Book #223 of 2021:
The Change by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #13)
True to its title, this is one of the most consequential early Animorphs novels, coming just late enough in the franchise (around a quarter through) that the disruption to the prior status quo is completely unexpected and thrillingly carried off. That element is unfortunately difficult to discuss without the degree of spoilers that I generally try to avoid in my reviews — but luckily, there are plenty of other great aspects of this book to cover too.
To begin with, the main plot involves the team helping a pair of Hork-Bajir, whom they discover breaking out of the heavily-guarded Yeerk pool during the slim window when the evil parasites relinquish control of their host bodies to feed. This is the first look we’ve gotten at this extraterrestrial species as anything but enemy shock troops, let alone as individuals with personalities and names. Finally meeting Jara Hamee, his pregnant wife Ket Halpak, and the culture they represent adds welcome depth to the worldbuilding of the setting, in addition to establishing new allies who, like the Chee androids of a few volumes ago, are now situated to generate story ideas or introduce future complications. We learn that these beings, though fiercely built, are incredibly docile — their bladed limbs evolved to facilitate a diet of tree bark, not the combat they’ve been enslaved into — and while perhaps of somewhat lower intelligence, they clearly understand and yearn for freedom.
This isn’t all dumped upon us as exposition, either. Instead, the information comes out gradually over the course of the text, which is more immediately concerned with the Animorphs rescuing the escapees from the increasingly daunting containment and retrieval efforts of their adversaries. It’s an action-packed race through the woods, made additionally exciting by a fun reversal of usual roles at the end, with our narrator Tobias right in the thick of things and Jake providing air support in his sharp-eyed falcon morph up above. The narrative also carves out room for an emotional running thread about how being stuck in a hawk body is keeping the protagonist from participating in regular kid stuff like an awards ceremony to honor Rachel — and from getting together with her romantically, although their mutual feelings for one another are mainly relegated to subtext rather than handled overtly.
The nothlit’s perspective is always refreshingly different from those of his fully-human friends, as is the alien Aximili’s, so it’s neat to see the outsiders continue bonding so closely here. In fact they’ve got even more in common than they realize, as revealed in The Andalite Chronicles, a companion volume / prequel to the series released the same month as this in 1997. But on this reread, I’ve made the largely arbitrary decision to tackle this one before the other, so I only have my memory to guide me. As far as I can recall the two books aren’t directly linked beyond the reappearance of the all-powerful Ellimist, whom we haven’t seen since his original introduction in #7.
That meddler is the single item that doesn’t quite work for me, I think. He’s the reason Tobias is on the scene to spot the Hork-Bajir in the first place, and he later makes a bargain with the teen to enlist his further aid. But at this point, we still don’t really know any details regarding constraints on his seeming omnipotence, so when he bends time and space to his will yet refuses to answer a straight question or otherwise perform some concrete task requested of him, it reads less like a mysterious benefactor doing everything he can for the shared cause and more like Q on Star Trek impishly pranking Picard out of boredom and spite. It works to keep events moving, but it’s not entirely satisfying on a character level.
Nevertheless, the presence of that entity breaks all the normal rules, enabling the game-changing development(s) which again, I won’t spoil here but will prove fruitful going forward. Overall it’s a terrific and propulsive ride, and arguably the conclusion of the preliminary arc of the wider storyline. The stakes and the heroes alike are well-established by this juncture, and despite a few hiccups along the way, the YA sci-fi saga is off to a fantastic start.
★★★★☆
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