Great character and world building plus a game changing twist essential to the series going forward. The Animorphs go to space and learn the identity of Visser One. Not nearly the best book in the series, and a little repetitive in terms of plot beats, but crucial plot-wise – Ax is a great character and you can’t miss his introduction. The Animorphs rescue trapped Andalite Ax from the ocean. The deeper, more ambivalent ideas about identity that Animorphs got very good at exploring really start to take hold here and even by the end of the series this remains one of the strongest examples of that. Doesn’t really progress the plot, but in terms of both theme and character the series is poorer without it. Tobias struggles with being trapped in the body of a hawk. Plus, in these early books the climax is almost always the same and will start to grate after a while. Some good character development for Rachel and further establishment of the stakes, but doesn’t do anything that later books don’t do better.
Rachel investigates her friend’s Controller father.
A great introduction which hides in plain sight all the big themes and ideas that will come to dominate the series. Sets up the world and characters with fast paced efficiency and a tight, propulsive structure. Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias and Marco learn of a secret invasion and are given the power to morph by a dying alien. Skippable: You have little or nothing to be gained from reading this book. Recommended: The series works fine without it, but there’s worthwhile stuff here. So which books do you absolutely need to read, which ones can you skip, and which ones fall somewhere in the middle? Below is my assessment of every Animorphs book in release order.Įssential: Advances the plot, themes or characters in crucial ways. You can read less than half the Animorphs books and still have a great time. The second half of the series is packed with filler novels that either stall or actively damage development, and so the best way to read this series (which remains very, very worth doing) is to be a little judicious in which books you read and which ones you ignore. Especially given that they’ve been largely out of print for twenty years - while the eBooks are available for free online and there’s an ongoing graphic novel adaptation, tracking down the entire series can be a difficult and expensive proposition.īut the thing about having that many books is that not all of them are necessary or even, frankly, good. Granted, these are slim volumes that you can smash out in a couple of hours, but even so, taking on this series is a commitment. Including the ‘companion’ books that flesh out the backstory and lore in important ways, there are sixty-two Animorphs books in total.
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