New Book

#35 The Proposal
Cover: Marco to poodle (!)
This book is definitely going to be one of the funnier ones. Think along the lines of #5 The Predator, #12 The Reaction, #14 The Unknown, and #24 The Supspicion. The Animorphs discover that a Rush Limbaugh-esque radio personality is also a Controller -- a Controller who has millions of listeners, no doubt. Meanwhile, Marco's dad begins dating seriously for the first time in years. Which, of course, leaves Marco seriously stressed. So stressed, in fact, that he begins unconsciously mixing DNA and morphing mixed-breed animals....

In other words, this is the much-anticipated book in which the Animorphs (or maybe just Marco) perform the Frolis Manuever, and mix acquired DNA like Ax does when he morphs into Philip.

The official summary: "Marco already knows he has a few problems: the constant battle with the Yeerks; finding out that his mother was infested . . . and is now Visser One. The leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. But things are about to get even weirder. Marco's father is thinking about getting married again. Meanwhile, the Animorphs and Ax have other things to worry about. It seems the Yeerks are trying harder than ever to get people into The Sharing. Now the kids have to find a way to slow down recruitment. But Marco's personal stress is causing him to morph into creatures that don't exist. Creatures the Yeerks are sure to notice . . . and attack. . . ."

#36 The Mutation
Cover: Jake to orca whale
In this book the Animorphs visit an underwater place -- a place not un-like Atlantis. No joke. This book will be more creepy, not so much character-driven as some of the others. Rumor has it that Jake will morph a very rare mamal. We also know that there's some type of underwater Yeerk ship called the Sea Blade that they use. And it's titled The Mutation because in the underwater city, there's some kind of mutated humanoid species with both gills and lungs.

Official summary: "Visser Three is still trying to find a way to reach the Pemalite ship. The ship that was hidden thousands of feet below the ocean's surface. A ship containing technology so advanced that it is superior to anything even the Andalites have built. And this time, the visser plans to find the ship so he can use its power to complete Earth's invasion. Jake, the other Animorphs, and Ax acquire additional deep-sea morphs in order to stop the visser's plan. But while trying to destroy the Yeerk ship, the kids make a startling discover: an underwater civilization. Have the kids discovered Atlantis . . . or is it just another trap?"

Where is the land of Nartec?

...Through the waving underwater plants that grew around the mouth of the cave came three, four, five - creatures. Vaguely human in shape. Vaguely aquatic...The five creatures surrounded the Sea Blade. Attached ropes or pulls of some sort to the ship...The cave opened wide, simply spread apart...And then, with an impossibly swift motion, the creatures, whatever they were, drew the Sea Blade through the narrow opening of the sea cave...

...I led the way through the narrow passageway. Inside the cave, through the giant undulating fronds of ocean plants that obscured, then revealed the opening. Darkness. Total and complete...The tubular passageway seemed to be about nine feet in diameter. Tight. Too tight for the Sea Blade to have come through. But then the cave seemed to be adjustable. BONK!...No more tunnel. Just a wall of rock...

...Amazing. A thin horizontal line of light appeared in the center of the wall. In that profound gloom the light was almost blinding...The line grew to a rectangle. Then to a square. About four feet by four feet. And then the square rounded to form a perfect circle. Brighter greenish squiggles of light pushed out from the flat surface of the circle and formed rotating coils...Suddenly the coils of green light began to migrate toward the center of the circular panel. When they'd gathered in a bunch, they split. Opened like a mouth to reveal a tunnel beyond the wall...

...The water on the other side was marginally brighter. At least there was enough light for me to make out a right and left bank of muddy land along the "river" of water...And yes, there was a surface...I blinked and squinted. The light, such as it was, didn't seem to have a source. No sun, no stars, no lamps, or stadium lights. It was more like a watery background glow...

...I looked around and saw images appear, slowly becoming visible as my eyes adjusted. But what I saw was impossible. A few dozen yards away was a ship. A wooden ship. It had three tall masts. A single deck of gunports, eighteen in all, all open, all revealing the blunt snouts of old brass or iron cannons...nothing was as rotted as it should be. After all, no ship of this type had sailed in almost two hundred years...a whole three-masted frigate sitting there like it just floated in from the War of 1812...

