SUMMARY

It began with 6. It will end with 5. No one ever thought it would be come to this. Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Ax know that even if they could have warned people in the beginning, no one would have believed their story. A story about an invasion of parasitic aliens. So, for all this time, Jake, the other Animorphs, and Ax have secretly held the Yeerks at bay. But those days are over. It’s come down to a final battle between the Yeerks and Animorphs. And no one knows who will win, lose, or live...

Released: May 2001 Pages: 156 Cover Art by David B. Mattingly

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

 

ADDITIONAL / ALTERNATE COVERS

U.S. Inside Cover	French Cover

TRIVIA

ANIBASE: For all of you Lord of the Rings fans, here's an interesting comment from Katherine Applegate about what inspired her when creating the ending for her long-running series: "I'd always known that Animorphs would end the way it did. I knew I wanted it to end with victory, but I also knew I didn't want a clean victory. I wanted more Lord of the Rings, less Star Wars in the ending. I always admired the way Tolkien gave his characters victory, but left them with a sadder, less exciting, less enchanting world in the end." All of the models for the Animorphs featured on the front and inside cover had been changed since the series began, mostly because the original kids had grown up and moved away to college. Only Cassie's model (Biko) remained close enough to still model for Animorphs. And of course Ax, who is actually just a cardboard cutout. This is the only numerical book in the series that doesn't have the usual morph steps, going from their natural form to a kind of animal. Instead, the steps in this case go through all of the characters as a homage to the cover of the Rolling Stones' Greatest Hits "Hot Rocks 1964-1971" album. Here is what the original album cover looks like: Likewise, the page-flipping morphing animations featured at the bottom right-hand corner of every Animorphs book is also different in this one, as it goes through all the Animorphs one by one, fading away down to only Jake at the end. The letter at the end of the book confused many fans, as it mentioned that there were 5 Megamorphs made for Animorphs, whereas there were only 4 released at the time. Turns out that there really was a Megamorph #5 planned alongside with the release as #54, but it was scrapped near the end and the change had not been reflected onto K.A's letter. Jeff, from Morphz, passed on this explanation from K.A to the fans: This is what K.A. told me about the cutting of Megamorphs #5 on October 17, 2000: "Anyway, on to the saga of the missing MEGA. It's all about contracts, actually. I had signed a contract for 6 ANI long-form books, meaning Megas or Chrons. And I had, at a different point, signed a contract for the last bunch of regular-length ANI's. But the two contracts weren't synchronized, so the due dates of the long forms extended well out beyond the due dates of the regular-length books. Then I decided to pull the plug on the series, leaving Scholastic in something of a quandary as to 3 long-form books. "One of the long books we agreed to make a series bible. Another one was going to be a 'whatever happened to . . .' kind of book to be published a year out in the future. And the third one would be a final Mega to be published (according to the regular schedule) at the same time as 53. Fine, but then I realized 53, 54 and the Mega were all going inevitably to be one, continuing storyline. So how do we get kids to realize Mega and 53 were in sequence when they were published at the same time? We then agreed to move Mega to run at the same time as 54, hoping that would clarify things. But Scholastic sales and marketing guys had different plans already in the works. And let me say that I love Scholastic sales and marketing, they have done very, very well for me. "Anyway, I think (though I do not know) that sales was concerned that two ANI books in June would step on the release of REMNANTS at the same time. These plans are all made long, long in advance and involve all sorts of details and arrangements, and my messing with the sequence wasn't helping their lives any. So we all jointly decided to take BOTH the final Mega and the 'Whatever happened to . . .' books and add them to the REMNANTS contract. "I am not personally at all upset. I think the finale is fine the way it's going, though I understand that some readers may have wanted one big, final MEGA. Still, I think they'll get some of that in 54." The reaction behind the ending of Animorphs, specifically Jake's last line, was not met well with the fans. K.A. was surprised by this, and then responded to this criticism directly through Jeff Sampson, the co-creator of Morphz, who often kept in touch with her throughout the series. You can read K.A.'s response here.

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