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This article is written from a Real World point of view.

"This is my hirac delest — my final statement. I have formed the mental link to the thought-speak transponder in my fighter's computer. I will record my memories before the Yeerks annihilate all trace of me. If this message someday reaches the Andalite world, I want the truth to be known. I am called a great warrior. A hero. But there is a great deal that no Andalite knows about me. I have not lied, but I have kept the truth a secret. This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many years on Earth... and yet, no time at all."
Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul[src]

The Andalite Chronicles, published in November 1997, is the first Chronicles companion book to the Animorphs series, written by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant. Narrated by Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, the events of the tale takes place after the main story of The Hork-Bajir Chronicles leading up to Elfangor's final moments in The Invasion.

Plot

Official Description

His name is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.

An Andalite war-prince. The one who gave five young humans the ability to morph into any animal they touch. They are still out there, fighting an evil so powerful there isn't a moment that goes by when they can actually feel safe. Their story continues.

But this is how it all began...

Plot Summary

The book takes place before and leading up to the events in The Invasion. It is narrated by Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. It begins with him uploading his hirac delest into his fighter's computer before facing Visser Three at the abandoned construction site. The rest of the book is then a flashback of Elfangor's personal history, beginning with his life as an aristh, a warrior in training and ending with him at the construction site. Elfangor and his fellow aristh Arbron rescue two humans from the Skrit Na: a young girl named Loren and a young boy named Hedrick Chapman. Elfangor and Arbron are assigned to return them to Earth under the leadership of a disgraced War-Prince named Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. However, upon realizing the Skrit Na were in possession of the mythical Time Matrix, they were forced to go after it. Arbron became trapped as a Taxxon nothlit, and Elfangor becomes inadvertently responsible for Alloran's infestation. Eventually, Elfangor, Alloran and the Yeerk controlling him, as well as the humans fall into a black hole. They were forced to use the Time Matrix to escape, which takes them to a fragmented universe created from the memories of Elfangor, Loren, and the Yeerk (now Visser Thirty-Two). Elfangor and Loren were able to escape to Earth, where he morphs a human and stays in that form. He assumes the name Alan Fangor and marries Loren some time later, but as she becomes pregnant with their child, revealed to be Tobias, the Ellimist repairs Elfangor's timeline and returns him to his people. Elfangor went on to become a great Andalite hero, leading to the events of the first Animorphs book, where Visser Thirty-Two, having escaped the collapsing universe, has been promoted to Visser Three.

Appearances

Protagonists:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Locations:

Items:

