Yes, it was a great series. Personally, I hated the conclusion of the last book, but everything up until that point was great all the way. The characters had more depth than several adult novels I've read, and these were designed for young adult or younger. Some of the dialogue was just priceless, especially from Marco. Even now they're great to reread.

I love the series, but in my country it's a bit sad.. all EXCEPT the two last books were translated..
A bit incredible, to not translate the last two..
I read them in english, and i've still to read all the Chronicles and Megamorphs..

For the final.. well, i liked it, at real Rachel wasn't my favourite character..
Only i'm a bit angry for the sudded disappearence of the Auxiliary Animorphs.
Because it's IMPOSSIBLE that James lead ALL them to the death in such suicidal action.
I think it's more probable that they decided to give at Vissar exactly what he wanted..
A bunch of Animorphs dead.. or better a bunch of Chee with Animorphs Hologram..
After all they use this move with Erek to cover the infiltrating action..
And did a very similar action in book 30...

All but the last two? Ouch.

The final battle was fine for me. The auxilaries might have all died, those who didn't probably simply faded back into the woodwork and back to normal lives. It wouldn't have been the Chee because they did not want to be involved in any combat, and in fact cannot inflict harm on another (yes, Eric reprogrammed himself, but reversed it), and a bunch of "animorphs" that were doing zero damage would not serve as a distraction for long. I'm pretty sure it really was a suicide mission that they knew they weren't likely to get out of alive. It had become all out war after all.

I was mostly refering to the very end of the book, after the whole war crimes trial and all. The whole "oh no Axe has been captured ram the Blade Ship" scene. That spontaneuos, where-the-heck-did-this-new-alien-come-from that took control of Axe (and it wasn't a Yeerk, at least not a normal one by any stretch) cliffhanger ending was not the way to end it. That was, in my opinion, a lousy way to conclude the series.

The problem is that .. the story was so good for the author, the Applegate had a time limit to write every book, and sometimes she used ghost writers to help her...
So at the end, holes into the plot, disappearing characters, a bit too quick ending..
All this because the author was probably very tired and have less time to write..
She wanted only to find something of big to finish the book..

For the final battle, well.. i've some doubts..
Because being targets to gain time was something that the Chee had already do, as i said during the number 30 book, and also during the final act into the Pool ship ..
After all you have to imagine the scene.. the massive armed ship, a flat ground with no repairs, and finally the trenches of soldiers and animorphs..
A normal commander after the first shots don't keep on a suicide attack, and after all James proved to be inexperienced but smart and quick to learn.
Finally the main reason for his fight was .. saving his friends. This is why he joined the battle, because the Yeerk kill the useless humans..
Not to sacrifice them for a cause, his only cause was saving his friends more then the rest of the human race..

I read a fanfiction where it's explained the silence about the auxiliary in the last book.
In the last book there is none speaking about them, neither one line of explanation.
The fanfiction proposed that James asked for a silence about them, because all he wanted was return to take care of his friends at their centre.

I'm rather new to animorphs but it certainly has my interest. This piece is adorable.

Oh hey! You started reading the first books? they're quite fast, but there are many xD
I made also some other fanarts for this series. If you know zero of the story, I could give some generic info so you may decide if it's worth

I've actually started with the TV series since I'm too busy right now for reading. It caught my attention because I have a soft spot for shapeshifters and the similarities between Yeerks and Goa'uld.

I only saw little of the TV series but it is reeeeeeeeally bad compared the book series.
The only good difference it's that they are older, while in the books they are young kids (and it is less realistic for this).
Apart for obvious difference of not being able to show all the alien creatures as they are described in the books (many races are met, including plenty of morphs done by vissar-3), the book series also give alternate point-of-view for all the characters (one pov for book).

Shapeshifting in the book is well described (and differently from the tv-series, they can't morph with many clothes on, only few tight clothes-suits). Also the books sometimes provide a very decent insight for animal instincts-behavior: it is not widespread, but there are good points. Oh... one thing I should stress it's that the book can indeed give you plenty of thrill.

Few things translate well from books to TV or movies. I had thought the age thing was just Dawson casting.