The Ultimate (novel)
Cassie morphing into a great horned owl.
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| Author | K. A. Applegate |
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| Cover artist | David B. Mattingly |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Animorphs #50 |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
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Publication date
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January 2001 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 139 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | The Diversion |
| Followed by | The Absolute |
The Ultimate, published in 2001 and written by K.A. Applegate, is the 50th book in the Animorphs series. It is the final book (fully) narrated by Cassie.
The book begins with the Animorphs and the rest of the inhabitants of the Hork-Bajir valley drilling and preparing for a surprise Yeerk attack. It is clear they are not ready for attack; the parents, particularly Rachel's mother, are having trouble adjusting, and the Animorphs are in disarray. Jake remains cold and distant to everyone; he no longer wants to be the one to make decisions and no longer has a clear idea about what is wrong and right. Cassie tells everyone that Jake wants a camp meeting and tells him about it mere minutes before the meeting is set to begin; Jake reluctantly agrees to have the meeting. Some of the parents express doubt about the Animorphs' actions and fail to realize the necessity of the war. The Animorphs argue that they know best, and they have experience with the Yeerks. They argue that war is the only way, and that everyone should agree to follow Jake's orders. In the end the whole camp agrees that Jake is to be the leader. Jake reluctantly accepts the burden of leader once again, seeing it as his duty because he is the only one who is capable of leading the Earth resistance.
The next morning Jake calls a meeting of just the six Animorphs and they agree that something needs to be done to increase the protection of the camp, and increase the overall size of the resistance. They are no longer in contact with the Yeerk resistance and they don't know how strong the organization is, and the information coming from the Chee seems to be very slow. They recognize that they need more than intelligence; they need a larger force and manpower. They begin discussing the possibility of adding more Animorphs, but none of them has forgotten David, the disastrous last attempt to add a member to the group. However they feel they don't have much of a choice, as the war is clearly shifting to a more open battle, and the Animorphs need more numbers. They agree to use the morphing cube to create Animorphs from disabled teenagers about their age. They decide that it would be best to use kids because they would be more likely to accept the story and are less grounded in reality, and that they ought to use disabled teenagers because the Yeerks would see them as useless host bodies and there is little chance that any of them are Controllers.
Cassie, Marco, and Jake go to a hospital to begin the recruiting. They find a ward full of candidates and it is quickly determined that a boy named James, a wheelchair user, is the leader. They convince James to join the fight and he assembles his own team of kids that he thinks would be best. Thus the auxiliary Animorphs are formed. The original Animorphs take them (by flying) to the Gardens to acquire battle morphs. The Animorphs and James continue to recruit more kids from the ward and after three nights of initiation the auxiliary Animorphs numbers 17. James and two of the others are healed of their affliction by the morphing power, but many more still remain disabled. Those healed agree to pretend to remain disabled for the duration of the war, so as not to alert the Yeerks. James proves to be a natural leader. Cassie wonders how it will work that James is now in charge of a majority of the Animorphs, but Jake is in charge overall. James chooses a male lion as his battle morph, the very same morph of the ill-fated David who challenged Jake's leadership. Jake, however, is not disturbed by this coincidence.
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