Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Animorphs Boxset: The Underground / The Decision / The Departure / The Discovery by K.A. Applegate starting on May 1, 2024.


Happy Reading!

Supplemental Imagery Template

Book 17 - The Underground:





Book 18 - The Decision:





Megamorphs #2 - In the Time of Dinosaurs:

In the Time of Dinosaurs had 6 different book covers, with different character art inside the front cover flap...



This Valentine's Card promotion is the only place I could find the art for Jake, Tobias, and Ax's book covers... so you can ignore the text overlay...



And a cool promotional poster...

Book 19 - The Departure:



No morph gif I could find, sadly...

Book 20 - The Discovery:



#18 might be the last flipbook gif floating around :(

Seems like the images aren't working here either...

Nirkatze wrote: "Seems like the images aren't working here either..."

They haven't been inserted yet :D

I finally caught up with my audio TBR and I know I will have less listening time this month yet I got the sudden urge to catch up to this BR...

GL... luckily they're short... each audio is 3-4hrs max...

Well, I am going to give them a try. I might not even enjoy them enough to keep going with the series... But I wanted to try the series for a while and it's good to go for it when you get the right motivation.

I read a few of these this week. I took notes, but I really need to be more careful about my handwriting, lol.

#17 The Underground I totally thought this was "The Unknown" though I think we already had one titled that. (view spoiler)[I liked the inner conversation Rachel had about how her role is to be the person who says "Hey, let's do it! That's what we came for!" but that the role was wearing on her. Much like Jake with leadership--though Jake was never enthusiastic in the first place. It's another good representation of how war affects people... and that now, Rachel is faking it for her teammates.

I also like the conversation on the morality of poison. It reminds me of when they met that Yeerk/human partnership multi-millionaire guy... These could disable Yeerks, but they'd also trap the humans... that one poor guy...

Seems like they're constantly all getting trapped in situations close to the timer, and can't risk morphing back to human to expose themselves. I'm still a little skeptical of the whole "have to go back to zero before jumping into a new morph" thing--I swear we saw Yeerk Controller Jake jump from morph to morph without that--but regardless, I've been thinking--why don't they acquire Ax? Get an Andalite morph and seed some more panic? (hide spoiler)]

The Decision #18 While I enjoy Ax's perspective, I am really starting to find his mouth obsession annoying... (view spoiler)[and this book both opened and ended with some extreme illogical and potentially cover-breaking food & speaking scenes... at least the crew commented on it in the end. I guess it's a way of showing that Ax is still a kid and can make stupid decisions... but I really want to think that he'd be smarter than that.

The whole Prince relationship and deeper look at the Andalite society was interesting... The shock of the Andalite collaborator--why?--it's a good shock though, finding a traitor in the fight... and not understanding why. Poor Ax though, having to face divided loyalties... and deciding ultimately that Jake will be his Prince.

The telepathic aliens... that scene when they come across one being controlled, and they can still communicate telepathically... that was a really poignant scene... I hope they come back up again too.

I feel like there's been a lot of extreme time/space jump disconnected storylines and I'm really hoping they connect more eventually... (hide spoiler)]

Megamorphs #2 In the Time of the Dinosaurs--note, for those using Hoopla, it doesn't show up under it's title, but as Megamorphs, and you have to squint at the picture to make sure you've got the right one...

I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first Megamorphs... (view spoiler)[first thought was--Dinosaurs!! Dinosaur morphs!! But of course, the Megamorphs are side-series and can't affect the main, so the morphs are gone when they come back... sad!!! Still, it was pretty cool while it lasted.

That stomach-swallowed scene!! Ack! And I thought Applegate had already gone pretty far with body horror. This might be external, but it still feels applicable...

I like that the book addressed a question I've always had with kaijuu/dinosaur stories... yes, why are these huge creatures chasing tiny tiny things that would only gets stuck in their teeth??? Applegate's answer: predatory instinct. Not sure I'm on board with that.

The new aliens--Rachel(? Cassie? already forgot) biting the hand off--and getting ants in the mouth!!! Aaaaaah!!! We've been getting a lot of new aliens recently... I wonder if these aliens are the ants' ancestors...

