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The Answer / The Beginning
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The Answer / The Beginning (Animorphs #53-54)[February 1, 2025]
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Yanique, Thread Master
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Oct 16, 2024 07:26AM

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This is a Buddy Read for The Answer / The Beginning by K.A. Applegate starting on February 1, 2025.
Happy Reading!

Happy Reading!
This will be the final Animorphs thread, and the end of the year-long BR... will be sad to see it end...
Read The Answer and jumped right to the finale… anyone who doesn’t has more willpower than I do…

I was going to do the same thing, but it was 3am and I had to go to bed. Then I woke up and started a different book instead. I'll probably go straight into the ending today when I'm done.
Agree with Ann-Marie--what a great way to start off the book! (view spoiler)
#53 The Answer was a really great entry all around--(view spoiler)

#53 was another 5 star read for me in the series... finale was 4 star for multiple reasons, not the least of which being (view spoiler)
I know I've already replaced this BR with monthly parasite BRs the rest of the year, and not really looking to start another official weekly BR...
But I AM personally planning to replace this with an unofficial weekly solo read... Got several options:
1) Harbinger PI: novella series I started in the past and abandoned, but decided to revisit... bought the rest of the series on Black Friday for cheap:
Lost Soul
Buried Memory
Dark Magic
Dead Ground
Shadow Land
Midnight Blood
Twilight Heart
Faerie Storm
Night Hunt
Grave Night
Final Magic
Purgatory Blood
Thirteen Bones -- Summer 2025...
Short option, 3 months...
Reading Steamborn, I'm tempted to give Vesik another try, if only because the omnibuses exist -- 8 novels, 10 novellas, 2 more novels and counting:
Days Gone Bad
Wolves and the River of Stone
Winter's Demon
This Broken World
Destroyer Rising
Rattle the Bones
Witch Queen's War
Forgotten Ghosts
The Books of the Dead, Parts 1-6
The Books of the Dead, Parts 7-10
Dreams of the Forgotten Dead
Garden Gnome Graves
I figure these should be closer to monthly for the novels and weekly for the novellas, so it'd take about a year...
And finally, them Black Ocean mission omnibuses:
Galaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Ocean Mobius Missions 1-16.5
Black Ocean: Mercy for Hire: Complete Collection: Missions 1-16
Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem: Complete Collection: Missions 1-16
Black Ocean: Astral Prime Collection: Missions 1-12
Black Ocean: Passage of Time: Missions 1-11 and counting...
This set of series would take me 1.5 years, even weekly...
I'll probably get serious about these, after I burn through my current slew of LitRPG sequels to all the LitRPGs I started in the past 2 weeks...
But I AM personally planning to replace this with an unofficial weekly solo read... Got several options:
1) Harbinger PI: novella series I started in the past and abandoned, but decided to revisit... bought the rest of the series on Black Friday for cheap:
Lost Soul
Buried Memory
Dark Magic
Dead Ground
Shadow Land
Midnight Blood
Twilight Heart
Faerie Storm
Night Hunt
Grave Night
Final Magic
Purgatory Blood
Thirteen Bones -- Summer 2025...
Short option, 3 months...
Reading Steamborn, I'm tempted to give Vesik another try, if only because the omnibuses exist -- 8 novels, 10 novellas, 2 more novels and counting:
Days Gone Bad
Wolves and the River of Stone
Winter's Demon
This Broken World
Destroyer Rising
Rattle the Bones
Witch Queen's War
Forgotten Ghosts
The Books of the Dead, Parts 1-6
The Books of the Dead, Parts 7-10
Dreams of the Forgotten Dead
Garden Gnome Graves
I figure these should be closer to monthly for the novels and weekly for the novellas, so it'd take about a year...
And finally, them Black Ocean mission omnibuses:
Galaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Ocean Mobius Missions 1-16.5
Black Ocean: Mercy for Hire: Complete Collection: Missions 1-16
Black Ocean: Mirth & Mayhem: Complete Collection: Missions 1-16
Black Ocean: Astral Prime Collection: Missions 1-12
Black Ocean: Passage of Time: Missions 1-11 and counting...
This set of series would take me 1.5 years, even weekly...
I'll probably get serious about these, after I burn through my current slew of LitRPG sequels to all the LitRPGs I started in the past 2 weeks...

Read #54 The Beginning early this week--I only waited about a day before jumping in, just haven't had my thoughts together. I liked it a lot more than Iain seems to... but then, I'm a fan of extended denouements... (view spoiler)

Are you talking about why you felt the book was 4 stars, or the author's explanations of why? I'd definitely like to hear the latter--and I didn't know about the fan response, though I can understand why... I think as a child reading the series I probably would have felt differently about the ending.

I need to re-read that... I was in a hurry and just found a link to share, at work this morning...



