Retromorphs: Animorphs #4: The Message

                               

We are three books in and the Animorphs have been more or less flying by the seat of their morphed pants. They're stuck in a war with mind controlling slug aliens who have them way outgunned, yet they've lucked out on some escalating victories. They barely survived their first encounter with Visser Three twice, but in The Encounter they did take out a giant yeerk tanker ship. But, these are still five kids who have no idea what they're up against. If only there was someone who could help them. A sixth Animorph, who isn't so human. And will this newcomer overtake Cassie's first time in the narrator role? Let's find out with The Message.

We open the book with the preamble about the premise yet again, but thankfully it's about a page and a half. I get it, it's a tool needed to introduce these characters, but also, I get it. I get the story four books in now. Regardless, we also open in Cassie's barn in the middle of the night. There seems to be some sort of creature killing and eating the injured birds, so she intends to investigate. And of course that's in squirrel morph. Much like Rachel with the shrew, it takes a while for Cassie's brain to fixate, and she's in a panic. Especially when Tobias arrives. But they both soon spot the culprit is a fox and Tobias manages to scare it off. As Cassie demorphs, she almost gets caught by her dad, who is grumpy about being woken up to such a commotion, and tells his daughter to go to bed. And that maybe he should get some sleep because he swears he saw a tail on her. As he leaves, Cassie tells Tobias that she's been having strange recurring dreams lately about the ocean. Tobias tells her, she's not the only one. He's been getting them too.

Strangely however, it's only Cassie and Tobias getting the dreams. Marco's getting strange dreams about King Friday from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood though. They're gathered at Rachel's as Jake has to show them a videocassette featuring a news report. Some strange piece of metal has washed up on the beach and it has strange lettering on it, much like the lettering inside Elfangor's ship. Then suddenly both Cassie and Tobias black out, as they hear what sounds like a voice calling them for help. They awaken and warn the others, who are confused why it's specifically those two that are getting signals. They assume because Cassie's been morphing the best of the bunch (or, more than likely because she's the narrator) and Tobias for being trapped. Though, there might be a bigger reason, but we'll keep that under out hat for now. But they do come to one assumption, with the pieces of metal and the messages, this must be coming from another Andalite.

The Animorphs sneak to the beach at night to investigate, only to find Chapman, Tom and members of The Sharing combing the beach with flashlights, trying to find any more metal on the beach. The kids get caught and fired at with real guns. They manage to morph trout and hide in the water long enough, despite the salt water burning them up. They also find out that Visser Three is also getting these visions and is none too happy about it. Also, after finding a pair of jeans on the beach, everyone is assuming that these Andalite bandits aren't Andalites at all, but no way are they going to tell Visser Three that. Ol' tail blade's been angry about enough stuff. He doesn't need to know that he's being dunked on by some meddling kids.

A couple days pass as the kids still have to live real lives, and Jake heads to Cassie's barn. I haven't brought it up much, but especially in these first few books, they make it clear that there's more than just a friendly relationship going on with Jake and Cassie. Not to the point of being romantic, but definitely feelings nonetheless. They ultimately have decided to find out whatever the source of these dreams are, but need to find a morph that will work for them. They think to find something at the Gardens to acquire, like a dolphin. But Cassie suddenly has these reservations about acquiring an intelligent creature like a dolphin. Trying to rationalize it like they're being yeerks taking over a mind, which is a really stupid argument. They just take the form of that dolphin, not control the original version outright. Also, these kids have acquired everything from a flea to an elephant, and now we question the ethics? Come on now, Cassie.

Regardless, they head to the Gardens and head to the dolphin exhibit, where they get splashed by a coy dolphin named Joey. And there are also dolphins named Monica, Rachel, Chandler, Phoebe and Ross, because 1996. Cassie still feels bad for acquiring the dolphin, but against her reservations, still goes along with it. They morph dolphin the next day and soon lose themselves to the playful nature of the creature. Even with Tobias as timekeeper trying to keep them in line, they still just want to play. That is until they see sharks trying to eat a giant whale. Against their better judgment, they fight the sharks and manage to do some serious damage, sending them in retreat with the other sharks eating their wounded mate. However, Marco isn't so lucky as his tail is nearly torn off. He has to demorph, but they're in the middle of the ocean. Thankfully, the whale comes to their aid in time, but also has a deep, meaningful conversation with Cassie. He even mentions that another unfamiliar creature has been spotted in the ocean, Marco remorphs and with their time running out, they decide to try another day.