Ax's technological tangents are fun. Much preferred to mouth obsessions. (hide spoiler)]

I read Rachel's book yesterday... it was an interesting one, if yet another one-off where something big is introduced and then never really revisited... right after the last Jake book was similar...

(view spoiler)[first we meet Visser 3's lesser twin, who is a cannibal Yeerk, and his compound is blown up, and he's presumed dead after... (I think I owned this one as a kid, I vividly remember the rhino cover)...

Then we have Rachel's book and the "radioactive" reaction to instant maple ginger oatmeal...

Someone on reddit loved this book and described it as "when an author publishes their own crazy fanfic"... and I thought that was a funny description...

Nice to see the callbacks, too, like Rachel feeling guilty about besmirching the contractor, for the book where she had DNA allergic reaction & turned into an elephant and broke through the floor/ceiling... (hide spoiler)]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I read Rachel's book yesterday... it was an interesting one, if yet another one-off where something big is introduced and then never really revisited... right after the last Jake book was similar....."

Was very much thinking the same--that we've had a lot of one-off things lately, without circling back...

Love that reddit description...

I think part of it is the breakneck pace of the series... this was a monthly release, back in the late 90s/early 2000s... I think KA Applegate and her husband wrote the first handful, but much of the middle of the series, they were just doing synopses/outlines and letting ghostwriters write the books... so it's hard to have too much connective tissue between books...

So, generally, the plots end up being relatively standalone, with some trilogies creeping in soon in the 20s/30s... and then a building endgame in the 40s through to the end (#52)...

Timelord Iain wrote: "I think part of it is the breakneck pace of the series... this was a monthly release, back in the late 90s/early 2000s... I think KA Applegate and her husband wrote the first handful, but much of t..."

Interesting... a casualty of keeping interest in kids, I suppose....

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "I think part of it is the breakneck pace of the series... this was a monthly release, back in the late 90s/early 2000s... I think KA Applegate and her husband wrote the first ..."

These were a staple of the Scholastic Book Fair when I was a kid... these, Goosebumps, Babysitters Club, etc... it was a real golden age of monthly book releases... I don't think many authors do that anymore...

Thank goodness for that--quality suffers when speed is involved.

Just marking my spot for when I get here ~~eventually~~ 😅

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Just marking my spot for when I get here ~~eventually~~ 😅"

Wave! ^^/`

Just finished The Underground #17 ... I really like Rachel! I think she is my favorite, then Cassie. I only have one thing to say - Instant Oatmeal!!!! Hahaha!

@Nirkatze: I started #18... I agree, that Ax's food fixation gets annoying... this might be the most egregious case of it, tho... it's definitely the memory that stuck with me, so I'm not too surprised right now, I just didn't remember which book this happened in...

I dunno if the later Ax books calm down, or I just don't remember the bits... here's hoping :D

The more nuanced interpretations online, are that (view spoiler)[this is Ax succumbing to adolescent human instincts, the same way the others succumb to animal instincts and eat bugs and other critters while in morph, sometimes, when they can't resist... (hide spoiler)]

Fight sequence early #18: (view spoiler)[they're trying to get Secret Service Yeerk, and Chapman broke his spine... lucky for Animorphs...

Visser 3 chases Animorphs as Andalite bird... and Ax freaked out about Visser 3 had an Andalite planet morph... seemed like an over-reaction to me... Alloran lived a life before he was captured... why couldn't Alloran have gained the bird morph in his morph training or for fun or something?... (hide spoiler)]

Near the end of #18: the rest of Ax's book was solid... (view spoiler)[except maybe Ax's tendency to immediately try and abandon the rest of the Animorphs, when he encounters an Andalite... becomes a bit of a recurring problem in the next couple X8 books, I think...

A more fun tendency, is for the Animorphs to get a chance to help out other aliens/planets, in the war against the Yeerks... between time/space oddities like this one and the jungle one, and encounters with the Ellimist, these types of thing happen with relative frequency throughout the series...

On re-read, I think this might have been the birth of a favorite type of story... and why I read the Pendragon Adventure in 2005-2010...

