The war was three years long, right?

[musicman88]

Well, the war was three years long, right?  And then in the final book three years pass by, right?  So if they started in '96 and went to 2001 then that equals five years.  But probably due to rounding and whatnot it's a close enough time line. That must mean that the actual war ended in 1999ish. 

[Gafrash]

Didn't the conflict on Earth technically start when Visser One introduced The Sharing and handed the Yeerk Invasion Campaign over to Visser Three??? How many years BEFORE the Andalite fleet lost to Visser Three's forces above our atmosphere? How much time BEFORE Jake and the others met Elfangor and were given The Power to Morph???

If we were to count it from book one, was it really 3 years??? Some of the plots in the books felt like they lied right next month to one another. Like, the others mentioned Cassie's 'quitting the team' in two books afterwards as if they were a month ago. Then there was the David trilogy; 3 books in one week or so! Tobias finding his 'auntie Arya' was like the month after or something. The Anti-Morphing ray plots with Rachel and Tobias weren't THAT far apart.
And also take in consideration that though there are 54 books and a lot of them had more than one mission concerning opposing the Yeerks, some of them had nothing relevant to the fighting war storyline. Like in the Familiar or even in The Attack.

[Chad32]

I believe Eva was infested a year and a half before Elfangor came. It says in Book 5, I believe. So that should be some help.

Not to mention that the whole war started around the sixties. I'd have to reread Visser to see if there are any other indications.

[Duff]

Yes the war was three years long, which means that technically a year passes every 18 books, but this probably won't be the case since different amounts of time pass between each book.

The number of missions they've been on is unknown because they will have been on missions that weren't in the books.

This question should really have been posted in the triva thread, which is reserved for questions with simple, one answer questions. It is stickied at the top of the page and can be found here http://animorphsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,823.0.html

well i dno mike, this can kind of turn into a discusion about the lengths between books and everything, i dont think nohansen was looking to confirm it was three years, but to discuss the time more in depth

yea for alot of them it doesnt add any time for the overall timeline, and dont some of them skip ahead a few days even a week during the book

yea when something important happens between the animorphs, like you said about cassie quitting, they do kinda talk about it like it was really recent even after a few books, but in that example, marco is the kind of guy that wouldnt just let that go, he'd be thinking about it for at least a few months anyway

[Terenia]

You know, once upon a time I really did have this all written out somewhere....I think it was posted over on e.a.r....


Anyhow.
Seerow's Kindness results in a Yeerk uprise in 1966

Hork-Bajir invasion begins 1968, ends 1969/1970

Sometime between 1970 and 1975 the Yeerks make a deal with the Taxxons and set up a base on their world.

The Andalite Chronicles begins 21 years before The Invasion. That would be 1975. This is they year that the Yeerks discovered humans and that Edriss went to Earth and began to establish stuff there. During the time from approximately 1975 to 1994 Edriss is in charge of Earth. Sometime in 1994/1995 control over the operation shifted to Visser Three and Edriss left Earth, resulting in Eva's "death". 1996 is when the Animorphs begin to fight.

As for the timeline of the main series, it's a bit more convoluted.

Generally, books 1-3 occur during about a months time. Book 15 or 16 marks the one year point.

The issues with David come shortly after the one year point, and I'm guessing the two year point hits around book 30, leaving books 31-54 to take place during the remaining time.

The final story arc probably occurs over maybe a month, tops, I think.

[Duff]

that sounds about right t, good work

i always pictured the later books as being more grouped together, more like non-stop war instead of hey lets go on another mission its been a while like it was earlier on. Cause if they let all the other aspects of their life kinda slip away then it wasnt just a weekly or even monthly thing they were getting into

[morfowt]

nor a daily. more like an hourly.

[Azguard]

 wow Terenia, nice!

[Dameg]

I also think the time go differently between the books. Sometimes a mission (1 book) is on about 3 or 4 weeks, sometimes a long mission (2 or 3 books) is only 1 week. I didn't really care of that... But what confused me was the seasons... We don't really know which season it is. And same for hollidays: the Animorphs don't seem to have long hollidays with their family, for example... It's quite strange...

[Azguard]

 maybe they live in an alternate reality? haha


 or, they just aren't mentioned in the books cuz nothing dramatic happens.

[Terenia]

They live in California. Seasons as most people think of them (a distinct summer/fall/winter/spring) doesn't really exist. I'm guessing there is maybe a 20 or 30 degree difference between summer and winter, but nothing dramatic.

Holidays I think weren't mentioned specifically to maintain the ambiguity of time. Remember, until 54 is published we have absolutely no idea how much time has passed. In addition, holidays aren't really essential to the war timeline so they aren't that important to write about. K.A. skipped over the Chanukah celebration in favor of going directly to the next mission.

[Azguard]

 yeah, I'm from California....seaso ns don't vary too much... but it's alright! 

[Chad32]

No wonder they never mentioned snow around where they lived or anything. Sometimes in the early part of the series, I wondered how Ax and Tobias would adjust to snow or something. Of course it wouldn't be as bad as The Extreme, though.

[Dameg]

You mean... F degrees? or C degrees? How much is it in C degrees???

[Terenia]

Er...sorry....20 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit. No clue what that would be Celsius.  ???