My name is Jake.

My name is Jake Berenson. The days of secrecy, of lurking in the shadows are over. The Yeerks know my name. They know my height, weight, eye color, Social Security number, and favorite foods. At long last they know the word Animorph, Marco’s word for us.

I’ve fought them for more than three years. I was just thirteen when I started. I’m sixteen now, though that fact, like so many facts, has been deliberately obscured in the secret accounts we’ve kept.

I’m a sixteen-year-old kid named Jake Berenson, and I am the leader of the Animorphs.

More battles, bigger than ever before. Characters we’ve met long ago, back where we’d never expect them. And choices. Choices that could charge the whole galaxy.

It all comes back to the power to morph.

And the choices the Animorphs will all have to make. And live with.

Or die by.

One more book.

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The Yeerks are in the open now. Rounding up people by gunpoint and sending them by subway to the Yeerk Pool.

The Animorphs need to do something about it… but at what cost?

Add on to that, it finally comes out. Cassie stopped Jake from killing Tom–and that’s why the Yeerks can morph now.

Ax’s reaction is… interesting. We often get fairly alien beliefs from him and other Andalites. But this one, this is interesting.

But really, it all comes down to this:

None of us are adults. The others are now of the age to be attending what humans call “high school.”

Man. They’re so young.

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The National Guard is mobilizing! It’s time… to kidnap the governor?

Everything escalated so fast in these last few books.

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The Animorphs tried adding to their number once before.

It went poorly.

But nothing is going well any more. So now, perhaps, it’s time for some reinforcements.

The only reinforcements the Animorphs can universally assume not to be Controllers.

It’s quite the idea–and quite the risk, both for the Animorphs and for Applegate.

But as Jake said, it’s our planet. All of our planet.

Another step further.

“No, Rachel. We retreat,” Jake answered. “A tactical retreat. Save the army. Live to fight another day. But a toothbrush would be good. And extra deodorant. We’ll be out there a while.”

It’s like a series of heists. Barely planned, absolute chaos.

Almost all successful.

And still things escalate.

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Well that’s a lot of world building. Start with elemental magic, nothing super new there (although acid is always a fun one). Add in an ancient prophecy and twins where only one can rule. Still not that unusual.

And then defy the prophecy and literally stop the world spinning, leaving one side a desert scorched by a never ending noon, the other frozen in perpetual night.

We’re chasing a dying sea under an endless sun that kills us with a thousand little cuts every day. There’ll be nothing left soon. Nothing but sand and bone.

Now that’s pretty cool worldbuilding, especially for a fantasy world (it’s something you see slightly more in sci-fi).

Now on top of that, you have a ruler in each world, each with a daughter. Well, you can guess what probably happened and who these two are (remember those twins I mentioned?), but none of them know that.

So you get a fascinating ride as each realized just how screwed up their own corner of the world is, falls in love (there is more than a touch of romance in this book)…

If the choice is between me risking my life and losing you, I’d choose the first.

…and sets off on a journey to set things right.

When the dead find words, the goddess and the Devoted son will meet atop a fish not a fish, on a sea not a sea. It is she who travels to the endless Abyss, and it is he who guides her.

I quite enjoyed this book. It takes a bit of getting into and the leads are… more than a touch Young Adult/‘chosen one’ish, but it’s still a fun read/listen.

Onward!

Nightmares within nightmares.

Among all the Animorphs, they’d all say that there’s only one who might be truly sad if the war ended tomorrow: Rachel.

But even the most gung ho fighter is eventually going to burn out. Perhaps especially them.

An intense book with all the surreal uncertainty of the worst nightmares.

Things continue to escalate.

The free Hork-Bajir under attack, willing to die to defend their homes. With some Animorph help.

And two hundred years ago, but not all that different, Union soldiers under attack, willing to die to defend their homes.

With some freed slaves willing to help.

In the end, it’s the same battle, time and again. And the same people–black, white, and Hork-Bajir alike–willing to step up to fight

It’s a neat structure, interweaving the two battles. A solid read.

Things continue to escalate…

Finally, Jake spoke. His eyes were dull but his voice was firm.

“Things are different,” he said. “From now on, we take what we need. We do what we have to do. No matter what the consequences.”

“Jake . . .” Cassie began.

“There’s only one morph that will get us thousands of miles out to sea in the time we have left,” he added. “Human.”

It’s kind of amazing how out in the open/direct thins things are getting. We have less than ten books left, but still. It’s a lot.

An intense book. And more to come.

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“What are you calling your discovery?” I heard Nora ask.

“I don’t really know,” Dad said tentatively. “What can you call something that is nothing at all?”

There wasn’t anything on TV. An old Star Trek. A new Star Trek. My life was plenty sci-fi. How about some Real World?

“What could you call it?” Dad continued. “Zero, I suppose. Zero-space.”

Uh oh.

And so we’re really in the endgame now. Things are falling apart. The Yeerks have all the power. And the Animorphs… well, they have that they’ve always had.

Hope.

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