Thought-Speak - A Book Nostalgia Podcast

This speak: Aximili (and those "teenage human animal morphers" he's aligned with) discover the existence of the new Visser 1's next evil plot! And it involves Visser 2! And some mysterious coordinates at sea! The Animorphs are no strangers to dangerous missions, but this time things are getting BONKERS real fast. After stealing an F-16 fighter jet, crashing it at sea, and then boarding the USS George Washington warship, the Animorphs discover a Yeerk plot that will change the future of the planet... and maybe even initiate World War III ... Can Ax avert total war and the beginning of the end of the invasion?? All that and more as we review Animorphs book 46: The Deception. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Deception The post Animorphs: The Deception appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Cassie just boarded the wrong plane... During a scuffle with the Yeerks at the airport, Cassie is separated from the others and pursued by scores of controllers. She manages to elude them, temporarily, by hiding out on a departing plane. But things rarely go as planned for our team of teenage heroes, and Cassie winds up in the Australian outback! Totally cut off from her friends! Miles from the nearest trace of civilization! And still being pursued by Yeerks! How will she escape her enemies? How will she get back to her homeland? And most importantly; how did the writer manage to screw up such an interesting premise?? All that and more as we review Animorphs book 44: The Unexpected. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Unexpected The post Animorphs: The Unexpected appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Tobias is in over his head - again! After helping to locate a missing child in the woods, Tobias ends up in a vet's office with no way out! And it's the Yeerks that get to him first, headed up by his old nemesis Taylor. The one-time Sub-Visser claims to be helping the Yeerk Peace Movement progress, but she needs something from Tobias and the rest of the Andalite bandits (also Ax) to make her plan work. The team decides to play along and help her tunnel underneath the Yeerk pool in order to make it all go BOOM! but something doesn't feel quite right. Tobias can't shake the feeling that Taylor can't be trusted, on account of that whole torture episode, and the fact that she's pretty noticeably cray-cray. Can the team handle Taxxon morph? Can Taylor be trusted? All that and more as we review Animorphs book 43: The Test. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Test The post Animorphs: The Test appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Marco's got all sorts of problems! First, there's this camera he's got to snatch from some dude's apartment that just might have some pics of the team in mid-morph... The only thing standing in his way is one. Tough. Dog. That, and he can't morph. Why not? Because of all the shrunken-down Helmacrons and Animorphs (and Ax's!) inside his body! Huh-whaaa? That's right, the Helmacrons are back, and the rules don't matter anymore! Will Marco ever get the little people out of his head and find a way to delete those potentially-disastrous pix?? Find out when we review Animorphs book 42: The Journey. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Journey The post Animorphs: The Journey appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Jake is having a tough time being leader of the Animorphs (and the leader of Ax). After yet another gut-wrenching battle with the Yeerks, the team is fragmented and tormented and looking to Jake for guidance, but ol Jakey's not in the mood. Lucky for him, when he goes to bed that night he wakes up in a world where he's not the leader of the Animorphs anymore! BUT the world is ruled by the Yeerks and the Animorphs have long-since been defeated. Ruh-roh! Join Jake, alone and confused, as he navigates a hellish future-Earth that's been dominated by the Yeerks, discovers which of his friends are still alive....and which ones have become controllers... All in an effort to return to the past and abort this nightmare reality. But is there a way for Jake to return to the life he knows and continue the fight? Well there's like more than ten books left in the series, so I sure hope so! All that and more when we review Animorphs book 41: The Familiar. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Familiar The post Animorphs: The Familiar appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Jake's had enough. Enough of the bloody battles. Enough feeling powerless to help. Enough of being an Animorph. So naturally Crayak is all over him ready to pounce, sending in the Drode to offer Jake a way out. But of course, a deal with the devil is no deal at all, and Jake awakes to find the timelines reset and everyone's memories wiped. And this time, on their way home from the mall one night, 5 kids don't meet a dying alien. They don't get the power to morph. And they don't know they're being invaded by Yeerks. Relive the beginning of the invasion, and really the beginning of the series, with a dangerous twist that leaves all our teens clueless to what's going on around them. See how their lives might have played out, if things had happened differently. See what happens when they go back... to before! All that and more in our review of MEGAMORPHS #4: Back to Before! Continue readingAnimorphs: Megamorphs: Back to Before The post Animorphs: Megamorphs: Back to Before appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Marco witnesses what appears to be footage of an Andalite on television, sending him flying from the coop over to Ax's scoop. With Ax's technological advancements they're able to replay the footage and find out exactly what they're dealing with here.....an after-school special about the treatment of the differently-abled! But Marco, Ax, and Tobias find way more than they expected roaming the woods when they run into *A BRAND NEW ANDALITE* that wants nothing to do with them. Ol' Gaffy the Buff Andalite is a man on a mission, struck by disaster now he's wishin' to find his friend