This is close enough to horror to count, isn’t it?
I read the books back when they first started and I was of age for them. A lot of people now make a big deal about how dark and disturbing and inappropriate for kids they were, but I have to say, they really didn’t bug me that much. I think you have to be past a certain age for descriptions of gore to really do anything. Now ghost stories with scary pictures, that’s where the trauma is at.
I really loved the books at the time, but eventually stopped buying them when the timeline of extra books got confusing, because I really liked to read stuff in order and the side books made that impossible to figure out. The regular series was numbered! Why weren’t the other books included in that, dammit! I was willing to buy all the stupid book tie-ins they wanted, I just wanted to be able to read them in order.
As a result, I missed the last third of the series, so try not to tell me about that.
Anyway. I think I’m going to focus on how the books develop. I reread them often at the time, and even in elementary school I could see that there were inconsistencies between books.
So, #1, The Invasion.
The first book I read of the Animorphs series was actually the second, so I only came to this afterward. That might be why I never found it too interesting, or possibly because I didn’t like Jake as much. Also, the cover is one of the lamer ones because it only showed the head. Lazy!
Also, apparently they reissued all the covers, fixing that problem at the cost of being crazy disturbing and making it look like it’s about monster people (while still not dealing with the issue of only showing the head).
By the way, the original books had this cool cutout thing which unfortunately also meant it’d get destroyed that much faster, especially as the series grew and you have to stuff more and more books into your shelves. Admittedly, I had a lot of other books as a kid, but on the other hand, I’m pretty sure “kids who have lots of books” are always a big chunk of your child book owners.
Ch1 We have the famous My name is… opening, followed by him explaining he can’t say more than his first name. He also says he’s writing it down in the hopes of warning people.
I feel this shows that the authors really understood their target audience, because preteen-me found this totally plausible, even as later books detail their families, school, hobbies and notable events, and also the fact they’re publishing this through someone who could easily trace them and also no one in universe ever references the books being written so they’re obviously doing no good, and also the big thing they spend the series hiding is that they’re morphing humans which means the first line of every book reveals it.
Has fanfic ever filled this gap? Like maybe Visser Three declares that obviously the books are written by andalites trying to trick them into thinking they’re humans? Man, Visser Three. Best villain. He turned into so many giant monsters.
The Controllers are everywhere. Everywhere. And if they knew my full name, they could find me and my friends, and then . . .
Speaking of these books being dismal, I actually had the impression back then that everything the kids do is futile, because while they’re fighting the yeerk invasion in their hometown, they’re taking over the whole planet at the same rate. But in retrospect I don’t think that was the idea, and Jake is talking about “everywhere” in the local sense. They’re right at the yeerk’s beachhead.
Jake and Marco were playing arcade games and also angst Jake didn’t get on the basketball team when his older brother is. Tobias then shows up to walk home with them and we hear he was bullied in your typical movie and novel style over the top ways. Also, apparently he was a new kid, which I never noticed. This makes his behavior make more sense than just suddenly deciding to be friends – I though maybe it was something pushing him to get together and meet the alien, probably because of how special he gets in later books.
Then we get the two girls, Rachel and Cassie. Rachel was badass but Cassie had lots of animals. Jake does not realize these are their important traits and introduces saying Rachel’s pretty but Cassie is all calm and hippie-mystic.
“You guys going home?” I asked Rachel. “You shouldn’t go through the construction site by yourselves. I mean, being girls and all.”
That was a mistake. I should never have suggested to Rachel that she’s weak or helpless. Rachel may look like Little Miss Teen Model or whatever, but she thinks she’s Storm from the X-Men.
“Are you going to come and protect us, you big, strong m-a-a-a-n?” she said. “You think we’re helpless just because – ”
“I’d appreciate it if they did walk with us,” Cassie interrupted. “I know you’re not afraid of anything, Rachel, but I guess I am.”
Rachel couldn’t say much about that. That’s the way Cassie is – she always has the right words to stop any argument without making anyone feel bad.
