#33- The Illusion: This book features Tobias morphing an Andalite, who strongly resembles Ax. (No! Whatever happened to Cassie's morals? And all those good comebacks to people who thought they should morph Andalites?) Tobias has to be the one to be the test subject for the Anti-Morphing Ray, since as a morphing nothlit he can "prove" that the AMR doesn't work. But things don't go according to plan, and Tobias finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic sub-visser . . .

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Basic Plot Points:

• The Sharing is opening a new community center. There are connections to the Yeerk pool from it, but in this book it was used mainly for trapping "Andalites."
• Tobias allowed himself to be trapped so that he could prove the AMR didn't work. (Of course, he had to acquire Ax to impersonate an Andalite). Rachel went with him, concealed as a fly, so she could disclose the AMR's location, allowing the other Animorphs to come later and destroy it for good measure.
• After finding that the AMR didn't work, sub-visser Fifty-One (a.k.a. Taylor) tortured Tobias to get him to revert to Andalite form -- suitable for infestation -- and even after he was trapped, she tried to grill information out of him.  
• The AMR was destroyed, Taylor left alive (though only by Tobias's intervention) and all of the Anis free and safe. For now.

Personality Developments:

• Rachel is more and more insistent that Tobias act more like she insist that he really is: a human boy. Normal. For that and the sake of being with him, she tries to get him to stay human, until he has to run out of school and climb a tree just to morph to hawk.
• Ax and Tobias seem to be getting even closer friends. Ax actually disclosed some information about his culture, and helped Tobias in his Andalite form. Ax also shows a more thoughtful side to himself.
• Tobias has to come to terms with many things about himself during Taylor's interrogation, but he also finds in him memories he never knew he had, memories passed on by Elfangor through a mysterious process known as Utzum.
• Tobias also found a somewhat kindred spirit in Taylor, though the two were definitely very different. More about Taylor on her character page.

Notes:

• In discussing The Sharing's televised community center opening, Marco notes that they're trying to draw members from other states, going nationwide. From this we can probably infer that The Sharing has chapters across the states, at least in all of the major cities.
• Hork-Bajir Controller guards evidently play cards to pass the time . . . ^_^
• Through Tobias's memories triggered by the pain sensors, it is evident that while he has seemingly come to terms with his dual nature, he still feels terrible remorse for all the killing and hurt that he has done, both to the often unwilling with whom he must fight for the sake of humanity, and the creatures he kills daily for his very survival. When he taps into the memories of his father Elfangor, he finds that he felt the same way in his own battles.
  

Unanswered Questions:

• How exactly did Elfangor transfer those memories to Tobias? At first I thought it was when Tobias found an old Andalite's tail blade while he was digging in the woods, but then I realized that, unless it's one of those fabled "other Andalites who came to Earth" (which, looking at the upcoming plots, may not be so farfetched, but I'm not going to look into them right now) it couldn't have happened, because in the same book Elfangor was killed, Tobias was turned into a hawk. So finding an aged tail blade must have really been Elfangor's memory, merging with Tobias's. (Like when he remembered someone beating him up yet was conscious of having feathers and a beak at the time). My best guess is that it was transferred to Tobias when he was sitting alone in front of the soon-to-die Elfangor, as he sent him pictures of the Yeerk pool and other things, but it certainly could have been other things. There is also the matter of the memories being transferred "by DNA" as Ax said, even though Tobias and Elfangor don't even share DNA. It could have been that the memories were in him all along, from the construction site encounter, but could not be triggered until he had that essential DNA, which was his acquired Andalite form, Elfangor's brother. And of course, Tobias only just escaped death. As for the tail-blade-on the forehead thing, I'm not even sure about how that would have come about.
  
• Also, what happened to Taylor? Everyone assumed that she would be killed by Visser Three, but there are rumors (a.k.a insider information provided by nice people such as MORPHZ) that say Taylor will be re-appearing later, and inciting a rebellion amongst the Yeerks.
  

Comments:
After enduring numerous comments on how wonderful this book was, I finally was able to get to a bookstore that had this book (since the shop in the local city, which had #34, was out on this book). And I wasn't disappointed, either. With Rachel and Tobias love, Tobias self-examination (which was much *different* and had a new angle than his other books, though it certainly brought together former themes), an extremely interesting sub-character and some nice thought-provoking stuff, it was one of the best Ani-books I've read in a long time.