Mertil in the kitchen eatin' chicken finger lickin'. Can the Animorphs (and their own pet Andalite Ax) work together with Gafinalin to find his crippled friend Mertil? How exactly will the Yeerks clock-block them this time? And are we all really going to just forget exactly how scummy of a person Ax is revealed to be in this book? It's like each book that expands on Andalite culture is making them out to be worse and worse. And these are supposed to be the good guys! What the hell is going on here?! All that and more in our review of Animorphs #40: The Other! Continue readingAnimorphs: The Other The post Animorphs: The Other appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: The hunt is on...for Animorphs, that is! Cassie is enjoying normality one day when Erek busts in and gives her a new mission: Run! It seems the Yeerks have found and repaired some downed Helmacron technology, and now they are able to track the morphing energy the Animorphs emit when they use their powers. Also, the blue cube emits this energy constantly, and now it's up to Cassie to keep it moving to evade the sudden rush of oncoming Yeerks! Her escape leads her to the Gardens where an encounter with a Cape Buffalo throws a wrench in the mission... and the poor animal gains the ability to morph! Now Cassie and the team have two problems to deal with, and it's only a matter of time before the Yeerks close in on them and everyone's too tired to run. Will they get away? And how will they deal with the morph-capable "buffa-human?" The answers lie in our review of Animorphs #39: The Hidden! Continue readingAnimorphs: The Hidden The post Animorphs: The Hidden appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: During a botched mission, Andalite Aristh Aximili (and the Animorphs!) are unexpectedly aided by extra Andalites! Aximili is enthralled with the alluring Estrid, but his Animorph allies are only certainly sceptical. Aximili of course entertains his Andalite allies and adds his aid to their conspicuous cause. When the arguing Animorphs find themselves falling apart, it's up to Aximili to crack the code on his brave brethren's bold cold assassination attempt: their terrible target, the dreadly (amiright?) and deadly Andalite V-3! Is it Aximili's hour of power and glory? Or will it be downfalls and death and the end of the Animorph's story? Find out! In our review of Animorphs #38: The Arrival! Continue readingAnimorphs: The Arrival The post Animorphs: The Arrival appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Jake's outta town or something, so naturally Rachel turns into a power-hungry dictator that takes over the Animorphs (she gets Ax too!) and convinces everyone to go out and just start attacking all the controllers they know about to make Visser Three look bad in front of the bad guy-of-the-week that's Inspectoring him. So the Rachel-lead Animorphs (she's still got Ax, too!) hit the town bullying Yeerks and spreading the word that Visser Three and the Yeerks need to leave! Things seem to be going well for the new terrorist group, until Rachel sucks and is stupid and the mission goes off the rails, and we're left to wonder: where the heck are they going with this book? I won't spoil it here! You'll have to listen to our review of Animorphs #37: The Weakness! Continue readingAnimorphs: The Weakness The post Animorphs: The Weakness appeared first on Thought-Speak.

Thought-Speak is delighted to invite you to our recap and review of a very special Animorphs offshoot, Visser. Joining the typical lineup of hosts, Mitchell and Coleman, is a brave Animorphs fan and Andalite-tier Patreon subscriber, Richard! After all, such a special book requires a very special extra host! And over the next two hours, we'll try our damndest to convince you to read this book with our constant adoration and highly-sung praise. We're not kidding around here folks, this is one of the best Animorphs books and if you haven't read it yet, you're doing yourself a disservice. If that's the case, go read Visser for crying out loud! Then come back and listen to this episode of Thought-Speak! Those are your orders!! Continue readingAnimorphs: VISSER The post Animorphs: VISSER appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Marco's dad has a new girlfriend! And Marco's not too happy about it... And now it seems that stress is causing Marco to mix-up morphs! Marco tries to hide this all from his friends, The Animorphs (and Ax I guess?), but they've got a new mission to deal with and a controller's career to ruin. Some guy on TV is telling people to join The Sharing, and the team won't be having it! To stop him, they'll pull out all the stops and turn into bugs to try and gross him out. And when that fails, they'll stalk him as a poodle. War has turned these children into animals...in more ways than one. All that and more when we review Animorphs book #35, The Proposal. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Proposal The post Animorphs: The Proposal appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Cassie's hearing voices in her head! The voice of Aldrea, the Andalite-turned-Hork-Bajir that died in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, specifically. Remember her?! Well she's inside Cassie now. And it may have something to do with the Arn that showed up at the free Hork-Bajir colony. This Arn, the last of his kind, seeks to collect the DNA of the free Hork-Bajir and help to take back their homeworld. He offers up the ghost of Aldrea to the Animorphs (and that rascally Ax) to help them find a hidden weapons cache on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. The team is all over that shit and jumps on the nearest spaceship, installing Aldrea's ghost in Cassie in the process. Can the team find the hidden weapons and stick it to the Yeerks? Will Aldrea decide to willingly leave Cassie's body?? Exactly how many times are we gonna say the words "Hork-Bajir?!" All that and more when we review Animorphs book #34, The Prophecy. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Prophecy The post Animorphs: The Prophecy appeared first on Thought-Speak.

