And so… the Animorphs.
I’ve read the entire series a couple times, but it’s also been at least a decade. I remember that they’re very light reads, at times a bit dated (which I expect hasn’t gotten better), and… surprisingly good! Let’s see if they hold up.
We start with The Invasion!
5 kids walking home from the mall (do kids ever go to malls any more?) and stumble upon an alien. Dying from his wounds, hunted by his enemies.
And oh what enemies they are… the Yeerks. Alien slugs that can slither into your ear and take you over. And for some reason, they’re taking over this unspecified (probably West Coast US, we’ll come back to that) small city, starting with… high schoolers and Assistant Principals?
Big battle ensues, one alien kills another, but just before, the kids are given the power to fight back–by turning (morphing) into any animal they can touch (acquire).
Initially, they’re (rightfully) not willing to fight back, but of course things go sideways.
“Oh, I’m sure we could talk them into letting us in for nothing,” Marco said. “Just tell them we’re Animorphs.”
“Tell them we’re what?” Rachel asked.
“Idiot teenagers with a death wish,” Marco said.
“Animorphs.” I tried the word out. It sounded okay.
And… so it begins.
I enjoyed it. And I’m looking forward to re-reading the series!
Some random thoughts
A few interesting things I’ve picked up on, having read this series a few times. Things that change or ‘why is it that way’.
Minor spoilers!
<He cannot hear your thoughts,> the Andalite said. <As long as you don’t direct them to him.>
A bit later Jake talks to a morphed Tobias. You can only Thought Speak if you’re morphed (or an Andalite). Amusing how things settle over time.
(Apparently later printings of the books correct/remove this. It’s not particularly relevant to the story).
And there were creatures everywhere. Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and other things I couldn’t even begin to guess at.
Kind of weird how they never mention what those other aliens are. Even throughout the series we only barely get a few others. The original Yeerk hosts. A few monsters of the week. That’s about it.
A quiet universe out there, I suppose?
A few dated references
You know, this wasn’t actually as bad as I thought.
I have a Sega at home.
Sega mostly got out of the video game market. Their last console was the Dreamcast in 1998/99, although really their only big star was the Sega Genesis from 1990.
Maybe we should run home and get a camera.
No way she could have predicted that everyone would have a camera in their pocket now. Even children/teens. Still amusing.
“We’d be totally famous. We’d get to be on Letterman for sure.”
I thought Late Night with David Letterman which ended in 1993 but he was also on the Late Show with David Letterman which apparently ran until 2015 and has a Netflix show that… is still running. Huh.
We talked about who was going to slaughter who in Dead Zone 5, which is this CD game we were going to play on my computer. … Marco moved over and gave Tom his control stick.
Man, this sounds funny even for the times.
The Sharing was probably just like some new kind of coed Boy Scouts or something.
Although for a while girls were allowed to join Venturing, Sea Scouts, and Explorers, the Boy Scouts themselves went co-ed in 2017 (although that’s still pack by pack).