The Invasion (Animorphs)

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Animorphs Books
The Invasion
Narrator	Jake
Number	#1
Release date	June 1996
Cover art	Jake morphing a green anole
Cover quote	Some people never change. Some do...
Author	K. A. Applegate
Illustrator	Peter Bollinger
Pages	184
Followed by	The Visitor

The Invasion is the first book in the Animorphs series.

[edit] Plot Summary

Thirteen-year olds Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Tobias are walking home through an abandoned construction site, when an alien spacecraft lands nearby. The alien, an Andalite named Prince Elfangor, explains that the Earth is being invaded by another race of aliens, called the Yeerks, a slug-like parasitic species who infest humans through their ear canals and take complete control of the human's body. Elfangor says that more Andalites will not come to Earth until it is too late, and Earth will already be completely taken over - so to combat the Yeerks, he gives the humans morphing technology, the power to become another creature through absorbing their DNA. Elfangor warns them to never stay beyond two hours in a morph, or they will be trapped in that form forever. The Yeerks, led by Elfangor's archrival, Visser Three, arrive and eliminate all traces of Elfangor and his ship before procceding to attempt to catch and kill the teenagers. The group escapes, shaken but more or less unhurt.

The next morning Tobias visits Jake and informs him that the previous night was not just a dream: the Yeerks are real, and the teens really can morph. The five of them spend the morning at Cassie's barn, practicing morphing simple creatures like cats, dogs, and horses. A policeman arrives and informs the group that last night some teenagers were sighted setting off fireworks in the abandoned construction site, and the five of them realise that the policeman is a controller. Later that day, Jake's brother Tom expresses a similar interest in the teenagers at the construction site, and Marco realises that Tom is a controller too, much to Jake's anger. Tom invites the group to a meeting of a local community club called The Sharing, which the teens quickly determine is a front for the Yeerks to acquire new hosts. They also discover their Assistant Principal, and leader of The Sharing, Mr. Chapman, is also a human-Controller. The next day Jake morphs a green anole lizard to spy on Chapman, and discovers that there is an entrance to the Yeerk Pool - a humongous, underground control centre where the Yeerks can feed and recuperate - in their school.

The teenagers, newly christened as the 'Animorphs' (Animal Morphers) by Marco, head to The Gardens, a large zoo/amusement park, in order to acquire some new morphs. That evening they decide to infiltrate the Yeerk Pool in order to rescue Tom, but find that Cassie has been kidnapped by the police-Controller. With no time to plan a strategy, the four remaining Animorphs - including Tobias, who has already morphed into a red-tailed hawk - head into the Yeerk Pool, and while they manage to rescue Cassie, they find themselves outnumbered and outgunned by the Yeerks there, as well as Visser Three. The Animorphs manage to escape, but not without loss - they fail in rescuing Tom, and Tobias does not manage to escape the Yeerk Pool and demorph in time, becoming a red-tailed hawk nothlit. Jake promises to keep fighting the Yeerks until the Andalites arrive.

[edit] Morphs

• Jake: golden retriever ('Homer'), green anole, Siberian tiger
• Rachel: African elephant
• Tobias: cat ('Dude'), red-tailed hawk
• Cassie: horse
• Marco: gorilla ('Big Jim')
• Visser Three: Antarean Bogg, 'Fire Creature'

[edit] Trivia

• Animorphs was originally conceived as a three-part series called The Changelings, in which Jake was named Matt, and his little brother Joseph took Cassie's place in the Animorphs.
• A mistake from an earlier draft of this book was accidentally left in, in which Jake uses thought-speak to communicate with Tobias while Jake is a human. This contradicts later continuity in which thought-speak can only be used while in morph. Continuity errors such as this would later be humourously dubbed as "KASU"s (an acronym for "Katherine Applegate Screws Up") by the author.
• This book contains the first of many references to Star Trek. When the Animorphs first see Elfangor's ship, Jake jokes that they might, "Zap us with phasers on full power." Marco then replies that Phasers are only on Star Trek.