Heya folks, we’re proud to present our review of a fan-favorite book in the series, The Illusion. This is a highly praised Tobias book that… Continue readingAnimorphs: The Illusion The post Animorphs: The Illusion appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Rachel splits in two. Shut up, don't ask questions, it just happens, okay?! Now the Animorphs (Featuring Ax the Andalite & Erek the Chee!) have to deal with two completely different Rachels. One of them is a weakling that cries a lot, the other one is seriously a psychopath. Both are useless to the team, and just in time for their critical mission to attack the Yeerks, who are of course working on their latest weapon: an "anti-morph ray" that can supposedly interfere with their morphing powers. How will the Animorphs deal with this whacky new situation? What the heck can they do to get both halves of Rachel back in one body? Why did the Applegates write this book?? We'll figure it out! All that and more when we review Animorphs book #32, The Separation. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Separation The post Animorphs: The Separation appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Jake's great grandpa dies, meaning an out of town funeral for both Jake and his brother. And as we all know, Tom is a controller. A four day excursion away from the Yeerk pool is not something he can do. Now Tom will do anything to get out of going to the funeral. Including straight up murder by drive-by shooting. Jake's on edge guarding his dad, knowing that Tom could strike again at any moment. The Animorphs (and a feisty Ax!) are desperate to protect Jake's dad, while keeping their identities a secret. And they're not so sure they can trust Jake's judgement lately... They'll trash random parked cars, morph recklessly, shadow Jake's dad relentlessly, and kidnap and terrorize the Chapman family all in their quest to save Jake's dad. And possibly murder Tom. Also the Chee were there! #TomRefusesGo All that and more when we review Animorphs book #31, The Conspiracy. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Conspiracy The post Animorphs: The Conspiracy appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: The Visser formerly known as One returns! And when Marco runs smack-dab into her while skipping school, he gets it in his head that he should shadow her. What could go wrong? Marco quickly finds himself breaking all the Animorphs (and Ax!) codes of conduct in his relentless pursuit of his former mother-turned-Visser. Eventually he hijacks the entire mission, taking Ex-V1 hostage and walking her to her eventual doom, leaving the reader wondering: "Dang... is Marco really going to kill his own mom??" All that and more when we review Animorphs book #30, The Reunion. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Reunion The post Animorphs: The Reunion appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Our story begins on an alternate, time-tinkered Earth with an entirely different set of Animorphs. Jake is an authoritarian leader. Cassie is a slave owner. Marco is excited by Pong. Ax is the same. And Tobias is in love with the last Animorph, Melissa. This new, more interesting set of characters are swiftly replaced by the standard Animorphs we all know and love, thanks to a convenient truce between Crayak and Ellimist. Now the Animorphs (and Aximili!) are thrust through time on their latest mission to stop one of the second-string villains from messing around with the Earth's continuity. During their trip, the Animorphs (and Mr. Isthill!) will encounter ancient knights, swashbuckling seafaring ship battles, and absolutely all the worst of human-on-human murder that history has to offer! Will our heroes conquer the evil Yeerk empire and restore balance to the Force? Find out, when we review Animorphs MEGAMORPHS book #3, Elfangor's Secret. Continue readingAnimorphs: Megamorphs: Elfangor’s Secret The post Animorphs: Megamorphs: Elfangor’s Secret appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: Ax comes down with a deadly and contagious case of SPACE AIDS! And just in time for the next dangerous mission to the Yeerk Pool! When Cassie is confronted by a controller claiming to be with the Yeerk Peace Movement, she learns that her old buddy Aftran (from The Departure) isn't doing so well after the last time we saw her... as in, she's about to be interrogated by Visser 3 and reveal all the Animorphs deepest darkest secrets to him! So now Cassie and the rest of the Animorphs (and not Ax!) have to figure out a way to rescue Aftran, all while quelling the flames of Ax's raging SPACE AIDS... Which has started to spread to the rest of the team! Giving Cassie some much-needed time to work on her alien brain surgery skills. What a head case! *Insert sound of crickets* ... All that and more when we review Animorphs book #29, The Sickness. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Sickness The post Animorphs: The Sickness appeared first on Thought-Speak.

This speak: The plot is hologram-delivered to the team once again from their paranoid android friend, Erek the Chee. This time the Yeerks are up to something beefy, and it's the Animorphs (and Ax!) job to investigate a few locales and get to the bottom of the Yeerk's sneaky new plan. All the team knows is that it involves chimps and cows, a laboratory and a slaughterhouse. But first, Ax must somehow manage to pull himself away from his newly acquired television set! In an adventure that feels in part like it was sponsored by PETA, will the Animorphs (and Ax?) be able to crack the Yeerk code and save all the animals? Is the beef industry trying to control us all with juicy burgers? Will Taxxon's ever have access to equal voting rights and a fair dental plan? Find out! All that and more when we review Animorphs book #28, The Experiment. Continue readingAnimorphs: The Experiment The post Animorphs: The Experiment appeared first on Thought-Speak.