magicalghoul's reviews
79 reviews

Akhilandeswari, una mujer en sus 40s, se cansa de todo y decide irse en un viaje largo en tren. En el vagón conoce a otras cinco mujeres quienes compartirán las historias de su vida con ella y con nosotros. Intercaladas a estas historias, la propia Akhila también comparte cómo ha sido su vida hasta ese momento.

Este libro lo compré en una feria hace años basada sólo en la portada y no lo había no tocado, de hecho aún tenía la lámina protectora cuando lo abrí para leerlo. Pero estoy contenta con lo fortuito de la compra, pues me gustó mucho el libro.

Reboza de esa camaradería y sororidad de cuando las mujeres, con sufrimientos y alegrías en común, se juntan en un sólo sitio. La conclusión es esperanzadora y la prosa es muy bella. Aunque no he leído el original no sentí que la traducción le entorpeciera.

Mi historia favorita fue la de Mari. Amé su temperamento, el hecho de que hayan incluído la experiencia de una mujer pobre (que nota y reclama cuán distinto la tratan las otras mujeres por su estatus social percibido) y además sáfica. Esto último no me lo esperaba.

Tuve que buscar ciertos términos durante la lectura pero era de esperarse pues este libro fue básicamente mi iniciación a la cultura de la india, así que también agradezco la oportunidad para aprender. Aunque quizá no vendría a mal que las versiones internacionales trajeran un glosario.

Me encantó también la inclusión del recetario. Creo que culmina la idea de que este libro además de un intercambio de historias es también un intercambio cultural.

Warning for mild spoilers.

The introductions are over, we know the kids and their motives, the basis for their conflict and character arcs has been set, so in this book we, checks notes,

have Jake getting infested by the same aliens he and his friends are risking their lives to save Earth from and to force it out they have to starve it, which means Jake is trapped with a dying alien in his head. And there's 56 more books to go.

I love any narrative where we get a chance to see an outsider's perspective of our heroes. In Animorphs, this book is my favorite showcase of that. The upcoming David arc is another great example of it, but The Capture stands out to me since it's one of the early books and already we see how brutal these kids have to and can be and how much of a unit they already are.

One more reason to like this book: the direct threads connecting Jake's actions here to his future self in the endgame. It's in this book where he's first given the option of killing defenseless yeerks, and he goes and boils them alive. But the yeerks haven't been fleshed out and humanized by the narrative and the kids don't know the nuances of their enemy yet —the concept of seeing the yeerks as nuanced and sentient creatures is only a seed by the end of the book, so readers are characters alike have a surface level understanding of the enemy— so while on a first read you probably don't think much of it, it's horrific on a reread. And it makes Jake's actions in the future even more damning.

Jake being infested by Tom's former yeerk serves to solidify his motive of wanting to save his brother. As a narrative device it also shakes up the usual format of the books a bit and I enjoy that. It also gives us a glimpse of the symbiotic process (I would like to know even more about it please) and a first hand account of the experience as an unwilling host, in case the stakes and the scale of the situation the kids are fighting against wasn't clear enough.

This book marks the debut of other players in the war such as the Crayak and we also get hints that there's more to the Andalites (and their relationship to the Yeerks) than what our heroes have been told.

The descriptions of Jake trapped with the dying Temrash in his head are Haunting, and so is the bit with Temrash torturing Jake with Tom's holdover memories.

As for the audiobook: Loved it, as usual. Another voice that took me some time to get used to but that once I did I enjoyed. Particularly liked Temrash's voice and the Rachel-as-a-valley-girl imitation.

No highlights for the book because I don't even know where to start from. This book is simply a favorite.

With Marco we close the "introductory" books. Like his fellow Animorphs, Marco has a stereotypical role he fills (whiny comedy relief) which is how we and the other kids see him but that now that we get to access his inner world, is subverted; he's the most sceptic and cynic of the bunch, the contrarian who has more to lose than to gain if he does fight this war that he went into solely because of his loyalty to his best friend and an alien who died for him, and the humor? He learned it from his mom and it's his very deliberate main defense mechanism— much like fearlessness becomes Rachel's.

Around this time Marco's had way too many close calls (and will continue to have them if memory serves right) and despite how much he cares for his friends (which is to mean Jake), it is family (his depressed dad who's already coping very badly from the loss of Marco's mom) who must take precedence and whom Marco has to pick. He has to pull out.

So, how do you give this type of character a reason to stay and fight instead? And not only that, but with renewed strength? No spoilers, but you corner him and you make it personal.

Just like the rest of the introduction books, is a phenomenal foundation for what's in store for him.

Here we have motive and characterization and in no time we'll get to see how his archetype and the contradictions within him come together to form his contrasts as a character. He's outwardy clowny, sarcastic and aloof but he's also analytic (we see hints of it in his inner thought process during the plan they execute), manipulative (as we'll later see!) and self defines as ruthless. 

Yet at the same time he puts all of that brutality he's capable of in service of his friends and family and that's something we already see in this book too. As mentioned before he's initially fighting for Jake and an alien he saw die for him (“And you're wrong, Rachel. That means plenty to me.” is his response when Rachel accuses him of not caring for the alien's sacrifice in book 4) and in fact we're introduced to him at a point in his life when he's being a caretaker to his own dad, a role he'll continue to fulfill one way or another because they sure as hell added "parentification" to his list of traumas.

