r/Animorphs • u/Cultural_Fix1057 • 2d ago
Fan Works Omnibus covers
Hey all, thought I would share this little passion project inspired by this post. Respect the original attempt in that post but thought I could do something more in line with my personal tastes. Have been rereading the series for the first time since I was a kid in eformat and reformatting the books for a physical printing for my personal library. It's cheaper than getting the originals, tbh. Using Reedsy to do the formatting, then plan is to print through Lulu due to the 800 page limit they hav and I've used them before.
I have a total of 6 volumes planned. Three are done, with the fourth almost done, the fifth started, and the sixth outlined. I did cut out some books (all Helmacrons, MM2 and #11, and the books generally considered bad/out of character/left unresolved plot threads).
I'm using the cover used by that original omnibus attempt, then using the original art from the series to give each volume a unique look. I also tied some books together into essentially one story where appropriate (David Trilogy is one chapter, the Taylor books are together, The Arrival and the Other are combined into what I call "The Andalite Legacy," Books 45 + 46 are together in one chapter, 49-54 are treated as a 6 part chapter).
I've left most of the text intact (felt weird editing some things out, but the goal was to try and modernize for my wife and future kids) but updated some references and removed some of the recaps where needed (ex: David Trilogy lost some because I presumed a reader would be reading things relatively quickly and wouldn't appreciate a summary of something they just read.) It's harder to cut those recaps than one might think, especially if the goal is trying to preserve the text as unmodified as possible. I did eliminate goofs/inconsistencies, at least as described by Seerowpedia, as well as make the changes that Scholastic made in the repub of books 1-8.
Apart from reading, I used these recommendations/reviews to help figure out skips:
1. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-MrWavvGxyyHQaX1slnuuUfHBnW2bE08MYPXOGN0wlU/edit?gid=0#gid=0
2. https://thelibraryladies.com/category/great-animorphs-re-read/
3. https://www.tumblr.com/featherquillpen/110217984937/skip-it-read-it-guide
4. https://demenior.tumblr.com/post/130017671259/dems-read-itskip-it-guide-to-animorphs/amp
Contents:
Book 1: 1-7, MM1
Book 2: 8-10, 13, Andalite Chronicles, 15, 16
Book 3: 18, 19, David Trilogy, HBC, 23, 26, 27
Book 4: 29, MM3, 30-31, 33
Book 5: MM4, Ellimist
Book 6: 49-54
Lot of millennial readers cite Harry Potter for igniting that love of reading. For me, personally, it was Alexandre Dumas and Animorphs (odd combo, I know.) Rereading both in the times we live in now have been a breath of fresh air, for me.
I came back to Animorphs because of those graphic novels. However one may feel about their quality, it finally gave me enough of a kick in the butt to reread these after having the ebooks rot away on a harddrive for so long. While the graphic novels may likely be done, we always have the text.
I'll update more when all the books are finally printed. Happy to hear what everyone thinks of this! Also happy to hear arguments on cut books to reinclude! I know cutting the Prophecy might be divisive choice haha.
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u/Charming-Refuse-5717 2d ago
Mad respect for the effort, although I'm not sure it's honest to call your books "The Complete Series" when it isn't. Omnibus is perfectly fine, and in fact "Animorphs: Omnibus" sounds pretty cool.
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u/Cultural_Fix1057 2d ago
Totally valid. I had the same thought but went with the admittedly lazier option because I didn't want to edit the image. I might change my mind, but since it's only for my library, I'm fine with it.
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u/EmperorPickle 2d ago
When I am done with school, (old millennial college student) my passion project will be to rewrite the books into an omnibus without redundancies. Meaning I will dump all the “hi my name is Animorph, I can’t tell you my last name” parts and make it into a more concise story.
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u/EmperorPickle 1d ago
I also fantasize about starting from the beginning and just writing the story more practically (as I see it). Maybe make the kids a couple years older and more ambitious. Change some of the more ridiculous choices they make and dig into some of the affects to their mental health over the years.
And I want to fix Ax!
I could never accept how childish and irresponsible he is in human morph. He was training to be a warrior. Even as a young andalite, he should have behaved with more dignity and restraint.
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u/Cultural_Fix1057 1d ago
I thought about doing that here, but it was too intimidating. Best of luck if you do end up doing it!
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u/EmperorPickle 1d ago
Yeah. I think I would treat it as a reboot. Same premise and a lot of the same stories, but modernize it a little bit and add my own flavor.
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u/AmputatorBot 2d ago
It looks like OP posted an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of concerns over privacy and the Open Web.
Maybe check out the canonical page instead: https://demenior.tumblr.com/post/130017671259/dems-read-itskip-it-guide-to-animorphs
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u/LoaKonran 1d ago
Currently working on an all in one epub for every book in the series. Also doing separate ones for Everworld and Remnants too. It’s slow going because I have to proofread and error correct everything but I’m getting there.
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u/zombiemd2020 1d ago
First off, awesome project and good job. If I ever do this I will probably do more like the original, only with some more formatting.
Secondly, I just realized that in my head canon, I've never pictured Hork Bajir with tails. Certainly not bladed tails. Weird.
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u/heilspawn 1d ago
Even in the books nobody likes, is there no missed plot point?
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u/Cultural_Fix1057 1d ago
Some? Only one off the top of my head is the anti morphing ray shows up first in the Separation. Most of the other things are so self contained and rarely mentioned, I feel that it works out.
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u/ErrorFoxDetected 19h ago
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the potential copyright violation here.
Just a warning: Making these for yourself is most likely not a violation, because it's hard to argue you would've bought them when they don't exist in this format and have been out-of-print for a long time. Still, they could try to argue that you should buy the ebooks, even though that also isn't the same product, and some of the ebooks don't even have the correct version of text because of "modernization" efforts.
But if you sell any of this to anyone else, then you've definitely crossed the line, and providing copies of images used officially - even modified - is a violation. as would be sharing the text.
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Fuck IP law, but be aware that they will try to fuck you back.
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u/Cultural_Fix1057 2d ago
Addendum to Vol 5 contents, since I hit post before adding: MM4, 45+46, Resistance (no Civil War chapters), the Return, Ellimist
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u/New-Discussion-4447 2d ago
I would love to have print copies like this! I love a physical book but don't have the room for all the original prints individually.