An unnumbered special "Chronicles" book in the series Animorphs by K.A. Applegate.

Disclaimer: If you've heard of Animorphs and you're thinking "Aww, how cute," maybe you should read my introduction to the first book to see how wrong you are.

VISSER

Summarized Plot:

Visser One is brought to trial because Visser Three has accused her of treason. She is questioned, subjected to memory dumps, and asked to justify her actions when she committed various crimes in the name of taking Earth for the Yeerks. But Visser Three's behavior is also called into question during the trial as the Council of Thirteen cross-examine them. Visser One tells a story of her discovery of Earth, her first few hosts, and her relationship with a Yeerk who occupied another human host. Together, she and this other Yeerk had human babies through their hosts, and her big weakness is that she cares for these children from her host body. This is something that her current host, Marco's mother Eva, never knew. As one mother to another, she tries to help the Yeerk who was her enemy, and they contact the Animorphs through Marco. An Animorphs mission distracts them from a terrible test in which Visser One was being asked to shoot her human son to prove she doesn't care for humans. But then, Visser One has to deal with having been rescued by the Andalite bandits, and Vissers One and Three await their sentence.

About this book:

Narrator: Visser One/Edriss-Five-Six-Two

New known controllers:

  • Darwin, Edriss's nine-year-old son

New morphs acquired:

  • None

Notable:

  • The Yeerk Empire identifies five "classes" of alien. Those are the following: Class One are unfit, physically, for infestation; Class Two are infestable but have physical issues that are difficult for the Yeerk to manage; Class Three are infestable but exist only in small quantities; Class Four are perfect for infestation but cannot be challenged because of military excellence; and Class Five are perfect for infestation and aren't strong enough to resist. Yeerks, of course, hoped to find a Class Five species . . . and found it in humans.

  • In this book, Visser One mentions while in a Hork-Bajir body that her "heart" leaped. Hork-Bajir have more than one heart, so this was a poor description.

  • The Animorphs books seem to point out regularly that it's so bizarre and backward for humans to make war on each other. But considering the Andalites clearly have a high respect for tail-fighting and the Yeerks don't seem at all shy about sacrificing and killing each other for status, it seems a bit hypocritical of them to be judging humans for fighting among themselves.

  • Marco's family's answering machine has this outgoing message: "Hi, we're not at home, or maybe we just don't feel like answering the phone, so leave a message, you know the drill."

Best lines:

Eva: "You created human children to be enslaved by Yeerks? If there's a hell you'll be there soon!"

Visser One: "Humans have fought thousands of wars. Thousands! We as a race have fought a mere handful. They run straight into the bullets, Visser Three, again and again. Did you know that? They attack against insane odds. They defend what can't be defended. Outnumbered, outgunned, surrounded, hopeless, they will still fight, fight, fight till they are each and every one dead. Something you might know if you stopped posturing long enough to learn something!"

Visser One: Did the child think he could frighten me? It was laughable.
Eva: "And yet you're not laughing, are you, Yeerk?"



Next book: The Mutation, Animorphs #36

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