Remnants

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Remnants is a science fiction book series authored by K. A. Applegate. It is the story of what happens to the survivors of a desperate mission to save a handful of human beings after an asteroid collides with the Earth. Eighty people are placed aboard a converted space shuttle using untested "quack" hibernation technology and fired blindly into space hours before all life on Earth is obliterated by a large asteroid called The Rock. They are then picked up by a large, sentient space craft of monumental proportions known as 'Mother' which is inhabited by various races. 'Mother' can manipulate the physical environment within the craft's limits and often does so. Only a few people placed in stasis actually were alive and capable of being reanimated when they reached 'Mother'.

Contents 1 Storyline 2 Characters 3 Writing Style 4 Books 5 Notes 6 External link

[edit] Storyline

Eventually, the Remnants fight through what they call the Riders, primitive warriors, and the "Blue Meanies", creatures engineered to care for Mother, to the bridge, where The Baby of Tamara Hoyle is revealed as Te, a Shipwright, one of the beings who created Mother. A battle of wills between Te and Billy Weir commences, with Billy emerging as the victor to assimilate Mother and take control of the ship, forcing the 3 races to co-exist. With an uneasy truce settling in among the 3 races, two figures make bids for power: 2Face and Yago. While 2 Face gets closer to Billy, Yago encourages several of the Blue Meanies to worship him over Mother. As well, Jobs discovers the remains of Earth. But returning to explore would violate a rule of the truce: not altering Mother's course. After several fights with the Blue Meanies due to Yago's actions, the truce is broken and the Remnants head for Earth.

Over the course of the 6 months it takes for Mother to reach Earth, a new threat emerges: Amelia, Charlie, and Duncan. Although they appear human, they have somehow evolved in ways never before seen, even though the Remnants have seen various mutations in their own. The 3, which come to be referred to as The Troika, declare themselves Billy's enemies, even initiating an attack on the Remnants. Yago eventually forges an alliance with the Troika with one goal in mind: end Billy's control of the ship

Upon reaching Earth, Yago tricks Billy into leaving the ship, and the Troika seize control. Billy goes comatose, and the Remnants seem doomed. However, a storm that induces hallucinations leads the Remnants underground to 2 groups of humans. In the ensuing chaos, Billy vanishes. Of the 2 groups, the Marauders live in the open, and frequently trade water for food with the Alpha colony, humans in an underground bunker. Mo'Steel kills the Marauder leader and is declared the new leader after passing a test to defeat The Beasts (which are actually mutated rats). Afterwards, the tribe's "shaman", Sanchez, tells them they must go to the Source.

Aboard Mother, the Troika enter a nesting stage and demand that Yago feed them. Eventually, all others aboard the ship, except for Yago and a girl named Tate, are consumed. Tate's mutation "The Mouth" eats Yago, Amelia and Charlie before she kills Duncan. The 3 she ate share her body, until they drive Charlie insane to destroy him when he seizes control. After several decades of travelling the universe for sentient life, and finding none, the 3 travel through time to crash Mother into Earth, spurred by Tate's dreams of Billy.

The Remnants and Marauders reach the Source, only to discover it is Mother, crashed centuries ago. Inside is Billy, glowing gold and levitating. A re-greening ritual, involving the Source, Billy, and the baby of an Alpha refugee is planned. Despite the attempts of others to sabotage the ritual, it succeeds, and Earth is once again covered with life.

[edit] Characters

• Jobs: A "techie" with the soul of a poet, a majority of the series centers around Jobs. He and his parents and brother are on the Mayflower: only Jobs and his brother survive. Jobs' poetic sense and technical knowledge combined are often useful in understanding Mother, a sentient machine. It is Jobs who discovers the remains of Earth. In the Epilogue in "Begin Again", Jobs marries the Alpha refugee Echo, and has 2 daughters: Lumina and Tate. Jobs is named for Steven Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc.: Jobs' birth name is Sebastian Andreeson.

