The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate (1997) Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Thursday. It's one week until the third season of Star Trek: Picard starts and I'm excited to see my favourite characters from TNG return, but I'm also extremely apprehensive because season 2 wasn't great. So hopefully that goes well. Today though I'm back for another book review. This time I am taking a look at The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate, and is the first prequel book in the Animorphs series (1996-2001), though it's the last one in the in-universe chronology. There will be spoilers for not only this book, but for others in the series too, so if you're not familiar with Animorphs be aware of that. Let's get into it.

The Andalite Chronicles represents a shift in the series as a whole. So far, we'd only had 13 books up to this point, 12 in the main series, and one in the Megamorphs side series, but, aside for Ax explaining to the Animorphs about Seerow's Kindness in book #8, The Alien, we hadn't really had any backstory on the Andalites or the Yeerks up to this point. Prince Elfangor, whose full name is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, also wasn't an active character in the series since Visser Three had killed him at the beginning of the first book, right after he'd given the Animorphs their powers.

I first read this book in either late 1999 or early 2000. The school library had the original three book releases that Scholastic put out prior to the three parts being compiled into a single volume, which happened at the same time as the three volume version, because, if I'm not mistaken, the three volume version was available in the Scholastic book order, and were intended as library editions, while the thick single volume version was intended for the retail market. I think. I could be mistaken on that. It wasn't too long after that that I got the single volume version from Chapters and read that version shortly before the series ended in 2001.

So the book begins 21 years before Elfangor crashes in the Construction Site, and gives Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco the ability to morph into any animal they touch. He's an Aristh, which is what Andalites call cadets, serving aboard the Dome Ship, StarSword, commanded by Captain Feyorn, alongside his fellow Aristh, Arbron. Arbron doesn't have a full name like most Andalites that we meet in this series, which is odd. Maybe because he wasn't going to be a main character beyond this book, whereas both Elfangor and Prince Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, i.e. future host for the Yeerk known as Visser Three, are vital characters to the Animorphs mythos. But when they find a Skrit-Na saucer ship leaving Earth, and meet two humans aboard, Hedrick Chapman. Yes, THAT Chapman. The man who would become the Vice-Principal at the school that the Animorphs attend, the father of Rachel's best friend, Melissa, and the host of Iniss 226. And yes, even as a kid, Chapman is a jerk, even becoming a temporary host of Visser Three, then known as Sub-Visser Seven, so that the Yeerk could gain control of Alloran as the first Andalite-Controller.

Of all of the Animorphs prequel novels, also known as the Animorphs Chronicles series, this is my favourite. I think it's because Elfangor and everything that happens in this book have a direct connection to the main series with Alloran being the host of Visser Three, Elfangor and Loren being Tobias's parents, which Tobias won't find out about Elfangor until book #23, The Pretender, and Elfangor being Ax's older brother. Plus the events in this novel lead right into the first book of the series, The Invasion in a way that neither The Hork-Bajir Chronicles and The Ellimist Chronicles don't, as both of those books are just extra material about side characters that don't immediately connect to the main series. And while the Ellimist does play a role in this book, and in the main series itself, it's fairly minor since he's not in every book in the series, only actually appearing four times in the main series and once in the Megamorphs books. Though in terms of the storyline of the series as a whole, the series wouldn't happen without the Ellimist. Yeah, it's a bit confusing, which is kind of why you should read this book in release order since your enjoyment of it will depend on your knowledge of the series as a whole. 

It can also be confusing because of the Time Matrix and everything going on with that. I love Elfangor though. He's such an interesting character to read about. There's alot of conflict within him. Especially after he learns that Alloran unleashed a Quantum Virus on the Hork-Bajir species, which was illegal, and responsible for the Yeerks conquering the once peaceful Hork-Bajir. He also ended up failing to save Arbron, who got stuck in a Taxxon morph after staying in morph over the two hour limit, which happens alot in Animorphs, besides Tobias staying in hawk morph of course, and was indirectly responsible for Esplin 9466/Sub-Visser Seven/Visser Thirty-Two/Visser Three gaining Alloran as a host, as he'd knocked Alloran out, not realizing that Esplin had infested Chapman before Elfangor had tossed his former Hork-Bajir host body out the airlock. 

Speaking of Alloran, he's a pretty disturbing character. He doesn't understand that by using the Quantum Virus, what he did was wrong and he won't take responsibility for that. As Loren put it, Alloran was screwed up by the war, which is what Vietnam veterans dealt with after they returned from that war. The only difference is that the war with the Yeerks was ongoing and the constant fighting had gotten to him. Which made him an easy target for the Yeerks given his instability. 

As for Esplin 9466, it doesn't matter what host body he's in, be it Hork-Bajir or Andalite, he's still the cartoon villain playing at being a force to be reckoned with. And I love that. This series gets really heavy and serious as it goes on, so it's nice to have a villain who is dangerous, but is also cheesy and incompetent at the same time.

In terms of the world building in this book, we learn so much about the Andalites, the Yeerks, and even the Hork-Bajir. That's one of the things I like about Animorphs. The world building is incredible and even the most minor detail is eventually addressed even if it doesn't get addressed until books that came out later on down the line. And sure, there are some things that are contradicted by later books, but you're going to have that with any long running book series. Especially if it runs long enough that you have to hire a ghostwriter to help you finish them if you're on a tight deadline like Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant were with Animorphs.

Reading this book for the first time in 20 years was pretty great. Like I said, I had the single volume version in my collection when I was a teenager in the 2000s, but we got rid of my Animorphs books sometime between 2010 and when we moved in 2016. But, I was at a used bookstore with Brad a couple of months ago and I found a copy for a cheap price, so I grabbed it. So it was fun to read it again after 20 years. Aside from what rank Visser Three was at at the beginning of the book, I remembered pretty much everything that happened in the book. Though I hadn't actually realized that Elfangor had messed up the timeline by re-aligning Loren's older age due to them aging rapidly near the Time Matrix within the universe they created or that the Ellimist sent her three years into the future to repair the timeline. This kind of thing is why I don't like time travel as a storytelling device. It just complicates things way too much. 

Overall this was a really great book to revisit all these years later. I wouldn't recommend it if you've never read an Animorphs book before, simply because there's just alot in it that relies heavily on the reader's knowledge of the series up to that point where this book was published. It was published between books 12 and 13 of the main series, and came out the same day as book 13, The Change, came out. And then there are other books that build upon information given here, so it's not a good book to read by itself unless you've already read the rest of the series. But if you're reading Animorphs from start to finish, either for the first time or the millionth time, it's definitely not a book to skip. 

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I will be back with more blog posts soon though. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.