his team’s strengths and taking into account their weaknesses – we easily forget this is only book 11, only his third narration, and that the kids have been fighting for what, maybe a few months at most by this point? That’s why I think this quote is probably a close tie for the quote about luck bolded in my original 2015 review to get this installment in a nutshell:
Not much of a plan. But I was the leader, and a leader has to give people hope. Even when he doesn’t have much himself.
And then, when we take into account what Ax says of the Sario Rip at the end – about why Jake is the only one who remembers it – the above observations Jake makes about the Animorphs makes even more sense. They were all acting . Oh, did I not mention the Sario Rip event yet? It’s time and space travel! After all, what would a science fiction series be without at least one time travel plot? I like how it was used in this – even though time travel is a bit of a cliché/trope, there’s some nice twist to how it works and what it means overall. Besides, it meant we get to see another cool (terrible?) Visser Three morph – the Lerdethak, from the Hork-Bajir homeworld. Which is another cool reminder how this is science fiction – we spend so much time on Earth with the Animorphs, that these often-one-liner drops about alien species or activities seem out of the blue (and usually end up staying that way), yet in reality fit right in. Space is big, and why shouldn’t there be an incredibly diverse number of creatures out in it? I digress, though. All in all, while The Forgotten generally keeps to a pretty standard time-travel formula, it still has interesting bits to offer: intriguing insights, valuable knowledge, and fun world-building.
Favorite quotes anew:
Did [Tom] enjoy watching the fight through eyes he no longer controlled? Was there anything, anything at all, he could enjoy? – page 33
It’s the worst thing about being a so-called leader – the times when you take a risk with someone else’s life. If Ax ended up dead, it was going to be very hard to explain to my friends.
And to myself. – page 86
“Because you’re the same, you and Polo. He’s you, and you’re him. The leaders. You know, he took a risk putting down his spear. We might have killed him and his people. There was no way he could know if it was the right thing to do. He just made the best decision he could. That’s all anyone can ask from any leader.” – page 134-135
Not much of a plan. But I was the leader, and a leader has to give people hope. Even when he doesn’t have much himself. – page 142
Original Review: June 30, 2015
Sometimes, success is just luck.
And that pretty much summarizes the entire Animorphs series.
This book was a nice departure from the usual pattern of “discover Yeerk plot; attempt to plan a solid mission; have something go awry; have to improvise; and barely make it out alive”. And at the same time, it also in a way acknowledged and explored just how lucky the Animorphs have been thus far. What if they didn’t get lucky? What would the end result be? (Not that anyone really wants that answered…) I think more than this being a “Jake” book because it is his point of view, it is also very much a “wake up Jake” book, where he realizes just how lucky he and the Animorphs have been, and that if nothing has seemed easy or simple before, well, it is certainly not going to become that way any time soon. What's more, it also serves to show Jake that just because a mission presents itself, does not mean that they have to take it on. Furthermore, it also helps drive home for him his role as leader, and just how serious everything is. Sure, he knows this fight is serious, and he knows how much danger the entire team has run in to, but I think this is where it all becomes completely, solidly, undeniably real for him.
Though I do have one fairly big question: why is it only Jake who has this experience? What twist of fate selects him to be "the one"? Surely it is not just because he is the elected leader?
And why stop a good thing? Here are some of my favorite quotes from this book, largely for either their humor or their poignancy.
< Rachel, why is it that whenever I hear you say “let’s do it” my blood runs cold? > Marco asked. – page 23
Marco put his hand on my shoulder. “Phasers on full power!” he said in a Captain Picard English accent. “Arm photon torpedoes! If the Borg want a fight, we’ll give them one! Make it so!”
– page 63 – While I might have recognized who Captain Picard was, and maybe even the Borg when I was what, 10 or 11? – probably the most I would have been able to say was that they were from Star Trek. And that was it. Now that I know more about Star Trek (okay, have actually finally seen some Star Trek), I can better appreciate all these Star Trek references which keep popping up throughout Animorphs.
After Jake has called out Cassie and Marco’s names twice, and Rachel’s once after crash-landing in a jungle:
< How about Tobias? > a voice said in my head. – page 76 – Aw man, this just hurts. I read this as Tobias (and Ax) were basically forgotten by Jake. You know who is most important to him in this harried situation. Cassie and Marco foremost, then family/Rachel next. Third rung goes to Tobias and Ax :( (And never mind that Tobias would likely have had the best chance of finding anyone a lot quicker than well, everyone else, even “out of his element".)
“Did we go forward or back? Are we in the past or the future?” [Jake asked]
< Yes, > Ax said. < It’s definitely one of those two choices. > -- page 79 – Ax-man, I love your answer. It is just perfect.