I tried doing a re-read solo a few years ago, and I fizzled out... maybe I can rope you guys into it sometime in the future, after Animorphs is done, and we take a break before starting anymore Middle-grade series, maybe (so 2026?) :D

The Merchant of Death
The Lost City of Faar
The Never War
The Reality Bug
Black Water
The Rivers of Zadaa
The Quillan Games
The Pilgrims of Rayne
Raven Rise
The Soldiers of Halla

I really loved books 1-9 on my first read-through... book 10 is a divisive book I think... unexpected things happen, gets pretty lofty... but man, oh man, the climaxes/epilogues/plot twists in books 6-9 were jawdroppers when I first read them, and I had to wait for their release... (hide spoiler)]

I have had the Pendragon books on my TBR. Would be down for it once we finish up the Animorphs books.

Also @Iain thanks for sharing that nuanced interpretation of why Ax might be so overwhelmed by food when in human morph...

Sometimes it's hard to separate the gut feeling from the possible appreciation for why a character acts a certain way :D

I know I have gut reactions while reading... I kinda hit fast forward through most of the food court scene...

I just finishedThe Decision #18 as well. For some reason his obsession with the food and words really doesn't bother me... Maybe for the same reason that I understand why he immediately becomes very submissive to other Andalites when he meets them - he is a kid. He has fallen into a very big for him situation and is trying to behave like a grown up, but he is essentially a lost kid in a foreign world, trying to do the right thing and not be overwhelmed by all the new things surrounding him. I think this is why he clings onto calling Jake his Prince, because he is not a leader and needs someone to guide him, someone who knows what the heck is going on...

(view spoiler)[ I felt really bad for him, that captain being a traitor really messed him up... However, once again they were able to make a difference in the lives of a race at war with the Yerks.

I also liked the concept of their mass being in zero space while they morph into something extremely small, and the mass acting like a magnet for the rest of them, transporting them to itself, then rebounding back... Pretty cool! (hide spoiler)]

I don't have the Time of Dinosaurs... I will look for it, but if I can't find it, I might ask for recap:)))

Choko wrote: "I don't have the Time of Dinosaurs... I will look for it, but if I can't find it, I might ask for recap:)))"

it's on Hoopla... under the megamorphs series, and lacking a book title, I think it just calls it Megamorphs...

https://www.hoopladigital.com/audiobo...

You know I don't do Hoopla:) I will try to find it since it exists:)))

It's possible other sites also have it referenced only as Megamorphs #2 as well--some of the side books get filed strangely. Don't give up!

In the Time of Dinosaurs was really good… surprisingly good, given how we felt about megamorphs 1… (view spoiler)[the plot was bonkers before the aliens showed up…

T he dilemma at the end felt a little stupid, since humans had to exist to go back jn time, so there’s no way killing the aliens changed future, or they wouldn’t have existed to go back in time in the first place… in order for the aliens to have ruled the earth in a previous timeline, someone else would have had to go back in time and change things, not our MCs… (hide spoiler)]

That was my impression--I really liked the second Megamorphs! Such a nice turnaround.

Reading Cassie’s book today…another one I liked alot… asking the hard questions… but also super lucky… things could have gone 1000x worse…

Read Cassie's book also today, #19 The Departure (view spoiler)[I like how it's really going into the stress of lying and fighting... very true for soldiers and people with secrecy jobs...

And a child Yeerk controller... this episode continues to really echo fairly familiar war scenarios... most recently The Warm Hands of Ghosts has one like this... but with less hatred... Also reminding me even more strongly of Stargate...

The final question--what would Cassie do, if she were the Yeerk? I doubt that the Yeerk actually agreed to live as a slug forever. I bet she just requested off planet assignment... Though how she managed to convince them to release Karen... That's a bit too convenient, as is the butterfly resetting the timer... ah well, that's the kind of series this is. (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "I read a few of these this week. I took notes, but I really need to be more careful about my handwriting, lol.

#17 The Underground I totally thought this was "The Unknown" though I think we alread..."

Wow why have I never thought of them trying to acquire andalite from Ax?? Yeah maybe because plot convenience?

Finally got to #17 The Underground today... Seems like we've hit a place where all the kids have put themselves into roles and don't want to disappoint everyone else by being "not themselves"... Rachel with her gung-ho-ness, Jake being a leader, Marco being the funny/not serious one, etc...

