Skippable books

[Larrikin]

So my friend is learning English and absolutely loves the Animorphs books. However the books take her a long time to read. I would hate for her to spend all the time reading a book that really does progress the story. I remember when I reread them a couple years ago there were some in the middle that added nothing to the story. Which are the books that contain story lines that are not referenced in any other books nor provide any meaningful backstory?

[Chad32]

31 is an idiot plot that made my head hurt. I suppose it has some charactarization between Jake and Marco that adds sontext to a later book, but he main plot literally shouldn't hae happened. The Yeerks should have contingency plans in case a controller needs to travel. The one about rachel morphing a starfish and being split in half. The one about underwater mutants. The one about Buffa Human. I'd say the Helmacron ones, but the last Helmacron book has them stealing the morphing cube, and the Anis trying to get it back. I feel like it's worth reading because this is the last book Cassie narrates before book 50. She says the Yeerks getting the morphing cube would be the worst thing ever, before book 50 where she lets Tom's Yeerk escape with the cube. An interesting bit of context to her betrayal.

There are a lot of filler books, even earlier in the series. Book 9 is kind of filler, but it really helps set the stage for the kind of person Cassie is, and helps give some context to book 19.

I know there are some books that can really be skipped without losing anything. 41. The back half of the last book, perhaps. Most Megamorphs books.

[RYTX]

imo: 2,9,11,12,14,16,17,24,25,28,31,32,34,35 except that last page,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,44,47

Some of these are mildly referenced in other books("Remember that cat from book 2?"), but I feel like none of them advance the story or any of the characters in meaningful way.
That said, I still think 24 is ***ing hilarious.

[Chad32]

I have heard people say that number two is the more filler-y book of the first set. Especially since Mellisa has no real role in the rest of the series. Darn shame, too. She gets cameos in two other books, but is otherwise incidental at best. And those two other books aren't even Rachel books.

So RYTX, you think someone could take out nine books in a row without missing much at all? Thirteen, if it weren't for 33 and 43.

[RYTX]

Honestly, I would have put 33 and 43 up there, but some people think Taylor was of consequence (which she wasn't, though she should have been. Perfect time in the series to introduce a secondary antagonist) and liked that crap with ghost Elfangor.

But yeah, while there are books from that stretch I enjoy (36, and uh, well, 36) that whole stretch of there series, the missions where trivial or stupid, the characters didn't really grow, and nothing happens that impacts them in a lasting way. They set up a lot of these books with the potential to be real plot points in the series, but never came back to them (a free HB colony in space, the Andalite's coming to Earth, Taylor).

Though I'm biased. I recall that 32 (maybe 33)  was the last one a read my first time through before taking a very long break from the series. Were I picked up again with 46, realized something I'd skipped something important, and had to go back. And it turns out only 45 had anything of consequence.

[Chad32]

Oh yeah, those were the Taylor books. Like david, they could have done so much more with her. For some reason they didn't want to crowd the Animorphs Rogues Gallery.

I wonder what happened to that Hork-Bajir resistance force on the homeworld, and why Tobi wouldn't go there to help the group. Instead she gets a seat in Congress somehow. Did she convert to christianity and tell them she was male, or something?

I don't blame you for saying a big chunk of the back half of the series is filler. Things did go downhill a bit when KA stopped writing any books.

[NothingFromSomething]

2's pretty instrumental in setting up Chapman's motivation though, and I always felt it gave a way better insight into the dynamic of the kids and their interactions than the first book showed.  It's "small" in plot, but gets under the surface a bit more, which I like.  3 goes bigger again with advancing the Yeerk stuff, 2's just a different "type" of book.

[Chad32]

Yeah, I don't label that filler as quickly as some other people. I just wish Mellissa was used more.

[RYTX]

Chapman's motivations for what? The human who got himself taken to protect his daughter? Sure, neat. Would have been nice if they'd done something with it other than mention it a couple times later down the road. Especially since they made him out to be such a prick in TAC. (The development, the role of voluntaries, YPM, more things that could have been used in that late stretch.) All we see of Chapman is the toady Yeerk who hates his boss. If the question is is this book skippable or not, retaining it can't be because Chapman-the-human-we-never-see-free-again loves his kid.

Now the team dynamics is certainly better than 1. But since so much of the series deals with that, the story is not really compelling (the story telling yes, it's a well written early book, but the events remain negligible to me).
3 I only think is significant for Tobias's development, and accepting being a hawk. Blowing up the ship, while it gets a nod later, is one of the lesser missions, that as they become more capable won't have warrented it's own story.

[Blu]

Perhaps a better question would be: Which books had major plotpoints? Could we cut the series down to about 20-30 books?

Saying that, perhaps a lot of the fillers were mainly for character development?

[Chad32]

There was some good character development, but some characters went off the rails. They treated Rachel's character poorly, for instance. They wanted her to be the one who goes down the darkest road, to a point where she could never come back. Then what do they do at the end of the last two books she narrates? In 48 she realizes what Crayak is doing on her own and denies him without being helped by anyone else. Then at 54, one of her last thoughts is about shopping, and asking the Ellemist if she mattered. Does that really sound like an irredeemable bloodknight?

I do think the series could have been half as long without losing much of anything. Especially since little to no effort was put into fleshing out the other groups. You can hae the animorphs remain the main characters while giving the Hork-Bajir, Chee, and YPM more focus from time to time. It would certainly be better than finding out about mutants under the sea, the fact that the Yeerks have no contingency plans in case controllers need to travel, and what happens if an animal gains the morphing ability.

[RainOfBlood]

All Cassie books. Seriously.

[Chad32]

Flat characters aren't very interesting when they're surrounded by dynamic ones.

[NothingFromSomething]

*Sighs at the Cassie comment*

*Realizes he's too lazy to type out a defense*

[RYTX]

*Takes advantage of the opening to bash on Cassies*

I hate Cassie, I do. However, I admit she is a monumental character and pivotal to many elements of the story. But seriously, Cassie books, really weak. She had 4, but that's important for bringing in Ax, anyone could have had it and it'd still be vital. 19 with Aftran, and the roll she had in 50 but beyond that think about the missions that were from her POV. Save the trees, space toilet, Helmacrons, ghost of Aldrea, buffa-human, and Cassie goes to Australia. Dafaq? Those are just soap boxes for Cassie to talk about all that's bad with what they have to do. Cassie herself is vital for her interactions with the others, and her enemies, and those points, especially the former, tend to be made in the others' books rather than the ones she narrates.

A similar argument could be made for any of them I suppose, but again, and excuse to bad mouth miss sub-temporally grounde