#37 The Weakness
Cover: Rachel to cheetah
Summary: When Jake has to leave town for a family thing, the other Animorphs and Ax figure life will pretty much be normal until he gets back. But when Tobias discovers Visser Three's newest feeding place, the kids decide they have to check it out. But there's no assigned leader. Now Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Ax have another problem: Who will be the best one for the job? Because being in charge isn't just guts and glory. It's about making decisions that will mean the difference between life...and death.

This book is pretty much non-stop action. It revolves around Rachel being left in charge of the group while Jake's away -- and, unfortunately, it's discovered that the Yeerks have now taken control of a new species: the Garatrons. To give you a sense of how bad this is, Garatrons make cheetahs look *slow*. Cool, ay?

...I fell, face forward, tumbled hind legs over head. I was hit! Hit by...something. Knocked over hard by the blast of wind that followed in its wake. Whatever it was. WHOOOOOOOSSH! I climbed to my feet. Tried to leap after it. Where was it? There! Only air! THUUMPF! I fell again. WHOOOOOOOSSSH!...

-------------------------------------
...In seconds ?if that ?it had us herded into a trembling, panting, tangled cluster. Four incredibly fast, incredibly agile hunters, subdued. The thing made me think of pulled taffy. Or of a cartoon depiction of speed. You know, where the cartoon character's skin stretches as he strides faster and faster ?until his skeleton runs right out of its skin suit. That's where this thing belonged. In a cartoon. Where the impossible is possible. An impression. A flash. A blur. A small whirlwind of tornado. And then it stopped suddenly. Came to a dead halt. No slowing down. Just ?stopped...

-------------------------------------
...It was a creature. Now I could see that clearly. Not a machine but flesh and blood. A bizarre creature able to zip across the grass like a high-speed insect. Like a bullet fired from a thirty-thirty. A hunting rifle. Only about as tall as a gazelle. Four lanky, skinny legs. A thin but strong-looking tail, as long as its body, that flicked and twitched even when the creature's legs weren't moving. A pigeon chest, high and rounded...

-------------------------------------
...The creature's head was shaped like a custom-made aerodynamic bike racing helmet. Tight curved face, like half a smooth ball. Skull that swept back from the rim of this ball into a pointy triangle. Like an ice cream cone on its side. Except the cone flattened. But what really caught and held my attention was the fact that this thing was covered in blue fur. And had no mouth. And sported two thin, weak-looking arms. Like an Andalite. Like Ax...

-------------------------------------
...Then, the creature circled and spun like a whirling dervish...Jim Carrey in The Mask. The Tasmanian Devil in a whirlwind around Yosemite Sam...The room spun! Bodies, human and alien. Flailing. Falling. The flash of gunpowder. The clashing of blades...I had to get up, get back into battle! Slowly, painfully, I raised my bruised head. And saw the blue blur come to a dead stop about twenty feet in front of me. Speak to a blue deer-like creature with a bladed tail who stood just inside the door. <IhaveseenenoughIleaveyoutocleanupthe messmydearVisser.>...

#38 The Arrival
Release date: Jan 2000
Cover: Ax to Northern Harrier
Summary: In this book, the Andalites FINALLY send a fleet to help get rid of Visser Three -- but, since the Andalites are still hard-pressed in another part of the galaxy, the fleet that is spared is rather small. While on a mission, the Animorphs run into this group and Ax falls for one of them, a female Andalite about his own age. This will be a book based on Ax's loyalty, much like #18 was. It also seems like there is question whether these Andalites can be trusted or whether they're there to cover a darker purpose. A dark purpose involving an insidious kind of bilogical warfare, perhaps....

#39 The Hidden
Cover: Cassie to Cape Buffalo
Release date: Feb 2000
Summary: We know what it's like when a human or an alien morphs an animal -- but what would happen if, by some amazing accident, an ANIMAL acquired the power to morph and morphed a human? Well, it happens in this book. The animal in question is a Cape Buffalo. And the human it morphs is none other than Vice Principal Chapman...

#40 The Other
Cover: Marco to Honeybee likely
Release date: Mar 2000
Summary: Looks like Ax wasn't the only survivor of the Dome Ship crash, and two other Andalites have been living undercover on Earth -- so there really ARE Andalite bandits out there ;) Of course, after the trouble with Andalites in #38, the Animorphs are pretty wary around the species now.... In case you're thinking this book will be a rehash of #38, fear not. The theme of this book is TOTALLY different, revolving around Andalite bigotry towards the handicapped....

