Is The Andalite Chronicles a good book to start with?

[Adrian Malacoda]

The situation: I have a long distance girlfriend who I've been dating for about 2 years now. As she's long distance, I can't do much with her, but I enjoy reading to her over the phone. I've read her Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, one of the Series of Unfortunate Events books, and a few others.

I decided I wanted to get her onto Animorphs. She likes animals, so I figured she'd like the series. She's read a couple of Animorphs books a while ago but hasn't really been into the series. I was struggling over which book to introduce her to the series with. The obvious would be #1, but I wasn't sure that book was "good" enough to start off with. I briefly considered HBC too, but then I thought that HBC probably required a good bit of beforehand knowledge. I then decided that TAC, being just before the beginning of the series proper, and therefore not needing much prior knowledge of the series (it lays down the fundamentals of Yeerks, Andalites, and morphing in the first few chapters).

I started reading the book to her a month ago, so this isn't really a search for advice. I'm just wondering if my choice was a good one. Thoughts?

[Homiegee]

Actually, TAC was the first Animorphs book I read. I had known about the Animorphs series before but hadn't paid much attention to it. I actually didn't know TAC was related to Animorphs and when I found out, I decided to read the rest of the series. I haven't read it in years but I do know that it's a good book to start off with.

[Liz]

I personally think it's more fun to first get a brief glimpse of  Elfangor in book #1 and not learn about him until later, rather than already knowing all about him by the time the Animorphs meet him.

But I'm sure there are worse places one could start with 
And I don't think I even read the series in order originally, so whatever.

[Essam 293]

The geek in me says start with #1. It may be the most obvious choice, but that's only because it's also the best one, as it really is meant to be read as the introduction to the series.

TAC might be confusing if you don't know anything about Andalites, and like Liz said above, it's much more fun to have a little mystery behind Elfangor's past when we're introduced to him in the first book, than to have everything revealed about him all at once.

[Phoenix004]

All good points and I agree that you should really read them in the actual order, but I don't think it's a problem starting with The Andalite Chronicles. It's probably my favourite book in the series and I wouldn't say you definitely need any prior knowledge of the series for it to make sense.

[Chad32]

I'd say just start with #1, and go by release date. But if you start with a Chronicles book, then it should go Ellemist, HBC, TAC, Visser, then #1. Ignoring framing stroies like Tobias visiting the HBC before being told the story.

For first time readers, #1 is the easiest to begin with.

Or you could start with book 8. Why? well, that was the first oen I picked up, and I did fine. except for thinking Jake morphed into molten lead or something, since I didn't know he was using a Tiger morph.

[poparena]

I'm a strong supporter of reading book series in the order in which they were released, as this is how the author(s) wanted to reveal information to you. Imagine if you saw the Star Wars prequels FIRST, and then saw the original trilogy. "Luke, I am your father" wouldn't have any effect at all, we're not meant to know that yet.

While Animorphs doesn't have any problems that big, I think it's best for readers to gradually learn how complicated the characters and issues are. If you read the Andalite Chronicles first, here's the effect as I see it:

-Vissor Three and Elfangor are far more complicated characters in Chronicles then they appear to be in #1, so a reader might wonder why these guys are acting so wooden here when they didn't in Chronicles.
-Elfangor calls the Taxxons "pure evil" in #1, but we learn from Chronicles that this isn't exactly the case.
-No surprise reveal of Elfangor being Tobias' father.

Just my two cents.

[anijen21]

reading the andalite chronicles before #1 is sort of like watching the three prequel star wars movies before the original three. I'm not even talking about quality here, I just mean the prequels in both cases were constructed with a healthy amount of knowledge and information already on the table. It would be an interesting experiment, to see her reaction to how things unfold later (but before, if you know what I mean) but if you really want to do the series justice I would present it the way it was presented to us.

[Kelly]

That's sweet. Where does your girlfriend live?

I read the last david book first - that's what hooked me. But saying that, my boyfriend also read that book first (before we met, weird) and he thought the series was 'gay'.

I say go for number one, and assure her it'll get better! 

[Dameg]

I think the Andalite Chronicles is a good book to begin with. Or just begin with #1 and do it in order. If you begin by the Andalite Chronicles, it's better to continue with #1.

[tobiasthehawk]

I think it would be awesome to have started with this book! Just for a chance to learn more about the rich history of the war before getting into the actual series would of been quite an experience.

[Darth Revan]

Yeah, I think TAC has a few plot spoilers in it like the reveal of Ax.

In the book series, you think it's 5 humans against all of these aliens, then you find they get an alien ally, then they get a Diety ally and so on and so forth

When you start with TAC, it gives a lot of stuff away.

Sure you don't need to know much to understand the book, but reading that book gives you answers before you form a question.

Though it's too late, I would've gone in order of release.

[Alexandra]

I started with #1 myself, and then couldn't locate book #6. Not wanting to read them out of order (espeically that early in the series when it was pretty important to read them in order, so you learn things the same time the characters do), I was given TAC for my birthday and - not knowing it was meant to be read after #13 - I read that one right after #5. While perhaps not ideal, I have to say it was TAC, with the history of the war and the Elfangor/Loren/Tobias sotryline that really hooked me in regards to Animorphs.

[Darth Revan]

Ah, I was hooked after chapter one of book one.

[Alexandra]

Ah, I was hooked after chapter one of book one.

Truth be told, so was I! I was introduced to the series by a friend of mine, who told me to get book #2 from the library as well as the first one, because it would be a case of I-need-to-know-what-happens-next-right-NOW!

And she was so right.

But it was TAC that really locked in my undying dedication to the series, and motivated me to keep persevering with Animorphs, even throigh some of those God-awful middle books, written by ghostwriters with no interest in the series, and even less talent.