ANIMORPHS #38
THE ARRIVAL


STORY | BOOKS | CHARACTERS

SUMMARY

Andalites have finally arrived on Earth. The Animorphs and Ax now have allies willing to fight against the Yeerk invasion. But there are only four Andalites. Not nearly enough to defeat thousands of Yeerks. Not enough to stop humans from being infected.

So, everyone agrees that the battle must continue. But the Andalites don't want to fight alongside humans. They feel their skills will be less than adequate. And they demand that Ax choose a side. Will Ax stay with his friends...or stand with his people?

 

Released: January 2000
Pages: 148
Cover Art by David B. Mattingly

Front Cover (Hi-Res)
Inside Cover (Hi-Res)

 

ADDITIONAL / ALTERNATE COVERS

Inside Cover UK Cover  
       
U.S. Inside Cover
U.K. Cover French Cover  
BEWARE NEW READERS, SPOILERS AHEAD!

TRIVIA

  • This storyline focuses back on Ax's conflicting loyalties between the Animorphs and his own people. The real insight to this conflict began in #8: The Alien when we saw things from his point of view, and where he finally revealed The Law of Seerow's Kindness as part of his reluctance to open up to the group. All seemed fine until #18: The Decision when the Animorphs were united with an Andalite fleet on Leeran, where Ax immediately left to be under Andalite commands. Too bad that the Captain of that ship also turned out to be a traitor working for the Yeerks.

    From that point on, Ax went back and swore his allegiance to Jake as his Prince and promised to never leave his side until Jake said so. The story of that is continued and referred back on in this book as Ax is, yet again, faced with the dilemma of following this new team of Andalites or standing by the Animorphs.

    Unfortunately, as it turns out, the Andalites here are no better than the previous Captain, and from this point on, the Animorphs are even more reluctant to work alongside Andalites in the future. This newly painted arrogance of Andalites and distrust of them is played out again in #40: The Other; and at the end of #45: The Revelation and the beginning of #46: The Deception, when the Animorphs finally contact the Andalite homeworld, only to have an Andalite officer take their information about the Anati World "under consideration", thinking that they were only lying so that the Andalites would come to Earth instead. Even Ax got the cold shoulder!
  • Ax gets his first kiss in this book, with Estrid!
  • The deadly virus engineered by the Andalites in this book reflects back to The Hork Bajir Chronicles where War-Prince Alloran (Later as a host for Visser Three) killed the entire Hork-Bajir race in a similar fashion by using a Quantum Virus, instead of having the Hork-Bajir race fall into the Yeerks hands. The virus this time, however, attacks the Yeerks directly, but is also as equally lethal to those who have been controlled (Humans, Hork-Bajir, etc).
  • ANIBASE: Orson Watch: Take a look at the license plate of the VW Bug on this book's inner cover. The personalized plate reads -- you guessed it -- ORSON.

NEW PLOT ADDITIONS

ANIBASE: An Andalite ship lands in this book, and on board are four Andalites, two of whom are up to much more than they originally said. Estrid-Corril-Darrath is a young Andalite prodigy and honoray aristh that Ax grew to have feelings for. She develops the virus that is to be used on the Yeerks. She is also the student of intelligence Advisor Arbat-Elivat-Estoni, the fanatical Andalite secretly in charge of the mission to use germ warfare against the Yeerks. Commander Gonrad-Isfall-Sonilli is little more than an expendable pilot in the scheme, and Aloth-Attamil-Gahar is the "muscle" -- before the mission, he was spending his days in an Andalite prison for selling organs off the battle field, a horrible offense.

Also mentioned, though not seen, is Estrid's brother, Ajaht-Litsom-Esth, the highest scoring exhibition tail fighter on the Andalite home world. He apparently taught Estrid some pretty advanced moves.

 

Jake None.
Rachel None.
Cassie Pit Viper.
Marco None.
Tobias None.
Ax None.
Estrid Kafit Bird, Human girl, Rabbit, and a Crow.
Arbat Human male.

None.

 

Andalite Battle Code
A warrior's code that the Andalites conduct battle by. One of the rules is that no Andalite shall defile the bodies of their fallen comrades by selling organs off the battlefield.

Crusader
The ship the Andalite's arrived on. It's an MSTL-37, a Mobile Science and Technology Lab ship.

Hald-Wurra
An Andalite tail fighting move. It's old Andalite for "victory in three swipes."

Plintconarhythmic Physics
Cutting-edge Andalite biochemical engineering. It's so advanced that most Andalite intellectuals do not attempt to learn it. Estrid, on the other hand, understands it perfectly....

Rakkam Garoo Conflict
Another problem in another part of the galaxy where the Andalites efforts have been focused instead of aiding Earth.

Ralek River
According to the Crusader's computer, a destroyed Andalite ship that Estrid, Arbat, Gonrad, and Aloth were all supposedly killed on.

UAST
The Andalite University of Advanced Scientific Theory where Arbat was a teacher, and Estrid was a student. It is also where the virus to destroy the Yeerks was developed.

Unit O
An Andalite sabotage and assassination team -- what the newly arrived Andalites claimed to be.

 

RELATED LINKS

K.A. Q&A Archives
Reading List and Anibase Download
Alien-English Dictionary

Submit Trivia or your most Memorable Quotes!

 

CREDITS

A big credit to Jeff Sampson for helping build and write the Anibase, which provided much of the inside information towards the series.



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