“Could we concentrate here?” I said gruffly. Actually, I was relieved to see everyone behaving normally. It’s when Cassie isn’t talking about animals and Marco and Rachel aren’t teasing each other that you have to worry. – page 112
I know there is a difference between human life and the lives of other animals. I mean, I guess there is. And I definitely know there is a difference between human life and the lives of trees. But still, that mindless, pointless massacre of trees and the animals in them made me sick. – page 122 – Wonders never cease about just how careless the Yeerks are about Earth, the home planet of the species they are trying to take over. Do they every stop to think, “If we kill everything on this planet which is not human, up to and including the flora, then our human hosts won’t have a planet to sustain them, and they’ll have to rely on whatever we can create on ships in space”? Man wouldn’t that be a drag for the Yeerks! And while I’m on the subject… Yeerks must show some care for their hosts, because Hork-Bajir don’t have super long lives like Andalites do. And considering the Hork-Bajir have been enslaved for over 30 years, at least, you have to figure that the Yeerks were doing something to make sure their best hosts were procreating.
[Cassie said,] “…There was no way he could know if it was the right thing to do. He just made the best decision he could. That’s all anyone can ask from any leader.” – page 135 – Just the sort of pep-talk Jake needs; leave it to Cassie to give it to him, as usual.
Not much of a plan. But I was the leader, and a leader has to give people hope. Even when he doesn’t have much himself. – page 142 – Wise words from a boy forced to grow up way too fast in a war that he had no choice but to take on and lead in.
May 26, 2021
So if I did this right, this is my 1000th rating on Goodreads, as well as my 52nd book read for 2021 thus meeting my challenge goal, and my 856th GR review.
Quick story: I saw I was coming up on 1000 ratings, and thought Perfect, I’ll have Animorphs #23 with my favorite character Tobias narrating as my 1000th! Then I read the first quarter of it, realized that because I had the box set of 21-24, I couldn’t fit the chronologically next Hork-Bajir Chronicles in its proper place, so went to read Hork-Bajir Chronicles. I got halfway through it and realized the next day that even if I completed it, or The Pretender, since they already have ratings they would not clock in for 1000. But, if I listened to the next Animorphs audiobook in my line up - The Forgotten - then that would be my 1000th unique rating! So, I listed to this while doing dishes then cooking dinner and the last 20 minutes while cross-stitching some cool looking planets for my godson all in the same evening.
First, since I’m catching up on audiobooks while continuing to read the physical books, and over such a long(er) period of time (than I intended), I think my mental linear chronology of the series is off, and some details I’m not sure if they happened before or after something else. On the plus side, listening to this now and finishing Hork-Bajir Chronicles right after kept the viney Lerdethak creature easily accessible in my memory! I love seeing this sort of continuity in the series, these seemingly one-off alien appearances coming back books later. Though I think this largely drops off except for recurring alien species after the ghost writers take over.
As for listening to The Forgotten, it reminded me that I forgot Elfangor’s name is pronounced “Elfin-gore” in audio instead of the way I hear it in my head, which is “El-FEIGN-gore” – I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that, after so many years pronouncing/hearing it as “El-FEIGN-gore”! Macleod Andrews did another exemplary job, and I can’t help but think he must have had far too much fun doing the various jungle animal sound effects – they were certainly very amusing to hear! (and surprisingly good – I even wondered if he used stock audio for some of it, it was that good) There was a line very early on that is naturally a humorous line, but with Andrews’ delivery, had me laugh out loud. I think I’m finding that hearing some of these jokes out loud for pretty much the first time elicits stronger reactions out of me. It’s always so good to know that even after multiple re-reads, over many years, the humor in this series can still make me laugh out loud as well as grin to myself. On the flip side, the serious moments had great gravitas, and I could pretty much feel the tension and struggle in each of the characters when they spoke, as well as Jake’s narration. I’m still not quite sure I buy Ax’s voice being so low, though, but who knows – maybe Andalite boys don’t have voices that “crack” and they just always have a deep voice no matter their age. Not to mention that Visser Three is creepy as always! I can see why this book gets passed over sometimes as filler, but I do appreciate some of the messages it gets across as well as the world-building. After all, this won’t be their first encounter with a Sario Rip, nor Jake’s first (or last) time second-guessing himself, among many other things.
Quick story: I saw I was coming up on 1000 ratings, and thought Perfect, I’ll have Animorphs #23 with my favorite character Tobias narrating as my 1000th! Then I read the first quarter of it, realized that because I had the box set of 21-24, I couldn’t fit the chronologically next Hork-Bajir Chronicles in its proper place, so went to read Hork-Bajir Chronicles. I got halfway through it and realized the next day that even if I completed it, or The Pretender, since they already have ratings they would not clock in for 1000. But, if I listened to the next Animorphs audiobook in my line up - The Forgotten - then that would be my 1000th unique rating! So, I listed to this while doing dishes then cooking dinner and the last 20 minutes while cross-stitching some cool looking planets for my godson all in the same evening.