#54 kind of broke my heart... (view spoiler)
Thank you guys for sharing this experience with me! I can't lie, I have been fighting to stay above water both physically and emotionally... These steady series we have been reading through the last year have been an anchor for my sanity, and it is bittersweet to be coming to the end of this one and Vorkosigan... I am doing my best not to give into depression and knowing you guys are here to come back to is one of my biggest blessings!!! Thank you and I love you all!!!🙏❤️
Choko wrote: "I think #53 The Answer was one of the best entries in the series, up there with the Elimist...
#54 kind of broke my heart... I agree with Nirkadze, I thought the author took a chance not giving ..."
We love you Choko, and we love having you around for our BRs... you should join all cozy BRs this year...
We finish BioShifter this month, and go back to RavensDagger in March (author of Cinnamon Bun)... we're reading Dead Tired 1 & 2... then we'll decide what next, there's plenty of series to choose from:
Stray Cat Strut 1-5
The Agartha Loop: Book 1-2
Sporemageddon 1-3
Fluff 1-2
Love Crafted
#54 kind of broke my heart... I agree with Nirkadze, I thought the author took a chance not giving ..."
We love you Choko, and we love having you around for our BRs... you should join all cozy BRs this year...
We finish BioShifter this month, and go back to RavensDagger in March (author of Cinnamon Bun)... we're reading Dead Tired 1 & 2... then we'll decide what next, there's plenty of series to choose from:
Stray Cat Strut 1-5
The Agartha Loop: Book 1-2
Sporemageddon 1-3
Fluff 1-2
Love Crafted

#54 kind of broke my heart... I agree with Nirkadze, I thought the author took a chance not giving ..."
Sending you all the love and hugs, Choko!! It's such a treasure to get to read with you!
I'm also bummed about Vorkosigan coming to an end--but I'm looking forward to continuing with the Honor Harrington books! Those got me out of a Vorkosigan slump in the past... and we've got at least another year to go on them...
We need to find some more long-running comfort food... I tried doing some research--here are some longer running series that have some comfort-food if not cozy aspects... I'm only writing down things at least 5+ Books
Belgariad/Mallorean
Earthsea
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar
Jack McDevit's Alex Benedict series
Tamora Pierce's Tortall series (though I know Iain doesn't like these, they're my favorites)
On the list but haven't tried:
Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments
Jennifer Armentrout's Blood and Ash
Samantha Shannon's Bone Season
Seems like we're in the middle of a lot of the recs:
Temeraire
Horus Heresy
Riordan books
I'd also plug the Osten Ard saga so far--very nice writing--third book's a chonker but after that they are more normal...
oh, and this isn't even getting into LitRPG possibilities...
LitRPG/Cultivation is definitely one of my cozy go-tos...
I read a few Cassandra Clare books back in the day before abandoning...
Tamora Pierce's Alanna: The First Adventure quartet was a fail for me (quickly devolved into 1 star reads)... and A Wizard of Earthsea was a dud series for me, that I pushed through... Alex Benedict I read in the Mystery club, and got tired of the formula after awhile...
Read the Percy Jackson series and enjoyed it for what it was...
Reading Horus Heresy now, on book 2 this month...
Read Temeraire once, need to do the anthology...
Haven't read Belgariad, Valdemar, Armentrout, Samantha Shannon, or Tortall...
I read a few Cassandra Clare books back in the day before abandoning...
Tamora Pierce's Alanna: The First Adventure quartet was a fail for me (quickly devolved into 1 star reads)... and A Wizard of Earthsea was a dud series for me, that I pushed through... Alex Benedict I read in the Mystery club, and got tired of the formula after awhile...
Read the Percy Jackson series and enjoyed it for what it was...
Reading Horus Heresy now, on book 2 this month...
Read Temeraire once, need to do the anthology...
Haven't read Belgariad, Valdemar, Armentrout, Samantha Shannon, or Tortall...


I read a few Cassandra Clare books back in the day before abandoning...
Tamora Pierce's Alanna: The First Adventure quartet ..."
re: Tortall--that series is the Alanna series--there's five or so series in the same world, and Alanna's the first. It's my favorite childhood read, and I still return to it when I need comfort, though my favorite is Protector of the Small, the third series.
Wow, I'm somewhat surprised you managed to avoid the Belgariad though... the same way I'm surprised I managed to avoid any Mercedes Lackey until recently...
@Choko--yay!! I hope the "dragging out of hole" ends up being more like leisurely and exciting walk with occasional hike-y bits.
I don't think anyone has tried to read any Eddings around here in awhile... last I remember was like 2018... went and checked and it was 2019, the only time we made a thread for Pawn of Prophecy...

#54 kind of broke my heart... I agree with Nirkadze, I thought the author took a chance not giving ..."
I know its been a couple days but we love you too! I'm happy the group can be here for everyone when times get tough. Looking forward to your posts as you catch up to things!
Books mentioned in this topic
Alanna: The First Adventure (other topics)A Wizard of Earthsea (other topics)
Alanna: The First Adventure (other topics)
Sporemageddon (other topics)
Stray Cat Strut 1 (other topics)
More...