You know, when I read this back then I was happy to agree that Cassie was great for having diplomatic skills wow so great, but reading it now it’s annoying. If Jake hadn’t said it was because they were girls, Rachel’s response would still make sense (how much more would Jake do if they got mugged?) but Cassie smoothing it over wouldn’t have the same dismissive sense to it. Rachel isn’t saying there’s no danger, she’s mocking the idea she needs Jake to protect them, and Cassie’s response is that they do and Rachel’s just braver about it. Sure, from Jake’s POV she’s ended the argument with no hurt to his own ego, but would Rachel see it that way?
They head into the construction site, where a spaceship is about to land.
Ch2&Ch3 And then the spaceship lands. The whole alien bit really plays up the wonder, and I get the impression there was originally more of a mystical psychic component to things. The ship radiates good happy feelings and everyone loves the alien on sight, and it’s not just the wonder of seeing something amazing because the evil ship radiates evil feelings and everyone knows he’s evil on sight. Also they inherently hate each other. (Actually, reading it now it looks like slight mind control, which I don’t think ever comes up.)
Also, the Andalite who probably shouldn’t be capitalized because it’s their species because monoculture worlds so I won’t past now sorry has a ship with a curved tail because hey, they have curved tails. It makes me think their ships were designed with way too much concern for aesthetics. They’re basically space elves.
There’s a picture of a space elfdeer family that’s two big ones and two little ones, so I’m pretty sure the original idea was for him to have a family rather than having a picture of himself as a baby.
The kids explain to the alien that no one will believe them about the aliens, so he gets the morphing box to fight back, because somehow “No one will believe us!” turns into “We aren’t capable of singlehandedly fighting this war so do you have anything that’ll help with that?”.
There are . . . limitations. Problems. Dangers, even. But there is no time to explain it all . . . no time. You will have to learn for yourselves.
Which I don’t recall actually coming up much. I think it’s just a matter of leaving room for whatever the author wanted to introduce later.
Ch4 introduces us to the two hour limit, which could’ve been handled better. In a few books they get another alien to serve as a watch, but miss the opportunity for him to say the time limit is actually two hours seven minutes fifteen seconds. Also, the morphing cube just sort of vanishes afterward, which at the time I thought nothing of because it seemed like it required an andalite to activate but it’ll appear again and that won’t be true.
<The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome looks,> the Andalite said. <But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in his head. They are to be pitied.>
…
<The Taxxons are evil.>
“Yeah,” Marco muttered. “I think I would have guessed that.”
It’s interesting here that the book first subverts the idea the scary aliens are evil only to immediately follow it up by explaining the ugly aliens are indeed evil.
Also, the kids totally go on to murder lots of hork-bajir. I didn’t think much of it until a later book establishes they avoid killing humans.
Ch5 is where we learn friendly alien is a prince, to continue the whole space elf thing. Nothing good will come of this bit of worldbuilding. He’s also called a warrior and not soldier and I’m starting to understand how the yeerks are kicking their butts despite them being individually better.
Also, our planet is special because there’s so many of us. Apparently a few billion bodies will make the yeerks unstoppable, which raises a lot of questions about what the normal population numbers for intelligent life is.
“Don’t look,” Rachel said to her. She put her arm around Cassie’s shoulder and held her close.
Then she reached for Tobias and took his hand. I guess you never really know someone till you see them scared. And even scared to death, with tears running down her face, Rachel had strength to spare.
This kind of thing is why I really didn’t like where Rachel’s character development ends up going. She was my favorite character and I thought she was super awesome. Also she turned into the best animals.
Ch6 has Jake stupidly decides to charge the evil monster. Luckily the space elf tells him no. Then they get spotted and have to run. Rachel tries to attract their attention because she’s a faster runner.
“Ghafrash! Here! Ghafrash fit! Enemy! Get!”
Even in my panic it surprised me. They were talking some mix of their own alien language and ours.
“Ghafrash fit nahar! I get! I kill!”
This just seems hokey. You know, with the sparkleyeerk book, I spent a lot of time trying to work out how much the brainslug knowledge was retained between hosts. Are yeerks learning English in alien hosts or did these ones take a dip into a human host to absorb it? And they seem to understand English fine and the human hosts respond to their language fine but don’t speak a mix themselves, which just makes things more confusing.
