I don't care how ridiculous parts of the plot were, "The Underground" was exciting and awesome and forever one of my favorites. The whole sequence where Rachel is in human form in the Yeerk Pool pretending she's a controller and chatting with other human-controllers was so tense and thrilling...and it was nice to see the Yeerks being proactive and smart for a change, re: the new security system!
i agree with this! it's why i almost picked the underground as my fav (from this list) but i'm a little more partial to 7 because of the first time grizzly morph and its out of control-ness and the ellimist and future!rachel eating fried tobias legs which is terrifying and disgusting and sad.
For AGES after reading 17 I wanted to go into a McDonald's and ask for the Happy Meal with Extra Happy. I wonder how many people have tried that joke, lol.
#17 was the first Animorphs book I read, and got me into the series, so I have a soft spot for it, but #2 is still my favorite of the Rachel books you listed because the story of the Chapmans was so affecting and I felt for Rachel who could do nothing to help her friend.
Okay I'm kind of cheating on "most ridiculous" thing because I don't think it's what you had in mind, but the thing about #17... Animorphs tackles all kinds of awful war stuff, even at this point in the series. Germ warfare? Huge thing. But I feel like it was laughed off. Some of the characters wanted to really talk about this, but others played it off "It's oat-FREAKING-meal!". WHICH happens in real life of course, but I felt that the book really kind of settled on that perspective, instead of making note of "we're doing a fucked-up thing". I guess you can chalk it up to them still not being totally war-weary yet, but it's the most ridic thing about the book to me! I kind of felt the book was too "fun" and "silly" for the topic, but that is my opinion!
Anyway, normally I'd vote Rachel's elephant over her grizzly (I just love the impracticality of it) but her sort of beginning relationship with her grizzly here is really beautiful. I think #7 is objectively the best of this selection. Though #2 was the first Animorphs book I read, so I am rather fond of it.
I loved Rachel's relationship with the grizzly--and in fact, all of their relationships with their battle morphs. They were all kind of analogues to their characters in a way.
Number 2 had, in my opinion, the best feature of all the morphing done across the entire series, one that I wanted to see much more of and instead got little bits here and there: the character having an apparent dialouge with the morph's instincts. Most other books only featured a discription of what the morph felt in a given situation, I hoped to see more of the dialouge (and thus the difference between how different characters talked to the same acquired morph), especially whenever anybody morphed another human, or when Tobias morphed an andalite. The taxxons as a species got a huge credit when Tobias realized they were just insecure about where their next meal would come from, but that scene would have been much more impactful if it went the same way Rachel focused her cat morph on following Chapman, with the morph seeming to ask important questions on its own.
The most ridiculous thing about Number 17 was in the opening set-piece when 6 birds grab a falling man and carry/glide him to the water so he doesn't die. Co-ordination, planning, practice, intetional orchestration, nothing could have gotten that to work, much less improvisation.
I think I'm the only person, but I LOVED Book 12, the Reaction. I really liked all the little details about the hotel, the show, etc., etc.; it was just a really fun read for me, and it remains that way to this day. Also, it was nice to see the parents caring--that was a consistent theme of the books--even if they didn't really know what was going on, they did pay attention to their kids. Plus, I think Rachel (or Marco) was the perfect character for the emotion plot--a seemingly cool or even cold character who really isn't.
It was fun to see Rachel and Cassie be crushing teenage girls, too--and an interesting contrast for who they become later in the series. Here, they still had some teenage innocence, but not so much by the end of the series.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 04:55 pm (UTC)And here I was, about to make fried chicken legs for dinner tonight. Not sure I can do it now with that image in my head...
no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-07 10:54 pm (UTC)Anyway, normally I'd vote Rachel's elephant over her grizzly (I just love the impracticality of it) but her sort of beginning relationship with her grizzly here is really beautiful. I think #7 is objectively the best of this selection. Though #2 was the first Animorphs book I read, so I am rather fond of it.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-11 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-09 10:31 am (UTC)The most ridiculous thing about Number 17 was in the opening set-piece when 6 birds grab a falling man and carry/glide him to the water so he doesn't die. Co-ordination, planning, practice, intetional orchestration, nothing could have gotten that to work, much less improvisation.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-11 05:17 pm (UTC)It was fun to see Rachel and Cassie be crushing teenage girls, too--and an interesting contrast for who they become later in the series. Here, they still had some teenage innocence, but not so much by the end of the series.