OKAY I'VE ACTUALLY DONE A LOT OF WORK WITH THIS AND I THINK I'VE FIGURED IT OUT.
Here's what I posted a while ago, edited with new info:
First we need to find out when the war actually started. This happened in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. Okay. Alloran reamed Seerow out for giving the Yeerks technology in 1966. Was that the beginning of the war? Or did the war technically start with the battle for Hork-Bajir, which didn't begin until sometime in the midst of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles? Aldrea and her family went to the Hork-Bajir homeworld in 1968. For the benefit of this whole charade, let's find the latest possible start date for the war. I'm going to try to find out how long they spent there until the Yeerks attacked.
Okay, here's one bit: "I notice that you are not making regular data entries. You did for the first three months. Then you stopped." (THBC, p. 33) 1968 and three months, give or take, I don't know, a month for him to confront her about it.
This seems important: "I was there. Do you understand what this moment was? I was there when Akdor announced the birth of the Yeerk Empire." (THBC, p. 53) This is an Esplin chapter and is no longer related to the other storyline, but we can assume it's sometime around at least 3 months into 1968.
"It was seven weeks since Aldrea had become a chadoo for the first time." (THBC, p. 55) So Aldrea's been on THB homeworld for four months and three weeks. They see Gedds later in the chapter. The Yeerks have begun the infestation of the Hork-Bajir people.
This doesn't matter. I think it's fair to say the beginning of the war is when the Andalites arrive on THB homeworld. Let's see when that is.
"At the very best, the fleet would take about two months to arrive." (THBC, p. 109)
It took two days for them to learn how to control the monsters from the Arn...I don't know if this is relevant but I'll write it down anyway.
Aldrea contacts the Andalites at the end of that battle...
HERE WE GO
"Seven months passed, and the fleet did not come. Not the two months I had expected." (THBC, p. 148)
"Space battle...There's a space battle going on in orbit!" (THBC, p. 153)
Four months, three weeks, two days, and seven more moths. That's almost exactly a year from Aldrea landing on the Hork-Bajir Homeworld with her parents in 1968 until the Andalite forces landed on the planet to fight the Yeerks. So unless the Andalites have some heavily-censored media and are orchestrating an Earth Kingdom-level conspiracy about keeping the war from the civilian public (which would be fair to argue, based on how the Andalite military is characterized, but we'd need to find textual evidence to support it), I think it's fair to say the Andalite-Yeerk War started in 1969. Which, unrelatedly, would be an appropriate year since that's when we landed on the moon.
Anyway, let's relate this back to The Andalite Chronicles.
"This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many years on Earth...and yet, no time at all." (TAC, prologue, viii)
Vague, but a good place to start.
"For five years our princes had fought the vissers of the Yeerk Empire. They said the war could go on for another fifty years...another hundred years."
So, if the war started in 1969 like we've said, then Elfangor's story starts in 1974.
How long does the Andalite Chronicles take? I'm skipping the meat now: Taxxon homeworld and Sub-Visser whatever infesting Alloran and living asteroids and Mortrons blah blah blah.
"That was like, what, a week ago? Did all this happen in just a week?" (TAC, p. 298)
Elfangor's adventure happens in 1974. It takes a week. Then he decides to run away with her to Earth. How long does he spend on Earth?
The first three words in chapter 45 are Three years later (TAC, p. 300) Then we get a recap of what Elfangor did during this time--become human, attend college + grad school, get a job ("I had a job writing software for primitive human computers. It was the 1980s on Earth and humans were just beginning to understand computers." [TAC, p. 301])
According to Elfangor's testimony, the war has been five years long, he spent three years on Earth with Loren, and it's the 1980s.
Except, no. 1969+5 years: 1974+3 years: 1977. The Ellimist comes and whisks him back to his home, according to all the textual evidence we have found, in 1977.
If all of this were correct, Tobias would have been conceived in 1977, which would make him 18 or 19 years old when Elfangor's fighter crashes.
Of course all of this can be handwaved, because we're not explicitly told how the Ellimist changed stuff. In fact, the only way to make this coherent is to factor in the fact that Elfangor and Loren both aged while they were in the made-up Time Matrix universe vortex thingie. Let's say, for argument's sake, they each aged five years. So Loren started out about 13 years old and ended up about 18, which would at least make her having a baby three years after that...somewhat appropriate. But sort of, not really, but that's a post for another time.
For the longest time, I assumed that when Loren went home to Earth, she just *imagined* that everyone thought she was 18 years old. This is how it's explained in the book:
"There's one more problem. This me has aged. I'm older. I must be almost 18 now [ooh this proves my theory even more], judging from the way I've grown. People would notice."
<Yes. But imagine that they don't. Imagine that you are eighteen and that everyone has ever known you expects you to be eighteen." 299
So, contextually, they don't really explain what she did. But rather than doing what Elfangor said, and being an awkward 18 year old with a bunch of 13 year old friends, what if she just pushed everyone up 5 years? What if she just took Elfangor and jumped 5 years into the future, so the lucky **** got to skip high school? In that case, it's 1974 plus the 5 years they jump, so 1979, and about 1982 when Tobias is conceived, meaning he was born in 1983, which would make him 13 in 1996 when the first book is published.
BOOM.
I also think this is the way it was intended to be read, because the first chapter starts "Twenty-One Years Before," which would mean: Adventure, +5 years in Time Matrix, +3 Years on Earth, +9 months prenatal development, +13 years Tobias growing up=21 years, give or take.
I admit that someone else on the LJ community figured that out, but it actually is a logical, cohesive timeline.
This is the other textual evidence we get as far as how much time Elfangor has been gone: "The lost aristh who had returned mysteriously, years after disappearing, and had flown his fighter in a bold suicide mission." (TAC, 320)
HOW MANY YEARS APPLEGATE, HOW MANY YEARS?
The only other indication of time we get is here: "It was many years before I saw Earth again. I had fought in more battles than I could count. I had won, and I had lost." (TAC, p. 323)
So...there you have it. Let me try to recap: Andalite-Yeerk war starts in 1969 when the Andalites arrive on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. Could be later, depending on when the government decided to actually inform the public there was a high-stakes intra-galactic war going on. Elfangor's adventure takes place in 1974, according to THBC timeline. He jumps five years, making it 1979, spends three years on earth, making it 1982 when he leaves, when we know Loren is pregnant with Tobias.
So...ta-da.
