The Alien

Animorphs, Book 8

By: Katherine Applegate

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Ax is an Andalite, an alien, stranded on a strange planet he's sworn to defend, even though it's not his own. Since the Animorphs rescued him, he's fought at their side, and in that time they've come to consider Ax a friend.

But deep inside, Ax knows he isn't their friend. He can't ever be. Andalites must always hold themselves apart, even from their allies. As the Animorphs' past actions start resulting in deaths of innocent people, however, Ax's loyalty is called into question. Now he must decide whether to reveal the reason for his estrangement - the shameful secret of his people.

©2011 Scholastic Inc (P)2020 Scholastic Inc

PERFECT narrator for Ax!

While I may not love some of the production choices for the Animorphs audiobooks (most especially, the lack of an audio effect for the thought-speak to match the visual punctuation difference), I LOVE the narrator they picked for Ax. Adam Verner perfectly encapsulates the awkwardness and youth of Ax; and best of all manages to do the "plays with mouth sounds" moments that actually make it seem like he is legitimately *playing* with the sounds. I had a whole new perspective/appreciation for the character, which I definitely did not expect from a series that I have read multiple times since childhood! High praise to the casting director, and to Adam for being so awesome in this role!

Narrator is the right level of quirky

This isn't one of the strongest books in the early series, but it's solid. And they got a narrator that's just the right amount of quirky. Let's face it, voicing an alien is rough, but the narrator does it and bring a level of zeal to the role of someone who doesn't understand most of human culture and Earth as a whole. I really look forward (if the series progresses) to this narrator getting some of the tougher books. #18 and #38 will be some of the best of the series if they get that far!

Great book!

The character voices this reader uses are some of the best for all of the books in the series. I love the way that Tobias and Rachel especially sound in this one.

Ax!

Given the performances the narrators for 5 and 6 gave for Ax I was concerned that Verner's take would sound like a hammy middle-aged man, but I'm glad my fears were unfounded! All his voices were on point, I especially like the breeziness of his Tobias! I do wonder why those two other narrators are so off-base, and I hope Verner will get to voice Ax again. He and Crouch kinda got the short end of the stick with this run.

Aaah, these kids reconciling at the end. So young, so hopeful, not yet crushed by the war or disillusioned by the Andalites.

Bafflingly good, just fantastic

I finish these books in two days, they so well written and the productions done for the audiobooks are amazing, please keep making them because ath this rate I will run out of animorphs audiobooks soon!

One of my favorite Animorphs books

These adaptations are a great way to experience animorphs in a new way. I hope Audible is planning on adapting the whole series.

Nailed it!

This is my first time absorbing the anamorphs series, and since each book has been from the perspective of a different member of the team every time, I was hoping we would eventually get to hear things from the perspective of Ax!

Everyone else portrays Ax as kind of deep voice and stoic but the narrator portrays him with a much more quirky internal monologue, which I think is a great contrast.

I'm constantly amazed that these stories can be so short but keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time!

the raw emotion that could be felt from ax

what an amazing book, full of raw emotion and feeling from ax, one of my favorite books in the series