#41 The Familiar
Release date: Apr 2000
Cover: Jake to Jake (but older)
Summary: Jake awakens in a world where he's age 25 -- and the Yeerks have won the war for Earth. Seems like this is, in a sense, a follow-up of book #7, where Rachel and the rest of the Animorphs were taken to the future -- a future where the Yeerks had won and Rachel was an adult-Controller.

#42 The Journey
Release date: May 2000
Summary: #42 marks the return of everyone's favorite female dominated race, the Helmacrons. They're baaaAAAAaaack. This time, though, the Animorphs don't just get shrunk and face everyday dangers. They go inside someone's body, ala the classic 60's sci-fi movie, "The Fantastic Voyage." This is as close to becoming germs as the Animorphs are gonna get, people. Now, I'm not sure if they intentionally go inside someone or not, but I do know this book is gonna be funny as heck. Also a romance between Marco and Rachel.

#43
Cover: Tobias to Taxxon
Summary: Tobias, the other Animorphs, and Ax have been trying for as long as they've had the power to morph to find some way to really cause blows to the Yeerks. They've had some success, but not enough to really set the Yeerks back. Now, Taylor, the sub-visser who was last seen torturing Tobias, is back. She is trying to rally against Visser Three and the other Yeerks, trying to cause a Yeerk civil war, and wants the help of the Animorphs to destroy the Yeerk pool. It's an offer the Animorphs seemingly can't refuse. But Tobias isn't so sure. Taylor didn't seem all that sane after their last meeting. Can she really be trusted? Or is it all a trap?

#44
Cover: Cassie to Kangaroo
Summary: Call Cassie what you will, but she's definitely not a leader. That's Jake's job. All the Animorphs have their place, and Cassie's is to be Jake's advisor. She could never be the warrior, like Rachel, or the joker, like Marco. Or could she? The Animorphs have gotten word of an alien artifact being brought to the US by plane, and they know the Yeerks will be after it. They try to stop the Yeerks from stealing the piece, but their plan goes awry, and Cassie ends up knocked out on a plane, chased by the Yeerks. When she escapes, she finds herself thousands of miles away from home. Now she has to lead herself, has to fight for herself, and humor herself. Cassie's lost and alone in a place she never thought she'd be -- Australia.

#45
Cover: Marco to ant
Summary: During all the time that Marco, Jake, Rachel, Tobias, and Cassie have been fighting the Yeerks, they've never revealed their secret to anyone close to them, for fear their loved ones would either be captured or would turn out to already be a Controller. As it is, there are only a few creatures in the galaxy who know the Animorphs are human -- Erek and the Chee; Crayak and the Ellimist; Aftran and a few other peaceful Yeerks; Visser One and her host, Eva; the free Hork-Bajir; the few Andalites they've encountered; and the betrayer, David. Now a new addition will be made to this list. Marco, the other Animorphs, and Ax have decided to share their secret with another human. The human is Marco's dad. He's about to be told that there are aliens trying to take over Earth, his son is a warrior, and that his wife may still be alive. Everything is about to change.....

#46
Cover: Ax to human fighter pilot possible
Pages: 150
Summary: Ax and the Animorphs have many enemies. Visser Three, the agressive Yeerk general obsessed with destroying the Andalite bandits. Visser One, the Yeerk who holds Marco's mother as a host -- and know's the Animorphs' secret. And at one time, they had to go head to head with Visser Four, the Yeerk obsessed with destroying human history in order to make the Yeerk invasion easier. Now there's a new enemy in town. Visser Two has arrived on the scene, and he's got a plan to make the invasion of Earth easier. He's going to try and start a nuclear war between the US and China, in hopes that the war will spread and the strength of the humans will ebb. It's up to Ax and the Animorphs to stop Visser Two, trying to keep the peace by hitching a ride on an aircraft carrier. The Animorphs have had a lot of luck in the past, but this time there may be no way they can stop the world from being destroyed....

