AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ( )

Warning for some SPOILERS.

Jumps right into the action showing how the battle ended- and yes Rachel ends up in a fight with Tom/Yeerk and his followers. They both die. The rest of the team manages to end the war against the alien Yeerks, the Visser is taken captive, Jake cleverly talks the Andalites into doing things their way (don't want the Andalites running Earth or taking credit for the victory) without much loss of face (amusingly, Earth becomes a tourist destination for Andalites who want to taste food). The Animorphs kinda go their separate ways and we see what happens to each of them- and I found all their paths fitting (although Tobias made me feel sad- he's distraught at loosing Rachel and basically leaves to just live as a hawk). After a year the Visser is brought to trial for war crimes. Jake has been suffering ever since it ended- most of the others found a purpose to their life, but Jake is depressed and directionless. The trial brings back all his memories as he has to testify and feels the mountain of guilt again for his role in killing innocents. The other Animorphs force him into morphing dolphin in the ocean so he can physically release some tension and feel a bit of joy again- and they all have a long serious talk about the war, its effect on them, where the guilt lies, etc. Very good stuff!

Then the story takes a sudden turn- I knew before that a lot of fans hate the ending of the series, but it really took me by surprise what it was. Jake receives a report that Ax had been scouting around in outer space (he's a Prince and captain of his own ship now) and encountered a suspicious, seeming-empty huge ship. He went aboard with part of his crew, something went wrong, there's only one survivor. Of course Jake gets together the few remaining Animorphs (addition of two new people who have been studying under Jake and minus Cassie who stays behind) and they secretly take what used to be a Yeerk ship, out there to investigate. They find that Ax and his crew were subsumed by a huge new alien thing- and they get ready to face off to it, even though they have no chance. And that's it.

The book abruptly ends. You can only assume that they were all taken by this new alien. I nearly yelled aloud in frustration because- I wanted to know what happened! But after some thinking I kinda get what the author was aiming at. A lot of this book was showing what happened to the main characters in the aftermath of war, how they were able to adjust and go on with their lives, or not. (Strange that the families were hardly mentioned). But then this new threat comes up and they go face it- so the message I take from that is: there's always another battle. You think it's all over and you have peace but something else will eventually rear up and make you fight again. And sometimes- you just can't win.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

I really enjoyed the last book. The war is over and the Animorphs have to cope with their new lives. Jake has the hardest time.

I don't like the cliffhanger ending. If she was going to have it end in a cliff hanger I wish she had ended it when Jake, Marco and Tobias go to look for Ax. ( )

A short comment for every book of the series until I get a chance to re-read them. All three of my sons and I loved this series and read every single book - I even bought every single book (most, but not all, used; some through school book sales). I'm excited to re-read them to see how the five main characters develop and to watch all the different transformations again. ( )

The Beginning is the last book in the Animorphs series. The human-Yeerk war has finally ended. The characters can't relax, though: there are more enemies lurking in the farthest corners of the galaxy. I didn't like this book very much because of the tragedy and the cliffhanger ending. If you have read the other Animorphs books, you will have to see how it all ends. If you haven't, o read the other fifty-three books, then come back. WARNING: The ending is a HUGE cliffhanger, and the author says it is really the end, no prequel. ( )