The Test (Animorphs, No 43)

Rating:
Summary: One to read
Review: After starting this series around a year or two ago, I have sadly seen the average book decline and become simply average. The Test on the other hand has been a bright spot. It is interesting and suspensful. The insight into Tobias is always interesting given his conflicting hawk and human personalities. This book is one of the best books written so far, even with Visser, The Capture and The Forgotten. Great book, you've got to read it.

Rating:
Summary: One to read
Review: First of all, the cover finally shows what a taxxon looks like, thank goodness. The book was relatively thrilling, but there wasn't enough of Visser Three in it. Villians are the backbone to any story like this, but on the whole, it was pretty good.

Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Tobias Book
Review: I loved this one for three reasons a) It has the return of Taylor. I had wondered what happned to her b) It also showed, at te end of the book, that Cassie can get tough, and she puts her friends before everything else. I got some new respect for tree-hugger Cassie after that. c) It's a Tobias book. I love the Tobias books


The Test starts when Tobias finds out about a kid who who is lost in the woods. Tobias finds him and saves him, earning his picture in the paper. As he flies away, a golden eagle hits him, and he some vets put him in a cage and help him recover. The Yeerks find him and track him down, and Taylor once again inprisons him. Instead of torturing him, she tells him she has a plan to blow up the Yeerk Pool. Read the book to find out more!

Rating:
Summary: One to read
Review: I think Tobias' character really developed in this book. Each Tobias book sees new changes for him and this was a big one. The Animorphs co-operate with Taylor, the Controller who tortured Tobias in #33 for this one. Seeing Taylor again brings up all sorts of memories of his torture and questions in Tobias' mind. He keeps thinking back to when he first became a nothlit, wondering if he actually gave up and chose to be trapped in hawk morph. ( This was one of my favourite parts of the book as I always wanted to know what happened to Tobias when he was first trapped.)What happens to Taylor in the end was definetely deserved, but, as in the case of Visser One, I think she will be back.The ending I thought was very powerful and a great ending line from Rachel. This definetly ranks in my best Animorphs books, not quite up there with #3,#31 and #33, my all-time favourites but close. Tobias is my favourite character and I always enjoy his books. Though only a book to read after you've read some of the other Animorphs and seen the slow devlopment of the characters through time.

Rating:
Summary: skip it
Review: In this book, Tobias and Ax morph taxxons to put natrul gas in the Yeerk pool. Taylor, a Controller says she's part of the Peace Movment and she comes up w/ the idea. It's really boring. Normaly Tobias books are good, but this one is horrible.

Rating:
Summary: The Test
Review: Taylor, Tobias's old torturer from the past, has come back to haunt Tobias. But it looks as if she's cleaned up her act. She wants the Animorphs' help in overthrowing Visser Three and blowing up the Yeerk pool. It looks risky, but it's a big chance for the Animorphs. It's an ever bigger test for Tobias, seeing that he should trust this evil Yeerk. But it's seemingly an offer he can't refuse. Morphing a Taxxon is risky indeed, but isn't it worth the outcome? Or is the outcome darker then Tobias and the others could expect...

Rating:
Summary: The Test
Review: This was an intereseting book. I rate it five stars because of the extra twists. Tobias is asked for help from his tormenter Taylor. Taylor is not a nice person. She is a Controller. Will she stick to the deal or betray the Animorphs and, Tobias, and perhaps leave them for death? Find out in Animorphs #43 The Test.

Rating:
Summary: Tobias's Torture Revisited
Review: Tobias is one character I always look forward to reading about. He has a lot of deepish issues to write about. He was certainly a deep thinker when he was a regular human walking around; but now he is truly deep. I think his character has probabley changed and evolved more than any other Animorph character.

Fairly early in the series, Tobias had to deal with his feelings of catching his live meals. Remember his humiliation in being caught eating road kill? I thought that was very well dealt with. Remember when he was in human morph as his past self and was facing the Visser? He had been a hawk for so long he forgot to let his face show regular human emotions. So he was looking at the Visser with a total poker face, which wound up saving his life. Who would have thought of such a thing? It is these things, as well as his deepening relationship with Rachel, which make him the fascinating character he is today.

The Animorph series continues to grow and change as a series. We get to see past enemies again. In this book, the Animorphs have to battle the chick who tortured Tobias before. I thought the torture he had to go through was very well described. Tobias's flashbacks had me gritting my teeth and feeling his pain. Imagine his horror at being in her evil clutches all over again and totally dreading the torture which was to come for him just because he tried to do a good deed and save a little boy.

What I would like to see is the storyline with Jake and Tom and Marcus revisited and changed around a bit. Can Tom and Marcus's mother ever be saved from what has happened to them? If they were saved, could the be double agents or work with the Animorphs in the future in some sort of sideline way? Or would that be too much of a departure from what has already been set up? Just some thoughts.

Rating:
Summary: skip it
Review: What can I say? This book should never really have been written. All it does is rehash the events of #33, keeping the uncharacteristic elements of Tobias and leaving out any originality or furthering of either plot or character. This is a 'filler' book, just like the aforesaid #30 and #31: nothing has changed by the end. The two stars, by the way, are for Tobias who remains my favourite character...but for how long, if his books end up like this?