Major/Highlighted Events

  • Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul and Arbron, two Andalite arisths, are called for duty when it is discovered that the Skrit Na, an alien ravager species, have made a trip to Earth and are heading back to their homeworld. The two are are placed under the command of disgraced War-Prince Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. After infiltrating the Skrit Na ship, they rescue two humans whom the Skrit Na kidnapped – Loren and Hedrick Chapman – and decide to wipe their memories and return them to Earth.
  • Arbron discovers that the Skrit Na also recovered the Time Matrix, a time traveling machine that was created by the Ellimist and buried on Earth for over fifty-thousand years, and that it was loaded onto another ship currently headed for the Taxxon homeworld.
  • Alloran decides that the recovery of the Time Matrix is much more important than returning two humans to Earth and the group head towards the Taxxon homeworld, sneaking onboard a Yeerk transport ship, where they manage to acquire Taxxons. The three Andalites leave Loren and Arbron on Alloran's ship, the Jahar, and sneak into the Taxxon homeworld in Taxxon morph. However, when Elfangor refuses to cave in to the Taxxon hunger, he is correctly identified as an Andalite in morph by Sub-Visser Seven, who covets an Andalite body.
  • Arbron becomes trapped in Taxxon morph.
  • Chapman, who has become antagonistic ever since his kidnapping, lands the Jahar on the Taxxon homeworld and becomes a voluntary Controller, restraining Loren and presenting her to the Yeerks to infest. Additionally, he discloses the fact that Earth has billions of host bodies for them to take, offering to help them infest the human species in exchange for his survival. Chapman's information is what causes the Yeerks to visit Earth and infest humans.
  • Elfangor knocks out Alloran to prevent Alloran from killing defenseless Yeerks, and Sub-Visser Seven, who was inside Chapman at the time, is able to then infest the unconscious Alloran; Elfangor becomes responsible for creating the Abomination, the first Andalite-Controller in history. The Yeerk is then promoted to Visser Thirty-two.
  • The Jahar begins to sink towards a black hole, causing Visser Thirty-two, Loren and Elfangor to use the Time Matrix to escape, with each of them thinking of their homeworld. The process causes the Time Matrix to create a hybrid world comprising of elements from Earth, the Andalite homeworld and the Yeerk homeworld. Loren and Elfangor manage to defeat Visser Thirty-two, who returns to the black hole.
  • Elfangor and Loren find the Time Matrix, but their proximity to the vortex causes them to rapidly age, with Loren physically aging to eighteen. The two, who have fallen in love over the past week, decide to head to Earth, where Elfangor uses the Frolis Maneuver to create a unique human morph. Elfangor attends university and helps create human computer operating systems.
  • Loren and Elfangor are shocked to discover Chapman on Earth, as they believed he died in the black hole, although Chapman has no memory of them or the Yeerks.
  • Elfangor marries Loren and lives on Earth for about three years before he is whisked away by the Ellimist, who informs Elfangor that his true place in history is with the Andalites. The Ellimist notifies Elfangor that it would be impossible to defeat the Yeerks otherwise, revealing that Visser Thirty-two, who survived jumping into the vortex, is now known as Visser Three. Elfangor correctly deduces that it was the Ellimist who saved Chapman from his death and wiped his memory, and the Ellimist responds that it was because Chapman still has a role to play in the Andalite-Yeerk War. Elfangor decides to return to Andalite society, saddened when he is informed that Loren's memories of him will be erased. He attempts to renege on his return when he discovers that Loren is pregnant with their son, but the Ellimist refuses to send Elfangor back, notifying him that his future actions in the war will lead to five human kids and his brother Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill to unite, creating a possibility for the Yeerks to be defeated someday.
    • Elfangor and Loren's son is revealed to be none other than Tobias, whom Elfangor finally meets at the Abandoned Construction Site, the location where Elfangor hid the Time Matrix and the reason why he crash-landed there.
    • Elfangor realizes that the Animorphs are the reason for the Ellimist's interference, and decides to bestow them with the morphing power despite them being children because of Loren, who had been able to stand up against the Yeerks despite being a human teenager.
  • Andalite society and military history are further touched upon:
    • Prince is revealed to be a rank in the Andalite military, not associated with royalty. It is the third highest honor, followed by War-Prince and Captain.
    • The Andalite society is revealed to be led by the Electorate, a group who dictates how many children Andalite families are allowed to have. They are also in charge of the government and are held in high esteem.
    • Andalites in the military are all revealed to be equipped with translator chips, that allow them to comprehend alien languages a few minutes after hearing them. Additionally, thought-speak is revealed to translate itself to the recipient's head in their native language.
    • The Andalites' failure to save the Hork-Bajir from entire infestation is further explored, including the revelation that War-Prince Alloran was disgraced and shunned from Andalite society after he unleashed a biological quantum virus in an effort to wipe out the Hork-Bajir, an act considered unforgivable by both Andalites and Yeerks.
  • Galard, the universal language of trade and commerce, is introduced to the series.
  • It is revealed that not all Taxxons willingly surrendered their freedom to the Yeerk Empire, and that there are a group of rebels known as Mountain Taxxons, who serve The Living Hive. It is also shown that Taxxons are capable of regenerating their limbs.

