Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: Dylan on September 18, 2016, 01:26:52 PM
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From the reddit ama (https://m.reddit.com/r/books/comments/463bss/im_michael_grant_author_or_coauthor_of_animorphs/d02g8to) with Micheal Grant
lyraseven:
Once and for all: fifteen years ago when I finished the last page of the Animorphs series something occurred to me that didn't, apparently, to most people: at one time in the past, Elfangor had in his turn rammed the Blade Ship and survived. Was the Rachel's maneuver a deliberate callback to this, a hint that the group would survive? Or was it really the implied suicidal-but-galaxy-saving last act many people took it to be?
themichaelgrant:
"Was the Rachel's maneuver a deliberate callback to this, a hint that the group would survive?"
It's gratifying when the penny drops.
This made my day ;D
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Still pretty inconclusive. He pretty much just says it's a throwback/parallel to Andalite Chronicles.
There's still the thing way back in the day where Katherine said as far as she's concerned it could go either way, too. So yeah, flip a coin, it's a 50/50 thing.
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Still pretty inconclusive. He pretty much just says it's a throwback/parallel to Andalite Chronicles.
...Well, Eflangor survived the ramming of the blade ship. I thought by Grant saying that he more or less was insinuating Jake, Marco, and Tobias also lived.
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Could be, though he doesn't actually say that. On its own it looks that way, and maybe that's how he saw it. Hardly definitive though, when you put it alongside what Katherine said on it years ago. It's still sort of "they might have lived, they might not have", from that post it seems more like he's referring to it more just being a callback to TAC, that whole narrative "mirroring" thing.
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"It's like poetry, it rhymes."
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The Animorphs lived... on in the memory of Cassie, the only living Animorph.
The Animorphs lived... for five minutes until they all exploded in the vacuum of space.
The Animorphs lived... until their remains were diced and dispersed among the living machines known as the One.
Sure, the ending was a call back to the Andalite Chronicles. Doesn't mean they survived.
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I don't really like any of those options.
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I like the option where they live and fight other battles in the universe
Applegate/Grant have expressed interest in wanting to do a sequel series so...........
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They have? When did that happen?
But yeah, TheWolfEmperor laid it out pretty clearly. It's a possibility they survived, sure, but a remote one. And while it's of course a callback/reference to Elfangor in TAC, that doesn't exactly mean it's the same outcome. It's mirroring, the sort of thing Star Wars does all the time. To use that narrative as an example, those "mirrored" sequences are quite often flipped, juxtaposed in the opposite with what they're referencing.
I actually agree that yeah, from what Grant said in that post it does give the impression they lived. But he doesn't lay it out either way, it's still left up to interpretation. And that's what Applegate's always said on the topic, it was left a 50/50 coin-toss so people could draw their own conclusions.
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They have? When did that happen?
On Micheal's twitter/ in both KA's and Micheal's ama they talked about wanting to do a sequel to animorphs
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Do you have the post, though? Not doubting it, just seems that'd be pretty big news, I've never seen that before.
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themichaelgrant:
Hmmm. I don’t know about another Chronicles. I never know till I sit down to do it. We’ve thought about revisiting Animorphs, most recently when I was contemplating a new series (new as in I haven’t written it yet) where I saw I could either base it in the Animorphs universe or the Gone universe. The Gone universe worked better, and I no longer have much of a relationship with Scholastic, whereas I am very tight with Katherine Tegen, my publisher/editor at HarperCollins. As for the ‘controversial’ ending of Animorphs, we still think it’s right, but more right for us than it was for the readers.
The interest has been mentioned other times, dig through the amas
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Well, that's pretty interesting, thanks - was new to me.
But conversely, doesn't that very same quote kind of say it all? The controversial ending feels "right" to them? Sort of seems to me more Animorphs isn't happening, and not just because of his less-close relationship with Scholastic as a publisher these days.
And to be fair, he says he's contemplated books in that universe, not more Animorphs. Could just as easily be a prequel or forward-jumping sequel, or even set entirely off-Earth. In that scenario, the Animorphs could just as easily have died in #54.
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And to be fair, he says he's contemplated books in that universe, not more Animorphs. Could just as easily be a prequel or forward-jumping sequel, or even set entirely off-Earth. In that scenario, the Animorphs could just as easily have died in #54.
well true.
If there is a sequel, where Jake, Tobias, Marco, and Ax are dead, Applegate and him should at least throw Cassie (the only animorph left :()in there
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If Grant and Applegate talk about Animorphs, of course they're going to make vague responses like, "Yeah, we could revisit that universe."
But there was already an attempt to revise interest in the series on a commercial level and according to my last visit to the bookstore, it didn't seem to take. I don't know, personally I think they shouldn't have worried about taking the 90's out of the series, but the authors may not have had anything to do with that.
Even if they wrote something that allegedly takes place in the universe of Animorphs, it would have to be something so independent of the original series that you wouldn't be entirely lost if you didn't read Animorphs or the Chronicles.
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Yeah, and that's what I'd hope for if they go back there, anyway. Set it 200 years after the Earth war, see what's been going down since. Some new Yeerk insurgency, or new war entirely, Andalite or Hork lead characters perhaps.
And yup, Scholastic's testing-the-waters attempt with re-publishing the originals bombed, and hard. There's just no audience for this anymore.
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They should make a series about a publishing company trying to reboot a book series suspiciously similar to Animorphs during an actual alien invasion.
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They should make a series about a publishing company trying to reboot a book series suspiciously similar to Animorphs during an actual alien invasion.
Heck, fans were speculating that the Animorphs books were being secretly deployed to alert people about the Yeerk Invasion.
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S O M E T A
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Yeah, and that's what I'd hope for if they go back there, anyway. Set it 200 years after the Earth war, see what's been going down since. Some new Yeerk insurgency, or new war entirely, Andalite or Hork lead characters perhaps.
And yup, Scholastic's testing-the-waters attempt with re-publishing the originals bombed, and hard. There's just no audience for this anymore.
It bombed largely because they dropped the ball on marketing for it, not because there's no audience. Look at the new Power Rangers movie coming out. Relaunches are all about the way they're market and, more often than not, these days it means giving them a darker tone--which Animorphs is perfectly suited for.
The problem was that they were given slightly cooler but still cheesy covers, limited press, and next to no publicity beyond a shiny new website. Scholastic bungled it.
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The Power Rangers movie isn't going after the original audience, though. They're switching the tone up big-time and going for broad mass appeal. Sort of like what they did with Transformers, only it looks half-decent unlike that.
I wouldn't so much blame Scholastic for the marketing. The marketed the original run pretty damn well, it's just that the audience who wants it are now like 25-35 years old (and honestly, 90% of the people who read them back in the day don't care about it anymore, life goes on) and the kids these days just flat out didn't give a sh*t. Which is fine. But it was just sort of a shot in the dark, seeing if there was interest. There just wasn't.
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There is still a market for books targeted at kids 5-15. Although I'll admit it is probably smaller than it was when Animorphs first came out. I didn't really notice any marketing for the new release so that could have very well been part of the reason they didn't do well. I definitely didn't like the new covers.
themichaelgrant:
Hmmm. I don’t know about another Chronicles. I never know till I sit down to do it. We’ve thought about revisiting Animorphs, most recently when I was contemplating a new series (new as in I haven’t written it yet) where I saw I could either base it in the Animorphs universe or the Gone universe. The Gone universe worked better, and I no longer have much of a relationship with Scholastic, whereas I am very tight with Katherine Tegen, my publisher/editor at HarperCollins. As for the ‘controversial’ ending of Animorphs, we still think it’s right, but more right for us than it was for the readers.
The interest has been mentioned other times, dig through the amas
It sounds like this ended up becoming a sequel in the GONE universe, which he just confirmed about a week ago: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/14563799-monster (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/14563799-monster)
He does say he's mixing in about 10% Animorphs though!
To the point of the original topic though: I really like that the ending is ambiguous. I think it tells the rest of their story without really telling the rest of their story. Whether they survived this battle or not doesn't matter. Eventually there would be another battle and eventually they would die in battle. They were just the kind of people who would always have a war to fight.
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Exactly. Exactly.
Jake's doomed to fight, he's never, ever going to be free of it, and whether he dies then and there with the ship or not, he's dying doing this at some point.
It's just the "the end is the beginning is the end" thing.
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I would like to see a sequel series written, but set in the future. So, like, not right after the ramming of the blade ship. But instead, introduce brand new characters either on Earth, in space, or both. Have it be 2017, with the ending of the last book falling under the same chronoligical timeline. That would put the gang somewhere in their 30's.
Maybe there is another threat out there, and a young group of teens needs to step up and stop them some other way. Maybe animal morphing isn't as common and instead there are a number of alien species that can be acquired for use in battle. Maybe Elimist is still playing his games and interfering while not interfering.
And maybe make vague references to what happened in the past, with the group ramming the blade ship. Like, don't spell it out exactly but point to historical events that were impacted by the final pages of book 54. Is The One still out there? Is that the threat, finally making it's way to Earth space?
Maybe they live and make an appearance somewhere deep into the new series. Maybe it is confirmed that the action of ramming the blade ship caused a chain reaction of positive events to unfold, although they all died in the process. Maybe Cassie goes searching for them, and ends up like Elfangor, crash-landing back on Earth somehow, giving her dying breath to a group of teens and telling them to FIGHT.
I just think someone could write a very successful book series today, in the Animorphs universe, under some of the circumstances outlined above. Without having to simply take over directly after book 54 ends, and without even including the entire main cast of characters.
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I would like to see a sequel series written, but set in the future. So, like, not right after the ramming of the blade ship. But instead, introduce brand new characters either on Earth, in space, or both. Have it be 2017, with the ending of the last book falling under the same chronoligical timeline. That would put the gang somewhere in their 30's.
Maybe there is another threat out there, and a young group of teens needs to step up and stop them some other way. Maybe animal morphing isn't as common and instead there are a number of alien species that can be acquired for use in battle. Maybe Elimist is still playing his games and interfering while not interfering.
And maybe make vague references to what happened in the past, with the group ramming the blade ship. Like, don't spell it out exactly but point to historical events that were impacted by the final pages of book 54. Is The One still out there? Is that the threat, finally making it's way to Earth space?
Maybe they live and make an appearance somewhere deep into the new series. Maybe it is confirmed that the action of ramming the blade ship caused a chain reaction of positive events to unfold, although they all died in the process. Maybe Cassie goes searching for them, and ends up like Elfangor, crash-landing back on Earth somehow, giving her dying breath to a group of teens and telling them to FIGHT.
I just think someone could write a very successful book series today, in the Animorphs universe, under some of the circumstances outlined above. Without having to simply take over directly after book 54 ends, and without even including the entire main cast of characters.
I'm honestly not sure how interested I'd be in a series without the mains. I mean I'd definitely give it a chance, but for me the books were always about the characters. Idk.
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Well, they say that if you can't find the story you want to read, you should write it. ;)
That does sound like a good idea for a fic, and the post Yeerk War era is ripe for great stories. Nothing wrong with bringing in a full team of new OCs, they just have to be interesting. Good stories are always about the characters. And yeah, this community could always use more fics. :)
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Well, they say that if you can't find the story you want to read, you should write it. ;)
That does sound like a good idea for a fic, and the post Yeerk War era is ripe for great stories. Nothing wrong with bringing in a full team of new OCs, they just have to be interesting. Good stories are always about the characters. And yeah, this community could always use more fics. :)
http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?topic=5423.0 (http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?topic=5423.0)
I had attempted to write something that would eventually play out and become a new series with brand new characters. It was just baby steps to start, but it hasn't blossomed since. I truly haven't had any time to write more. But the premise was that the next "mission" they would go on would introduce the new "team", and that the Ellimist had planted an extreme power inside one of the new team members, which would eventually be revealed. It would counter The One's power, and I had many other ideas going on at the time I initially wrote that so many years ago.
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Hello. I'm saying hi to my own past and those of you who were here a decade or more before. It's nice to see some familiar names still posting here. Reading the books now feels like a time machine to who I was and how the world was back then, if you guys remember how the 90's felt. Time flies, but now it feels like ages have passed. Hope you guys are doing ok :)
MC's all the way for me, I grew up with them. Trying to tell a story without them in the universe would feel like ditching my old friends for new ones.