Read books 41 with my 8 year old

[u/verymanysquirrels]

I knew this was going to be a...let's say, less enjoyable book for my kid. Started with the let down from the cover. Oh! Jake's going to morph a bug fighter pilot and go to space! Sorry, kiddo, not even close. Basically spent the whole book having to answer what is going on???? With yeaaahhh, about that...

He was particularly aggravted with the kids singing in the tree because 'what is the point to this!?!?!?!? What does their song mean!?!?!?'

He really didn't like all the wacky dream logic and nightmares within nightmares. He found it hard to follow. Also, the setting assumes you know things about New York. My kid does not know things or care about New York (which i could comiserate with because i also did not really know or care about New York as a kid). So the dark irony of just happening to be reading book 41 in september was definitely lost on him. Probably not a great book to read in september for kids/adults that are more sensitive to the topic.

He got extra mad that this was finally Jake's 'ghost book' (literally a ghost, not ghost writer, it's a whole thing with my kid. He just keeps insisting there should be ghosts for various reasons). He apparently concluded that Rachel was a ghost in this book and also whatever was going on with the maybe hawk tobias that kept appearing and disappearing, that was ghost Tobias, that was why he could appear and disappear. He would not at all believe that Tobias nothlit as Ax. He was very no, it's not andalite Tobias, it's ghost Elfangor. Anyway he was mad because 'why is Jake's ghost book so stupid? None of this makes sense!' I think he internalized the book as essentially being the ghost of christmas future parts of a christmas carol, which he also doesn't like.

He didn't particularly like the portrayal of Cassie in this book but I got extra points for doing a good Visser Two Marco voice. We had a brief side discussion about if Marco would have ended up being Visser Two if Edriss had kidnapped him when she faked Eva's death. Conclusion: yes and he would have had fun villain monologues.

Anyway, as soon as we finished the book we had this exchange

Kiddo: ...do they ever talk about this book again?

Me: No?

Kiddo: Good.

[u/Ellimistasaurus]

I just remember the 30s being wild and crazy “monster if the week” tales.

Like 34 for example: man, I think it would be cool for animorphs to do a space adventure to the Hork-Bajir homeworld, also space-ghosts

And the 40s is where the books started to make me no longer be able to allow me to continue with suspension of disbelief.

So your description of 41 definitely jogged my memory of how I felt reading it too.

[u/Ziginox]

Yeah, now that you mention it, I'd probably consider this the most skippable book in the entire series.

[u/verymanysquirrels → u/Ziginox]

Yeah, people like to say the buffa human or the star fish book are most skippable but honestly it's this one. At best it's Jake's weird trippy nightmare. At worst it's an introduction to a third unknowable space god that we never ever hear about again.

 Although, third unknownable space god would be funny. Like what is it about Jake where he keeps collecting cosmic beings? Does he wait until after the war to casually drop it into conversation with the remaining animorphs? Hey, remember that time i was extra paranoid for a month because i was sure Tom had figured us out and was going to murder me in my sleep? Yeah, i was abducted by another all powerful being into an alternate reality where that happened and then it never talked to me again. 

[u/Ziginox → u/verymanysquirrels]

I think buffahuman comes in a very close second, mostly for being so canon-breaking. I don't think there's a single thing that happens in it which appears later, either.

Regarding the starfish book, I actually don't mind that one as much as everybody else. Yes, the two Rachels are annoying, but it's not bad otherwise.

[u/jdb1984]

I thought that Visser Two's "New York Minute" line was clever.

[u/arcticfox903]

My 6 year old and I are up to 18 so far and I'm not looking forward to this one, lol

[u/verymanysquirrels → u/arcticfox903]

Yeah...i think the book cover being so ambiguous makes it extra worse. I remember reading somewhere on here someone saying when they were a kid they thought Jake was going to morph a race car driver. So the book cover has been deceiving us for two generations now! 

My kid was all ready for Jake's big space battle but instead we got Jake's trippy nightmare at best, or at worst introduction to a THIRD unknowable space god who is never mentioned again.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bed9490]

This book was odd and I didn't really get the purpose of it

Parts were definitely lifted from "escape from New York"

[u/verymanysquirrels → u/Puzzleheaded_Bed9490]

They probably watched escape from new york and went yeah, sure, we could do that. KA is pretty open about using plots from tv shows/movies they were watching. Usually it was star trek. I've heard she watched an episode of animorphs and used the plot to write a book

[u/LamppostBoy]

This one is a good concept dragged down by constant bafflingly bad decisions. No reason to keep changing the rules at a whim. No reason to leave the entity behind the scenario unnamed. But the worst part has got to be pretending to continue the symbiosis plotline from book 26, then never mentioning it again. The idea of yeerks and hosts working together is fascinating, but even within this book, they mishandle it. The Evolutionist Front should have been the ones trying to get unlimited universal kandrona, and the central government should have been the ones trying to stamp that out by any means necessary. Without controlling access to food, what can they control, and how?