First, since I’m catching up on audiobooks while continuing to read the physical books, and over such a long(er) period of time (than I intended), I think my mental linear chronology of the series is off, and some details I’m not sure if they happened before or after something else. On the plus side, listening to this now and finishing Hork-Bajir Chronicles right after kept the viney Lerdethak creature easily accessible in my memory! I love seeing this sort of continuity in the series, these seemingly one-off alien appearances coming back books later. Though I think this largely drops off except for recurring alien species after the ghost writers take over.
As for listening to The Forgotten, it reminded me that I forgot Elfangor’s name is pronounced “Elfin-gore” in audio instead of the way I hear it in my head, which is “El-FEIGN-gore” – I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that, after so many years pronouncing/hearing it as “El-FEIGN-gore”! Macleod Andrews did another exemplary job, and I can’t help but think he must have had far too much fun doing the various jungle animal sound effects – they were certainly very amusing to hear! (and surprisingly good – I even wondered if he used stock audio for some of it, it was that good) There was a line very early on that is naturally a humorous line, but with Andrews’ delivery, had me laugh out loud. I think I’m finding that hearing some of these jokes out loud for pretty much the first time elicits stronger reactions out of me. It’s always so good to know that even after multiple re-reads, over many years, the humor in this series can still make me laugh out loud as well as grin to myself. On the flip side, the serious moments had great gravitas, and I could pretty much feel the tension and struggle in each of the characters when they spoke, as well as Jake’s narration. I’m still not quite sure I buy Ax’s voice being so low, though, but who knows – maybe Andalite boys don’t have voices that “crack” and they just always have a deep voice no matter their age. Not to mention that Visser Three is creepy as always! I can see why this book gets passed over sometimes as filler, but I do appreciate some of the messages it gets across as well as the world-building. After all, this won’t be their first encounter with a Sario Rip, nor Jake’s first (or last) time second-guessing himself, among many other things.
March 6, 2025
Still astoundingly good for a 30 year old children's series.
September 7, 2022
I almost feel bad giving my highest ratings to all the Jake books but 1. MacLeod Andrews reads them and I love him and 2. it seems like all the most messed up stuff happens to Jake and I love that too. Also congrats on doing a time travel plot that was interesting and actually made sense. I am sooo picky on time travel stuff usually but I thought this was really fun.
March 26, 2015
I have the same complaint about this that I did about 10 (The Android), which is that I feel like Applegate decided to start pulling in any and every sci-fi/fantasy trope she knew. *Of course* there has to be time travel (although thank God it wasn't like the Animorphs ended up in the Wild West or something, that would have been ridiculous) because of some space battle of crazy.
That said, I really liked this. Part of that is because of the way Applegate handled the whole time thing and made it a plot device rather than a setting. Part of that is because I loved the fact that Jake gets to start dealing with how incredibly hard it is to be a leader, especially a leader of a group who regularly dances with Death and is trying to save, well, everything. His journey of uncertainty and growth was huge to me as a kid and is huge to me now.
And part of it was because of it being a very careful love song to the Amazon.
It's not a "yay save the rainforest because trees" book at all--I had so much appreciation for the fact that Rachel wanted to burn the whole place down after about the umpteenth time they were almost killed not by Yeerks but by bugs. But then the Animorphs begin to learn respect for the fact that the planet wasn't built solely for humans; there are wild places that must stay wild and live into their wildness whether or not we humans ever get to see that at all. This book makes the world big, as big as it is and as bright and frighteningly beautiful, which is one of the absolute gifts of this series.
One of my favorites, I think. Even despite the Sario Rip.
That said, I really liked this. Part of that is because of the way Applegate handled the whole time thing and made it a plot device rather than a setting. Part of that is because I loved the fact that Jake gets to start dealing with how incredibly hard it is to be a leader, especially a leader of a group who regularly dances with Death and is trying to save, well, everything. His journey of uncertainty and growth was huge to me as a kid and is huge to me now.
And part of it was because of it being a very careful love song to the Amazon.
It's not a "yay save the rainforest because trees" book at all--I had so much appreciation for the fact that Rachel wanted to burn the whole place down after about the umpteenth time they were almost killed not by Yeerks but by bugs. But then the Animorphs begin to learn respect for the fact that the planet wasn't built solely for humans; there are wild places that must stay wild and live into their wildness whether or not we humans ever get to see that at all. This book makes the world big, as big as it is and as bright and frighteningly beautiful, which is one of the absolute gifts of this series.
One of my favorites, I think. Even despite the Sario Rip.
December 29, 2022
The most well-written installment so far in my opinion! Even the canned intro worked for me this time.
