The Message, K.A. Applegate, Michael Grant, Chris Grine

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language: English
country: USA
year: 2023
form: graphic novel
genre(s): science fiction
series: Animorphs graphic novels, #4
dates read: 3.12.23

I think of The Message as one of the sillier Animorphs books — it does, for example, involve the revelation that whales are able to communicate telepathically(?) with other whales and dolphins, as well as the iconic seagull morphing scene AND Marco asking Tobias if red-tailed hawks poop while they’re flying.

the whale stuff lands completely differently in the graphic novel version, and it feels — to me — like the graphic novel achieves the sense of grandeur and wonder that the novel reaches for but doesn’t quite manage. it’s not, perhaps, as intensely gripping as The Encounter, but it’s extremely good nonetheless.

more generally, Chris Grine’s art continues to be delightful, and I’m still so thankful they decided to keep the late-’90s setting, complete with Jake’s VHS recording of local news for some reason, and the dolphins named after Friends characters (interestingly their names are introduced here with no explanation — I don’t have my copy of the novel so I can’t compare how it handles it), the landline phones, …

also the visual reminder — since they’re all just in their morphing outfits — that when Ax swears to serve Jake as his Prince Jake is shirtless and Ax (who doesn’t wear clothes) has his hand on Jake’s bare shoulder. hmmmmmmmmmm

they did…change Ax’s name for some reason. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Lsthil instead of -Isthill. I don’t hate it, but I don’t understand why, lol.

anyway. extremely good. can’t wait for The Predator, apparently coming next August. I hope they have an endpoint picked out at this point (hopefully #7), because if they’re going purely by how well the books sell it will be somewhere random. I mean, I’ll keep buying them no matter when they stop, but I feel like in case new readers are coming to the series this way it makes sense to have a planned end-point.

moods: adventurous, tense


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