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "I read a few of these this week. I took notes, but I really need to be more careful about my handwriting, lol.

#17 The Underground I totally thought this was "The Unknown" though ..."

they should totally acquire andalite from ax... would better sell the lie that they're andalite bandits...

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Finally got to #17 The Underground today... Seems like we've hit a place where all the kids have put themselves into roles and don't want to disappoint everyone else by being "not themselves"... Ra..."

Really good point about the overall arc here in these four... Hm. Makes me think we'll need to keep an eye out for more cohesive themes like this...

About halfway through In the Time of Dinosaurs (view spoiler)[ why was I surprised when the dinosaurs actually showed up? 😂
Also if we don't get a T-Rex morph I will definitely be disappointed lol (hide spoiler)]

LOL Emily, I love how you phrased that...

I am reading The Time of Dinosaurs now too and that was my first thought, Emily! We need a T-REX morph acquisition for sure!!!

Well, now we know what happened to the Dinosaurs.... It was OK, but I wasn't dazzled by this one too much. Jumping into The Departure now...

Finished The Departure #19 ... I get the reasoning behind Cassie wanting to quit, but (view spoiler)[ her giving herself to be taken over by Karen's Yeerk was crazy and reckless and irresponsible! WTF?!?! As you guys said, it could have ended way worse than it did. She was lucky she found a Yeerk with honor... However, her return to her human form, because the natural metamorphosis of the caterpillar to a butterfly somehow reset the morphing rule, was a big reach... (hide spoiler)]

Still entertaining though:)

Time of Dinosaurs is better than Andalite's Gift was, for a megamorph book... still pretty disconnected, altho it's referenced a bit in #19... such BS that the morphs stop working in present day... what a cop out...

Started #20, The Discovery... this is the start of a trilogy... (view spoiler)[random new kid, David, found the Andalite Cube (and is just carrying it around at school, instead of fiddling with it in his parent's garage?)...

And there's a world leader summit coming to town... and one leader is a Yeerk Controller already... so crashing the party and revealing aliens to world leaders is dangerous...

BUT... why is nobody suggesting using the Leeran morphs they got a few books ago to just skim memories?... that would probably solve so many problems in the next 30 books... (hide spoiler)]

EDIT: internet says they don't get to keep any morphs they gain through time travel or Z-space shenanigans... explains the lack of dinos, and the Leerans they gained when they got caught in the spaceship gravity rubber band effect, etc... LAME...

Choko wrote: "Finished The Departure #19 ... I get the reasoning behind Cassie wanting to quit, but [spoilers removed]

Still entertaining though:)"

It was an interesting solution... (view spoiler)[the crazier part is the Yeerks just let Karen & "Jeff Bezos" go at the end?... (hide spoiler)]

You are right...

Finished The Discovery #20 What a horrible cliffhanger to finish on!!! I am very tempted to start the next book, but I am so behind on other BRs, I guess I will get to them... (view spoiler)[ I didn't like David to begin with, but once he killed the raven just for the heck of it, I decided he needs to go! Why were the kids so impulsive and in a hurry to recruit him before getting to know him??? Even the Yeerks take their time, usually, with the people they choose to take over...

The cliffhanger leaves me with nothing but anxiety now... I guess we will wait... (hide spoiler)]

Having finished #20 now, I'd say save it for the end of the month... it's TRULY the beginning of a trilogy... it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger...

OOF... I paused with gaming stuff and you beat me to the end...

Choko wrote: "You are right...

Finished The Discovery #20..."

(view spoiler)[I assume cockroaches are too small to be hurt by falling... land and walk away, no big deal... scary for human brain tho...

David is the worst... he only sticks around for the trilogy (should be obvious, given the fact it IS a trilogy, and they generally like to maintain the status quo, for the first 50-75% of the series... not too many major developments...

What WOULD be a spoiler, tho, is to say (view spoiler)[Crayak messes with things later in the series, to bring David back into play, in a Rachel book in the 40s... Crayak is the alien we've seen a few times now with no name yet (the book where Jake was portal'd to the jungle, maybe the Elfangor book... he's a cosmic entity at war with the Ellimist... Ellimist wants happy universe, Crayak wants total destruction... (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]