February 14, 2019
This book has Jake checking the time on his watch after de-morphing in the woods. It's been explicitly stated on several past occasions that it isn't possible to morph jewelry or watches.
"We do a quick morph, we're in and out of that Safeway in ten minutes and back home again."
DAMN IT, JAKE!
At any rate, this is the book that showcases some of Jake's biggest character flaws, which carry over into the mistakes he makes as a leader. Take this, for one:
Except that going into the Safeway wasn't Jake's first screwup. Jake's first screwup was brushing off those weird visions he kept getting, some of which were accompanied by a strong feeling that maybe he shouldn't be doing what he was doing. But, because he's the leader, he played it all stoic, and wrote the weird visions off as just stress or losing his mind or whatever, and whenever anyone else noticed his weird behavior, insisted that he was fine and absolutely nothing was wrong. Never mind that if he'd stopped to take even so much as a few minutes to consult with Ax—who knows slightly more than the rest of them about weird spacetime phenomena—he could have gotten the information he needed to avoid this whole mess altogether.
But no, Jake's mentality was nothing but 'I'm the leader, I can't show fear or doubt or any kind of weakness', coupled with this weird insistence that Jake in particular has that, because he's the one the others tend to look to in times of crisis, he always has to put his own needs last last last. What Jake failed to realize, of course, is that trying to power through his problems all by himself and failing to come clean to his teammates doesn't make him a strong leader—it makes him a liability.
The other key instance of character progression is that this is the first book where we really started to see the rift forming between Jake and Tobias. In the first few books, Tobias hero-worshipped Jake, primarily for being the guy who rescued him when a couple of bullies had his head in the toilet. Here, though, was the point where Jake started to fall off of that pedestal, when first Ax, then Rachel—the two people on this team Tobias cares about most—both nearly lost their lives in quick succession as a direct consequence of choices made by Jake, choices that Tobias was openly questioning even as Jake made them.
What I really didn't like about this book was As a reader, this was frustrating and extremely unsatisfying. At the very least, I want the characters' screw-ups to have consequences that last, and if you can't pull that off without , then... maybe hold off on having your characters screw up so badly.
"We do a quick morph, we're in and out of that Safeway in ten minutes and back home again."
DAMN IT, JAKE!
At any rate, this is the book that showcases some of Jake's biggest character flaws, which carry over into the mistakes he makes as a leader. Take this, for one:
I don't think I've ever felt so relieved in my life. I had been screwing up plenty. First by deciding to go into the stupid Safeway to begin with, then by endangering Tobias, then by endangering Ax, then by leaving Rachel alone to almost get killed. But at least no one had gotten killed.
Yet.
Except that going into the Safeway wasn't Jake's first screwup. Jake's first screwup was brushing off those weird visions he kept getting, some of which were accompanied by a strong feeling that maybe he shouldn't be doing what he was doing. But, because he's the leader, he played it all stoic, and wrote the weird visions off as just stress or losing his mind or whatever, and whenever anyone else noticed his weird behavior, insisted that he was fine and absolutely nothing was wrong. Never mind that if he'd stopped to take even so much as a few minutes to consult with Ax—who knows slightly more than the rest of them about weird spacetime phenomena—he could have gotten the information he needed to avoid this whole mess altogether.
I know it sounds weird, but I was actually mad at Ax for not seeing what an idiot I'd been. I wanted someone just to say, "Jake, you've blown it, man. You're not the leader anymore."
It would have been a relief.
But no, Jake's mentality was nothing but 'I'm the leader, I can't show fear or doubt or any kind of weakness', coupled with this weird insistence that Jake in particular has that, because he's the one the others tend to look to in times of crisis, he always has to put his own needs last last last. What Jake failed to realize, of course, is that trying to power through his problems all by himself and failing to come clean to his teammates doesn't make him a strong leader—it makes him a liability.
The other key instance of character progression is that this is the first book where we really started to see the rift forming between Jake and Tobias. In the first few books, Tobias hero-worshipped Jake, primarily for being the guy who rescued him when a couple of bullies had his head in the toilet. Here, though, was the point where Jake started to fall off of that pedestal, when first Ax, then Rachel—the two people on this team Tobias cares about most—both nearly lost their lives in quick succession as a direct consequence of choices made by Jake, choices that Tobias was openly questioning even as Jake made them.
What I really didn't like about this book was As a reader, this was frustrating and extremely unsatisfying. At the very least, I want the characters' screw-ups to have consequences that last, and if you can't pull that off without , then... maybe hold off on having your characters screw up so badly.
