Eden

Five Go To Smuggler's Top

Aha! The first adventure away from Kirrin. By now the "George is/could be separated from Timmy" plot is getting a little old, as is the Timmy-ex-machina. It's fun story if you haven't read the others recently, I suppose, and there's more secret passageways and Uncle Quentin getting into trouble... It's more of the same, of course: nostalgia for the simplicity of childhood, plus children knowing better than adults, plus mysteries and secret passageways and at the end a friendly policeman coming along and admiring the Five's work. And everybody loves Timmy (unless they're a bad guy).

I think I'm going to take a break from these books now! I intend to reread them all someday, though.

Animorphs: The Encounter

The third book of the Animorphs series is narrated by Tobias. I liked him a lot: it was interesting to have a character who was a casualty, in some ways, but kept on fighting. I think now that it was slightly odd -- but effective -- to have a main character falling to the drawback of the powers so early in the series. This book mostly involves Tobias coming to terms with that, as the character-focus, and the plot focus is an attempt by the Animorphs to expose the Yeerks. Unsurprisingly, given the length of the series, they don't succeed, and once again, are lucky to escape with their lives.

This book is definitely more interesting when it's talking about Tobias' conflicts and the difficulties of being trapped in the body of a hawk. The plot itself... well, Jake's a bad leader for still wanting to go ahead with the mission with the odds so catastrophically stacked against him. It's not unrealistic, though -- just unrealistic that they actually survive.

The relationship between Tobias and Rachel is the highlight of this book for me, probably. The way she tries to be strong and tries to comfort Tobias, despite the way the situation is miles and miles away from any experience she might have. I prefer seeing Rachel's character from outside her, like this, to seeing it from the inside in the second book -- it's more believable, coming from someone else. This is probably why I liked Rachel so much.

I keep saying it's trashy fun, but that's from the perspective of an adult (shudder). I guess when I was a kid I sneered at them a bit for being so popular -- but hey, I can see why.

Animorphs: The Message

The fourth book sees the introduction of a new character. This is largely a plotty book, rather than character development, this time, though Cassie does struggle with a couple of ethical questions. They don't seem quite convincing to me -- but it makes sense that she does ask questions, so it didn't bother me too much. It was nice to read a book in which the morphing is mostly fun and playful, and in which all of earth seems to join in on the side against the Yeerks. It's a little too touchy-feely, but with Cassie as the narrator, it's okay. She isn't really my favourite character, so that's probably why I liked this book a little less.

One thing that does get tiresome is the formula for the very first chapter. They state their names, tell you they can't tell you a lot of stuff, reintroduce morphing... I can see why, it allows people to join in mid-series, but at the same time, it gets irritating, especially when you're reading the books all at once.

Five on a Treasure Island
(Read a while ago, didn't post the review.)

Ah, the Famous Five. I've been meaning to reread these for nostalgia's sake -- or at least a couple of them. I used to practically inhale them when I was eight or nine years old or so. I was a little apprehensive about a reread now -- especially because of all the talk about how inappropriate Enid Blyton's writing is now, in terms of feminism and racism... I thought I wouldn't be able to read it.

Fortunately, at least with the rose-coloured glasses of nostalgia, this book remained fun...more Ah, the Famous Five. I've been meaning to reread these for nostalgia's sake -- or at least a couple of them. I used to practically inhale them when I was eight or nine years old or so. I was a little apprehensive about a reread now -- especially because of all the talk about how inappropriate Enid Blyton's writing is now, in terms of feminism and racism... I thought I wouldn't be able to read it.

Fortunately, at least with the rose-coloured glasses of nostalgia, this book remained fun to read. It obviously didn't take me long, but I enjoyed it. I always loved to imagine having an island of my own, like George does, and Timmy was basically my dream dog. My favourite part is Kirrin Island, really -- ruins and dungeons and so on. I don't even mind about the ingots. Just the existence of the island itself would have been enough for me, aged eight. George was probably my favourite character -- I was a lonely kid, too.

Five Go Adventuring Again

I wrote a reasonably long nostalgic review about this, and then I got a weird blue screen of death, so I lost it. Maybe I'll tell the story someday, but for now, I'll just do a quick review. As an adult reading this, it isn't so convincing at all. I mean, there's the sheer unlikelihood of so many adventures happening to the same four children within the same year and in the same place. But there are things I found more believable, too -- like the way Mr Roland isn't all bad, he's also quite good at teaching and at making the kids (other than George) like him.

I felt sorry for George. She's clearly meant to be a good kid, and even her tantrums aren't completely unjustified, though she does seem to get herself into hot water a lot. With the family life that's described for her, it's not really surprising. I mostly felt sorry for the way her father was so easily manipulated into treating her wrongly, even though he knew it was wrong in his heart of hearts. That rang true for me, too.

It's easy to see why I loved it as a kid. The kids get to have adventures, and they turn out smarter than the adults -- but it's not so unrealistic, because they still have restrictions, like weather and bedtimes. Ah, wish fulfillment.

Animorphs: The Invasion

Animorphs! I remember being so obsessed with these books when I was about eleven or twelve. This first book scared me quite a bit, actually: I found it so creepy because of the little kinda authenticating details, the way the narrators of the books claim they're not able to tell you their real names, etc. It's a really creepy idea, the slow invisible takeover, the idea that without these five kids nothing would stop them (unless the Andalites arrive in time). I always meant to come back to these books and read them all, because I dropped out about book eighteen and never got to know how it ended.

The first book is narrated by Jake, who was not really my favourite character. I didn't like him or dislike him, I guess. I liked Rachel best, for her confidence and her conviction and all of that, but also because she was kind to Tobias, who I felt very sorry for. Marco was definitely my least favourite character -- his idea of humour got on my nerves, and he's so resistant to doing the right thing, wanting to bury his head in the sand. It's all very well to say you're protecting your father, that if something happens to you he'll kill himself, but if the alternative is you both eventually getting controlled by an evil alien...

I found it interesting the way the characters are quite varied. Cassie and Jake have happy homes, mostly, but Marco, Tobias and Rachel (if I remember rightly) are all in different ways from dysfunctional families: Marco because of the death of his mother (or assumed death, anyway), Tobias because of his lack of family, Rachel because of the divorce. It's interesting, just having read Famous Five (another blast from the past...) with the relatively functional, knowledgeable and in control parents. More realism comes in, I guess. I think that's probably partially because of the target audience (older than Famous Five, obviously) as well as the publishing date (considerably more recent). The wish fulfillment is still there (five kids take on the world), but it's less... safe. There are now real consequences, like being trapped in a body not your own, like being killed, like your own brother being one of the enemy...

One thing that bothered me, this time through, and I can't remember if it's ever addressed... the people/creatures they kill, they're innocent. The Yeerk in their heads is the problem, and what the Animorphs do doesn't actually (necessarily) do anything about that. They're killing real people, people who should have been saved. I'm sure it must come into it somewhere, because of Jake's brother -- it would be an odd blind spot to have -- and maybe it's more realistic that these kids don't think of it much (at least at first). They're inexperienced and they don't really know what they're up against or what they're really doing: realism, again.