SPOILER ALERT: All posts will contain spoilers for the current book and some prior ones. I’ll do my best not to spoil things that come after, just in case you’re new, but if you’re reading along with me, finish a book before reading its post.
Pre-read
The one that started it all. I first saw the invasion in a Scholastic Book Fair flier near the beginning of second grade, which would have been a few months after its actual release in June of that year (1996). The blurb said it was the story of kids who meet an alien who gives them the ability to turn into any animal they can touch. I was really into aliens at the time, and had to have it. When the Book Fair rolled around, I got it. I loved it. By the next fair, I’d gotten every one that had come out. I must have read The Invasion at least three times during that first year. It was my favorite for a while (until #7), and I’ve probably read it more than any of the others. Everything I love about this series is present in this book, and although later entries handled certain aspects better or in more detail, #1 is still a well-balanced microcosm of the entire Animorphs story.
The BookLong story short, some kids meet an alien, are given the ability to turn into animals to fight an invasion of parasitic slugs, and they do exactly that to minimal success. In their attack on the Yeerk pool, Jake isn’t able to rescue his brother, Tom. Tobias gets permanently trapped in hawk morph. There’s violence, body horror, and regular horror galore. Essentially, its everything veteran readers would tell you to expect from Animorphs.
The Andalite prince was helpless in the grasp of Visser Three. I saw him held high in the air. I saw Visser Three open his monstrous, gaping jaws.
I saw the Andalite fall into that open mouth.
The mouth closed. The teeth ripped the Andalite apart. And the Andalite Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul died.
At the very end, he cried out. His cry of despair was in our heads. His cry will always be in our heads.
[…]The Taxxon-Controllers rushed forward and crowded around Visser Three. They seemed to be stretching up toward him, and then I saw why – a piece of the Andalite fell from the Visser’s jaws and the nearest Taxxon greedily gobbled it up.
That’s from the sixth chapter. The second scene of the entire book has the main villain eat the brave, loving Andalite that just minutes before warned these kids of the covert invasion in progress. It really sets the tone for everything to follow.
And there is a lot to follow. The Invasion is an excellent first book of a series. It immediately sets a grim tone, lays out all the exposition efficiently without straining believability, and quickly characterizes all the major players without resorting to stereotypes. Everyone on the team has a role, but they’re all well-written enough that they seem like fully-fleshed out people beyond “the comic relief” or “the conscience.” Even the one-note Visser Three, seemingly evil for the fun of it, is portrayed with such scenery-chewing, Hux-esque passion, that he feels real rather than cartoonish.
There are hiccups, of course. Elfangor gives Tobias a psychic infodump about Yeerk pools and some other things, and is able to broadcast images and feelings along with words via thoughtspeak. As far as I can remember, such abilities don’t show up again in the series. There’s also a scene where Tobias, in cat morph, is able to hear an unmorphed Jake’s thoughts; Applegate later admitted that that particular moment was a mistake. On the other hand, there’s this gem from when Jake and Marco stumble into a tiger’s habitat at The Gardens:
“I have an idea. The morphing. If I acquire him, it’ll put him in a trance.”
“Acquire? Acquire what? You can’t acquire anything about him. He’s the acquirer, and you’re the acquiree. He’s going to acquire your butt for dinner! He’s going to acquire you and spit out the bones.”
Overall, it does everything a series opener should. It sets the stage perfectly and leaves the door wide open for everything to follow, while still having a complete and satisfying arc of its own. The pacing is good, and the balance of humor and despair is just right. There’s plenty of foreshadowing that doesn’t pay off until well down the line, the kind of stuff that makes a re-read worth your time. Of the entire series, it’s probably in the top ten. And that’s a heck of a compliment considering the competition.
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