July 29, 2021
In the first half of this story, the Animorphs are investigating a spaceship crash site, eventually embarking on a plan to steal the vessel and fly it to the White House. It's one of those tossed-off elements that the series never really thinks through or follows up on later. (They have alien technology and a local Andalite ally. If they wanted to make the Yeerk invasion national news by bringing evidence to Washington, they could do so literally whenever.) Meanwhile, our narrator is seeing flashes of himself and the others in a rainforest, which he frustratingly worries means he's going crazy -- because that's how mental illness works, right? random jungle hallucinations? -- and doesn't tell anyone. It's a far cry from the ocean dreams of The Message, which everyone hesitated to believe but still brought up for immediate discussion, although that disparity isn't mentioned in the text.
Upon escaping in the Bug fighter, the team is shot down by Visser Three's own craft, whose weapons system interferes with theirs to cause a rip in spacetime. The science here is Star Trek-level technobabble, but the upshot is that the heroes and their adversaries alike are flung one day backward to land exactly where Jake's visions have shown. They experience just how brutal that environment can be, including a gory scene of Rachel under attack by flesh-eating ants and a somewhat-problematic depiction of native peoples with poison spears, and must desperately seek a way home before the timeline catches up to when they left, which would apparently annihilate both their past and present selves.
It's kind of a lot, and the ultimate resolution to the plotline isn't especially satisfying for me as a reader. Spoiler alert: the protagonist is actually killed, his consciousness snaps back to earlier, and he preemptively aborts the mission. The morphs he and his friends acquired are gone, and as per the title, nobody but him even remembers the adventure at all. The tidy reversal is a classic genre solution for time-travel shenanigans, and as always I have to credit author K. A. Applegate for exploring some heavy material in this franchise, but there are too many questionable items in this volume for me to wholly love it overall.
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Upon escaping in the Bug fighter, the team is shot down by Visser Three's own craft, whose weapons system interferes with theirs to cause a rip in spacetime. The science here is Star Trek-level technobabble, but the upshot is that the heroes and their adversaries alike are flung one day backward to land exactly where Jake's visions have shown. They experience just how brutal that environment can be, including a gory scene of Rachel under attack by flesh-eating ants and a somewhat-problematic depiction of native peoples with poison spears, and must desperately seek a way home before the timeline catches up to when they left, which would apparently annihilate both their past and present selves.
It's kind of a lot, and the ultimate resolution to the plotline isn't especially satisfying for me as a reader. Spoiler alert: the protagonist is actually killed, his consciousness snaps back to earlier, and he preemptively aborts the mission. The morphs he and his friends acquired are gone, and as per the title, nobody but him even remembers the adventure at all. The tidy reversal is a classic genre solution for time-travel shenanigans, and as always I have to credit author K. A. Applegate for exploring some heavy material in this franchise, but there are too many questionable items in this volume for me to wholly love it overall.
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August 31, 2025
Was this book necessary? Probably not. If they were to rerelease the series I could see this one being cut. Then again I don't remember if the Sario Rip comes into play later. But it was a good look at Jake and how he's folding under the pressure of being the Leader. Outside of it I'm not sure why this book matters in the scheme of the series.
___________________
Original Review 2015:
The Animorphs series has established a pretty clear pattern by this point. And this book tries to mask the formula by adding a new element...time travel (sort of). Jake, the "fearless" leader, is the narrator for this volume. We haven't heard from him in awhile and as we hear his inner thoughts our perspectives are changed. For the past few books he's been kind of on edge and making really rash decisions...this book isn't really different but we hear what he's thinking. Again, we are reminded that these characters are all between the ages of 11-13 and they're making scary, life-altering decisons. And Jake is feeling the pressure. He screws up... a lot...in this book. He almost gets Tobias and Ax killed in two seperate situations. And he KNOWS he screwed up, he just doesn't know how to fix it. So we get this complicated plot of time travel but not really. They just traveled to earlier in the day but they did get transported to the Amazon. If these books were YA instead of JFic, they could have really shined. They'd probably be a bit longer and the plots fleshed out to their full potential. Instead, we get a fun scene of the Animorphs as monkies and making friends with natives for a whole page before they disappear. The gang does get eaten by Visser 3 before Jake manages to save the day from a very convenient loophole in the Time Travel laws. So, overall a decent volume to the series. But again...painfully aware of how much better this could have been if written for a different age group and were a bit longer.
___________________
Original Review 2015:
The Animorphs series has established a pretty clear pattern by this point. And this book tries to mask the formula by adding a new element...time travel (sort of). Jake, the "fearless" leader, is the narrator for this volume. We haven't heard from him in awhile and as we hear his inner thoughts our perspectives are changed. For the past few books he's been kind of on edge and making really rash decisions...this book isn't really different but we hear what he's thinking. Again, we are reminded that these characters are all between the ages of 11-13 and they're making scary, life-altering decisons. And Jake is feeling the pressure. He screws up... a lot...in this book. He almost gets Tobias and Ax killed in two seperate situations. And he KNOWS he screwed up, he just doesn't know how to fix it. So we get this complicated plot of time travel but not really. They just traveled to earlier in the day but they did get transported to the Amazon. If these books were YA instead of JFic, they could have really shined. They'd probably be a bit longer and the plots fleshed out to their full potential. Instead, we get a fun scene of the Animorphs as monkies and making friends with natives for a whole page before they disappear. The gang does get eaten by Visser 3 before Jake manages to save the day from a very convenient loophole in the Time Travel laws. So, overall a decent volume to the series. But again...painfully aware of how much better this could have been if written for a different age group and were a bit longer.