Ch7 Tobias shows up at his house to say he’s morphed into his cat. I don’t remember him having a cat, and later on his backstory is a misery parade which doesn’t fit with having a pet.
<I did not know I could send thoughts like this,> Tobias said. <Just like the Andalite.>
“I guess it only works when you’re . . . morphed.”
I am talking to a cat! I realized. And I thought Tobias was crazy?
I wondered if Tobias had heard my thought. I concentrated. Tobias, can you hear me?
<Yeah,> he said. <I hear you.>
“Did you hear my thoughts before that?” I asked.
<No. I don’t think it works that way. You have to think at me for me to hear.
This is one of those things that’ll never come up again. There’s also the idea that andalites at least can naturally hear people if they think at them, referenced back when they met him and Visser Three.
Jake’s response to seeing awesomeness is to insist it’s not real and drag his feet. He is so boring.
Ch9 Jake is bullied into using his awesome powers to do something fun. Also, he can smell something off with his brother. I’m not sure if the fact dogs and presumably others can detect them is ever used. Don’t think so.
Ch10 Jake’s brother has quit basketball and says he should join The Sharing and god damn yeerks your cover is shitty when it already sounds like a cult. Also, they should know better than to quit existing hobbies, that’s another big flag, especially when he could be trying to get the rest of the team to join. But I guess that’s the whole idea, it’s trying to tap into that uneasiness.
You know, I don’t think it’s ever clear how many yeerks they have. We know Visser Three is saying they’ll need to build so many new pools to take over all of the planet, but maybe they have barely anything right now. In that case getting lots of people right now isn’t such a concern.
Then he heads off to Cassie’s where we finally learn that her family has a wild animal clinic, and he’s shocked to find out that the events of last night were passed off as fireworks by some dumb kids.
“Did you see the last part?” Rachel pressed.
I read the last sentence. It froze me up good, I can tell you. Police were offering a reward for information on the teenagers.
“They’re looking for us,” Marco said.
What probably happened was the yeerked cops said it was kids who ran off and the police department shrugged and said let’s offer a reward for info as is our standard practice. If they’re looking for kids who saw aliens, they’re not going to get anyone turning them in for fireworks they didn’t have.
Marco then says they should stay out of it. He argues that his dad will lose it completely because his mom died already, but doesn’t think to argue against the rest of their involvement by saying it’ll fuck up their families just as much.
Ch11 The cops show up right as Cassie’s half morphed. Jake tells her to keep going toward human despite the fact that as far as he knows you end up naked after morphing. Maybe he’s planning to say it was a dare or something. Luckily she’s figured out clothes.
The cop then interrogates them about if they know anyone who set off those fireworks, and this is a really dumb subplot. It’d make sense to say they were looking for anyone there in the hopes those people could help them with the fireworks thing.
“Well, you call me if you hear anything about these kids in the construction site. I should warn you – they may come up with some wild story to conceal their guilt. But you’re too smart to believe a bunch of crazy lies, aren’t you?”
Really stupid.
After he leaves Cassie says that morphing will let them talk to animals and save endangered species!!! This is like half their target audience, so even if it doesn’t make sense, it’s what comes up.
“Let’s take a vote,” Rachel said.
“I vote we try to live long enough to get driver’s licenses,” Marco said.
These books are just fun, though.
Then Tom appears to keep badgering about the kids and the fireworks and how stupid people believe in aliens but they better not. The yeerks are surprisingly terrible at coverups and subterfuge. We end with Marco pointing out that dude your brother is brainslugged.
Ch12 begins with Jake punching Marco for this. I think this gets into the weirdness of the controlled people being referred to as Controllers, as if the humans are the ones doing it. Jake is offended Marco would say his brother is one of the evil guys, but it’s like punching someone for being concerned your brother has cancer because dammit your brother would never help cancer!
Then Tobias appears to tell us about thermals. I think you could make a drinking game out of how often these will come up, but hey, it’s educational. I saw a balloon floating away recently and it was staying at about the same height for a bit then drifted over the road and zoom! Straight up. Thermals! If you read this series you will always know about that.
“How did you fly if the hawk you morphed from was injured?” I wondered.
Marco shook his head pityingly. “Jake, do you pay any attention in biology class? DNA has nothing to do with some injury. The DNA wasn’t broken. Just a wing.”
