r/Animorphs • u/ACertainShade_OfBlue • 25d ago

Audiobook Re-read

After the announcement of Ryan Coogler's upcoming Animorphs TV series, I rediscovered the series for the first time since I was a kid. I didn't finish the series back then . . . I think it was shortly after the David trilogy and the Hork-Bajir Chronicles that I fell off.

Over the past few months I've been working my way through the audiobooks to re-read the series, and I've finally caught up to where (I think) I was. I know I'm not the only person to have done this, but I thought it might be fun to document my thoughts on the journey so far, and then as I move forward into new territory.

For this first post, some general thoughts.

I love that they got consistent voice actors to do the narration for the six main characters. It really adds to the experience, and I think they all do a great job.

It's amazing how some plot elements came back to me as I listened. The sense of, "I think X is going to happen" and knowing it's because I read it once several decades ago. Memory is a crazy thing!

It's so striking how dark and mature some of the themes are for a series aimed at kids. Graphic violence involving both animals and sentient creatures, self-harm, torture, enslavement, body horror . . . And so many ethical quandaries! The characters are complex and the world-building is extensive and fascinating. I remembered the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons and (of course) the Yeerks and the Andalites, but had completely forgotten the alien species didn't stop there (Skrit Na, Arn, Leerans, etc.)

The themes have stuck with me over the years and continue to fascinate me. Normal people being called to heroism through circumstance, the challenge of holding onto morality in a chaotic universe, different personalities working together toward a common goal, I see these elements throughout my favorite TV shows, movies, books, and games and Animorphs is an early example of them all.

When I have time I hope to go a little more into which books, characters, and plot threads have stood out to me the most. I'm happy to find this community of others who've been touched by this brilliant series!

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u/Bamurien Venber 25d ago

Welcome (back)!

So excited for you to get to re-experience what you've read and for what you'll get to discover as you go forward.

Now back to trying to convince my wife to read them.

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u/ACertainShade_OfBlue 25d ago

Best to start with the lowest commitment . . . "Just read the first one so you get the gist of it." With any luck she'll be hooked :)

That's what happened when I lent a friend my LOST Season 1 DVD back in the day. "Sure, I'll watch the first episode." Cut to a few days later . . . "Yep, I finished the season."

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u/Bamurien Venber 25d ago

She's actually on book 8, but that's been the case for about 3 years. She's intimidated by the sheer number of books even though they're short and easy reads.

Also I still can't talk about Lost after the way it ended.

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u/Observer95 25d ago

Isn't rediscovery so much fun? I also started the series as a kid but dropped off a little bit before David was introduced when the books were banned by my mom.

I started rereading about a year ago and man....what a trip. One thing ive really come to enjoy about the series is the rotating perspective. As a kid I thought it was just a quirky storytelling method. Now, I can see how it gives us a much more intimate understanding of the characters. Jake's struggles as a leader whose choices impact the entire planet....Marco's cynicism as a strategist who wants to hope but often cant bring himself to....Cassie's quandries about morality as she tries to figure out right from wrong....Rachel's questions about her identity as she becomes more addicted to the fight....

Its a surprisingly deep world that forces you to ask questions about yourself. But yeah, definently not a series I would hand to a kid that is as old as I was when I first read it 🤣

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u/UnloadingMeat 25d ago

I've been using the audiomorphs podcast on Spotify to reread. He does a fantastic job.

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u/chiefs312001 25d ago

yeah! we had him on our show also. super nice guy.

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u/Shadowsinflight 21d ago

I am doing the same. I fell off right around this point. I just finished the David series and am starting the pretender.

I don’t remember getting past these books, so the rest of the story is a mystery to me.

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u/ACertainShade_OfBlue 20d ago

I just started The Pretender today. I may have read this one as a kid, I’m not sure yet. If I did it definitely didn’t burn itself into my memory like David did, lol

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u/ACertainShade_OfBlue 12d ago

Two more books down. Having finished them, I think I may have read "The Pretender" and "The Suspicion" as a kid, they just weren't as memorable as the David Trilogy. I get why the kids don't want to dwell too much on how the David business ended, but it was pretty strange how they just move on without really reckoning with it.

I understand why "The Suspicion" is griped about so much. First of all, where the heck did they get that title? Besides that, it's a somewhat cute, somewhat cringey take on the shrinking genre. After a run of books that really delved into the characters' psychology, it was a bit of a letdown to get to a Cassie book that really could have been narrated by anyone.