We get a really good scene with Cassie and Marco as Cassie is still in a panic over nearly getting her friend killed, but Marco doesn't seem as phased, kind of realizing that this is all part of the deal at this point. The next day, the Animorphs come up with a plan to find the source of this message. The whale managed to give Cassie the coordinates for where this mysterious creature may be, but it's too far to go in just dolphin morph. So they morph seagull, hop atop a cargo ship, then demorph. They make it to the spot, but Cassie begins to panic that maybe this was all a big mistake. But, despite her issues yet again, she and the others leap off the high ship and morph dolphin. Suddenly, they notice lights from helicopters above. The yeerks are here too and they're getting ready to head down. Suddenly, the Animorphs spot it. A giant dome structure at the ocean's bottom. They manage to make it inside and demorph. But before they can get their bearings, they get hit by a blinding flash.

When they awaken, they're being held at dracon beam point by another Andalite. They tell him of their situation, about the yeerks and about the death of Elfangor. This hits the Andalite hard as he reveals that Elfangor was his brother. This dome was part of the dome ship that got attacked by the yeerks and it fell into the ocean. A park-like play area of sorts. He was trying to send messages to any other Andalites for help, but managed to get their attention instead. They offer to help him escape. The Andalite introduces himself as Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, but the group decide it's way easier to call him Ax. Ax asks to know who is the leader, which is still technically Jake. Ax then calls him Prince Jake. Get used to that, it's going to be a thing whether Jakes likes it or not. So, yeah. We now have an Andalite on our team. That's gonna help at least.

Ax also drops a bit of a truth bomb that the Animorphs have a hard time handling. The yeerks won't just be content with taking over the entire human race, but they will make the planet a desolate wasteland. Also, it may be a year or two before any other Andalites can arrive to help. But before they can process that, the yeerks arrive and blast at the dome. They morph dolphin, with Ax morphing shark, and they start to make a swim for it, only for the blade ship to arrive with Visser Three on board. It's time for this book's big boss battle. He sends Taxxons to stop them, as the centipede aliens are adept swimmers. This leads the Animorphs to fight back, destroying them like weird centipede puss bags. As they keep swimming for it, they hear a sound like something headed toward them. Visser Three's in the water and he's morphed a deadly creature called a Mardrut, which is a weird whale sized red fish.

But before Visser Three can get them, the whale from earlier arrives, and he brought friends. The whales beat on Visser Three, sending him in retreat once more. The kids demorph in time and eventually find their way back to where they left their clothing. They introduce Ax to Tobias, then have to come up with a plan with how to keep their Andalite friend discreet. Ax then acquires all four human Animorphs and morphs into a male amalgam of all of them. It takes him a while to get used to his mouth and walking on two legs, but he manages. We end the book with Cassie flying as seagull to the dolphin pen and having a swim with them once more.

The Message isn't as strong as the others, and I think it really has to do with Cassie. With other Animorphs reviewers I've seen, they often refer to her as an Idiot. I don't think she's that bad, but this is really the first time in the series where she can get a bit grating. From her whole pointless concern over the ethics of morphing dolphin over any other creature so far because they're smarter, to her falling apart so easily under the pressure of being forced to lead this expedition. And to the whole dolphin issue, why is the intelligence of the dolphins the breaking point for Cassie? She's morphed horse, yet never had an issue over its intelligence, Rachel's been an elephant, a creature revered for its wisdom. Hell, Marco's morphed gorilla, an ape considered to be a close link to homo sapiens, TO HUMANS, and yet these ethics issues she's had never occurred to Cassie until "oh no, but dolphins are super smart though." It makes having to follow her as narrator feel less ideal for this story.

It also kind of feels like this is to compensate for Cassie not having as many stakes in this fight as the others. Jake and Rachel have family in Tom who have been controlled, Marco is dealing with the loss of his mother as well as trying to stop the yeerks from taking anything else away, and Tobias is stuck in hawk form, now having to balance his dueling instincts. Cassie of course has her own family to worry about, as well as the fears of losing her friends to this war (especially Jake and Rachel), not to mention she's the one who came closest to being turned into a controller at this point. But that's kind of it. And as such, it feels like giving her the motivation of the stereotypical "bleeding heart liberal" with preachy ethics as trying to give her something, even if it doesn't fully tread water.

Speaking of water, the ocean stuff itself is fine too, since it's something different. I've seen complaints of why not have Ax end up on dry land, but part of me thinks it would have been way easier for the yeerks to spot a giant domed park on land than in the ocean, so works for me. And then there's the whole talking whale stuff, which I know turns some people off, but I'm far from bothered with it. It does seem like the only way Applegate could get around the plot hole of how the kids were actually supposed to find anything under the ocean.

The focus overall shifting from Cassie's first narration to the introduction of Ax does help, even if it's so late into the story that we don't get much time at all to react to our new Animorph. Ax is what the Animorphs needed as they now have someone who has a better understanding of the alien world and the history of the yeerks. Maybe not in the case of how to outright stop them, but now they're going in far less blind. Add in a couple great fight scenes with the sharks and the Taxxons and you get a book that, while not as strong as the three prior, still gives us some memorable moments nonetheless. Though hopefully Cassie's next turn at the narration spot will be a better one. Regardless, The Message gets a C+.