Review - Famous Five, Animorphs
Dec. 30th, 2009 03:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanFive Run Away Together
I suppose I needn't say anything about the need for suspension of disbelief, or the value of nostalgia, given that I've already made ample mention of that when I was reading the first two books. Five Run Away Together is another adventure in and around Kirrin, like the first two books. If I were those kids' parents, I'd be letting them stay anywhere but Kirrin...
Anyway, this third book is mostly The Five vs. The Sticks, who are a criminal type family who are in league with someone to kidnap a little girl. There's not much subtlety -- clearly the Sticks are a bad lot avoiding the police right from the beginning. I actually don't like Julian much when he's being rude and such to the Sticks, or at least, I don't like the way the story makes him seem so much in the right about it. Still, different ethics about the way lower class people should be treated, etc.
Fun enough, as they all are; it was never really one of my favourites.
Animorphs: The Visitor
The second Animorphs book is narrated by Rachel, who was one of my favourite characters when I was younger. I'm not sure how much I buy all her protestations that it's what's in your head that matters or whatever, for the characterisation of a pretty teenage girl who doesn't even realise her second best friend is going through hell... But I guess I did buy it when I was younger. Rachel's kinda ideal, really, as a character to relate to -- her family isn't perfect, her parents are divorced, so she isn't quite too good to be true, and she's smart and beautiful and trying to do the right thing.
I kind of forgot how character focused these books are. Rachel and Jake both have Human-Controllers in their family, and have to struggle with that aspect of the fight. So does another character, I'm pretty sure I remember that rightly, but we don't know that by this point. Cassie doesn't seem to have much angst in that way, it's true. But all of them have personal issues to deal with along with the fighting. It's not quite as action packed as I thought it was.
It's kinda realistic that the kids don't know how the hell to start fighting a war. It kinda feels like, at this point in the books, you don't see how they're ever going to get a handle on it. There's so much they don't know. Just surviving is a huge victory -- and that's all they do in the first two books. This book shows us a very little more about the Yeerks -- a little of their culture, I suppose, with us finding out what their names are like and that it seems quite hierarchical... But ultimately, nothing much is won.
Fun and quick to read, doesn't require much thought. Not exactly full of subtlety, though there are some touching and emotional bits -- I quite like the scene where Rachel realises she can't trust anyone, not even her little sister... I remember how much I used to root for certain characters getting together -- Cassie and Jake, of course, and Rachel and Tobias... I'm looking forward to finding out how it all ends, and whether those characters do get that.
I suppose I needn't say anything about the need for suspension of disbelief, or the value of nostalgia, given that I've already made ample mention of that when I was reading the first two books. Five Run Away Together is another adventure in and around Kirrin, like the first two books. If I were those kids' parents, I'd be letting them stay anywhere but Kirrin...
Anyway, this third book is mostly The Five vs. The Sticks, who are a criminal type family who are in league with someone to kidnap a little girl. There's not much subtlety -- clearly the Sticks are a bad lot avoiding the police right from the beginning. I actually don't like Julian much when he's being rude and such to the Sticks, or at least, I don't like the way the story makes him seem so much in the right about it. Still, different ethics about the way lower class people should be treated, etc.
Fun enough, as they all are; it was never really one of my favourites.
Animorphs: The Visitor
The second Animorphs book is narrated by Rachel, who was one of my favourite characters when I was younger. I'm not sure how much I buy all her protestations that it's what's in your head that matters or whatever, for the characterisation of a pretty teenage girl who doesn't even realise her second best friend is going through hell... But I guess I did buy it when I was younger. Rachel's kinda ideal, really, as a character to relate to -- her family isn't perfect, her parents are divorced, so she isn't quite too good to be true, and she's smart and beautiful and trying to do the right thing.
I kind of forgot how character focused these books are. Rachel and Jake both have Human-Controllers in their family, and have to struggle with that aspect of the fight. So does another character, I'm pretty sure I remember that rightly, but we don't know that by this point. Cassie doesn't seem to have much angst in that way, it's true. But all of them have personal issues to deal with along with the fighting. It's not quite as action packed as I thought it was.
It's kinda realistic that the kids don't know how the hell to start fighting a war. It kinda feels like, at this point in the books, you don't see how they're ever going to get a handle on it. There's so much they don't know. Just surviving is a huge victory -- and that's all they do in the first two books. This book shows us a very little more about the Yeerks -- a little of their culture, I suppose, with us finding out what their names are like and that it seems quite hierarchical... But ultimately, nothing much is won.
Fun and quick to read, doesn't require much thought. Not exactly full of subtlety, though there are some touching and emotional bits -- I quite like the scene where Rachel realises she can't trust anyone, not even her little sister... I remember how much I used to root for certain characters getting together -- Cassie and Jake, of course, and Rachel and Tobias... I'm looking forward to finding out how it all ends, and whether those characters do get that.