Every other thing they will ever say about how morphing works is dumb and makes no sense, so let’s savor this.
We start to get foreshadowing about how Tobias will end up stuck in a morph. It’s actually kind of a shame it was rushed, it would’ve been a nice subplot through the next few books as people got increasingly worried. I think it was ultimately an accident too, so it’s sort of wasted foreshadowing.
Also, he explains the alien managed to dump extra info into his head when he didn’t want to run away, which means the only reason they have any clue how to actually deal with yeerks is chance. Should’ve asked if anyone wanted a braindump before telling them to flee, elfdeer! Anyway yeerks yeerkpools yeerksunvitamin “Kandrona rays” with caps BECAUSE and anyway Tobias is going to blow that shit up because someone died for him. This actually seems like some very good characterization – no one cares about Tobias, someone finally did, that someone is dead, suicide bombing for the cause now.
I wish human Tobias had stuck around longer, he’s actually the most interesting one here.
I never read the books. Where did Rachel’s character development end up going that was so upsetting? (I think I saw a few VHS tapes of the TV series, and I had fun in the school library flipping through the little animation flip things in the bottom corners of the books without actually checking them out, but that was the extent of my exposure.)
Very interesting review, but lots of jargon that I think only makes sense if you’ve read the books. I’m going to be confused a lot, huh?
CHARACTER SPOILERS:
Rachel begins to enjoy fighting the Yeerks . . . a little too much. The whole “blood and killing” thing became kinda fun.
I doubt it’s the jargon that’s the biggest problem, I’m also skimming over all the actual plot. There’s a more in-depth version here, so you might be able to follow that better.
But ultimately, they’re kiddie books – if you loved them once, they’re amazing, but it’s hard to get into it later on.
Ah, yes, Animorphs. I remember reading this books. I’ve been buying them one by one in a local bookstore. They weren’t in order, have somewhat ragged look, and in the end I couldn’t find more than ten or so because Russian import sucks, and it sucked even more back in the day.
To understand how much it sucked, you should now that back then the majority of people were buying pirate versions of video games and movies not because they were cheaper or more easily available, but because there simply wasn’t a legal alternative. Hell, they were sold openly in major stores and shopping malls without any problem.
But I digress…
Anyway, are you going to continue reviewing Animorphs? Would be interesting to read your thoughts on this. I remember the basic premise and a few details (thermals are indeed unforgettable) but not much.
I do remember that the books seemed to take some morbid delight in grievously injuring protagonists because they can heal anyway.
And now you can pirate the series yourself! Progress is awesome.
I think so – I am curious after all these years how things actually resolved.
Regarding fan-fic addressing the kids-writing-the-books thing, I did see a role-playing blog (supposedly a resource for the Yeerk Peace Movement) that claimed the books were ‘propaganda’ and full of lies. Can’t recall anything else on that subject.
And yesssss, thermals! I will remember about thermals until the day I die, I swear.
I honestly did not notice the violence as a child. It wasn’t until I reread them that I thought ‘wow, people are being eviscerated and dismembered left and right here’.
Hm. That’s a bit too vague, since it covers any detail that the person might want to ignore from the book.
This was my childhood. I owned every single book, including the expansions, and reread the one about dinosaurs so many times the cover fell off. The ending was highly disappointing, but even as I matured as a reader and moved on I kept coming back to these as a fun way to entertain myself. So much love for this series.
The new cover is abysmal.
[I feel this shows that the authors really understood their target audience, because preteen-me found this totally plausible,]
I always figured they were writing it down and they got published after the fact.
Also, I’m pretty sure these books taught an entire generation about thermals. When I first mentioned to Boyfriend you were doing these, his face lit and up and he went, “Is she talking about THERMALS??”
Cassie is irritating. She was always so prissy and meek to me. I think Tobias was probably my favorite, because even as he got more and more stuish and unlikely, his character remained the most in-depth. I was partial to Marco because he was a smartass. Rachel I didn’t dislike, but I didn’t relate to her– she’s badass, but she’s described constantly as some kind of Wonder Woman supermodel crimefighter. I did also always like Jake in a more indifferent way.