• Mo'Steel: Jobs' best friend, Mo'Steel is named for either "Man of Steel" or "More Steel" (Mo cannot remember which), since 5 of his bones have been broken so badly, they have been replaced with titanium composites. Mo'Steel has a love for adventure and extreme sports, and is proud of all of his broken bones and scars. Mo marries Noyze in the series' Epilogue, and has 1 son Boyd, and Noyze is pregnant with another. Mo'Steel's birth name is Romeo Gonzales.

• 2Face: Named after the comic book villain, 2Face was beautiful Essence Hwang, until a fire disfigured half her face. She is one of 2 players in a sort of chess match for control of the Remnants. 2Face seems to show feelings for Billy, but upon being stranded on Earth, she becomes paranoid to the point that she is sure Billy orchestrated the entire event. She attempts to kill Billy to stop the re-greening ritual, and Billy is forced to kill her to protect himself, but not before he gives her a vision of her dead mother so that she may die peacefully.

• Yago: The son of the first African-American, and first female President of the United States, Yago is 2Face's competition for control. He is highly arrogant and is assured he will eventually rise to power, caring for his own safety above all else. About halfway through the series, Yago is connected to Mother and is "killed" (actually, a projection of his mind is killed). The ordeal leaves Yago believing himself to the be "The One": A being of purity, destined to lead the Chosen (the non-mutant Remnants) and to destroy the Freaks (2Face and the mutated Remnants). Yago's twisted religion turns many Blue Meanies with his newly-discovered mutation "The Touch", a sort of laying-on-hands that several Meanies crave (although it is not known exactly what The Touch really does- only that it does not work on humans). Yago dies when his mind, inside of Tate, fades away. Yago's birth name is Robert Castleman, and he detests it.

• Violet Blake: A beautiful young girl, Violet is a "Jane" (named for Jane Austen), who for the first half of the series, prefers to be called Miss Blake. As a Jane, Violet has a distaste for technology, and a love for all forms of art and literature. Violet suffers an attack of "worms" in the second book, and eventually they become her mutation, enabling her to become a mass of worms that can revive the dead (to an extent). Violet and Jobs have a semi-romantic relationship, but her disgust over her mutation, and Jobs' obsession with Earth, drive them apart. She marries the Marauder Sanchez in the end of the book. Violet's birth name is Dallas, the place of her birth.

• Billy Weir: Billy is a true enigma. Originally an Chechnyan orphan, Billy is adopted by a Texan family. He was born Ruslan, but his father, Billy Weir Senior, aka, Big Bill, changed his name to Billy. At times it seems that Billy has infinite power, and has a strong connection with Mother. Early in the series he was carried around the computer generated world by Jobs thereby fusing friendship with Jobs that is persistent throughout the series .Long before the Mayflower, Billy dreamt of events that would unfold over 5 centuries later. While in hibernation, Billy did not sleep, and was awake for the journey. The ordeal twisted his mind, giving him telekinesis, the power to levitate, and many other strange abilities. These abilities make Billy a match for Mother, to the point where they assimilate to become one. Billy dies in the re-greening ritual: it is possible he may have survived, but 2Face's attack and the subsequent energy Billy spends to drain her life force may have contributed to his death. He is dubbed "Billy Weird" by many of his enemies (which amounts to anyone seeking control of the ship).

• Tamara Hoyle: A Marine who was not intended to board the Mayflower shuttle, she was trapped on board when the ship launched, and she was given the berth of the captain, who would commit suicide. Tamara was pregnant when she was placed in her berth, and is rejuvenated with the Baby Te at her side. For the first part of the series she is mind-controlled by Te. After Te is defeated, Tamara takes a keen interest in the defense of the Remnants. She is killed by Blue Meanies on the trip back to Earth.

• The Troika: Amelia, Duncan Choate, and Charlie Langlow, are a trio of humans living in what is called "The Basement, a dark area that is very much what it sounds: an area below Mother's main deck. All of them "ascend" to become slime-like shapeshifters. Amelia and Charlie are assimilated into Tate, and Duncan is killed.