#47
Cover: Jake to ??
Summary: Basically, in the Animorphs world, one of the free Hork-Bajir has been captured by the Yeerks again -- and now the Yeerks know the location of the Hork-Bajir valley! Being that the valley is incredibly narrow, the Yeerks can only attack from the ground. This gives the Toby's people a better chance of escaping infestation. The question is, should the Hork-Bajir stand and defend themselves or run to a new, safe location? Fight or flight. Meanwhile, Jake receives an old diary at the bequest of Jake's recently deceased grandfather. It's an heirloom that was written by a long dead relative who fought in the Civil War. Now, this is the original part -- from there the two parallel stories play out. While the Hork-Bajir make their decision -- they want to fight for their own freedom -- a story of a desperate stand by Union troops in the Civil War plays out. Involved in the Civil War story are some freed slaves who demand to join in on the battle -- they want to fight for their own freedom.

The Visser
Another backstory book.It will be the story of the early days and weeks of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. We'll see Marco's mom (Visser One) and learn the origin of the feud between Vissers One and Three and what led her to fake her death. It will be in hardcover like the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. KA says it "will be the story of the early years of the Yeerks on Earth." It'll feature an appearance by the Animorphs and another prologue starter plot. The prologue is like this: Edriss 562 (aka Visser One) on trial for treason to the Yeerks. Visser One explains how she infested a series of human hosts in order to initiate the invasion of Earth. Visser One most likely survived the fall from the cliff in #30, and she was captured and put on trial before the Council of Thirteen.

This book follows the path of Visser One from lowly Yeerk-hood, to earth, to the creation of The Sharing, the faking of her death and beyond. This book will explain just why Visser Three and Visser One hate each other so darn much. This book will be incredibly dark, trust me on this. Like The Hork-Bajir Chronicles it will be published in hard-cover and then later re-published as paperback. I haven't a clue when this book will be released. Oh, an interesting note, all the Animorphs make an appearance in this book?

Text from the book jacket:
"In an hour or so, once I was out of sight of land, I would lower my sails and wait for a Bug fighter to come lift me off the deck. The engine backwash of the Bug fighter would capsize the boat. Or I might put the Taxxon pilot to the test and see if he could ram the low-slung boat. That would puzzle the humans.
Either way, my body would never be found. . . .
My time of lying low was over . . . I would spearhead the invastion of Earth. I would take charge of our greatest conquest. I would stand alone atop the Yeerk military hierarchy.
I was to become Visser One.
* * *
Her human name is Eva. There was a time when she had a loving husband and a son, Marco. When she had a wonderful career. But that was before she was infested by Edriss 562. Before the invasion of Earth. Now, Edriss 562 lives in Eva's head and controls her every movement. And through Eva, Edriss has become the highest-ranking general in the Yeerk empire, surpassing even her arch rival, Visser Three. She is Visser One.
But, it has become known that Visser One's tactics for attaining her current position were less than acceptable -- even to the Yeerks. Now she is on trial for treason. If she's found innocent she'll continue to rule. But if she's found guilty, she'll lost her life -- and possible the life of her host, Eva. Which will mean that Marco will never, ever see his mother again. . . .
K.A. Applegate has dared to journey to the dark side with this haunting glimpse into the hearts and minds of a race determinded to survive and conquer -- at any cost."

What KA said about Visser: "In writing Visser I wanted to address one of the big questions fans regularly pose: How did it all start? I wanted to suggest the possibility that the Yeerk evil could only flourish when it met with human weakness. But I also wanted to suggest the possibility that human strengths -- simple human good, in this case a mother's love -- could weaken evil."

MM #4

Release date: May 2000
Summary: It has a definite Wonderful Life theme to it. Jake is given the opportunity to make it so that everything that has happened to him never has. In other words, he and the others will never walk through the construction site. Meaning they never met Elfangor, they never recieved the morphing powers, and they remained oblivious to the invasion. Does that plot sound familiar? If you watch Animorphs TV, it should. An original episode with the exact same story called "Not My Problem" was aired towards the end of the first season.

The Ellimist Chronicles

Release date: Oct 2000
Summary: Ellimist. He's been an enigma, coming and going as he pleases. He seems all powerful. He seems to be all knowing. Crayak. He's an evil being, rejected by his own people, set loose on an unnexpecting fourth dimension. Good versus evil. A tale that spans the ages. Their story will finally be revealed....

Index

Home
News
What's Hot
New book
In focus
Sample Chapters
Fanfic
Ani Club
Club Interaction
Rumors
Polls
Message Board
Email
Reload frames/break out of frames
Remove Frames