I have to admit, I loved some of the middle books just because of the premises -- like Rachel splitting into a good half and a bad half? That just really clicked for me in a whole bunch of wrong ways, especially when she was talking about how everyone else's balances of a nice side and mean side would be but Tobias would split into a bird and a boy, like good and evil are irrelevant for him. And the David arc and the one where Crayak gave Rachel ultimate power and got her to fight Visser Three/One/whatever he was? That hurt. The ending of that, where she was just sitting there, trying to make herself kill him as a rat when he was begging for it...
Ow. Seriously, ow. I just heart K.A. Applegate for that because she really made me care about the characters. She made me empathize with them, enough to make me want to cry. And that's kind of why I think they're better than the HP books because the HP books can't evoke that sort of visceral, emotional reaction from me but for Rachel and Tobias and Ax and hell, even Marco and Jake and Cassie, I can't help but kind of get it.
Jake was definitely not my favorite. Least favorite apart from Cassie, maybe. But yeah, he suffered a lot, though most of my sympathy was reserved for Tobias -- I mean, Tobias got his mother, yeah, but she didn't really remember him and judging from the fact that he went off to live on his own in a meadow, they didn't really do the whole family thing even though he saved her. And that's pretty ouch in its own way, especially after reading the Andalite Chronicles and seeing how kickass Loren is (not to mention how much Elfangor loved her, I can't believe how good the romance in those books were even though it really took second place to the action), and to think of her reduced to that state by a car accident...
That was actually one of my fav books, mostly because the humor lines and snark like Ax and Marco--
Ax: I am a dangerous delinquent and have destroyed the symetry of this shelf that required hours of labor on the part of underpaid employers. If you could see me, you would be afraid. Marco: *mutters* If she could see you, she'd have you committed.
It's amazing how funny the books were, considering how dark the topic matter was. I think that's also kinda proof that they're good, that even though she took on such a serious and heavy subject, she still managed to pace the books decently and make them engaging, so that people actually wanted to read them. I know it's not great literature or likely to become a 1984-type classic but still...
I want to read them now too. Rereading the series is going to be the highlight of my winter vacation, I bet. XD
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I have to admit, I loved some of the middle books just because of the premises -- like Rachel splitting into a good half and a bad half? That just really clicked for me in a whole bunch of wrong ways, especially when she was talking about how everyone else's balances of a nice side and mean side would be but Tobias would split into a bird and a boy, like good and evil are irrelevant for him. And the David arc and the one where Crayak gave Rachel ultimate power and got her to fight Visser Three/One/whatever he was? That hurt. The ending of that, where she was just sitting there, trying to make herself kill him as a rat when he was begging for it...
Ow. Seriously, ow. I just heart K.A. Applegate for that because she really made me care about the characters. She made me empathize with them, enough to make me want to cry. And that's kind of why I think they're better than the HP books because the HP books can't evoke that sort of visceral, emotional reaction from me but for Rachel and Tobias and Ax and hell, even Marco and Jake and Cassie, I can't help but kind of get it.
Jake was definitely not my favorite. Least favorite apart from Cassie, maybe. But yeah, he suffered a lot, though most of my sympathy was reserved for Tobias -- I mean, Tobias got his mother, yeah, but she didn't really remember him and judging from the fact that he went off to live on his own in a meadow, they didn't really do the whole family thing even though he saved her. And that's pretty ouch in its own way, especially after reading the Andalite Chronicles and seeing how kickass Loren is (not to mention how much Elfangor loved her, I can't believe how good the romance in those books were even though it really took second place to the action), and to think of her reduced to that state by a car accident...
That was actually one of my fav books, mostly because the humor lines and snark like Ax and Marco--
Ax: I am a dangerous delinquent and have destroyed the symetry of this shelf that required hours of labor on the part of underpaid employers. If you could see me, you would be afraid.
Marco: *mutters* If she could see you, she'd have you committed.
It's amazing how funny the books were, considering how dark the topic matter was. I think that's also kinda proof that they're good, that even though she took on such a serious and heavy subject, she still managed to pace the books decently and make them engaging, so that people actually wanted to read them. I know it's not great literature or likely to become a 1984-type classic but still...
I want to read them now too. Rereading the series is going to be the highlight of my winter vacation, I bet. XD