• Echo: An Alpha colony inhabitant, Echo is not genetically pure, and this shows in her blind baby. She is forced to flee the Alpha colony and seek refuge with the Marauders. Her child, Lumina, becomes one of 3 elements in the re-greening of Earth.

• Te: Initially called "The Baby", Te appears first as the two-year old child of Tamara Hoyle. After some time, however, it becomes clear that the Baby is not human, and is furthermore controlling Tamara's mind. After absorbing the energy of several Blue Meanies, Te transforms into a Shipwright and attempts to seize control of Mother. However, Billy defeats him by joining with Mother. Te is notably the only Shipwright to appear.

• Mother: Both a computer and a ship, Mother is so highly-advanced that she is self-aware, or at least is able to give the impression that she is. The long years alone in space have damaged her system: she must have maintenance every 200 cycles, and has been alone for 600 (although it is not specified exactly how long a cycle is). The long years of no new input drove Mother mad, and when the Mayflower is found, she eagerly awakens the Remnants to absorb new information. Mother the Computer eventually merges with Billy. When Billy and she are disconnected, she suffers a computer virus from the Troika, and is degraded into Daughter, a simplified form of herself. Mother the Ship crashes on Earth, and becomes known as the Source to the Marauders.

[edit] Writing Style

The style of K.A. Applegate differs from the Animorphs series in several ways, probably due to the fact that some of the Animorphs books were written by ghostwriters. It appears more mature than the Animorph series and the development of the characters is much more defined. The writing of the series was written a lot like the Animorphs books because of the changing personalities of some of the characters, such as 2Face is a very close resemblance to the character David, who had betrayed the animorphs. The Remnants series also has quite lot of pop culture references, especially when the characters remember their time on earth, such as how Jobs is named after the innovative CEO Steve Jobs; and when asked why Jobs did not choose a more popular tech name like "Gates " or "Dell" he replied that none of the latter entrepreneurs had really started a revolution, and that Steve Jobs had been such an influential character that he started a revolution in a garage. Another reference of pop culture would be when in an incident in which Job's little brother had likened the world that Mother had created to High Fantasy books like Harry Potter books or the Lord of the Rings books.

[edit] Books

1. "The Mayflower Project"
2. "Destination Unknown"
3. "Them"
4. "Nowhere Land"
5. "Mutation"
6. "Breakdown"
7. "Isolation"
8. "Mother, May I?"
9. "No Place Like Home"
10. "Lost and Found"
11. "Dream Storm"
12. "Aftermath"
13. "Survival"
14. "Begin Again"

[edit] Notes

• Although there are numerous references to "The Ancient Enemy", it is never specified what The Ancient Enemy is: a being, a place, or something else. Several points of evidence (including Te identifying him as such) point to Billy as being The Ancient Enemy. However, at one point the Troika chant "We are The Ancient Enemy". Furthermore, it is not known who or what The Ancient Enemy is the enemy of.

• It is hinted several times that 2Face caused the fire that scarred her, but this is not confirmed. Her name was inspired by the comic book villain Two-Face.

• The sources of the various mutations are not known. Most are described as being a result of exposure to radiation; however, even some of the characters note that this is not an adequate explanation: some are subtle, while some are extreme (compare the Troika to a lesser mutation like Edward's chameleon-like power to change the color of his skin). Some only become apparent after a time: Tate's mutation "The Mouth" is only discovered over halfway through the series. Also, some of the characters seem to have unusual traits unrelated to the others---examples include Kubrix, whose see-through skin is caused by Mother, and Billy, whose strange abilities (also unexplained) existed before the main events of the stories.

• The bodies of all the corpses of the Mayflower passengers vanish with no explanation. Eight "Wakers" are unaccounted for. Three become the Troika, and the others, called "The Missing Five" are later revealed to be, somehow, alive within Billy.

• Although the Moon never impacts Earth, or any of the three parts it breaks into, the Earth that the Remnants return to has the Moon imbedded in its side.

[edit] External link

• Remnants website