Morphs

Morpher Morphs acquired Morphs used
Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul Taxxon, Human Djabala, Kafit bird, Taxxon, Human (becomes trapped in morph)
Arbron Taxxon Taxxon (becomes trapped in morph)
Alloran-Semitur-Corrass Taxxon, Hork-Bajir Taxxon, Hork-Bajir

Trivia

  • This book was published and released at the same time as The Change.
  • The events in this book take place around 1976 (twenty-one years prior to The Invasion). Loren mentions her father being a U.S. Army veteran, having returned from the Vietnam War, and mentions the Star Trek TV series. The epilogue of the story takes place a little over three years later, in 1980,[1] with the final chapter, set during The Invasion, taking place around 1997.
  • Under the guise of Alan Fangor, Elfangor describes how he created an operating system using "windows". He then shared this creation with his friend, simply named "Bill". This would suggest that Elfangor is responsible for the Windows OS, and that his friend was Bill Gates. He also mentioned he talked with someone named Steve, possibly a reference to Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak from Apple, Inc.
  • Elfangor states that his adventures took place twenty-one years prior to meeting Tobias. Given that Tobias was conceived three years after that, there is some confusion among fans as to why or how Tobias is around thirteen and not seventeen when he met Elfangor. This is because Loren, who aged from her early teens to eighteen, was shifted by the Ellimist into her corresponding year. Tobias was conceived around 1980, when Loren was physically 21; however, because she is actually meant to be three or four years younger, the Ellimist repaired the timeline and had 21-year-old pregnant Loren shifted to 1983-1984, the year she would have turned 21 had she not used the Time Matrix. Tobias was then born in 1984, and thus was thirteen when he met Elfangor in 1997.
  • Elfangor's moral dilemma against flushing defenseless Yeerks into cold space is revisited in the series through Jake's perspective, in The Answer.
  • This book and Megamorphs #1: The Andalite's Gift were the only books in the series which were published as separate parts in order to be released faster. The Andalite's Gift was released in 2 books, while The Andalite Chronicles was released in 3 books. Both were later compiled into one complete book later on. However, because of this (The Andalite's Gift), The Andalite Chronicles remains to be the only book in the series with 3 covers total.
  • Originally the three parts of The Andalite Chronicles were named Elfangor's Journey, Alloran's Choice and An Alien Dies. These are the names of each book Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
  • This is the first book published in the series that does not have the word "Animorph" written in the story.
  • In chapters 22 and 23, Elfangor finds a yellow 1970s Ford Mustang on board the Skrit Na ship next to the Time Matrix. Inside it is a cassette tape that has two Rolling Stones songs on it, which he listens to: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Honky Tonk Women". The car also has some bottles of Dr. Pepper ("bubbling brown water") which he opens and pours into a shallow pan and drinks while he drives.
  • The flipbook animation on the pages features Elfangor's journey through space in an Andalite fighter (possibly the Jahar) chasing the Skrit Na who fly in a Skrit Na Saucer, then orbiting a few planets (Taxxon Homeworld), and then flying into a black hole (possibly leading into the hybrid world created by the Time Matrix).
  • The ships shown on the cover are Andalite fighters, and the asparagus-like trees shown are derrishoul trees.
  • The audiobook edition is the only Chronicles novel to be narrated by one of the six narrators of the main series (MacLeod Andrews; despite his normal character Jake not being the narrator). While Michael Crouch provides narration for The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, it's only for the two chapters his character Tobias narrated; the rest of the novel is still narrated by 3 new narrators.

