On the ghost-written books...

[medomai]

I've been going through the series again, and this time I actually know that some of them were ghost-written. I noticed it in a way I just flat-out hadn't before. I don't know the actual books that are, I'll look it up in a minute, but almost exactly on book 30, I noticed that all of a sudden, the mental world of Animorphs seemed to get a little tighter. There wasn't as much cultural references at all, almost no attention on either what's going on in any of their lives beyond the missions, and Ax's ignorance of human phrases seemed forced when it was natural and downright funny before. I'm not sure that there's a topic on this already, but did you guys have a similar experience?

[Vanish]

yeah for sure, when I read it as a child I had no idea that there were even ghost writers. But now after rereading them it's totally obvious, especially with the characters who seem 1 dimensional. I also noticed that Marco isn't as funny as with K.A. Applegate's books. I wish she had kept writing them!!

[Chad32]

KA did 1-24, 26, 32, 53, 54, and all the Chronicles and Megamorphs books. Everything else was ghostwritten. Before coming here I didn't know any were ghostwritten, but I did already think the earlier books were better.

[Shenmue654]

There were actually a few ghostwritten books I was pretty fond of. In particular I liked #41...and come to think of it a lot of the books written by Ellen Geroux. Yet some of the ghostwritten books were just pain-stakingly, mind-numbingly bad on the other hand. And regardless of the ghostwriter, K.A's sense of humor seemed a bit lost on them. Tricky to mimic that. :p

[Dameg]

In fact, I think it isn't KA's sense of humor, but more Michael Grant's sense of humor ^^ She said the humor was more from her husband.

[Chad32]

I liked some ghostwritten books too, but man. 31 is probably one of the worst books in the series. I don't know if it's plot induced stupidity, or an idiot plot. Maybe some of both.

[medomai]

Like, for example, I'm skimming over most of 37, the Weakness. I just can't engage, I feel embarrassed for what Rachel is now. =(

[Terenia]

When reading them initially I knew that 'something' had happened. Something was wrong with the later books. The literary style was different. It was a mimicry of the previous writing style. At that time, though, I wasn't aware that it was due to ghost writers. Near the final arc of the series I became aware of the ghost writers and it made perfect sense to me.

It is a pity, because the use of ghost writers eliminated the possibility for a lot of development of the YPM, the auxilaries, etc. Instead we got a lot of fluff plots that served no real purpose.

[Dameg]

I think the literary style didn't change so much in the translations, because that was the same people who translated KA and the ghost writers... So I didn't see a real difference there. But that's true that the story and the jokes are a little... different...

[Ghost Tiger]

Rachel suffered the most under the ghost-writers, I've always felt.

Marco fared pretty well, Cassie and Ax more or less felt right, Jake and Tobias I can't immediately think of any problems with.  But Rachel's sudden shift to two-dimensional Hulk Hogan "Hulkamania!  Roar!" persona just irked me.

[roguebluejay]

When was Rachel EVER "Hulkamania ROAR!" She spends the entirity of her books ****ing about how sucky it always is to be the bad guy of the team.

I can't remember the exact quote but on the "lets do it" its basically about whats expected of her, like Ax is meant to sax "prince," Marc is meant to make dumb jokes, Cassie is morality, Tobias is a bird, and Jake leads.

I feel guilty I can't think of a better way to express tobys personality...

[Alic]

Tobias the emo

[Terenia]

When was Rachel EVER "Hulkamania ROAR!" She spends the entirity of her books ****ing about how sucky it always is to be the bad guy of the team.

Yeah, in the books she narrates she's always angsting over her position as the bad guy, but in the books narrated by other characters she becomes VERY two-dimensional. Essentially she is a rage-factory, existing for the sole purpose of aggression and violence with no actual redeeming qualities. Then they overcompensate in the Rachel narrated books by making her overly emotional and analytical towards her position.

I think Rachel was a very...tenuous character. Difficult to write well. As is proven by the fact that no one really succeeded in writing her well.

[Chad32]

I see that as everyone thinking she's the psycho bloodknight, but she really isn't. Her team and some fans seem to think she is, but judging from her books it's pretty obvious she isn't.

[rebelxluck]

I agree with Chad, I think her two-dimensionalness in books narrated by the others simply shows how they see her. I mean, it's not like she openly shares her angst and worries about the way she's becoming, so most of them just see her in battle-frenzy mode and never know how much she struggles with it. Or, for example in Jake's case, he can't afford to sympathize. Tobias also knows because he seems to be the person Rachel confides in the most, and he never gets on her case or anything about her violence. By the way, it bugs me that later on we get next to no sense of close friendship between Cassie and Rachel. The occasional fashion joke or "aww Cassie likes Jake" does not a friendship make. Cassie should have been one of the people most worried for Rachel, but she never even tried to reach out to her about it. Not that I think trying to talk would have worked, but it didn't work with Marco either and she still made the attempt. Fail, Cassie. Friendship fail.