The Alien
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| This article is written from a Real World point of view. |
The Alien, published in May 1997 and written by K.A. Applegate, is the eighth book in the Animorphs series. It is the first book narrated by Ax.
Contents |
Plot Summary
Edit
Official DescriptionEdit
What would you do if you were the only alien trapped on a strange planet? Probably freak out, right? Well, that's what Ax feels like doing. But as an Andalite warrior-cadet, he has to be pretty cool about stuff like that. He's been hanging out with the Animorphs ever since the Dome ship was destroyed by the Yeerks and his brother, Prince Elfangor, was destroyed by Visser Three.
Life on Earth is pretty different for Ax. But there is one thing he, Cassie, Marco, Jake, Rachel, and Tobias have in common. Something that one alien, four kids and a hawk know they have to do...stop the Yeerks...
Detailed Plot SummaryEdit
After destroying the Kandrona and defeating the Veleek, the Animorphs deserve to take a break and teach Ax stuff about humans, they figured that they would see people freeing themselves of the Yeerks, but haven't. Then one day, as they took Ax to the movies, a man's Yeerk is dying publicly and the Animorphs figure the Yeerks won't be able to cover this up. But Ax knows the truth, this won't do any good as he notices a Controller-policeman pulls a gun at the free man. But as much as he wants to, he can't tell the others the truth because of Andalite law.
When they take Ax to school the next day as Jake's cousin Philip, their teacher's Yeerk dies too. Chapman appears and orders the students to leave and kills the non-Controller teacher. Jake and the others Animorphs are very angry with Ax because they feel betrayed. Ax retorts that they wouldn't have destroyed the Kandrona if they would have known, to which Jake replied that Ax still had a lot to learn about humans.
That night, Ax feels very sad, lonely and confused. Running, he ends up at Cassie's house. She asks him to join her and her family for dinner because she sees that he's very sad. Ax, shocked at the fact that she noticed it, accepts the offer and morphs into Jake. He has a real fun time, having dinner, chatting, and watching TV before leaving.
The next day, he meets with Marco to go to a bookshop, as Jake said: "Show him that we trust him, let him learn about us, then, he may trust us." However, Marco forgot the money they collected for him to buy a book, so they go to Marco's house to pick it up. While Ax is waiting for Marco in the living room, he plays with what he thinks is a game on Marco's dad's computer, which he calls "Fix the mistakes", but later it turns out that he had developed a new highly advanced system that he knew must be destroyed. But before he does it, he uses it to communicate with his home world with Tobias' help. There, after givng his report and explaining how Elfangor gave five alien youths the power to morph, a higher-ranking Andalite makes Ax assume all the responsibility for Elfangor's action and is consequently forgiven. As Ax is speaking with his father and assuming the duty of avengening his brother by killing Visser Three, he's interrupted by a Controller, whose Yeerk is named Eslin 359. He explains that his loved one had died because of Visser Three, when he chose to sacrifice some Yeerks after the Kandrona's destruction, so to avenge her, Eslin sabotaged one of the shuttles that carried the Visser's favorites, which explained why Controllers were losing it. Eslin then tells Ax that he knows where and when Visser Three goes to feeds his Andalite body, thus leaving him vulnerable. He gives Ax a note with the time and place on it.
Added by DakHameeAx decided to go alone and not to tell to the others. He arrives at the location and morphs into a rattlesnake and waits, Visser Three arrives and Ax strikes, biting and envenomating him. Ax then slithers off and is midway at demorphing when he encounters a Hork-Bajir, but before it kills Ax, the Animorphs arrived to save him because Tobias had been able to read the note the Controller had written with his hawk eyes. Having been poisoned, the Yeerk Visser Three leaves his host body and escapes. The now freed Andalite begs Ax to kill him, but Ax is unable to kill his fellow Andalite, a War-Prince named Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. He asks Ax to deliver a message to his family, that he is still alive and that he hasn't lost hope, as well as telling him to keep fighting.