March 6, 2024
It feels like the Animorphs series is attempting a speed run to cram every sci-fi idea in as few books as possible. The last book dealt with an entire group of androids living on Earth, and now this one is about the Animorphs traveling through time.
The Animorphs steal a crashed Yeerk spaceship and want to fly it to Washington DC and land it on the White House lawn. In the attempt they find themselves confronted by Visser 3's blade ship. They both shoot their weapon beams, which hit each other and cause a rip in the time space continuum and ends up throwing them a day in the past in the Amazon rain forest.
Wacky jungle hijinks ensue, they get a leopard and a monkey morph, and ultimately all end up dying. Dying somehow snaps only Jake's consciousness back into his other body and he then decides to not steal the ship, closing the "Sario Rip".
It seems like all this book really does is set up the concept of time travel in the Animorphs universe. It never really explains why Jake is the only one to remember this or have his consciousness come back to his other body. The ending is also the typical abrupt ending where somehow everything gets solved and resolved within the last 3 pages.
The Animorphs steal a crashed Yeerk spaceship and want to fly it to Washington DC and land it on the White House lawn. In the attempt they find themselves confronted by Visser 3's blade ship. They both shoot their weapon beams, which hit each other and cause a rip in the time space continuum and ends up throwing them a day in the past in the Amazon rain forest.
Wacky jungle hijinks ensue, they get a leopard and a monkey morph, and ultimately all end up dying. Dying somehow snaps only Jake's consciousness back into his other body and he then decides to not steal the ship, closing the "Sario Rip".
It seems like all this book really does is set up the concept of time travel in the Animorphs universe. It never really explains why Jake is the only one to remember this or have his consciousness come back to his other body. The ending is also the typical abrupt ending where somehow everything gets solved and resolved within the last 3 pages.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2020
Spring 2020;
We're in round two of the POV's and it feels like we've hit the YOLO portion suddenly.
I can't help it. I loved this one a little more than the ones before it, because we were suddenly playing with rips in the fabric of time. I liked this thing where there were two times. I found in a little surprising that we totally let one of them die, though it was the only loophole to really make it happen. I continue to like Jake's growth, even as he waffles between I DID NOT ASK TO TEAM-LEAD ASK SOMEONE ELSE and HEY LISTEN TO ME YOU I'M THE LEADER HERE.
Even as it pressed even more on the point that while everyone keeps yelling at everyone to tell the truth, every time something NEW and STRANGE and WORRYING happens to an Animorph they just keep it to themselves, or swear the only other person in the know to secreacy, thus demanding even more lying and people not knowing things.
We're in round two of the POV's and it feels like we've hit the YOLO portion suddenly.
I can't help it. I loved this one a little more than the ones before it, because we were suddenly playing with rips in the fabric of time. I liked this thing where there were two times. I found in a little surprising that we totally let one of them die, though it was the only loophole to really make it happen. I continue to like Jake's growth, even as he waffles between I DID NOT ASK TO TEAM-LEAD ASK SOMEONE ELSE and HEY LISTEN TO ME YOU I'M THE LEADER HERE.
Even as it pressed even more on the point that while everyone keeps yelling at everyone to tell the truth, every time something NEW and STRANGE and WORRYING happens to an Animorph they just keep it to themselves, or swear the only other person in the know to secreacy, thus demanding even more lying and people not knowing things.
January 21, 2019
I remember this book! Indicating that I just skipped book 10, probably because of spiders. (And, you know what, 12-year-old me? That's fair.)
And it's fantastic. A clever plot (set comfortably within genre convention, but kid-me didn't know better and adult-me doesn't mind); memorable settings (this beautiful/terrifying depiction of the rainforest was formative for me) and scenes (the bear/ant part is so traumatizing!). And, best of all, it has a strong interior view into Jake which is driven less by angst and more by characterization. It's a step up from the bad communication and obviously stupid decisions that motivate much of the tension in earlier books; here, Jake's decisions feel justified while still having devastating consequences, exploring his role as leader in productive ways.