Goofs/Inconsistencies

  • On p3, Sofor is misspelled Sofar.
  • The Andalite use expressions such as nodding and shrugging. However, in the Animorphs series, the Animorphs (and Ax himself) constantly remark on how Ax is adopting human expressions such as nodding and shrugging, because those are expressions Andalite do not do naturally.
  • Elfangor refers to the Taxxons as worms and the Yeerks as slugs, and later describes something as a wet cloth running on gravel. As worms and slugs are creatures native to Earth, which Elfangor has not studied, he should be unaware of both terms. Additionally, the Andalite unawareness of human clothing comes up multiple times as well, therefore he should not know what cloth is.
  • Elfangor explains the concept of Maximum Burn on p51 and points out time would pass faster outside the ship compared to inside, thus why they could not use it to return Loren or Chapman to Earth. However, this particular side-effect never occurs when Maximum Burn is used later on in the book, or in the rest of the series.
  • Loren mentions Chapman trying to control the Jahar, prompting Elfangor to order the computer not to allow Chapman to use it. However, Chapman is able to use the Jahar to land on the Taxxon homeworld without explanation.
  • On p207, Elfangor refers to Esplin as a Sub-Visser, instead of as "Visser".
  • The sudden decompression of the Jahar, which includes a hatch opening into outer space, doesn't kill or impact Chapman or Loren in any way; a human in outer space, unprotected, would die almost instantly.
  • While Loren is explaining about cars on p260, her name is spelled 'Loran'.
  • On p285, Elfangor says to close their eyes while entering the space-time tornado. However, he describes what he sees while going through.
  • Tobias tells Elfangor that his mother and father abandoned him when he was younger, but in The Encounter, he states twice that his parents had died when he was younger. He also mentions in The Change (which was released on the same day as The Andalite Chronicles) that his parents had abandoned him as a child. There is truth to both statements, however, as in The Andalite Chronicles he tells Elfangor that while he was told his parents did abandon him, he chooses to believe they are dead rather than accept that they did not want him.
    • Additionally, in The Pretender, Tobias remarks that while his parents are probably dead, he believes his mother left him while his father passed away.
  • At the end of Part 2, the Jahar emerges from Z-space and witnesses a space battle between several Andalite ships and a group of living asteroids. The Visser boards the Jahar, and one of the asteroids begins to swallow the ship. But at the beginning of Part 3, all the living asteroids are gone and the Jahar is now falling towards a previously unmentioned black hole. This inconsistency is never resolved or addressed in any capacity.
  • Loren tells Elfangor she is playing softball, but she points out a raised pitcher's mound. Softball is pitched from flat ground, unlike baseball which is pitched from a raised mound.

Gallery

U.S. Images

International Covers

References

  1. He would've arrived on Earth around mid-late 1976 in order for the timeline to make sense, as Elfangor states he was on Earth for three years and that it was also now the 1980s. If he arrived in late 1976, early 1980 would be three years later.
Books
Main Series #1 The Invasion | #2 The Visitor | #3 The Encounter | #4 The Message | #5 The Predator | #6 The Capture | #7 The Stranger | #8 The Alien | #9 The Secret | #10 The Android | #11 The Forgotten | #12 The Reaction | #13 The Change | #14 The Unknown | #15 The Escape | #16 The Warning | #17 The Underground | #18 The Decision | #19 The Departure | #20 The Discovery | #21 The Threat | #22 The Solution | #23 The Pretender | #24 The Suspicion | #25 The Extreme | #26 The Attack | #27 The Exposed | #28 The Experiment | #29 The Sickness | #30 The Reunion | #31 The Conspiracy | #32 The Separation | #33 The Illusion | #34 The Prophecy | #35 The Proposal | #36 The Mutation | #37 The Weakness | #38 The Arrival | #39 The Hidden | #40 The Other | #41 The Familiar | #42 The Journey | #43 The Test | #44 The Unexpected | #45 The Revelation | #46 The Deception | #47 The Resistance | #48 The Return | #49 The Diversion | #50 The Ultimate | #51 The Absolute | #52 The Sacrifice | #53 The Answer | #54 The Beginning
Megamorphs The Andalite's Gift | In the Time of Dinosaurs | Elfangor's Secret | Back to Before
Chronicles The Andalite Chronicles | The Hork-Bajir Chronicles | VISSER | The Ellimist Chronicles
Alternamorphs The First Journey | The Next Passage
TV Tie-Ins Meet the Stars of Animorphs
Graphic Novels #1 The Invasion | #2 The Visitor | #3 The Encounter | #4 The Message
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