Two days later, after some thinking, Ax decides to tell the Animorphs the truth, about the law of Seerow's Kindness, which states no Andalite is to ever reveal technology or secrets to other alien races. Because it was named after an Andalite named Seerow who was the part of the expediciton to the Yeerk homeworld, he felt sorry for the Yeerks because they've never left their planet or even see the stars, and so he gave them technology, which they later used to start conquering the galaxy. Contrary to what Ax had expected, the others don't blame the Andalites for their problem. They recognized the good action and told him to keep trying, but to be more careful the next time. But last but not least, Marco thinks since Ax wants to tell the truth more, he and the others should know how Andalites eat. As it turns out, Ax eats from his hooves by absorbing the nutrients from crushed grass.
Ax returns to the observatory again and blackmails Eslin to call his home planet one last time, Ax deliver Alloran's message, and he announces that as of then, his home is Earth and that he will tell the Animorphs everything. He reasoned that if the Andalites had done the same with the Hork-Bajir, they may not have been enslaved.
Contributions to the Series' Story ArcEdit
- Alloran's name is first revealed.
- Andalite culture and physiology are explained in greater detail.
- Ax makes contact with the Andalite homeworld for the first time since crashing on Earth.
- Several words/terms from the Andalite language are revealed including Aristh, Estreen, Nothlit, Seerow's Kindness, and Shorm.
StatisticsEdit
AppearingEdit
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Alloran-Semitur-Corrass (Name Revealed)
- Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul (Prologue Only)
- Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf (First and Only Appearance)
- Commander Lirem-Arrepath-Terrouss (First and Only Appearance)
Villains:
- Visser Three
- Various Hork-Bajir, Taxxon and Human-Controllers
Other Characters:
- Eslin 359 and Gary Kozlar (First and Only Appearance)
- Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen (Mentioned Only)
- Captain Nerefir (First and Only Appearance, Prologue Only)
- Itheleran-Halas-Corain (First and Only Appearance)
Locations:
- Earth
- Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic
- Visser Three's private feeding ground
Items:
MorphsEdit
| Morpher | Morphs acquired | Morphs used |
|---|---|---|
| Jake | -- | Peregrine Falcon, Siberian Tiger |
| Rachel | -- | Bald Eagle, Grizzly Bear |
| Cassie | -- | Osprey, Horse, Wolf |
| Marco | -- | Osprey, Silverback Gorilla |
| Ax | Rattlesnake | Human (main), Human (Jake), Northern Harrier, Rattlesnake |
TriviaEdit
- The cover quote is, "He's only human. When he wants to be...."
- The inside front cover quote is, "Look who's talking....".
- This is the third book in which the cover art does not depict a morph acquired in the book. Ax acquired his human morph by mixing the DNA of the four human Animorphs.[1]
- This is the first time Alloran is featured as free.
- This is the second book in which the narrator is the only person to acquire a new morph.
- This book begins with a prologue, showing a flashback of what happened to Ax before he was rescued.
- The cover of this book is the first time ANY alien is depicted on the cover.
- This book has the first physical appearance by Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill and the first appearance of Ax's human morph.
- This book came attached with a pair of Ax bookmarks with it. The bookmarks come with humorous tear-off corners, as if Ax bit into them
- Ax said that Hork-Bajir are biologically hardwired to go on the warpath every 62 years, but that's not true. Hork-Bajir never knew the concept of violence or fighting until the Yeerks came and enslaved them.[2]
- Jake and Marco take Ax to the movies, and they see a Star Trek: The Next Generation movie. Ax comments the male Klingons look like female Ongachic and Hawjabran Freight looks like the Enterprise-D.
- Ax metions in this book that when he is in human morph, he can not use thought speak. However, he uses it later[3], as does Tobias.[4]
TV AdaptationEdit
The Alien was adapted as part of the Animorphs TV series, which aired on Nickelodeon and YTV between the fall of 1998 and the spring of 2000. The eighth book in the series was covered in episodes eight, "The Alien (episode)". The TV episodes did not follow the books faithfully, altering many aspects of the characters' roles within the Animorphs, the events in the war against the Yeerks, and added plot lines that were not present in the books.
Changes from Book to EpisodeEdit
- Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias were not featured in the episode.
- In the book series, Jake and Marco took Ax to the movies, and what they saw was a Star Trek: The Next Generation movie. But in the TV show, the movie they saw was an old black-and-white monster movie.
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