And it's fantastic. A clever plot (set comfortably within genre convention, but kid-me didn't know better and adult-me doesn't mind); memorable settings (this beautiful/terrifying depiction of the rainforest was formative for me) and scenes (the bear/ant part is so traumatizing!). And, best of all, it has a strong interior view into Jake which is driven less by angst and more by characterization. It's a step up from the bad communication and obviously stupid decisions that motivate much of the tension in earlier books; here, Jake's decisions feel justified while still having devastating consequences, exploring his role as leader in productive ways.
February 5, 2024
Honestly, despite this book basically not “mattering” in the timeline because it gets erased, this was so good. Jake being forced into this leadership role and making tough decisions with the information at hand is so heart wrenching. Especially since he turns all that anger in on himself instead of outward.
I haven’t finished the series but from what I remember of the first 30 books or so I know this journey is gonna be hard on Jake and I’m so here to see it.
I haven’t finished the series but from what I remember of the first 30 books or so I know this journey is gonna be hard on Jake and I’m so here to see it.
May 16, 2022
Okay, truth time: I love the plot of this series and that gets 5 stars from me throughout these books but... They are old now and it shows. I'm exhausted rereading the same explanation of the premise at the start of every book, and I can't get past the consistent use of ableist (and specifically, sanist) insults. But yeah, this is still a comfort series for me, so I'm compromising at three stars.
September 22, 2009
Just not that interesting, all things considered. Mainly a filler book, as nothing that happens ends up having any relavance to the main plot. And I dislike how Jake is the only one who remembers anything.
Also, some of the Animorphs seemed to act a tad out-of-character.
Unremarkable.
Also, some of the Animorphs seemed to act a tad out-of-character.
Unremarkable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2020
Rating: 4.5
This was one of the books that I read multiple times as a child but somehow I was surprised that it contained time travel paradox stuff, maybe I just blocked it out because I didn't understand it? I definitely remembered the ants though shudder.
This was one of the books that I read multiple times as a child but somehow I was surprised that it contained time travel paradox stuff, maybe I just blocked it out because I didn't understand it? I definitely remembered the ants though shudder.
September 13, 2021
Re-reading the series up to where I left off, then finishing the series off. I can't believe how short these books are compared to how long they felt when I read them in elementary school!
July 15, 2024
Was this ghostwritten? It felt ghostwritten. I know it wasn’t but genuinely I felt like I was listening to what someone entirely new wrote. Jake didn’t make a single in-character decision here — not even because all the decisions were stupid, but because they simply don’t track with how overly cautious he is as a character. I see why he would rush the decision to raid the Safeway but everything else just made genuinely no sense. And his insecurity about being leader came out of nowhere — it’ll come up later but was terribly placed here. Seriously, you’re telling me the same guy who [ENDGAME SPOILERS] is rushing his team into a half thought out plan to steal the bug fighter that has 99% odds of getting them all killed? It’s ridiculous and that’s not Jake. He would never take a risk like that; even if they sneak the bug fighter out, he knows from book #8: The Alien that the yeerks are highly skilled at manipulating media coverage. It’s simply not worth it and he would know. Frankly this whole book should be AU.
Plus, this line threw me so off:
I mean, not the worst, but this just isn’t how I imagine Jake feels about being leader. Sure, he doesn’t want to be leader, but this is strangely dismissive from him. It’s not that they think this but it obviously isn’t true. He IS leader, and even if he doesn’t imagine it to be true / wouldn’t pick it himself, he knows his role. This is me being picky here, but I prefer when Jake talks about when he doesn’t want to be leader and didn’t choose it, not this strange misguided feeling of guilt.
What even happened? Obviously the Sario Rip, but with Jake? Just baffling. Not a good filler book. Probably C or D tier.
Plus, this line threw me so off:
The others like to act as if I’m in charge. I don’t think of myself that way, not really. But you know, whatever. If it makes them feel better to think I’m the leader, fine.
It’s just that when people treat you like a leader, you start acting like a leader. And like I said, that means making decisions. Even when you’re just guessing.
I mean, not the worst, but this just isn’t how I imagine Jake feels about being leader. Sure, he doesn’t want to be leader, but this is strangely dismissive from him. It’s not that they think this but it obviously isn’t true. He IS leader, and even if he doesn’t imagine it to be true / wouldn’t pick it himself, he knows his role. This is me being picky here, but I prefer when Jake talks about when he doesn’t want to be leader and didn’t choose it, not this strange misguided feeling of guilt.
What even happened? Obviously the Sario Rip, but with Jake? Just baffling. Not a good filler book. Probably C or D tier.
September 12, 2019
5/5
Five animal-morphing stars for this book!
It's been about a month since I've read an Animorphs book, and man have I missed it!
In this installment, we're in Jake's POV.
Things start off normal as usual (as normal as things can be for animal morphers fighting evil aliens) when the team is contacted by Tobias about a frightening new development.