I’d forgotten how kiddie the writing level was xD
Jake explains that the no-first-name business is so they can publish these books warning people without being found out. There really isn’t any way around it, because part of the hook is the idea this is REALLY HAPPENING OMG ONLY YOU AND THE LEGIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE AWARE OF THE SERIES KNOW THE TRUTH!!!!
And well – it’s a kid’s book! If it was more complicated we probably wouldn’t have been able to get half so much out.
Yeah, I also didn’t read the “writing this down” as “actually being published while this is happening” even though that’s almost certainly what was intended, because I DID think that would be pretty dumb. It also confused me that they were so worried about last names when they provided plenty of other info that could be used to find them just as easily.
THERMALS.
You were a less credulous child than I. It took several books for that to sink in. I found it odd that they kept having these very specific events happening, like Rachel identifying herself as the friend of the daughter of the head guy and specifically that girl who had the shredded shoes he remarked about, but it must not have been enough to identify them, because next book the yeerks still hadn’t caught on!
Come to think of it, they eventually seem to drop the conceit that this is actually being written without dropping the talking-to-the-audience-won’t-tell-our-names thing. Two of the megamorphs books end with at least one of the POV characters not remembering anything that happened, and then near the end there’s something else that the character narrating couldn’t possibly have been able to write down.
[and then near the end there’s something else that the character narrating couldn’t possibly have been able to write down.]
Are you talking about the scene in the last book with Rachel? Because that annoyed the hell out of me.
Almost everything about the last book annoyed the Hell out of me.
Yeah, it did really suck. Like, a lot.
I read these about when you all did, except that I was about six or seven at that time. I think I read pieces of the first fifty-some, plus the Andalite warrior dude tie-in novel. (I seem to recall picking books based on which one had the coolest transformation and/or the prettiest cover colors. Mm, discernment.) Also, I’m pretty sure I only read any of them because Applegate was the first author in the paperback section and I was the precocious child who wanted to Matilda her way through the entire library. I think the realization that that wasn’t feasible coincided with me abandoning the series, which is why my memory of it all is patchy, to say the least.
In regards to the “these are violent and will scar children ohnoes” thing, I do remember being mildly freaked out by the violence — don’t they rip a hork-bajir or taxxon in half in book eight or something? — but arguably scarier were the big abstract things like being taken over by a yeerk or getting stuck in a transformation (insert memory about them being stuck in a glass bottle as cockroach form, augh).
Also, THERMALS! And really any other information about animals that was ever mentioned is probably still rattling about in my memory. They were damn effective in that way, which makes me really hope that they did their research when talking about what the animals were like.
[Are we vetting for spoilers?] Oh, the magic cube thing? It definitely comes up again, as that was the only full arc I got to read (the library’s collection was as patchy as my memories of these books). After that, though, I think they bury it, due to the fallout?
I wish I remembered more about how I felt about the characters… I remember liking Rachel better than Cassie (who felt too wishy-washy) but at the same time thinking that Rachel was a bit too brash. I thought the guys were fairly irritating except for Tobias, who was a fucking bird and was therefore kickass. And the sixth ranger was my favorite because he was an alien and bizarre and slightly unsettling but in a good way.
I don’t think I actually ever read this book, though. I mean, you don’t really need to, since there was basic exposition in every book, but still, it’s interesting to see how it was at the start. I’m waiting for the base to show up, because /that/ is permanently burned into my memory. Sorry, this is rambley, but I hadn’t realized I remembered so much and yet so little of these. Looking forward to seeing more.
In regards to the “these are violent and will scar children ohnoes” thing, I do remember being mildly freaked out by the violence — don’t they rip a hork-bajir or taxxon in half in book eight or something?
In this book alone, we have a mortally burned elfdeer who’s then eaten alive by a monster, other monsters tearing up some poor homeless guy, Rachel trampling taxxons under her feet so that they burst apart in showers of gore then throwing some other guy to his death, and also Tobias tears the eyes out of another hork-bajir. May have forgotten some other stuff, too.
I’m not sure if other books are much more plot relevant, but yeah, this book is really forgettable. The only stuff that isn’t brought up later is stuff that’s getting retconned out.
