VISSER: Narrator: Edriss 526 Visser One is on trial for treason. Set against her enemy Visser Three, she has to defend her actions on Earth during the planning stages of the Yeerk invasion, as well as secure her own leadership in the subjugation of Earth, for personal reasons . . . [in other words -- you just have to read it]

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Plot Points

• Edris 526 is on trial in front of the Council of Thirteen and must explain her alleged treason against the Yeerk Empire.
• It is revealed how Earth was originally targeted, invaded, and how The Sharing was founded.
• For various reasons, Visser One is very much against an all-out war on Earth. To prevent this, she has to discredit Visser Three by helping the Animorphs attack the Yeerk pool. They make a deal with each other, since each holds a secret that would be their enemy's undoing. Ironically, the Council seems to decide not to attack Earth mainly because it would attract the attention of an incoming Andalite fleet which they are ill-prepared to defend against.
• Visser One is not revealing the Animorphs' secret anytime soon, but she and Eva are going to be off-planet for a little while . . .

Characters Introduced:

• The Council of Thirteen: Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, and "other." The ultimate rules of the Yeerk Empire--the main one in this book is Garoff 168, who was once Edris's mentor and now speaks for the Council on her trial
• Essam 293: Edris's subordinate. He went with her on her mission to capture the humans of Earth, but after two years of living as a human he decided it was not worth it to capture and enslave human minds. He chose Kandrona starvation rather than go through with the mission.
• Eva: Marco's mother, who is actually shown here for the first time. She is both repulsed and sympathetic with Edris's predicament, and though she mostly has the position of a helpless host body, she does the best she can to save her son and the planet they are all fighting for.

Personality Conflicts:

• This book was almost 100% about Visser One, who turns out to be a pretty interesting person. I write a character profile for her, if you want to see more about her character in this book.
• We see that Visser Three himself is under threat from superiors, since he's standing in front of the Council of Thirteen who's not exactly thrilled with him.
• Marco has a difficult decision to make, and must let go of his mother.

Notes:

• Little thing: the Yeerks haven't been able to get back to their homeworld in a long while. It's highly guarded by Andalites, who don't want even more Yeerks leaving and getting out into the universe. This is one of their main driving motivations for defeating the Andalites; they have a great deal of patriotic feeling toward their home planet and "the pools that spawned us."
• It appears I was even more confused about the role of Fate in Animorphs than I thought. The Yeerks choosing the place where Elfangor once lived really was coincidence. (I was thinking all kinds of things like time-loops that allowed Visser Three to communicate this location back to the Yeerks. Guess that's the higher powers Eva referenced to. Of course, it could also be the Ellimist.
• This book was interesting in that we finally get to see the Council of Thirteen. I'd always assumed that at least very high-up officials like Visser One would know who the Emperor was, but even she had no clue. The one who spoke on their behalf was Garoff, Edriss's former mentor, and she wondered if he himself might be the emperor. Other little thing: there are now two empty spots in the Council of Thirteen (it appears that they get very impassioned when debating key issues and don't exactly think to much about other member's lives). If it really is as it seems, then of course Visser Three will soon be vying for this spot. The preview for #37 also hints at a Controller who's *this* close to getting on the Council. And he's working with the Visser. Hmm...

Unanswered Questions:

• What's going to happen to Visser One? I find it hard to believe that after all that sacrifice for Earth, she will quietly resign herself to the Anati system. Certainly she's going to want to draw the Andalites there (however, due to little future plot bits we have, I have the feeling they're not going to just go to Anati) but what will she do after that's over? Will Marco ever see her again? Only time can tell.

Comments: I absolutely loved this book. It was everything I love in the Animorphs books: interesting, three-dimensional character development, issues of good and evil (and the relativity that lies between them), and, unlike the other two Chronicles books, this one actually had the Animorphs in it and was led in by a little teaser at the very end of Animorphs #35. The ending was sad, even more so than the other two novels, IMHO, even though the main protagonist didn't die (though a *whole* lot of other people did)...just from the whole thing of the Marco/Visser One conflict, and the whole thing with Visser One's conflicting personality -- a perfect picture of the mixture between good and evil. The only downside is that the end is a little frustrating because there's no emotional closure. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you go to whatever lengths to obtain it. It is worth the extra eight dollars.