Book #265 of 2021:

In the Time of Dinosaurs by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Megamorphs #2)

I’m rather lukewarm on the first Megamorphs release, but this is the sort of big blockbuster adventure that the line seems built for, an over-the-top extravaganza that might strain the limits of the regular Animorphs series and benefits from alternating among all six narrator perspectives. The extra page count is a boon too, as this volume is around one-and-half times the customary length but never lets up on the action for a moment.

As the title suggests, our heroes find themselves flung into the past by another Sario Rip, but unlike the short hop in The Forgotten where Jake underwent a doubling of consciousness by existing in two different places at once, on this occasion they arrive in the late Cretaceous period, 65 million years before humanity. One of the fun running gags that ensues is how everyone still expects their resident alien expert Aximili to have all of the answers, despite the fact that his own people and all the species they know haven’t evolved yet in this era either.

There are extraterrestrials on the scene, however! Yes, ancient earth was apparently a battleground between two warring forces, and if I can offer one critique of this story, it’s that neither group is ultimately fleshed out very much, although the Nesk display a cool design as small ant-like creatures that can swarm together into larger constructs to wield weaponry and other tools. But their presence is a fun and relatively unexpected twist, and the reveal that the Mercora have brought broccoli from their own planet and are responsible for introducing the crop here is the kind of ridiculous K. A. Applegate detail that I absolutely adore. These crab beings also generate a gut-punch of pathos at the end, when — spoiler alert — the Animorphs are forced to coldly betray their new allies in order to preserve the timeline and return home. Cassie raises the usual moral objections, but it’s the latest indication of how the protagonists are being hardened by the continual trauma of their experiences.

Mostly, though, this novel is about the dinosaurs. It’s a pulse-pounding rush from one encounter to the next, repeatedly emphasizing how out of their depth the humans (and Andalite friend) are in this environment, regardless of the ability to morph. Tobias soon receives significant wounds that don’t heal properly, and whether that’s because of his peculiar situation or an effect of the temporal shenanigans, it functions to increase the stakes as well. The characters draw the expected comparison to the overwhelmed visitors of Jurassic Park, as is entirely appropriate for 90s kids, and it’s a real struggle to survive until they manage to acquire Deinonychus and Tyrannosaurus Rex morphs (which prove unusable back in the present for unspecified time-travel reasons, but is presumably due to the meta-justification that these assets would simply be too powerful for them to retain for further events). The team gets separated near the beginning too, a neat structural complexity that wouldn’t be as manageable within a single POV.

The biggest divergence from a typical plot may be the utter lack of Yeerks, the primary villains of the franchise. Normally they make at least some appearance, but even the initial mission here involves rescuing a downed submarine that the teens saw on the news, not countering any immediate threat in their guerilla war against the invaders. Only The Ellimist Chronicles, a fellow companion piece, likewise features none of the mind-controlling slugs. And that’s probably for the best, as there’s a danger that the ongoing narrative could lose focus if minor episodic concerns were to keep popping up that don’t involve the enemy. But for a one-off special event, that absence helps contribute to an excellent change of pace.

[Content warning for body horror, genocide, and gore.]

★★★★★

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