Retro Book Review

In this installment of the Retro Review, I will be covering the “first” book (I’m reading them in the order the author’s intended them to be read in, check the reading order online) in the Animorphs series, The Andalite Chronicles.

The Andalite Chronicles by K.A. Applegate, is one of the longest books in the series and is a prequel to Animorphs. This prequel focuses on the first mission of Elfangor and Arbron, two Andalite arisths (think cadets) who along with their war prince (like a captain) Alloran board and commandeer an enemy ship in space. On board they find two humans, a female teenager named Loren and a 20’s something male named Chapman. They uncover in the ships logs an inventory of a large white sphere that was dug up from Earth which turns out to be the mythical weapon called the time matrix. The time matrix does what its name implies and can bend time either forward or backward. They realize that this weapon is on the second enemy ship that is in their vicinity and it is beginning to land on the Taxxon homeward, which is ruled by the Andalite’s mortal enemy the Yeerks.

First off, I want to say that if you are unfamiliar with the Animorphs series this book may not be the best to start out with. I would recommend reading Animorphs #1 The Invasion first so that you are introduced to some of the alien species that will appear in this series. The Andalite Chronicles does not explain much of the conflict between the Andalites and the Yeerks. It also does not go much into detail over the other alien species because it is working on the presumption that the reader is already an Animorphs fan. For this review I will also be working with the assumption that whoever reads this knows the basics of the Animorphs series.

Now on to the review….

This book was one of my least favorites in the series so far. It focuses on such a small part of Elfangor’s life before he met Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Tobias that fateful night at the construction site.

This book sets up the backstory of why Elfangor came to Earth to gift 5 teenagers the gift of morphing and why he was closer with one of the teens (no spoilers here, sorry!) It also sets up the back story of the big bad of the main series, Visser Three, and how he got to be a controller over an Andalite body. Another character from the main series makes an appearance, Chapman, and we are shown that he has been an asshole since before the invasion (this book takes place sometime in the 70’s to 80’s – it time jumps a couple times.) Also, we are introduced to the fabled mystical beings known as the Elemist’s for a brief moment towards the end of the book.

This book should have been a spin off series of prequel novels to the main Animorphs series. I think it would have been amazing to read more adventures of Elfangor and his battles with the Yeerks before the events in Animorphs #1. Instead, we get one book that quickly gives us a watered down short story mission with characters that are so dull that you end up not caring about them. The story is told in Elfangor’s perspective and for the most part is pretty enjoyable until we get to the second act. The second act of the book drags as we find our characters stranded on the Taxxon home world. In a move that just feels copy and pasted from the main series, we have a character who stays in morph for longer than the allotted 2 hours and we are supposed to feel bad for them, however I felt nothing for them at all. It is understandable that a human child could make the mistake of staying in morph for longer than the allotted time and staying that animal forever. Especially, when the children are given the gift of morphing and never trained in how to use it or how to use it responsibly. The story is wanting us to feel empathy with a young, yet trained Andalite cadet that knows the risks of staying in morph too long. It doesn’t help that we never see the events that caused the Andalite cadet to stay in morph for that long. We are just told by Elfangor that he found the character still in Taxxon morph and was advised that he can no longer morph back.

Another problem within the second act I had is when Elfangor is stranded with his broken up Skrit Na ship on the outskirts of the ship docking station. He is literally stranded in the desert with no way to make it back. Elfangor decides to look around the broken up ship and finds a yellow Ford Mustang.

Quick Note: The Skrit Na are a race of aliens that are like scrappers. They basically find and take things from other planets. This is why there is a Ford Mustang in the ship.

So, Elfangor rips out the seats of the Mustang and proceeds to drive it at high speeds in the desert back towards the station. Now, I know what you are thinking dear reader, “Ashley, this is a children’s book from the late 90’s, cut it some slack.” I hear you, I truly do, but if you know the physicality of the Andalite species you would also know that it would be impossible for it to drive a car. Just picture a horse driving a car, insane right? This book is definitely a product of it’s time. However, I feel that in trying to appeal to the interests of late 90’s kids, specifically males, this book’s logic falls on its head.

Once the third act begins, it becomes a kind of convoluted mess. It reads like the author was trying to get to a conclusion fast because they were running out of pages. I appreciate the attempt at giving us a backstory to a short lived hero in the Animorphs series, however this book left me disappointed and craving a longer and fleshed out backstory. The book is weirdly titled The Andalite Chronicles however, we only get one story/one event in the whole book.

All in all, if you’re an Animorphs fan I would recommend it just for the backstory on Visser Three and Chapman. Elfangor’s backstory really doesn’t bring anything new except how and why he chose to give young earthlings the power to morph and fight the Yeerks.

I would rate this book a 3 out of 5.

The next retro review covering the Animorphs series is Animorphs #1 The Invasion.