'Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, and Tobias were just ordinary kids until they were given the power to morph. Now the first four are extraordinary kids - and Tobias will never be a kid again. The five friends know they are the only ones who can save the human race from the evil Yeerks who plan to destroy it. But can Tobias still help now he's a hawk? Or should he just forget he was ever a boy - and fly away forever?'
Volume three of the Animorphs series is possibly one of the most interesting yet, as it not only expands upon the Yeerk threat, but also takes a look at the psychological effect that the battle has taken upon the five heroes, especially Tobias.
Flying above the city, Tobias senses a strange disturbance, yet is unable to see anything. It's only when a flock of geese hit an invisible barrier mid-flight that he discovers that the Yeerks have the ability to cloak their ships. Following this invisible threat, the Animorphs find out that the Yeerks are collecting water from a lake in one of the local forests to resupply their ships.
The teens make a plan to travel up into the mountains in wolf form, then transform into fish to enter the ship via it's water collection tubes so that they can destroy it from within.
The introduction of the Yeerk supply ships is a nice addition to the mythology, it shows that the Yeerks aren't able to produce everything that they need in order to survive, and that they will need to resupply from time to time. This opens a lot more options to our heroes to try and interfere in their plans. Whilst in this case it's water that the Yeerks are after, who's to know if there will be other times that the Animorphs will find supplies that their enemies need, and be able to disrupt that.
Thanks to some clever thinking, the team are able to destroy the Yeerk ship, though this is almost down to dumb luck. It gives our heroes a much needed win, a victory over their enemies that they've not really had yet, though doesn't make it easy enough that this will be something that they will be able to do every book. It's a hard fought win, and one that they almost didn't have.
Despite dealing with this new Yeerk threat the heart of the book is the struggle that Tobias has been going through since becoming trapped as a hawk. Whilst this had been explored briefly during the previous book, it was only done so in passing, and never from his point of view. Now that the story has shifted to his narration K.A. Applegate is able to really delve into this, and show just how devastating it has been for him.
It's not just the fact that Tobias has lost his body, and is suffering because he can't do the things he loved anymore, it's also the internal fight he has against the hawk's natural instincts. Whenever the Animorphs first morph we get to see them struggle against the animals instincts, but this is something that fades away after a little while, so the fact that it comes back for Tobias is something of a surprise. His fight to maintain his humanity, to try and retain a semblance of himself and not give in to living like an animal is possibly the hardest fight that he has had so far.
The Encounter is where Animorphs starts to feel more like a war, with the heroes planning a mission to disrupt their enemies supply chains, and where we get to see the physical and psychological effects that the battle has had upon them. The first indication that this won't just be a simple children's story where the heroes come out unscathed, this proves to be a more important chapter in the series that it first appears to be.
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