There's been a strange crash of sorts at a local grocery store, and guess who's overseeing the repairs? Yep, it's Chapman, infamous Yeerk jerk.
The Animorphs spring into action on a recon mission, ultimately finding themselves in a shocking predicament they never could have foreseen. Can the Animorphs make it out of this one, or will they succumb to this shocking turn of events?
I absolutely loved this book! Yes, maybe I'm a little biased because I missed reading the series, but this novel had some serious nuggets of brilliance.
For starters, Jake. I mean, come on. He's the leader of the Animorphs. I really felt and identified with his struggle of being elected the leader, especially when there are no answers in sight. His POV was flawless, and everyone else's character really shined along with him.
The plot was amazing! I didn't see those plot twists coming at all, and I ended up reading this book in less than a day because of how mesmerized I was. I won't spoil anything, but like some of the other novels so far, this one had a very unique sci-fi edge that I just loved. It's shocking to me that the author could pull all of this off in just 160 pages.
All in all, this book was perfect to me. Adventure, sci-fi, morphing action. What more could you ask for? This book was everything and a bag of chips, and a great continuation of the series. Well worth a binge read.
Happy reading!
Five animal-morphing stars for this book!
It's been about a month since I've read an Animorphs book, and man have I missed it!
In this installment, we're in Jake's POV.
Things start off normal as usual (as normal as things can be for animal morphers fighting evil aliens) when the team is contacted by Tobias about a frightening new development.
There's been a strange crash of sorts at a local grocery store, and guess who's overseeing the repairs? Yep, it's Chapman, infamous Yeerk jerk.
The Animorphs spring into action on a recon mission, ultimately finding themselves in a shocking predicament they never could have foreseen. Can the Animorphs make it out of this one, or will they succumb to this shocking turn of events?
I absolutely loved this book! Yes, maybe I'm a little biased because I missed reading the series, but this novel had some serious nuggets of brilliance.
For starters, Jake. I mean, come on. He's the leader of the Animorphs. I really felt and identified with his struggle of being elected the leader, especially when there are no answers in sight. His POV was flawless, and everyone else's character really shined along with him.
The plot was amazing! I didn't see those plot twists coming at all, and I ended up reading this book in less than a day because of how mesmerized I was. I won't spoil anything, but like some of the other novels so far, this one had a very unique sci-fi edge that I just loved. It's shocking to me that the author could pull all of this off in just 160 pages.
All in all, this book was perfect to me. Adventure, sci-fi, morphing action. What more could you ask for? This book was everything and a bag of chips, and a great continuation of the series. Well worth a binge read.
Happy reading!
June 8, 2023
Time traveling is hard to pull off and unfortunately, I think the whole concept of a Sario rip and how it occurred didn't sound very thought out or explored properly.
Overall, nothing at all HAPPENS in this book, nothing really that impacts the overall plot that is which is disappointing as everything up to this point has been an action-packed rollercoaster for the Animorphs, this was just filler, and how Jake is the only one who remembers anything of space-time rip, who knows, convenient plot device more like.
My only chuckle was at the beginning of the book with Jake and Rachel at school learning Square Dancing ... hehehe ... since I've been Square Dancing for years so I couldn't help but be overjoyed to read this humourous part of the book with Jake being mortified in learning how to dance, Rachel mocking him and Jake being embarrassed at seeing Cassie and of course her reaction was hilarious.
🤣(●'◡'●)🤣
I think we all remember what it was like being at school and participating in dance classes - some who were totally into it and others like Jake just wished to be anywhere but there lol 😅
Overall, nothing at all HAPPENS in this book, nothing really that impacts the overall plot that is which is disappointing as everything up to this point has been an action-packed rollercoaster for the Animorphs, this was just filler, and how Jake is the only one who remembers anything of space-time rip, who knows, convenient plot device more like.
My only chuckle was at the beginning of the book with Jake and Rachel at school learning Square Dancing ... hehehe ... since I've been Square Dancing for years so I couldn't help but be overjoyed to read this humourous part of the book with Jake being mortified in learning how to dance, Rachel mocking him and Jake being embarrassed at seeing Cassie and of course her reaction was hilarious.
🤣(●'◡'●)🤣
I think we all remember what it was like being at school and participating in dance classes - some who were totally into it and others like Jake just wished to be anywhere but there lol 😅
October 8, 2023
WOAHHHH this was so good… i lovedddd how violent and terrible and brutal it was. the part when rachel is literally getting devoured by ants in bear morph is genuinely horrifying like WHAT THE FUCK it was so fucking freaky. literally almost everyone Nearly died. and wow the jake and cassie material in this book was GOD DAMN. i genuinely almost started crying when he was reaching to find her hand in the rain like 😭 straight couples YOU GOT ME THIS TIME. this one was Easily one of my favorite animorph books so far.
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