(And put a pin on that because it's extremely relevant to understand the dubious choices he makes in later books.)

I also love that his contrarian nature contributes to the multiple philosophical debates these kids will have and that that same nature is depicted as an advantage to the group just like Cassie's kindness is:

It allows him to point out faults in the plans and err to caution even if that means he goes against the group, same as Cassie, but not punished for the individuality that shows— it helps that it reminds me of Eric from the Dungeons & Dragons tv series in that regard, so I'm going to assume that "not depicting dissident voices in a group as inherently wrong in children's media" was a conscious choice from the start when writing these books.

As for the audiobook: I'm deeply enjoying the audiobooks so far. Wish Marco's voice were higher in pitch but after listening to it a while I liked it.

The narration of Marco seeing Eva alive made me Cry with how emotional his voice got, so good job.

 

In conclusion, in this house we love Marco.

Highlights: The horror comedy that was the lobster morph, the straight up horror of the ant morph and Marco finding an ant still stuck to him afterwards, Rachel's first public outburst and Marco using his goofy persona for damage control, the Visser 1 reveal, and the confirmation that basically all these kids are having ptsd nightmares now.

Cassie's books are known being The Weirdest, but they're also the most poetic of the bunch. She is the emotional center of the Animorphs after all, the one most concerned with the moral consequences of the things they have to do to fight the yeerks, and the professed animal lover.

Her main conflict in regards to morphing is present in her first book and it's a shame that I find it to be, huh, too nonsensical to take it seriously (listen, I really Don't think that turning into a brand new copy of an animal puts you on the same level as a slug taking over a different species' brain and ridding it of free will as it watches helplessly) but something I adore about the series is that it's never condescending about Cassie's kindness and her moral concerns.

Instead it portrays them as her strength and defining feature, and ultimately what helps her Survive over the others— something that ties in with the anti-imperialist and anti-war message of the series. I love her.

Highlights: Cassie reaching out and comforting the rest of the team, that really good interaction with Marco on his balcony, anytime the whales appear, AX'S INTRODUCTION. 

As for the audiobook: Very very happy with Cassie's casting. Particularly loved the voices she did for the other Animorphs (her Tobias' is spot on and her Marco is hysterical) and the way she narrated the bits where the animal instincts took over were So Fun.

I wasn't too keen on the art style at first (I remember seeing around the internet the rejected pages from other artists and wondering why they'd gone with this style in the end) but after reading, it really grows on you— and I guess it's a better fit for their 8-12 year old target.

The spreads are beautiful and the only complaint I have about the character design is that they didn't give Marco his long hair.

As for the adaptation, it's a very faithful one. There's a couple of minor changes in relation to the books here and there (mainly the omission of the "idiot teenagers with a death wish" phrase which made me sad, not gonna lie) but I ended up happy with it. Hope it ushers in a new generation of Animorphs fans and hope we get to see the entire series in this format!

 

Tobias' books are about the search for his identity and personhood, about duality and finding yourself within it, about his role in the group (a theme for all of the animorphs!) and how he stands as a warning for the rest— and also for the reader to know that the stakes are real and will affect our protagonists, in case it wasn't clear from all the death and suffering they've already come across in only two books.

His narration is turned towards interiority and this one being the first, is the peak example of it, I think. It's after all one of those points where Tobias' identity is more fractured (what with Just being trapped in a hawk body and all) to the point of being suicidal, and the narration of his inner conflict is really really gutting— made even more poignant if you're listening to the audiobooks, whose narrator did a great job in carrying across Tobias' emotionality.

Highlights: The depiction of Tobias' relationship with Rachel, the Berensons being such battle axes As Usual, these kids deciding they'd rather die than be taken captive AND WE'RE ONLY ON BOOK 3, the entirety of the mall scene, and Rachel saying "a person isn't his body" and thus supporting the fact that you can 100% read Tobias as trans. TRANS RIGHTS 🏳️‍⚧️

Not only is the prose in Raybearer Incredible, so is the world building, the character development, the themes— I couldn't stop reading, and when I wasn't reading I was Itching to come back to it.

Would recommend it if political drama, found family, reclaimed personhood and magic bonds all wrapped up in a richly built world told in beautiful prose are your thing.

The only other comment I have is against the pacing. Although it didn't feel precisely rushed, the events in this installment could have probably been covered in two books and that way we would've been given more time to take in the (fantastic!) world and some of the plot points— specially the political intrigue, which I loved, for the record.

But as it is I adored it, I was blown away and left in tears more than once and I can't wait to read the next installment.

Necesaria e interesante colección de historias cortas que muestran la diversidad y primeros pasos del género de ciencia ficción en latinoamérica con un excelente prólogo explicando las bases documentales del género en el continente.

Como toda antología, la calidad de los cuentos varía pero aún así es una muestra de buenos escritores.

Lo único que me creó duda fue la inclusión de Clemente Palma y su historia racista (a quien además prsentan como “conocido por ciertas opiniones xenófobas”) . Por más “pionero” que alguien supuestamente haya sido, no veo a bien darle plataforma a mensajes de odio más de cien años después de su publicación original.