• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    15·
    1 day ago

    Obligatory reminder that if you do want to feed ducks, you should feed them some mixed seeds, not bread, its better for them.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      16 hours ago

      The extremely oversimplified plot synopsis is that by chance, a gaggle of pre-teens accidentally uncovers and gets involved in an intergalatic war, of which Earth is but a single, rather insignificant battlefield…

      …and because no meaningful reinforcements of the kind that would actually be needed to defeat the threat are expected to arrive any time soon, or potentially ever…

      …they become a terrorist cell to covertly and sometimes overtly resist the alien threat, somewhat frequently causing unintended collateral damage, and then more or less eventually accepting it as a calculated and justifiable cost of war.

      Its a story about how war robs childhood and innocence from child soldiers.

      Oh, and the hostile aliens are brain slugs who inhabit and directly mind control their hosts… their hosts are entirely still conscious and aware, the entire time they are being puppeted, watching themselves say and do things they would never do.

      … and I have not yet mentioned anything about how horrifically painful the actual ‘animorphing’ is described as being. They eventually ‘just get used to it’. Or how the primary challenege of assuming a new form is… maintaining sanity and identity as a human mind, that is now operating within the brain of a totally different creature, with different impulses and fears and compulsions, that you absolutely can lose yourself in.

      So, that’s a lot of body horror.

      • toynbee@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        15 hours ago

        I remember when the first few books came out and I read them, I went on the official forum for the series. People were talking about the chemical/ nutrient requirements of morphing. Also, in the first book, the telepathy is mutual and in later books it’s not; at least one person asked about that and the author admitted, in a classy way, that it was a mistake. I certainly didn’t expect the series ending with, among other things, PTSD.

        I did also like the author’s other series featuring an alternate dimension in the form of dreams wherein I believe yet another war was happening.

        … Someone should check on K.A. Applegate.