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The Warm Machine by Aimee Cozza

When a robot built for construction work first sees an angular, sleek prototype military robot slink onto the base he's working outside of, he immediately falls in love. The problem is, only anomalous bots understand the concept of love, and the lowly laborbot has not deviated from his default programming once. So he thinks, anyway. When the laborbot is scheduled for decommission, the military bot cannot possibly live without him, and the two bots set out on a path to find the fabled anomalous robot utopia Root. COVER ARTIST: Aimee Cozza PUBLISHER: 9mm Press YEAR: 2024 LENGTH: 196 pages  AGE: Adult GENRE: Science Fiction RECOMMENDED: Highly Queer Rep Summary: The main characters are robots, likely closest to aro/ace but those terms aren't quite applicable. Gender is also not an important factor. THE WARM MACHINE plays with ideas of friendship, connection, and searching for utopia, all through the lens of a construction robot who falls in love at first sight with a military bot....

The Andalite Chronicles by K. A. Applegate

The Andalite Chronicles is the story of Aximili's brother, Elfangor, how he fought, hid, lived/loved, and returned as a hero. We learn more about Taxxons, Alloran's fate, and why Visser Three hates Elfangor. A solid prequel/midquel at the same time, don't miss it.

I'm appreciating on this read-through how the story threads pick up from the Hork-Bajir Chronicles to the Andalite Chronicles to create the conditions in the background when the whole Animorphs series starts. These should definitely be read where I have placed them if it's your first readthrough, but it is possible to read this as a prequel to the entire series if it's not your first time.

I really like Elfangor's story and how much it communicates by what he does and does not assume is normal. There really is a different perspective to the story when the narrators are not human, and this one is very well done.

As a mix between a prequel and a midquel, this is difficult to discuss without spoiling major revelations in the main series, but if you really don't care about series spoilers this could be read on its own as a self-contained (and really great) story.

A blue centaur-like alien (Elfangor the Andalite) stands with a sun framed behind his head

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