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A review by lesserjoke
The Andalite's Gift by K.A. Applegate
3.0
The first Animorphs release outside of the main series is this 'Megamorphs' title, which is supersized both in literal page count and in including all six potential narrators, rather than just one. (Even Ax the resident alien gets a voice, right before anchoring his own full novel next.) There are probably a greater number of different animal morphs than usual too, although I haven't exactly been counting along that dimension.
Theoretically this should also be a bigger and wilder adventure than the typical team missions, but it's here that the story falters for me. The threat of a tornado-like creature that can hunt down and capture anyone who uses the morphing technology never quite justifies the blockbuster treatment, and a subplot involving a temporarily amnesiac Rachel is as eye-rollingly trite and conveniently resolved as it sounds. Subsequent companion books would embrace the weirder possibilities of this franchise to explore extraterrestrial worlds, time travel, and beyond, but this initial experiment plays out as a somewhat unremarkable side event instead.
It's not all bad per se, and in fact, we get some action sequences like Marco jumping off a Yeerk ship and having to quickly make his way from a gorilla into a more suitable form while plummeting towards the ground that are downright thrilling. But nothing in this volume seems to matter for the ongoing narrative -- I wouldn't be surprised if many readers inadvertently miss it between #7 and #8 -- and the territory it stakes out feels grander than what author K. A. Applegate ultimately does within that space.
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Theoretically this should also be a bigger and wilder adventure than the typical team missions, but it's here that the story falters for me. The threat of a tornado-like creature that can hunt down and capture anyone who uses the morphing technology never quite justifies the blockbuster treatment, and a subplot involving a temporarily amnesiac Rachel is as eye-rollingly trite and conveniently resolved as it sounds. Subsequent companion books would embrace the weirder possibilities of this franchise to explore extraterrestrial worlds, time travel, and beyond, but this initial experiment plays out as a somewhat unremarkable side event instead.
It's not all bad per se, and in fact, we get some action sequences like Marco jumping off a Yeerk ship and having to quickly make his way from a gorilla into a more suitable form while plummeting towards the ground that are downright thrilling. But nothing in this volume seems to matter for the ongoing narrative -- I wouldn't be surprised if many readers inadvertently miss it between #7 and #8 -- and the territory it stakes out feels grander than what author K. A. Applegate ultimately does within that space.
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter