Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: poparena on January 31, 2013, 09:27:04 PM
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As the Opinionated Animorphs Book Guide gets deeper into the ghostwriten era, I'm looking for some kind of fan consensus as to who are the best ghostwriters. Who best captures the style and themes K.A. Applegate laid down? Who brings the most interesting things to the series? Who's just the best all-around writers? You can select up to three, I'm very interested to see the results.
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We're supposed to like the ghostwriters?
Nah, joking. Some of the books were good. I think I'll go with Jeffrey, because I like Marco and his books.
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'Kay. Going to be honest. I voted Melinda Metz because I've actually read her own work. I read Fingerprints and liked that series, and I seriously didn't realize she ghostwrote for Animorphs until the Opinionated review.
Yeah, that isn't based on the books she wrote so much as it is... her ability as a writer in general. Though I like 29. But... I read it when I didn't realize there were ghostwriters. XD That knowledge didn't come around till I started paying attention to fandom discussions a few months after that. So, like I said, Metz gets my vote based solely on my opinion of her from her own stuff.
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I picked Metz because 29 was well done, Donner because 30 was well done, and Geroux because 45 was will done and the Taylor books were pretty good too. 30 is probably objectively the best ghostwritten book, I think.
Was 26 The Attack not ghosted? I don't see it on here.
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26 was written by Applegate.
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Small edit, The Prophecy is #34, not #32.
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I picked Donner and Morris.
I liked all the books Morris did; didn't love the placement for 48 and 38, but the stories themselves were sound.
30 and 46 are excellently done I thought, so Donner I like
and after much hesitation I add Hardracker: 51 really got a lot of the less dramatic feeling: it was still exciting, but the fight is kind of a laugh, like so of the early stories. 49, maybe because the story is so game changing, but how it was delivered I thought was good too. 44 was crap, so I don't really want to add her, but I can't tell you how much of the story (which really was the problem more then the writing-though the first few chapters of writing kinda sucked there) was her and not anyone else.
I think 45 is really, really well done for a lot of reasons, but I hate most the other books Geroux wrote, so left that one out
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Oh okay. That makes sense. For some reason I thought that 32 was the only non-ghosted book from 25 through 52.
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Lisa Harkrader is my choice, even though she wrote #44 (With that idea, how good could she have done?) #49 is one of my favorite books in the series and #51 is exciting and funny. I picked Jeffrey Zeuhlke and Melinda Metz for the other options: Zeuhlke wanders a bit off tone sometimes, but his writing's very strong otherwise. I'm picking Metz basically off of the strength of "The Sickness."
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Of the selections, I'm surprised I'm the only one to choose Gina Gascone.
Certainly the Other wasn't a game changer in any respect, but it introduced another aspect of Andalite culture, as well as being the first time in the series that an Andalite other than Ax and Elfangor showed the Animorphs any real respect.
It always stands out in my mind that genuinely Mertil sincerely referred to Marco as Aristh.
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Jeffrey Zuehlke.
#35 was fun to read, the scene with Jake/Marco/Tennant was powerful. I wish I could have see more Marco vs Tennant action - Marco's so much of a tortured character, he needs an outlet (I'm hopelessly biased towards Marco. Haha). The best part of the book was the ending - and how Marco gets on with his new life with Nora and that stupid poodle in it. And then it just got heartwrenching.
"Marco, if you're there, pick up."
What a horribly amazing place to put that line in.
Melinda Metz (for #29. #34 was so-so)
And Ellen Geroux. Ellen's books usually have very powerful images, are very emotional and fantastic characterization. The only one she ghostwrote that was less than great IMO was #43. But it was not bad, at least.
I'm very happy to see that no one picked Amy Garvey.
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Definitely Geroux. She wrote not just my personal favourite (#47 The Resistance) but several of the stronger books.