I was reading these at six, and while I didn’t have any problems with them at the time, in retrospect they definitely shaped my tastes in fiction.
Even back then I had to skip those this-is-a-big-secret-which-we-are-now-telling-everyone bits because ARGH THAT MAKES NO SENSE. And I never re-read the first book because it had too many inconsistancies. Fortunately small me never noticed all the myriad plot holes that litter the rest of the series, or I wouldn’t have liked it nearly as much.
Okay, cool, blithely reading at age six about people graphically dismembering each other doesn’t make me an outlier (here at least). And, yeah, I recall likewise failing to suspend disbelief on that. Also, good to know that I missed less than nothing by skipping The Invasion.
I was never bothered by the violence. There’s only one time I can remember it even being noticeable to me– when they were dolphins and Cassie’s tail got torn off. The description of that has always stuck with me. Otherwise, it went completely over my head.
*winces* I forgot I had read that, but it sounds horribly familiar. I guess children are just good at tuning out what they don’t want to be troubled by? Not entirely sure how to interpret that.
Animorrrrphs :D :D :D
I, too, never actually finished the series–I stopped somewhere in the mid-thirties upon getting the impression that it was just going to go on and on forever, then was shocked several years later to hear that it had actually concluded. I’ll have to see whether I can run through the last novels now that you’re going to be looking at them.
Which I don’t recall actually coming up much.
Mmm, yeah, the only other danger I can think of was that whole “if you turn into something small, your extra mass gets sent to Z-space and then a ship might hit it!!!” iirc that was only relevant in, like. Maybe two of the books, or something like that.
Like most people up above I don’t recall being at all bothered by the violence in general, but I do recall having a kind of “whoah” moment at around book… eight? The one with the bear on the cover. iirc Marco gets mauled up, dies, and they have to actually restart his heart so he can unmorph and heal. Even little seven-year-old me had a “whoah, this is pretty gruesome” moment there.
It’s interesting for me to think about how this series may have shaped my later reading tastes… did reading it cause me to develop my general love of transformation-centric stories and superpowers, or did I like the books because I was already prone to thinking shapeshifting was cool? Did the series cause me to seek out more action-y sci-fi stories, or was I just predisposed to liking them and that’s why I latched on to them in the first place? Probably a bit of both, I guess.
THERMALS (glad to see I wasn’t the only one who had that concept seared into their brain forever)
Book eight totally was the one with the bear on the cover; that was the only one I ever personally owned, and is the one with the most stuck-with-me imagery.
[Spoilers?] And, wait, wasn’t all the violence a deliberate thing to try and convince the kids to go and live in a sort of sapient-species zoo under the guise of “we don’t want you to die out and you guys already know about aliens so you’re the obvious choices”? [No more spoilers]
Too bad these books were never translated into Icelandic to my knowledge, because I would have been all over this blood and gore and violence thing when I was little, and the transforming into animals bit definitely wouldn’t have hurt.
Just as a note, as a nonreader I found this review a bit confusing in places. I realize these aren’t meant to be detailed recaps, but is there any chance for slightly more explanation?
I can give more detail the next time. I’m not sure how much there is to them, though – there’s little real substance to the books and mostly it’s the nostalgia of reading them as a preteen that makes them matter.
Oh gosh, I didn’t realize you had actually started this series! Animorphs was definitely one of my favourite series as a kid, and I often forget the influence it had on my (to the point of writing what was essentially an Animorphs/Jimmy Neutron mashup that I really should pretend never existed). It also taught me a crapload about animals, and also THERMALS.
I actually only got into the series after a lot of the hype had died down and the last book had already been published. The first one I read was #19, and from there I just bought the books at random whenever I could find one, resulting in the smattering of a collection in my basement. It was disappointing when I stopped seeing the books being sold in stores, despite the fact that I was probably in my mid-teens, haha.
I think I kind of noticed some of the plot-holes and inconsistencies in passing, I just never gave much thought to it. I was not all that analytical, so I look forward to seeing you bring them up.
Yup, very slowly embarking on this one.
These books are like the Hunger Games on steroids. Sure, there’s plot holes but there’s no time to see them with the breakneck pace everything’s at.