Animorphs 2.0? The idea has me very interested, it'll be sweet if something comes from it.
But visiting this place again just to see more never-ending whining about ghostwriters, book 54 and KA is pretty grating...
Sorry, I can't help myself:
It was laziness. Pure and simple.
Why don't you go write a book every month for the next decade then come back here and talk about laziness.
KA was writing Everworld at that time for the sake of fans who felt they had outgrown Animorphs. The ghostwriters were a natural solution given that
KA and Michael had ghostwritten entries of other series, so they would be familiar and comfortable with that idea. Everworld turned out to be relatively difficult to write, and as they worked with the ghostwriters KA and Michael discovered that management wasn't quite their forte. Some mistakes were made, some lessons were learned, and not all of the Animorphs books were of the highest quality. Oh well. That's life.
I stand by my statement that she has no right to talk about author integrity. The last book was a bad plot that was badly implemented. It's as simple as that.
The last book was an extended epilogue, not intended to provide the same sort of reading experience as regular entries. The plot is not the main point once the story jumps ahead several years. From there, the rest is about bringing closure to the characters and to the thematic content of the story.
Hackneyed writing wouldn't have the overwhelming emotional power that book 54 has. In terms of emotion, it seems to have achieved the intended effect - a sense of what life is like after returning from war. Which is the sort of ending the series deserved.
The characterization sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of the various Animorphs' coping mechanisms throughout the war, showing what their outcomes are. Which is a part of the story that deserved to be written.
I don't have complaints about the introduction of the Kelbrid and The One. So these specific entities weren't explicitly set up beforehand - okay, so what? It's kind of a given that the Animorphs universe is overflowing with sentient alien species, with new ones constantly popping into the story at any time. That's how alien species have been handled throughout the series, so when that device is used at the end of the story it suddenly becomes sloppy and lazy? I don't feel that the Kelbrid and The One needed to be set up beforehand because as they stand, the two entities serve as fine symbols representing the ultimate evils of the Animorphs story in thematic terms. The power of those symbols might have been compromised if we'd known about their existence for the span of a dozen books.
Cliffhangers were a staple of the Animorphs writing style. Just about every chapter would lead to some big dramatic cliffhanger of some sort. So ending the series with the mother-of-all-cliffhangers isn't sloppy and thoughtless - more along the lines of the ending the series deserved, as opposed to the ending readers would want. The cliffhanger does an excellent job of summarizing who the Animorphs are, what they stand for, and what the story has been about from the start. But nobody seems to care, because whining about it is more gratifying than contemplating it.
And gee, how dare KA be excited about the new series she's about to begin? What sort of nerve she had, to be looking forward to her next big thing?
